The Call of Cthulhu

[Tinsel]

I liked the idea that was used where dreams and various side effects occured during the time of the encounter with the great Cthulhu in which he was released. Now, I don't understand why a couple of the characters died unexplicably. I'm also not sure why Cthulhu is refered to as a priest, isn't he, or am I imagining this. It was an satisfactory explanation to have this all occur due to a volcanic eruption, sort of like in "Dagon". Anyway, the story explained a number of things and there is more to say.

 

[Ningauble]

Now, I don't understand why a couple of the characters died unexplicably.

What characters would that be?

 

[Tinsel]

The professor of archeology and I forget who else but there was someone else who was carrying important documents. I'm not sure why the narrator thinks that they were suspicious deaths rather than natural, unless it was related to a traumatic mental stress that they suffered during the period of time of the major event of the rising of the great Cthulhu.

 

[Ningauble]

The professor of archeology and I forget who else but there was someone else who was carrying important documents. I'm not sure why the narrator thinks that they were suspicious deaths rather than natural, unless it was related to a traumatic mental stress that they suffered during the period of time of the major event of the rising of the great Cthulhu.

Isn't that obvious? Professor Angell (who put the pieces together and made inquiries into Wilcox's dreams and their possible connection to Legrasse's raid in Louisiana and Professor Webb's discovery in Greenland) died after having "been jostled by a nautical-looking negro", Johansen (the only living witness to the rise of Cthulhu) died after having been hit by a falling bundle of papers, and helped by "[t]wo Lascar sailors".

Further, it is revealed of the Cthulhu cultists that "[SIZE=-1]Most were seamen, and a sprinkling of negroes and mulattoes, largely West Indians or Brava Portuguese from the Cape Verde Islands, gave a colouring of voodooism to the heterogeneous cult.[/SIZE]" And Thurston also reflects

[SIZE=-1]One thing I began to suspect, and which I now fear I know, is that my uncle’s death was far from natural. He fell on a narrow hill street leading up from an ancient waterfront swarming with foreign mongrels, after a careless push from a negro sailor. I did not forget the mixed blood and marine pursuits of the cult-members in Louisiana, and would not be surprised to learn of secret methods and poison needles as ruthless and as anciently known as the cryptic rites and beliefs. Legrasse and his men, it is true, have been let alone; but in Norway a certain seaman who saw things is dead. Might not the deeper inquiries of my uncle after encountering the sculptor’s data have come to sinister ears? I think Professor Angell died because he knew too much, or because he was likely to learn too much. Whether I shall go as he did remains to be seen, for I have learned much now.

[/SIZE]

And we know from the subtitle of the story that the narrator died as well. In total, three suspicious deaths.

It is obvious from these bits of information that Thurston thinks that Professor Angell and Johansen were assassinated by the Cthulhu Cult. QED.

 

[Tinsel]

Yes, the "heterogeneous" cult did the killings, and they were sea fare men "from the Cape Verde Islands", but there were also wide spread reports such as the Eskimos that also believed in the same Gods.

Now did this narrator follow some map to Cthulhu from notes that he acquired somewhere? Why didn't the cult members raise Cthulhu themselves? and the monster stopped chasing the narrator who made a narrow escape, so the monster was trapped, no?

Another thing that I don't understand is that someone was having dreams and making sculptures, as if the title of the story made sense, "The Call of Cthulhu".

 

[Tinsel]

Oh yeah. I also remember that the one group of hetrogeneous cult members who were holding a festival deep in the forest was reported to have raised some spectre of some kind, or something was seen, some monster.

I wonder why the cult members killed the professor. I'm also somewhat unclear how the narrator found Cthulhu or was he just reading papers the whole time, that makes a big difference.

BTW everyone is always killing themselves :+(

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, the "heterogeneous" cult did the killings, and they were sea fare men "from the Cape Verde Islands", but there were also wide spread reports such as the Eskimos that also believed in the same Gods.

