According to “Urban dictionary” top definition“■■■■■■-Man” was the name of the hero Delapore’s cat in H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Rats in the Walls”. In 1953 the story was re-released and the cat’s name was changed to Black Tom. Lovecraft himself actually had a cat named “■■■■■■-Man.”
Origin and Controversy
During the childhood of American horror fiction writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s, his family owned several cats. The oldest of them, named ■■■■■■-Man, which was likely acquired and named by the family in 1899, disappeared in when Lovecraft was 14 years old in the year 1904. In his letters, H. P. Lovecraft reminisces about the cat many times.
H. P. Lovecraft an American horror fiction writer and “H.P. Lovecraft’s Cat” at one time started appearing in several Google posts inviting unmatched users to see the cat’s name, persuading them to read it as an ethnic disgrace.
H.P. Lovecraft was known to be fond of cats and owned several of them during his life. The black cat in question, that had either died or run away in 1904, was named “■■■■■■-Man.”
HPL was well known for extremely racist views. This has been revealed in his letters and by the contemporaries, and at also one reprinting of the story in question changed the cat’s name entirely.
As stated earlier that Lovecraft owned a cat of that name until 1904, the name later appeared as a cat name in the short story “The Rats in the Walls” in 1924. The cat was renamed to Black Tom in 1953 during the later allusions to the story.
Questions raised on the use of name given to the cat
On a first look to the name of H. P. Lovecraft’s cat really catches one’s eye and several questions arise in the reader’s mind like, “Did he name the cat at time when slavery was normal or was something else”? Or “Can anyone provide the background regarding why he had put that name on a cat”? “Was Lovecraft a racist”? To get the answers to these questions one should keep in mind some facts about the life and circumstances of the writer.
The name of his cat when readers run across it in Lovecraft’s biography or in “The Rats in the Walls,” often make us to feel as cartoonishly racist but it has to be understood in context. The name surprises us today because we have more awareness and less acceptance for such careless use of racial slurs than it had in Lovecraft’s time; in the same way people feel upset when they read the similar words in a Mark Twain novel. With this transformation in society, the name was occasionally issued with reprinting “The Rats in the Walls”; and some publishers chose to reinstate the cat’s name with the one that retains its sense but it does not has racial connotations like “Black Tom” and "Blackie"are two examples (taken from Zest magazine 1956).
A similar racial word in Mark Twain novel still has the power to hurt people today. In fact all evidence show that Lovecraft did not mean such a use of words in this case does not detract from that. Those who read Lovecraft’s fiction or biography today should read it with the understanding of the circumstance in which he wrote and lived. These are historical facts which all of us must consider within their own way. And also that the use of a word may become more offensive over time than it once had been. This is not in any way an effort to justify or defend Lovecraft’s racism. The actual thing is that weather he said it with prejudice, in anger or due to ignorance, but the name of his cat, has a much shock value today, and is not really a good example of it.
Now the question is “was saying that stuff normal back then”? Certainly, it was. Because things which are not possible of saying or have less acceptance and are frowned upon or prosecuted nowadays were normal back then.
Conclusion
H.P. Lovecraft’s Cat refers to the cat named “■■■■■■-Man” that was owned by the family of an American horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft in his childhood.
Online, “H.P. Lovecraft’s Cat” appeared once in several posts. The readers are instructed “Don’t to Google posts which invite unsuspicious users to search for the name of the cat, tempting them reading a racial slur,”