And while Faulkner might have recognized slavery as America’s original sin, for Lovecraft the sin was interracial contact and other perceived assaults on white racial purity. He was also a rabid, obsessive, paranoiac racist. Lovecraft, the recluse of Providence, was arguably the godfather of modern cosmic horror. Still, racism is not really that easy to ignore, especially when it plays an essential role in an author’s style. There’s just too much racism in literature to let it ruin all art. Maybe magnanimity comes more easily to monuments of literature, or maybe she was simply describing one of many instances when she felt compelled to bypass racism and its tiresome omnipresence to focus on whatever gem she might find in the sewage. Morrison, of course, was speaking in hindsight then, her status as a literary giant already etched in stone. So, when they said these things that were profoundly racist, I forgave them.” 1 One ever feels the two-ness, overcome by art, and, yet, at enough of a remove to be in a position to judge and forgive. Toni Morrison described encountering racist stereotypes in the writings of Hemingway, Cather, or Faulkner: “I skipped that part. It is a peculiar sensation, reading while Black-more precisely, reading white authors while Black.
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