There is also mention of "undying leaders of the cult in the mountains of China", as well as the "two Lascar sailors" who "helped" Johansen, and the Kanakas aboard the Alert. In other words, Lovecraft takes care to make it evident that the cult, though secret, is worldwide in scope.

Now did this narrator follow some map to Cthulhu from notes that he acquired somewhere? Why didn't the cult members raise Cthulhu themselves? and the monster stopped chasing the narrator who made a narrow escape, so the monster was trapped, no?

The narrator -- if by that you mean the narrator of the story as a whole, Francis Wayland Thurston ("Found among the Papers of the Late Francis Wayland Thurston of Boston", as it says in the note on the first page) -- didn't ever see Cthulhu. As he says at the very beginning of the tale, his part in this was "an accidental piecing together of separated things—in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead professor". What he does is take the reader through the process which led him to these various items, and his piecing together of the parts of the puzzle... very much in the manner of a detective tale.

As for why the cult members didn't raise Cthulhu... they were on their way to do this when they encountered the Emma, which had been blown off course by the storms caused by the rising of R'lyeh. They then attacked Johansen and his comrades to protect the secret, but suffered defeat and death as a result. The crew of the Emma, taking over the Alert (as the Emma had been too severely damaged during the fight to be seaworthy) decided to follow the trail of their erstwhile attackers and find out what they were so zealously guarding. And, as a result, "what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident". The reason Cthulhu ceased chasing after Johansen and his single surviving companion? Well, for one thing, Johansen had the good sense to ram Cthulhu with the Alert in an attempt to kill him/it; unfortunately for Johansen, this "monster" was of such an alien nature that this did not kill, but merely disrupted him temporarily, while he reassembled himself in his original form:

But Johansen had not given out yet. Knowing that the Thing could surely overtake the Alert until steam was fully up, he resolved on a desperate chance; and, setting the engine for full speed, ran lightning-like on deck and reversed the wheel. There was a mighty eddying and foaming in the noisome brine, and as the steam mounted higher and higher the brave Norwegian drove his vessel head on against the pursuing jelly which rose above the unclean froth like the stern of a daemon galleon. The awful squid-head with writhing feelers came nearly up to the bowsprit of the sturdy yacht, but Johansen drove on relentlessly. There was a bursting as of an exploding bladder, a slushy nastiness as of a cloven sunfish, a stench as of a thousand opened graves, and a sound that the chronicler could not put on paper. For an instant the ship was befouled by an acrid and blinding green cloud, and then there was only a venomous seething astern; where—God in heaven!—the scattered plasticity of that nameless sky-spawn was nebulously recombining in its hateful original form, whilst its distance widened every second as the Alert gained impetus from its mounting steam.

While it didn't stop Cthulhu permanently, it did slow him down briefly... enough for Johansen to get the steam up in the Alert and make good his escape. By this time, the distance was so great that it simply wasn't worth the bother for Cthulhu to pursue him. He was simply not important enough.

Another thing that I don't understand is that someone was having dreams and making sculptures, as if the title of the story made sense, "The Call of Cthulhu".

The title of the story does make sense: it is that call, as the stars become right, which sets things in motion by alerting the cult members to prepare for Cthulhu's emergence, while those unknowing of the dweller in R'lyeh, but who are of sensitive mind, are also plagued by the dream-images being broadcast. To some it gives nightmares, to some only vague impressions; others the call drives mad.

Oh yeah. I also remember that the one group of hetrogeneous cult members who were holding a festival deep in the forest was reported to have raised some spectre of some kind, or something was seen, some monster.

These were the Louisiana cultists. And it is by no means certain such a thing was seen. The police officer who claims to have seen it, if you will recall, is described in these terms:

It may have been only imagination and it may have been only echoes which induced one of the men, an excitable Spaniard, to fancy he heard antiphonal responses to the ritual from some far and unillumined spot deeper within the wood of ancient legendry and horror. This man, Joseph D. Galvez, I later met and questioned; and he proved distractingly imaginative. He indeed went so far as to hint of the faint beating of great wings, and of a glimpse of shining eyes and a mountainous white bulk beyond the remotest trees—but I suppose he had been hearing too much native superstition.

