History YMMV / TheShadowOverInnsmouth

* CommonKnowledge: Everyone "knows" the Deep Ones are [[SpaceJews unflattering caricatures of black people]] and the story is one long metaphor for the supposed evils of miscegenation. While this is an understandable interpretation given Lovecraft's racism and the fact that many of his monsters (the Deep Ones included) are heavily racialized ''without'' being allegory, most serious scholars of Lovecraft actually dismiss this as a lazy and shallow reading of the story. The Deep Ones, far from being subhuman degenerates, are depicted as significantly more advanced than humans, to the point of being something akin to a ProudScholarRace. And if Lovecraft really intended for them to be racist stereotypes, it would render the ending (where [[spoiler:the main character expresses happiness at the prospect of leaving humanity behind and living as a Deep One under the sea]]) completely inexplicable (though by that point, [[spoiler:the protagonist has gone insane so his "happiness" is questionable]]). Truth be told, the story was probably just Lovecraft's own take on [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent merfolk mythology]].

-->"Obed he kinder takes charge an' says things is goin' to be changed ... others'll worship with us at meetin'-time, an' sarten haouses hez got to entertin guests. . ."

* HarsherInHindsight: From the story (keep in mind this was written 70 years before Gitmo and UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror and, more disturbingly, only several years before UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust and the internment of Japanese-Americans):
-->"Keener news-followers, however, wondered at the prodigious number of arrests, the abnormally large force of men used in making them, and the secrecy surrounding the disposal of the prisoners. No trials, or even definite charges were reported; nor were any of the captives seen thereafter in the regular gaols of the nation. There were vague statements about disease and concentration camps, and later about dispersal in various naval and military prisons, but nothing positive ever developed. Innsmouth itself was left almost depopulated, and it is even now only beginning to show signs of a sluggishly revived existence."

* OnceOriginalNowCommon: [[HillbillyHorrors Hillbilly Horror]] plots involving [[TownWithADarkSecret isolated enclaves]] of mutant/interbred hicks with ill intentions towards the outsider protagonist have since been done to death. Ditto fish people.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: [[HillbillyHorrors Hillbilly Horror]] plots involving [[TownWithADarkSecret isolated enclaves]] of mutant/interbred hicks with ill intentions towards the outsider protagonist have since been done to death. Ditto fish people.

* CommonKnowledge: Everyone "knows" the Deep Ones are [[SpaceJews unflattering caricatures of black people]] and the story is one long metaphor for the supposed evils of miscegenation. While this is an understandable interpretation, given Lovecraft's racism, most serious scholars of Lovecraft actually dismiss this as a lazy and shallow reading of the story. The Deep Ones, far from being subhuman degenerates, are depicted as significantly more advanced than humans, to the point of being something akin to a ProudScholarRace. And if Lovecraft really intended for them to be racist stereotypes, it would render the ending (where [[spoiler:the main character expresses happiness at the prospect of leaving humanity behind and living as a Deep One under the sea]]) completely inexplicable (though by that point, [[spoiler:the protagonist has gone insane so his "happiness" is questionable]]). Truth be told, the story was probably just Lovecraft's own take on [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent merfolk mythology]].

* ValuesDissonance: Works with the implied message "Race mixing is A Bad Thing" are less acceptable in polite society nowadays than when Lovecraft was writing.

* One has to wonder what would've happened to that cashier had Robert not come to Innsmouth...

* CommonKnowledge: Everyone "knows" the Deep Ones are [[SpaceJews unflattering caricatures of black people]] and the story is one long metaphor for the supposed evils of miscegenation. While this is an understandable interpretation, given Lovecraft's racism, most serious scholars of Lovecraft actually dismiss this as a lazy and shallow reading of the story. The Deep Ones, far from being subhuman degenerates, are depicted as significantly more advanced than humans, to the point of being something akin to a ProudScholarRace. And if Lovecraft really intended for them to be racist stereotypes, it would render the ending (where [[spoiler:the main character expresses happiness at the prospect of leaving humanity behind and living as a Deep One under the sea]]) completely inexplicable (though by that point, [[spoiler: the protagonist has gone insane so his "happiness" is questionable]]). Truth be told, the story was probably just Lovecraft's own take on [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent merfolk mythology]].

** The narrator spots "some bulky, tarpaulin-covered object" on a rowboat while [[spoiler: escaping from the town, and when the government men went there, they never found Zadok Allen]]. [[HeKnowsTooMuch The implications are obvious]].

* CompleteMonster: Obed Marsh, the founder of the [[{{Cult}} Esoteric Order of Dagon]], was a sea captain who observed foreign tribes achieve prosperity by [[HumanSacrifice sacrificing human beings]] to the aquatic [[EldritchAbomination Deep Ones]]. Taking the practice to his [[DyingTown dying hometown]] of Innsmouth, Obed proceeded to institute mass sacrifices until his first mate led a rebellion against him. Rallying his followers, Obed slaughtered half the town and instituted a new regime of tyranny and murder, with many forced to [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong breed with the Deep Ones]] in a horrific practice that lasted nearly a century.

** The narrator spots "some bulky, tarpaulin-covered object" on a rowboat while [[spoiler: escaping from the town, and when the government men went there, they never found Zadok Allen]].

* CommonKnowledge: Everyone "knows" the Deep Ones are [[SpaceJews unflattering caricatures of black people]] and the story is one long metaphor for the supposed evils of miscegenation. While this is an understandable interpretation, given Lovecraft's racism, most serious scholars of Lovecraft actually dismiss this as a lazy and shallow reading of the story. The Deep Ones, far from being subhuman degenerates, are depicted as significantly more advanced than humans, to the point of being something akin to a ProudScholarRace. And if Lovecraft really intended for them to be racist stereotypes, it would render the ending (where [[spoiler:the main character expresses happiness at the prospect of leaving humanity behind and living as a Deep One under the sea]]) completely inexplicable [[spoiler: though by that point the protagonist has gone insane so his "happiness" is questionable.]] Truth be told, the story was probably just Lovecraft's own take on [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent merfolk mythology]].

* NauseaFuel: They interbred with ''slimy, ugly fish-frogs from the Stygian depths of the sea!''

* CommonKnowledge: Everyone "knows" the Deep Ones are [[SpaceJews unflattering caricatures of black people]] and the story is one long metaphor for the supposed evils of miscegenation. While this is an understandable interpretation, given Lovecraft's racism, most serious scholars of Lovecraft actually dismiss this as a lazy and shallow reading of the story. The Deep Ones, far from being subhuman degenerates, are depicted as significantly more advanced than humans, to the point of being something akin to a ProudScholarRace. And if Lovecraft really intended for them to be racist stereotypes, it would render the ending (where [[spoiler:the main character expresses happiness at the prospect of leaving humanity behind and living as a Deep One under the sea]]) completely inexplicable. Truth be told, the story was probably just Lovecraft's own take on [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent merfolk mythology]].

** This becomes especially bad when one remembers that the symbol the Pacific Islanders used to ward away the Deep Ones was a [[NonNaziSwastika swastika]].

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** The story may also draw inspiration from the Red Summer of 1919 when dozens of Black and Mixed Communities were attacked and massacred by White Mobs from Connecticut to Oklahoma that occurred at the same time as the Palmer Raids.