As the title suggests, the first half is a discussion on the reactionary nature of ghost films on the internet with some people, and the second half is my own understanding and critique of the so-called “Cthulhu”. I hope to exchange my views with everyone.
The most common reactionary content in ghost films is slandering the people. For example, many of these ghostly stories involve spirits who were oppressed in life and died because of that oppression (which is why most ghosts are women, because women face significant oppression in capitalist society, both among the proletariat and the petty bourgeoisie), turning into vengeful spirits seeking “revenge.” But ghost films attempt to slander the people, attacking the idea that the revenge of the oppressed against the oppressors is unjust or “terrifying,” generally portraying it as negative. Ghost films vilify those who seek revenge as “villains.” “Rebellion is unreasonable,” this is often what ghost films try to convey.
Or, on the surface, some ghost films seem to suggest that rebellion is justified, but they actually tell people that there is no opportunity for rebellion while alive; only after death, when one becomes a ghost (which is a lie, as people do not turn into ghosts after death), can rebellion occur. People who believe this are influenced, and stop considering resistance while alive. These ghost films are essentially meant to stop people from resisting reality, immersing them in unrealistic fantasies about the afterlife, just like religious deception that claims one can go to heaven after death, which is reactionary.
Or some ghost films are just trying to create a sense of “sudden fright,” but this is also reactionary. Because it actually aims to foster a idealist view, convincing people that ghosts really exist, and using this to tell people that their stress is not due to capitalist society, but because there are ghosts haunting their homes, etc.
For example, ghost films set in hospitals try to tell the audience that the reason patients die unnaturally in hospitals is not because the hospital is run by the bourgeoisie, and that the bourgeoisie’s profit-driven motives kill patients, but because ghosts are haunting the place.
Another example is Stephen King’s novel “It,” which is quite reactionary. This dark novel unjustifiably depicts “ghosts” as service workers like clowns, vilifies the working class as child killers, and attempts to blame the murders of children on supernatural forces rather than on real serial killers who have been educated by reactionary ideas of capitalist society, thus portraying the serial killers who kill children as unrelated to capitalism.
Another ghost film, “The Shining,” also attributes the oppression of fathers over sons and husbands over wives to supernatural forces, claiming that ghosts in the house drive the father insane, rather than blaming the tragedy on the patriarchy of capitalist society.
Indeed, this is the case. Many ghost films, in order to conclude on a positive note (because naked idealism is hard to deceive people, so a realistic and reasonable explanation is needed), attribute all these incidents to “selfish human nature.” It is all “human sins,” essentially to divide and weaken the masses, to make them believe in selfish human nature, blur the boundaries between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and erase class struggle.
Stephen King very much likes to slander oppressed groups in his novels, and it’s quite obvious, for example, in “Carrie” where he claims students are morally corrupt, and the bourgeois educational institutions and teachers are defending students who are bullied, and oppressed students rebelling against oppression will destroy the entire town. Also, the most classic film that glorifies the bourgeoisie, “The Shawshank Redemption,” is adapted from his novel of the same name. The scenes in “The Shining” are also because he himself is an alcoholic, a typical patriarchal head who treats his wife as a household slave.
People who watch these ghost movies will be affected, losing their materialist thinking ability, and will not understand the connection between capitalist society and these oppressive social phenomena. Instead, they will think it is ghosts, or “fate” or other supernatural forces that make things look that way.
To be honest, when I was obsessed with SCP before, I wanted to use telekinesis to move objects.
This is true. My sister watches ghost and mystery movies every day, and then she becomes very convinced of reactionary idealist思想, such as metaphysics.
The so-called “Cthulhu” is actually a reactionary ideological system created by Howard Lovecraft, an American reactionary petty bourgeois writer. Its core is to promote mythological superstitions, wildly exaggerate various social phenomena of capitalist society, and portray them as incomprehensible and uncontrollable “indescribable” things that humans cannot understand or resist, spreading an agnosticism that capitalist society cannot recognize or defeat, which has a very bad influence. In fact, almost every story by Lovecraft is an exaggeration of capitalist social phenomena, and the so-called “indescribable” beings can be found in reality, he just refuses to admit it.
