Iâve listened to the French audiobooks of two Zealia Bishop stories, and the endings are so absurdly racist that I couldnât help but laugh.
In âMedusaâs Coilâ :
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The story ends with the main character saying something in the vein of âBut worst of all, she was mixed race.â I was completely floored.
In âThe Moundâ:
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The main character reads about the horrors inflicted by an underground civilization on those who break the law, try to enter, or try to leave. This information comes from a conquistador whom theyâve kept alive to gather information on the surface world. A noblewoman from this underground society falls in love with the conquistador and shares family secrets with him, hoping to escape and live happily ever after. However, he reveals that heâs just using her to escape. When theyâre caught, she suffers the terrible fate he described. Sheâs used For vile entertainments in an arena, has her head cut off, her body reconstructed, and is turned into a zombie that guards the gate she once hoped to escape through. The conquistador is spared, though, because of his importance. Despite being warned that there wonât be a next time, he tries to escape again. Eventually, our main character digs into the mound and finds a chamber, and the story concludes with something I can summize as : "I canât believe they did the same thing to white conquistador ".
Donât read âThe Horror at Red Hookâ then. Youâll probably laugh so much youâll pee your pants. đ
Quite true. Btw, Victor LaValle has recently written a novella called âThe Ballad of Black Tomâ where he reimagines âThe Horror at Red Hookâ from the perspective of an African-American protagonist. The book is quite good and takes the story in an interesting direction. https://lemmy.world/post/16605709
Iâve read most of Lovecraftâs work and liked it. In other stories Lovecraft worked on, racism and xenophobia were part of the narrative. But in âThe Moundâ and âMedusaâs Coil,â he ends the stories with a punchline like sentence, making them seem like long racist jokes.
