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May 07, 2005
The Call of Cthulhu
In the summer of 1926, H. P. Lovecraft wrote The Call of Cthulhu, later published in Weird Tales. I read it again this afternoon.
Lovecraft adds depth to his fiction with the Elder Ones, R'lyeh, Abdul Alhazred's Necronomicon, the entire faculty of Miskatonic, the city of Arkham. In the same way as Stanislaw Lem, he easily pulls in references that hint at a whole world of the same scope as Tlön, taking over at the outskirts of the familiar. These guys were great liars.
Although The Call of Cthulhu fails to leave as lasting an impression of impending doom as At the Mountains of Madness, it's quite a classic. All of Lovecraft's stuffy New England racism bubbles to the surface, his nightmares blister over and ooze pus. All of his cold sweat shakes and starts resemble Thomas Mann, seasick and feverish, come to America, land of extremes.
Posted by Mark at May 7, 2005 03:39 PM