The Last Picture Shown

Many years ago, author Jeff VanderMeer wrote an essay called "Moving Past Lovecraft" in which he objected to what he called the adulation, imitation, fetishizing, and commodification of H. P. Lovecraft. He wrote that soon after his wife, Ann VanderMeer, resigned as editor of Weird Tales magazine. There was a controversy and some conflict in all of that. One of the principals, Marvin Kaye, has since died. Mr. Kaye was without a doubt an admirer of Lovecraft and the old Weird Tales. He was born less than a year after Lovecraft died. You could say that he had come to contemporary weird fiction from out of its past.

The 100th-anniversary issue of Weird Tales, published in 2023, is a themed issue. The theme is cosmic horror. Wikipedia, that fount of all knowledge, lets us know that cosmic horror is a synonym of Lovecraftian horror. All three essays in the Cosmic Horror Issue mention Lovecraft. One of the essays and one of the stories begin with epigraphs from his pen. Several of the stories have Lovecraftian themes, content, props, motifs, and so on. Although Jeff VanderMeer urged us to move past Lovecraft, we never have. It looks like he failed in his effort . . .

Except that there is an illustration in Weird Tales #367 that seems to acknowledge one of his complaints against contemporary authors who continue to admire, imitate, fetishize, and most especially commodify Lovecraft, his works, his concepts, and his approach to weird fiction. The unsigned illustration is the last to appear in the Cosmic Horror Issue and occupies the last page. It has the look of a trompe-l'œil painting and shows an album cover resting on a woodgrain tabletop. The album cover is a takeoff of Nevermind by Nirvana. It shows a larval Cthulhu swimming after a hundred dollar bill on the end of a hook. The illustration is ironic, even cynical. It's curious that the editor and publisher of Weird Tales would print it. They seem to recognize that they and many of their authors are chasing after Cthulhu cash and Lovecraft lucre. Evidently they don't feel any shame or embarrassment in that. They would be laughing to the bank except that I don't think Weird Tales is much of a moneymaking operation. Maybe I'm wrong.

I'm not exactly on Jeff VanderMeer's side in this, but you have to admit that an awful lot of writers, artists, and other creators, not just now but for the past many decades, probably going back to the 1940s, are milking a cash cow and will no doubt continue to do so for as long as they can. It would be better, I think, if writers would put the cow away and create something new and original. But again, I don't think they're up to it. It's a lot easier to copy and imitate things created by others and to go on doing that for all of your life. And that's what our popular culture has become, a mix of imitation, adaptation, remakes, sequels, prequels, pastiches, and, worst of all, shameless copying and outright theft of other people's ideas. It's no wonder there is so much product placement in the Cosmic Horror Issue, for the fiction itself and all of its themes and content have become commercial products. Cosmic Horror, like so many other genre names, has become a brand, and the authors writing in these genres have seemingly become hucksters and exploiters.

Copyright 2024 Terence E. Hanley