I listened to a podcast in which she was featured – Episode 217 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast – in which she discusses the relative absence of women in H.P. Lovecraft’s works. Johnson loves his work, but has been applying a more critical lens to Lovecraft since honing in on this pattern. As quoted in this Wired article, Johnson explains: “The only times that Lovecraft ever uses women, they tend to be very negative, very stereotypical,” she says. “They’re evil old grannies or the scared farmer’s wife, but even those are so minor. It’s as though he existed in a world without women at all.” Upon reflection, I don’t remember any key female characters in either “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” or “The Horror at Red Hook.” The most memorable one is the dead fish ancestor in “Innsmouth,” and the slayed bride of Suydam in “Red Hook,” both dead/unspeaking characters. I think that Johnson is correct in her observations.
In response, Johnson decided to write a spin-off series of Lovecraft’s “Dreamlands,” called “The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe,” which tells the stories through the P.O.V. of a very fit and formidable older woman. Johnson is confronting hegemonic representations of women in Lovecraft’s works by re-imagining counter-hegemonic alternatives.