White Country Bedroom Set

White Country Bedroom Set

• HBO's new sci-fi/fantasy/historical fiction series Lovecraft Country has begun its 10-episode first season.
• While the show deals with monsters, magic, and fantasy, it also references real literature and is set in the very real Jim Crow period of American history.
• The show is actually set in a super-specific year.

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It's clear from the very start that HBO's Lovecraft Country is not set in our time. While the opening scene sees lead character Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) having a vivid dream on a long bus ride, his references—Jackie Robinson, old sci-fi characters and settings—are old. Upon waking, we see the period-setting where the next 10 episodes of the show will take place. Deriving its name from the work of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, the show also immediately creates a juxtaposition between the title, featuring that notoriously racist author's name, and the period in which it's set. Atticus declares goodbye to old Jim Crow and flips his middle finger to a sign at the Kentucky state border. The camera also pans out to reveal a sign that says "This part of the bus for the colored race." Immediately, we have an idea of the time period the show is in. But the actual year itself isn't revealed just yet—and finding that exact year gets a little bit confusing.

Part of the confusion might come from some of the other references; unlike something like Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, or Perry Mason , Lovecraft Country isn't using a soundtrack of specifically era-appropriate music cues. Sure, some songs, like the ones performed live by Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and Ruby (Wunmu Mosaku) are of-the-time, but others are quite modern; the first episode features a 2019 song from standout rapper Tierra Whack. There's also the early inclusion of a speech from James Baldwin sourced from a debate he had against conservative pundit William F. Buckley in 1965.

But as this isn't a nonfiction story, viewers will simply have to suspend their disbelief, and understand that the music and spoken-word choices are chosen for mood and tone solely—not setting. It's clear from the get go that Lovecraft Country is set in a deeply segregated time, one where the idea of "Sundown Towns" doesn't make our protagonists skip a beat. The Jim Crow South, which we see depicted here, is typically understood to have taken place with laws that were in effect between 1890 and 1965.

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Future episodes of the show will further elaborate on the setting, but there's enough information out as of now to be positive about when and where the show is taking place.

Lovecraft Country is set in 1954.

While the Lovecraft Country novel is explicitly stated to be set in 1954—"Chicago, 1954" is even specifically called out in the book's official description—it's a bit harder to place the time period of the series specifically. But not impossible.

Aside from the 1890-1965 rough estimate for the 'Jim Crow South' era, we can also use some of the references within the show to make sure that the 1954 date checks out. That opening sequence, for instance, finds Atticus daydreaming about the book he's reading, A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (first published in serial form in 1912, and as a hardcover in 1917). He also sees a vision of Jackie Robinson (who famously broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947 when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers) as the theme music from The Jackie Robinson Story (a 1950 feature film) plays.

The opening sequence also shows Atticus as a soldier, serving in the Korean War, which took place between June 1950 and July 1953. Atticus had already returned from deployment and been at his first post-war job down south, and in the opening sequence is seen headed back to Chicago. This further fits with 1954.

When he arrives back to Chicago from his previous Florida location, Atticus spends some time at his Uncle George and Aunt Hippolyta's office, where they publish The Safe Negro Travel Book, a fictionalized version of The Negro Motorist Green Book, which published between 1936 and 1966. Both the fictional and real version of this book are travel guides designed to help Black people in Jim Crow and otherwise segregated America find safe places to travel, eat, and lodge.

Evan Romano Evan is an associate editor for Men's Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE.

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White Country Bedroom Set

Source: https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a33623783/lovecraft-country-what-year/