Re: CHAT: Sax Rohmer

On Fri, 8 Sep 2000, Leo Caesius wrote:

>      Another question that interests me is the depth of Rohmer's influence
> on other writers.  Although he is completely absent from the bookshelves of
> modern bookstores (and I've tried searching in practically every bookstore
> in Cambridge - that's a lot of bookstores!), he was quite influential at one
> time.  I'm certain I see echoes of Dr. Fu Manchu in Lovecraft's writings
> (particularly Lovecraft's more racist invectives, which were concentrated
> in, but by no means limited to, the zone delineated by Rohmer to contain
> "the East"), and possibly those of Philip K. Dick (Blade Roamer?  Blade
> Roamer?? What does that mean, anyway - and also, IMHO, Dick had a love-hate
> relationship with "the East" - look at the mental struggle of the character
> R. Childan in "The Man in the High Castle").
I'm quite sure that Lovecraft was not really influence by Sax Rohmer -
he arrived at his racial prejudices, according to S.T. Joshi's biography,
just by being born in the time, place and surroundings he was.  Every (I
almost wrote 'almost every', but that wouldn't have been accurate) scene
in Sax Rohmer is a cliche and can be found in other bits of low-brow
literature. Wodehouse makes a lot of fun of that kind of stuff in
'Something Fresh', as does Dorothy L. Sayers in 'Murder must advertise'.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.valdyas.org