Pulp Uncovered and S.T. Joshi
I was only able to make it to one day of the Pulp Uncovered Festival, and unfortunately, Swan Point Cemetery was closed by the time we got out there, but I enjoyed the events thoroughly!
The day started off with an H.P. Lovecraft walking tour that ended up being canceled due to liabilities caused by all the snow and ice. Fortunately for those of us that showed up, S.T. Joshi showed up and basically said “Screw that! I’ll take them on a tour myself.” S.T. Joshi is a really fun guy, packed full of all sorts of HPL knowledge, and to be led around Providence by him was excellent fun. It was probably a better tour because of him, what with all the little stories and anecdotes he had for many of the places, such as the Charles Dextar Ward house, and the Shunned house, or how Lovecraft triumphantly scared one of his best friend’s girl friends in a graveyard.
After the tour was a trip to the LADD Observatory, where H.P.L. had free reign of the premises at an early teen age. Here we listened to Joshi talk about Lovecraft’s hobbies, achievements, and talked about Sleep Paralysis, which is known to cause people to see dark figures or clouds emerging from corners intent on harm. It was speculated that Lovecraft may have suffered from this, and it may have been a cause of his nervous breakdowns.
A trip to the John Nicholas Brown Center rewarded us with a talk on ethnicity, sexuality, feminism ,and identity in Pulp Fiction past and present. I tried recording this, but unfortunately my cheap ass recorder was too wimpy to pick up any good audio. Sorry John. I’m fairly certain you would have loved to have heard this one.
With an hour and a half to kill, we headed to Swan Point Cemetery where H.P.L. is buried, only to find it had already closed 40 minutes early. Bummer. I’ll have to make another trip out sometime. Maybe in the Spring or Summer.
Back to the John Nicholas Brown Center, we were entertained by the readings of some 10 minute plays, put together by theater majors in the style of the old Pulps. Amazingly fun stuff it was!
Overall, I have to say the trip was a rousing success! Listening to and meeting S.T. Joshi was completely awesome and seeing the H.P.L. landmarks in Providence was neat as all heck.
Links!
Tags: Fun Stuff, Photos, Providence