However, Lovecraft leaves this one an open question, and he was fond of having such glimpses in his work (cf. "The Thing on the Doorstep", "The Poe-et's Nightmare", etc.).

I wonder why the cult members killed the professor. I'm also somewhat unclear how the narrator found Cthulhu or was he just reading papers the whole time, that makes a big difference.

The cult members were protecting the secrets of their religion. It has been claimed throughout history that various "mystery cults" would use violence to protect their mysteries, as they were sacred and only to be seen or known by select members... not even the main body of the cult were always allowed access to such things, but sometimes only the very highest members of the priesthood. At least, such was common report; the truth of the matter varied, but it was used fictionally by a great many writers... including Thomas Moore, in his "The Epicurean" and Alciphron, which influenced HPL enough for him to not only mention them in his Supernatural Horror in Literature, but quote from Alciphron in two of his stories ("Under the Pyramids" and "The Nameless City"). Should you wish to look at these (they are not actually weird in themselves, but they do have some fine weird passages), you can find them listed, with links, in the thread on "Online Sources for Supernatural Horror in Literature".

As for the question about the narrator, I answered that above. Thurston was reading first the professor's notes, then his account of the scientific meeting and Legrasse's tale, then Johansen's manuscript.

BTW everyone is always killing themselves :+(

I assume you mean "dying" or "being killed" (though there are suicides mentioned in the first chapter). That's what happens when you go up against something as big and alien as what Cthulhu represents... and even so, he is the very least of the entities hinted at....

 

[Tinsel]

That is what I wanted to know, if the narrator was just reading papers, so Cthulhu was calling the cult members together, as the stories title indicates. That might have caused some nervousness.

You did mention the ship battle where Johansen and the two sailors are attacked by cultists and than board the Alert because the Emma is damaged (but you mention R'lyeh which I missed). I did not find it very cool that these turkeys were able to raise Cthulhu when here it was trapped for so long under the ocean. Than you indicated that Cthulhu was just one of the pantheon and a lesser God? Yet in much of Lovecraft advertising, it is Cthulhu who is the big man, the higher God in the pantheon.

That was some good information there. I'll think it over, but I can't do much for about four days here, but that clears up a few questions.

Oh yeah, I was also going to say that this information should improve the story for me, and I could say more about that later. I was struggling with getting a feel for it. It is slightly more complicated than Buffy.

 

[Tinsel]

Hold on...if the old man was jostled than maybe the cultists were trying to steal something. The old man didn't have any concussion or broken bones. Or else they were all running away from something, but I think that the old man (the professor) had information.

I wouldn't be afraid of an old man myself, unless for a good reason, but who cares if this turkey knew something, he must of had some information that they took.

Than later on, when Johansen was hit by falling papers, it maybe didn't kill him. Than he was helped up and they continued the chase to the destination, so the whole thing was a big race. The storm allows the Emma to catch up to the Alert.

 

[j d worthington]

You did mention the ship battle where Johansen and the two sailors are attacked by cultists and than board the Alert because the Emma is damaged (but you mention R'lyeh which I missed). I did not find it very cool that these turkeys were able to raise Cthulhu when here it was trapped for so long under the ocean.

That was precisely Lovecraft's point: Humanity is simply not important. It was sheer accident that the sailors released Cthulhu from his watery imprisonment, and it was sheer accident that he was once more trapped by the second earthquake and resulting re-submergence of R'lyeh. The human element was incidental.

Than you indicated that Cthulhu was just one of the pantheon and a lesser God? Yet in much of Lovecraft advertising, it is Cthulhu who is the big man, the higher God in the pantheon.

That is marketing, and has little to do with what Lovecraft himself was getting at. Cthulhu is seized upon simply because he (she? it?) is easily identifiable, something marketing can seize on; whereas the heart of the matter (Lovecraft's actual concepts) are not so easily summed up and certainly would go far over the head of most people without a great deal of explaining... something completely anathema to the era of soundbytes and 15-second advertisements.

