The Call of Cthulhu

The Episode

In this episode Nick and I, as well as special guests Riley and Lynette discuss The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft. We cover topics such as his philosophies on life, the events that helped to influence him, and the language of Lovecraft.

We then talk in greater detail about the actual story Call of Cthulhu and the message contained within. The conclusion we came up with is that Call of Cthulhu is a warning about the existence of forbidden and dangerous knowledge. Yeah we know that is pretty obvious, but we also discuss the idea of unknowable genders, unpronounceable words, and what cyclopean architecture actually is.

If you want to read more here are our sources. While we may not have touched on all of them in our discussion, they did influence our thoughts on the topic.

Works Cited

Bulkeley, Kelly. "Cthulhu Fhtagn: Dreams and Nightmares in the Fantasy Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft." Dreaming 26.1 (2016): 50-57.

Carrobles, Carlos Corbacho. "H. P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu: An Intermedial Analysis of its Graphic Adaptation." Journal of Artistic Creation & Literary Research 1.1 (2013): 1-15.

Evans, Timothy H. "Tradition and Illusion: Antiquarianism, Tourism and Horror in H. P. Lovecraft." Extrapolation 45.2 (2004): 176-195. Link

Frye, Mitch. "The Refinement of 'Crude Allegory': Eugenic Themes and Genotypic Horror in the Weird Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 17.3 (2006): 237-254. 2020. <www.jstor.org/stable/26390171>.

Hanegraff, Wouter J. "Fiction in the Desert of the Real: Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos." Aries 7.1 (2007): 85-109.

Hauke, Christopher. "Horror Films and the Attack on Rationality." Journel of Analytical Psychology 60.1 (2015): 736-740.

Houllebecq, Micheal. H.P. Lovecraft Against the World, Against Life. Trans. Dorna Khazeni. Gollancz, 2008.

Joshi, S. T. The Evolution of the Weird Tale. Hippocampus Press, 2004.

—. Unutterable Horror A History of Supernatural Fiction. Hippocampus Press, 2014.

Kneale, James. "From beyond: H. P. Lovecraft and the Place of Horror." Cultural Geographics 13.1 (2006): 106-126.

Lovcraft, H.P. The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales. Barnes and Nobel, 2016.

Nelson, Victoria. "H.P. Lovecraft and the Great Heresies." Raritan 15.3 (1996): 92. Link

P. Smith. "Re-visioning Romantic-Era Gothicism: An Introduction to Key Works and Themes in the Study of H.P. Lovecraft." Literature Compass 8 (2011): 830-839.

Ralickas, Vivian. "'Cosmic Horror' and the Question of the Sublime in Lovecraft." Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 18.3 (2007): 364-398. 2020. <www.jstor.org/stable/24351008>.

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