His story related to “Cthulhu” is actually just a mystification of various maritime accidents caused by the backward productivity and reactionary nature of capitalism and its previous societies. It is falsely claimed not to be due to the fragility of ships, the dangers of the sea, or the bourgeois idealism and metaphysical worldview of captains and crew that prevent them from correctly understanding the ocean, ships, and effectively mastering navigation skills, but rather, it is forcibly pieced together from various ancient myths and superstitions (such as the North Sea giant Kraken and other medieval sea monster superstitions) to create a supposedly clever “Cthulhu” story, portraying a mysterious “monster” image. In fact, the main reason for maritime accidents in capitalist society is the reactionary nature of the capitalist system, which prevents humans from correctly understanding the world and safely navigating the seas. For example, the Titanic’s sinking was entirely due to the attitude of everyone from the captain to the crew, either complacent and underestimating the danger, believing the Titanic would “never sink,” or foolishly indulging in pleasure, ignoring warnings from others, and neglecting the management and maintenance of the wireless telegraph. Capitalist society lacks scientific training for crew members, resulting in insufficient skills to operate ships. The Titanic was designed solely for bourgeois pleasure, neglecting safety considerations, etc. If one insists on attributing such maritime disasters to some “Cthulhu” monster lurking at the bottom of the sea, it would only invite ridicule.
For example, “The Starry Canvas” is also entirely a deliberate portrayal by Lovecraft of the nuclear leak accidents in American capitalist society at the time. Its prototype was the frequent nuclear leak accidents in the United States during that period. Clearly, nuclear leaks at that time were entirely the result of capitalist abuse of nuclear energy. Under socialism, as long as management is proper and the development of safe nuclear protection technologies is not hindered by the misconception that they are unprofitable, safe and reliable nuclear protection technologies can be developed, making nuclear leaks entirely avoidable. However, Lovecraft deliberately distorts nuclear leaks, claiming they are caused by alien creatures, portraying them as “horrible” “disasters,” and promoting the ignorant idea that nuclear leak accidents are unknowable and insurmountable.
Building on the previous text, Lovecraft’s most reactionary ‘Cthulhu’ novel is none other than “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” Lovecraft’s reactionary thoughts are most concentrated in this novel. This book was written shortly after the Great Depression in the United States. In the book, the so-called “Great Race of Yith” is nothing more than Lovecraft’s mystification and glorification of the American monopoly bourgeoisie represented by Roosevelt in reality, and it is a praise of the “New Deal” that maintained the interests of the monopoly bourgeoisie at the time of writing. The reason why the author chose the protagonist to be a “professor of political economy” and promoted the idea that the protagonist is a person so “outstanding” that he was chosen as a host by the “Great Race of Yith” is precisely because, in the author’s mind, the bourgeoisie and the so-called bourgeois vulgar economics professors who are supposedly capable of solving the capitalist economic crisis are the “great” ones, while the masses of the people are insignificant minor figures.
What is especially blatant is the author’s praise of the absurd so-called “sunspot theory,” which he claims is a “scientific” explanation, exposing his fantasy that vulgar economics can solve the capitalist economic crisis. This fully reveals the author’s degeneration into a reactionary worldview that begs for inspiration from idealism.
From the description of the social structure of the Great Race of Yith, the author merely distorts the American national monopoly capitalism into so-called “advanced civilization,” thereby elevating the status of American imperialism and glossing over its decline under the blow of the total capitalist crisis.
If Lovecraft had not died so early but had died a bit later, he would have become an even more thorough supporter of the Roosevelt New Deal, walking further and further down the path of serving imperialism.
