We recently got back from baby Camille’s first trip. We’d been waiting to travel until she got her six-month measles vaccine, on account of *waves hands frantically*, but now that we can, we took her to my sister-in-law’s Tahoe cabin for a week of too much family. I’ll have more to say about that once I get the pictures gathered together. In the meantime! The Kickstarter for me and my friend’s video game is up (with some pretty good goodies), but we reached our fundraising goal super fast, so I didn’t do any shameless self-promotion here. (Prior post about the game here, it’s a Lovecraftian adventure game/dating sim.) As part of our promotional push, we secured an interview with a historian of weird fiction about queerness and gaming in Lovecraftian stories, which is out today. I thought some folks here might appreciate it. You can find it at Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein.
Lovecraftian horror (and weird fiction more broadly) is as popular as it is because, for many people, it’s challenges some load-bearing defenses about the world we live in. At its root is Lovecraft’s cosmicism, which speaks of the irrelevance of mankind in an uncaring universe full of incomprehensible beings that regard us as we might see ants, if they regard us at all. Or, if you’re already immune to that, there are stories like 2006’s Blindsight, a more scientific tale that challenges our assumptions about the value of consciousness itself. I’ll be honest, that book really did a number on me. And in the best stories, there are also the smaller-scale themes of transformation, hidden knowledge, and the mutability of self–whether you like it or not. And that is where the queerness creeps in…
I’m going to let one of our contributing writers start this one. (Em wrote one of the novelettes we’re including as a Kickstarter reward, and she came up with one of the main characters.)
“[Cosmic horror] stories provide a ripe foundation for exploring non-heteronormative identity because both involve recognizing that consensus reality is more fragile and constructed than it appears. Cosmic horror traditionally focuses on themes of transformation, hidden knowledge, and the inadequacy of established categories, all of which create natural space for examining gender and sexual fluidity without requiring explicit positioning.
The genre frequently features characters discovering their true nature, often something that existed before their conscious awareness or something that has been heavily suppressed. Both resonate strongly with non-binary and trans experiences of self-discovery.
To cap it off, the horror elements can effectively capture both the terror and liberation that can accompany stepping outside normative social structures.”
‘Terror and liberation’ summarizes it pretty well. All of our characters have something like this going on. There’s always something about themselves that they don’t understand or don’t accept. Sometimes part of that is about being queer, but we never sat down and decided to write a queer story, if that makes sense. Starspawn deals with learning to accept yourself and love others, and self-knowledge and transformation and the weight of history. It would be weird if it weren’t at least a little queer.
We’ve found a lot of opportunities to explore these themes. One of our characters is a mythos creature known as a Deep One. These are basically immortal frog/fish-human hybrids who slowly turn into monsters as they age.
One of the characters in Starspawn is a gay man transforming into a Deep One. Do you feel that “The Shadow over Innsmouth” offers parallels to the LGBTQ+ experience?
I’d have to give it a re-read, but I am inclined to say ‘not really,’ unless you want to do some eisegesis. As I recall, you yourself have written about how Innsmouth isn’t even meant to be understood as a parallel for race-mixing. If you play with the ideas presented in the story, though, you can go to some really interesting places.
The character’s name is Silas. He’s nineteen. His story is about leaving home and feeling conflicted about where you come from. In his hometown, they’ve got an ancient pact about breeding; but he doesn’t plan to have kids, which isn’t making him any friends there. And, needless to say, turning into a monster won’t make him many friends in gay circles. He’s got a foot in each world, but he doesn’t feel welcome in either. Pretty common experience for a young queer person.
Lots more at the link, including my take on mental illness in stories, lots of thoughts about gaming, and some personal histories! And if you’ve made it this far, you can use this link for a special discount, though you’ll need to be logged in. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself…)
Needless to say, this is also an open thread.
Baud
Good to see you.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Hoping to be around a lot more now that the kickstarter’s out, that was a LOT of work.
MagdaInBlack
The Lovecraftian cosmic horror theme is fascinating to me, but I’m not very conversant in it, so I will sit back and enjoy those that are.
Good to see you, MMM =-)
H.E.Wolf
Congratulations on all your various recent accomplishments! Great news.
