Lovecraft Country, adapted from the novel by Matt Ruff and showrun by Misha Green, is the latest take on the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. It, too, delves into the horrifying and inconceivable as characters come up against the edges of understandable reality. But what this show brings to the table missing from other adaptations and reinventions is a healthy injection of fresh theme to those familiar elements.
Why Are You Telling This Story?
By centering the show, and novel before it, around the experiences of Black people in the years leading up the civil rights movement, it makes a simple but powerful correlation. Racism in America operates much like the monsters that Lovecraft described. Insidious, far-reaching, and invisible in day-to-day life to white Americans, it seeps and oozes into any available space. Often unnamable, and once confronted capable of killing or driving someone insane.
This theme unlocks everything that follows. The structure consistently pairs some element of racism in mid-century America with a Lovecraftian threat. Sundown counties are also infested with beast-like vampiric creatures. Redlined neighborhoods contain witch houses. The history of the slave trade also contains the history of stolen magic. And so on.
Lovecraft Country has such a clear writ of purpose – racism = cosmic horror – that all other decisions fall naturally from it. All decisions feed back into this central theme, providing the show a consistent point of view and tone. Of course, the fact that Lovecraft himself was a known racist is just an added bit of metatextual pleasure to the choice. The show reclaiming pulp fiction as a space for Black and other people of color works to further support its own theme.
Applying to your Own Work
Theme can be a powerful tool, especially in genre works. It provides a strong framework to build your other elements around. Story choices become clearer when you can reference back to the central idea of your piece. So take a little time and consider why you’re telling this story.
Further Reading
Operational Theme by Javier Grillo-Marxuach is a great starting point for defining and finding theme.