I used to be very obsessed with horror stories of the “rule monster talk” type, where these stories distort oppression phenomena in the capitalist world into supernatural horror elements. These stories appear in the form of “rules,” usually without much narrative or description, relying solely on items like “notices” or “notes” with “rules” to create a horror atmosphere and build the plot. Many of these rule monster tales are set in schools, with warnings like “do not enter xx room,” or what will happen if you do, which in reality mystify phenomena like abandoned laboratories in schools—actually caused by the opportunistic route of ranking first in scores. Even more extreme are some particularly reactionary “restricted zones” in schools, which often contain evidence of the principal’s crimes or places where students have been harmed. For example, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine had a student who couldn’t bear the pressure from her mentor and jumped to her death; a large stone was placed at the site to “block Feng Shui.” A more obvious example is Hu Xinyu’s unexplained disappearance for 106 days, and the suspicious death by “hanging” (but most likely murdered by the school authorities, as summarized by netizens on the doubts surrounding this case: link). These are the real-world reflections of these rule monster tales. However, the authors of these stories do not seek to explore the true causes behind these campus tragedies but instead attribute them to unstoppable supernatural forces, promoting agnosticism and idealism, which undoubtedly helps the middle-class government conceal the truth. Moreover, the supernatural forces in these stories are actually embodiments of the principals and the ruling bourgeoisie of these academic institutions—they undoubtedly control students’ destinies and arbitrarily exploit them. But these rule monster tales have been shattered by reality; every incident of campus bullying leading to students’ tragic deaths is now clearly seen by the public. For example, the Pucheng incident is a clear example, where the principal police, portrayed as “supernatural forces” in the stories, were severely beaten by the people. Besides that, the most blatant and reactionary rule monster tale is undoubtedly the “Espedro City” that became a huge hit on Island A. I haven’t finished reading it, but roughly it tells a story where many monsters suddenly appear in a city, and “moderate left-wing militia” (which in real society is undoubtedly a reformist organization like the Democratic Socialist Party) and the “National Guard” fight the monsters together. It clearly promotes class reconciliation, as if having a powerful external force could resolve the irreconcilable contradictions between the workers and the bourgeois state, allowing the two hostile classes to join hands against a common enemy. Others include the so-called “Liberal Party” creating these monsters, and how these monsters are invincible—metaphors for the invincibility of bourgeois weapons, etc. There is also shameless glorification of the police, suggesting that police lights can protect the body. These stories are full of anti-communist and anti-people hints. Unfortunately, no matter what new tricks the bourgeoisie use to suppress the people—such as Israel’s Merkava tanks, claimed to be the “most survivable main battle tanks in the world,” but repeatedly shattered by Hamas guerrillas and the people—these rule monster tales have proven to be bankrupt.
Many domestic ghost films are closely linked to pornography; often, where there is pornography, there are ghosts. How should this be analyzed and understood?
It feels like a copycat imitation of American B-movies. Those low-budget B-movies are inherently closely linked to horror, pornography, and violence, using the most explicit violent, thrilling, and erotic sensory stimulation to attract audiences.
I would like to ask the original poster how to analyze this phenomenon.
Because it relies on pornography to attract attention, since horror films are nothing more than one-sided pursuit of sensory stimulation, their content is actually not only reactionary but also impoverished. Therefore, if they always rely on deliberately exaggerated suspenseful content for support, they will appear too thin. As a result, horror films often mix in various pornographic contents to numb the petty bourgeoisie, allowing the petty bourgeoisie to continue watching.
I don’t understand, but when I was a child in the托管机构, the TV there played all kinds of zombie movies, and I was brainwashed with these reactionary idealist rubbish from a young age.
The rule of怪谈 (ghost stories) also includes 中修 (middle repair) toxic herbs, such as in番茄小说 (Tomato Novel) where many怪谈 (ghost stories) involve success or failure in overcoming challenges that determine the fate of the country. Success leads to a prosperous nation, while failure results in怪谈 (ghost story) invasions plunging the country into crisis. This is a way of describing the tragic situation of the working people caused by capitalist oppression as a result of怪谈 (ghost story) invasions, diverting attention from contradictions in capitalism. In the novels, 中修 (middle repair) usually fights with all their might to protect the people, which is a form of glossing over the reality, creating an abstract concept of a ‘nation’ that ignores class struggle. The nation is an inevitable product of irreconcilable class contradictions and will only serve the ruling class. Just look at how the labor bureau is inactive when workers demand wages, and police side with capitalists to violently suppress protests—this makes it clear. Given this, how can we expect 中修 (middle repair) to truly protect the people when怪谈 (ghost story) invasions occur? It’s more likely they would feed the怪谈 (ghost story) with the people. Usually, the opening plot involves the Dragon Kingdom (a nickname for 中修 in the novel) suffering repeated failures, with the people impoverished. Then the protagonist appears brightly, drawing an SSS-level talent (equivalent to hacking), and saves 中修 (middle repair). This is pure heroism, promoting the idea that a small group of people are the decision-makers of history, whose will can completely determine the fate of the people, erasing the creative role of the masses and attributing all achievements to that one person. The so-called SSS-level talent (hacking) is also exaggerated because the protagonist’s success depends entirely on this talent, which doesn’t exist in real life. It implies that people don’t need long-term, arduous self-reliance; with this SSS-level talent, the working people can defeat capitalism.
This kind of similar theme is also very common in other types of bourgeois art, all catering to the petty bourgeoisie who don’t know how to change their bankrupt fate, providing them with a fantasy where they can change their destiny, satisfying their individualism while also changing their bankrupt fate, and incidentally whitewashing the bourgeois state, portraying the state as standing together with the oppressed people.