I’m guessing you’ve read the 2-book series by queer author Ruthanna Emrys (Winter Tide; Deep Roots), in which the amphibian Deep Ones are the point-of-view characters, and were incarcerated during WWII in the same concentration camps as the Japanese Americans.
I thought the author had some interesting perspectives from which to view the Lovecraft mythos.
billcoop4
Oh, I will need to delve into this as I get my next D&D5e (2024) campaign going for a group of 60-something cis-het guys (except pour moi). We’ve been gathered together as a party since 1980 (Hamilton College).
And I’ve been wanting to take a Lovecraftian turn.
BC in the Adirondacks
Sister Golden Bear
Congratulations, and good to see you back!
NobodySpecial
I occasionally am a cast member on a CoC/horror focused Actual Play podcast, and I can verify that Lovecraft resonates really strongly in the LGBT+ folks who play, run, and listen to it. Never really thought much about it beyond the obvious “fighting horrors that would destroy you” aspect, but that link rings true in retrospect. Thanks for that perspective!
Major Major Major Major
@NobodySpecial:
sigh, now I have to ask if you can put us in touch/know anybody who might be interested/etc., hoping to get some good publicity on this kickstarter lol. got some very good pledge figures going right now but raw eyeball numbers are a bit lower than we’d like. (yum, raw eyeball)
Anne Laurie
Good to see you again, and looking forward to pictures of Camille!
Kristine
I pledged. Second game I’ve pledged this year, which is funny because I don’t game. But the other one was the Welcome to Night Vale RPG—I’m a fan of the podcast and have most of the books, so why not? And I enjoy the Cthulhu mythos and used to have a Miskatonic U t-shirt, so.
Congrats on hitting your funding goal!
Major Major Major Major
@Anne Laurie: I’m more excited to talk about the mine I went to but I guess other people do like seeing the baby! We see her every day, yaknow.
Fair Economist
Looks cute. What are the OS requirements?
strange visitor (from another planet)
i remember from my gaming years, call of cthulhu was the only RPG where your character never wanted to be the first to try the magic items.
RevRick
British Astrophysicist Brian Cox goes in the opposite direction from Lovecraft’s cosmicism. He asserts that the silence of the universe says that we may be the only bearers of meaning in our galaxy of 200 billion suns… and perhaps beyond.
We may be the only ones who can contemplate the universe, and if we destroy ourselves, we may well extinguish meaning.
Major Major Major Major
@Kristine: thank you so much! Excited to get that short story collection out to you soon, it’s pretty good :) and I didn’t know the night vale folks had one up, I’ll have to check it out.
@Fair Economist: We’re trying to keep it able to run on a potato, benchmarked against a 2018 MacBook. As for OS, I want to say we did test it on Linux, so should be good to go on all three. The steam page has the more specific requirements.
Major Major Major Major
@RevRick: I talk about that in the interview too, vis a vis Sagan’s “pale blue dot” thing, and how the game is ultimately about forming connections even when faced with nihilistic despair.
laura
Looking forward to seeing baby Camille pictures and hopefully, that fog-pelted debonair gent and the wee orange girl. I hope this trip to Tahoe was not during the heatwave that was last week.
Major Major Major Major
@laura: we got back home to a heat wave, the mountains were max like 75, 77?
Kristine
@Major Major Major Major: I have no sense of time anymore—the Night Vale Kickstarter ran late last year—iirc they hit their funding goal within minutes. But the game is now available for regular sale I think. My backer game arrived the other day.
Major Major Major Major
@Kristine: ok, yeah that sounds more familiar!
Satanley (aka weasel)
Recently finished Blindsight and was blown away! Especially as I read it right on the heels of Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series, which also deals roughly with the concept of self and knowledge (and is absolutely wonderful).
Edit to add, so glad to hear the campaign was a big success!
kalakal
Blindsight is excellent. Watts’ other stuff is well worth reading, espescially Starfish, Praxis, and Behemoth
NobodySpecial
@Major Major Major Major: very late back to this, but I can honestly say I’d be no help at all. The podcast I’m on is pretty solidly booked months in advance, and the person actually running things is the guy with all the connections to know who to set you up with. If nothing else, I’ll at least throw the link around a few Discord groups.