H.P. Lovecraft's Cat
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Note: this entry contains an uncensored racial slur; discretion advised.
About
H.P. Lovecraft's Cat refers to the cat named Nigger-Man owned by the family of the American horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft during his childhood. Online, "H.P. Lovecraft's Cat" has appeared in multiple Don't Google posts which invite unsuspecting users to look up the name of the cat, luring them into reading a racial slur.
Origin
During American horror fiction writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft's childhood, his family owned several cats.[1] The oldest of the cats, named Nigger-Man, which the family likely acquired and named in 1899, disappeared in 1904 when Lovecraft was 14 years old. In his correspondence, H. P. Lovecraft reminisces about the cat in several of his letters (extracts shown below).
What a boy he was! I watched him grow from a tiny black handful to one of the most fascinating & understanding creatures I've ever seen. He used to talk in a genuine language of varied intonations--a special tone for every different meaning. There was even a special "prrr'p" for the smell of roast chestnuts, on which he dotes. He used to play ball with me--kicking a large rubber sphere back at me from half across the room with all four feet as he lay on the floor. And on summer evenings in the twilight he would prove his kinship to the elfin things of shadow by racing across the lawn on nameless errands, darting into the blackness of the shrubbery now & then, & occasionally leaping at me from ambush & then bounding away again into invisibility before I could catch him.
- H.P. Lovecraft to Harry O. Fischer, 10 Jan 1937, quoted in H. P. Lovecraft: A Biography 40
And my old nigger-man was leaping in & out of the shadowy bushes, occasionally deigning to let his Grandpa Theobald pick him up, put his green shining eye to the telescope, & show him the critical surfaces of remote planets--where for all we know the dominant denizens may be lithe, quadrupedal, sable-furred gentlemen exactly like Nigger-Man himself!
- H.P. Lovecraft to Annie Gamwell, 19 Aug 1921, Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft 1.147
H. P. Lovecraft also made a tribute to the cat by giving its name to the cat in the 1923 short story The Rats in the Walls.[2] The cat's name would be changed to "Blackie" or "Black Tom" in some of the later reprints of the story.
No known photographs of the cat exist, although in memes, a photograph of H. P. Lovecraft holding his friend Frank Belknap Long’s cat Felis is often used.[3]
Use in Memes
On June 12th, 2018, Tumblr[4] user greatpostsonline commented under the photograph of H. P. Lovecraft holding his friend's cat, posted by sandinlungs-blog, writing, "lovecraft and his cat n-…
nnnnn-… ummm…his cat’s name was uhhhh…"
On the same day, Tumblr user robloxgf responded, "what was his name," later adding "oh no." The conversation (shown below) received over 204,800 likes and reblogs in two years.
On June 18th, 2018, Know Your Meme[5] user Cold Hard Crash uploaded a screenshot of the post, with the post accumulating over 144,600 views in two years. On July 23rd, 2018, Redditor[1] AncientHistory made a post containing extensive information about the cat and its role in H.P. Lovecraft's life.
The viral spread of the Tumblr post prompted further references to H.P Lovecraft's Cat in memes online. For example, on November 14th, 2018, iFunny[6] user AlekFletcher posted a Machine Gun Skeleton meme that invited users to Google the name of the cat. On December 8th, 2018, iFunny[7] user Wimpy-Kid posted a screenshot of a Google knowledge panel containing information about the cat, with the post gaining over 600 smiles in two years.
On January 30th, 2019, webcomic artist He He Silly tweeted[8] a comic about the cat, with the post gaining over 730 retweets and 2,400 likes prior to the account being deleted (shown below).
The meme gained further popularity when in September 2019, reverse-psychology Don't Google memes gained popularity online. On September 13th, 2019, Redditor[9] nessso posted the earliest known "Don't Google" meme about the cat, with the post gaining over 540 upvotes in /r/okbuddyretard in six months (shown below).
In the following year, memes referencing the cat maintained notable popularity online, with "H.P. Lovecraft's Cat" sometimes being used as an euphemism for the slur.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Reddit – On Lovecraft's Cat
[2] Wikipedia – The Rats in the Walls
[3] Reddit – H.P. Lovecraft holding Frank Belknap Long's cat. He would go on to write the cat a poem.
[4] Tumblr – the-quasar-hero
[5] Know Your Meme – HP Lovecraft and his cat
[6] iFunny – AlekFletcher
[8] Twitter – @heheSillyComics
[9] Reddit – Please don’t
Top Comments
Ten Shadows
Apr 12, 2020 at 06:14AM EDT
I Need Tea
Apr 26, 2020 at 11:45PM EDT