{"id":45,"date":"2020-08-28T15:09:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T19:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/?page_id=45"},"modified":"2026-05-01T15:47:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:47:43","slug":"genotypic-horror","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/genotypic-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"4. Genotypic Horror in \u201cArthur Jermyn\u201d and \u201cThe Shadow over Innsmouth\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Figs. 2ei\u2013ii, 1f (series):<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\"Fig.
Fig. 2ei. H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft, Howard P. to Shea, J. Vernon, July 30, 1933. Page 5.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 1cii. Letter from H. P. Lovecraft to Elizabeth Toldridge, February 26, 1932. Brown University Library, Special Collections.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 1f. Letter from H. P. Lovecraft to Wilfred B. Talman, December 28, 1927. Brown University Library, Special Collections.
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In other instances, the link between Lovecraft\u2019s race thinking and his fiction was more implicit. As we have seen in sections one and two, one of Lovecraft\u2019s main sources of existential dread was miscegenation. One aspect of this is a fear and hate toward the racial Other, as we have seen with \u201cThe Horror at Red Hook.\u201d Another aspect, however, is a sort of inward<\/em> fear toward the unknowability of one\u2019s ancestry. What if one is part of \u201cthe wholesale pollution of highly evolved blood by definitely inferior strains\u201d (fig. 2ei\u2013ii)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Literary scholar Mitch Frye calls this trope \u201cgenotypic horror,\u201d a \u201cstorytelling mode that exploits genetic fear.\u201d This type of story \u201cshows the individual at war with a cold, chaotic world as well as with the mysterious machinations of his own genes,\u201d which \u201cmight reveal some dark inherited element of his family\u2019s past\u201d The source of horror is the latent character of one\u2019s \u201cinferior blood\u201d; it is a haunting that passes down for generations. Indeed, it is the \u201cpollution\u201d of a whole family tree by its \u201cloftier branches\u201d (fig. 1f).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two examples of genotypic horror are the stories \u201cFacts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn & His Family\u201d (figs. 4a and 4c) and \u201cThe Shadow over Innsmouth\u201d (figs. 4b and 4d). Both stories have similar plots: they follow an intellectually inclined young white male from a family with a \u201ctroubled\u201d history interested in his family\u2019s genealogy, only to discover that he has a racialized Other female ancestor. This leads to an existential crisis that completely upends the protagonist\u2019s life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fig. 4c (series):<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\"4ci.
4ci. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cFacts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn & His Family.\u201d [n.d.; c. 1922\u201323] Page 1.
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\"4cii.
4cii. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cFacts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn & His Family.\u201d [n.d.; c. 1922\u201323] Page 7. This typescript corresponds closely to the Weird Tales<\/em> version of the story, published in its April 1924 issue.
VIEW IN COLLECTION (BROWN DIGITAL REPOSITORY)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"4ci.
4ci. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cFacts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn & His Family.\u201d [n.d.; c. 1922\u201323] Page 1.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 4a. Weird Tales<\/em> magazine cover. April 1924. First published in 1921 in The Wolverine<\/em>, \u201cArthur Jermyn\u201d was republished, against Lovecraft\u2019s wishes not to change the title, as \u201cThe White Ape\u201d in the April 1924 issue of Weird Tales<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In \u201cArthur Jermyn,\u201d the eponymous protagonist takes an interest in the anthropological pursuits \u201cin the Congo region\u201d by his great-great-great grandfather Sir Wade Jermyn (fig. 4ci). There, Sir Wade married the mysterious \u201cdaughter of a Portuguese trader\u201d (fig. 4ci), who is later revealed to be a \u201cwhite ape of some unknown species\u201d (fig. 4ciii). When Arthur discovers that his great-great-great-grandmother is someone who was between \u201chuman or simian\u201d (fig. 4ciii), he loses his mind and commits suicide by self-immolation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"decorative<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Fig. 4d (series):<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\"Fig.
Fig. 4di. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 1.
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\"Fig
Fig 4dii. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 11.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 4diii. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 21.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Fig.
Fig. 4div. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 23.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 4dv. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 127.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 4dvi. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 137.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 4dvii. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 139.
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\"Fig.
Fig. 4dviii. H. P. Lovecraft. \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth.\u201d Typescript prepared by Jan. 1932. Page 141.
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\"<em>Weird
Fig. 4b. Weird Tales<\/em> magazine cover. Jan. 1942. Although the story was rejected by Weird Tales<\/em> in Lovecraft\u2019s lifetime, it was posthumously republished in the magazine\u2019s January 1942 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Whereas \u201cArthur Jermyn\u201d primarily focuses on the \u201cpersonal\u201d tragedy of the Jermyn family, \u201cThe Shadow Over Innsmouth\u201d combines genotypic horror with Lovecraft\u2019s larger fears of the dilution of the Anglo-Saxon \u201ccultural stream\u201d in the United States. The story follows Robert Olmstead, who is taking a trip across New England to learn more about his ancestry (recall Lovecraft\u2019s own \u201cancestral pilgrimages\u201d). In this trip, he stumbles upon the dilapidated town of Innsmouth, which is severely disliked by neighboring towns. Olmstead later finds that the Innsmouth residents are in a sort of symbiotic relationship with a race of fish-like humanoid amphibians named \u201cthe Deep Ones,\u201d which inhabit a nearby reef. The Deep Ones provide plenty of fish and sometimes jewelry (i.e., economic security) to Innsmouth in exchange for worship. Furthermore, Innsmouth\u2019s residents procreate with the Deep Ones, to the extent that most of the town\u2019s inhabitants are a human-Deep One mix and have a human appearance, but they change into Deep Ones once they reach middle age, forcing them to move to underwater cities. Even more troubling is Olmstead\u2019s discovery that the Deep Ones plan to \u201cexpand\u201d to other places beyond Innsmouth. At the end of the story, Olmstead realizes he is the descendant of the Deep Ones and readies to leave for their underwater cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figs. 2ei\u2013ii, 1f (series): In other instances, the link between Lovecraft\u2019s race thinking and his fiction was more implicit. As we have seen in sections one and two, one of Lovecraft\u2019s main sources of existential dread was miscegenation. One aspect of this is a fear and hate toward the racial Other, as we have seen … 4. Genotypic Horror in \u201cArthur Jermyn\u201d and \u201cThe Shadow over Innsmouth\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-45","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":617,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45\/revisions\/617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/lovecraftracialimaginaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}