Hold on...if the old man was jostled than maybe the cultists were trying to steal something. The old man didn't have any concussion or broken bones. Or else they were all running away from something, but I think that the old man (the professor) had information.

I wouldn't be afraid of an old man myself, unless for a good reason, but who cares if this turkey knew something, he must of had some information that they took.

Than later on, when Johansen was hit by falling papers, it maybe didn't kill him. Than he was helped up and they continued the chase to the destination, so the whole thing was a big race. The storm allows the Emma to catch up to the Alert.

The implication is that Professor Angell was either poisoned or in some other way injured to cause his heart to stop. There is no reason to drag in the idea of any "information", whether papers or what-have-you, as there is absolutely no hint of it in the text... save for the idea of stopping his passing on what he had learned (not a material item such as secret papers and the like, but the very existence of the Cthulhu cult and its possible goals)... the same reason Johansen and Thurston were killed.

As for Johansen: no, the falling bunle of papers didn't kill him; the story states that outright. He was "helped to his feet" by the Lascar sailors, with the implication being that, as in the case of the "nautical looking Negro", they then either poisoned or otherwise injured him to actually bring about his death. It wasn't "a big race" because all the incidents at sea had already taken place before the incident at the Gothenburg docks where he was knocked down; and prior to those incidents at sea, Johansen had no knowledge of Cthulhu R'lyeh, or the cult itself, let alone the Alert and its mission. Again, it was sheer accident that the Emma was in a part of the sea where they would, being blown off course, encounter the Alert, thus derailing the cultists' plans and putting the surviving crewmembers of the Emma in the position to (accidentally, unintentionally, and unknowingly until the very moment he appears) release Cthulh from his tomb. It is a form of irony Lovecraft is utilizing here, rather than the typical "good guys/bad guys" adventure scenario.

Anyone want to tackle the relationship of the motto from Algernon Blackwood to the tale?

 

[Tinsel]

Although this thread sounds complete, if the narrator killed himself, than that follows along with "Dagon" or a number of other stories like "The Festival" or "The Rats in the Walls" where the narrator suffered a fall of one type or another or else they killed themselves due to fear or horror or madness. I liked the ending of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" in which there was a conversion. That seemed more satisfying and even complete because it supported the idea that there were rumors that cast a shadow over Innsmouth. The secret remains hidden.

Okay, one of the largest concepts to deal with is understanding these papers that the narrator was reading and who was the author of them, for example Francis Thurston or Professor Angell or Johansen. I wanted to get a feel for the story in terms of sequence and buildup of tension, the rising and the falling action, etc. That is a question for another thread. There were also a scene or two that I'm sure was very important, but it is really a mixed bag until those scenes are analyzed.

 

[j d worthington]

[...]if the narrator killed himself[....]

There is no indication whatsoever of Thurston's suicide in "The Call of Cthulhu". It is obvious, indeed, from his remarks that he is certain that the cult will do him in, in the same way they did his uncle (Professor Angell) and Johansen. And in neither "The Festival" nor "The Rats in the Walls" did the narrator kill themselves, either. In both they suffered mental trauma and a permanent separation from their fellows because of what they learned or experienced; but neither dies. "Dagon", of course, does have such a suicide, but that is relatively rare with Lovecraft ("The Hound" being one of the more notable exceptions).

Okay, one of the largest concepts to deal with is understanding these papers that the narrator was reading and who was the author of them, for example Francis Thurston or Professor Angell or Johansen.

The text makes that pretty clear by stating who wrote what. The summation of the whole -- the actual text of the story itself -- was the work of Thurston, putting down all the clues he had pieced together through these various sources. The first two chapters are made up of a combination of extracts from and summaries of Professor Angell's papers on the subject; the bulk of the third chapter is made up of such a relating of the contents of Johansen's manuscript (save for the brief newspaper article at the beginning of that chapter). And, of course, in the first chapter there is also Thurston's brief description of the account orally related to him by the artist Henry Anthony Wilcox.

I wanted to get a feel for the story in terms of sequence and buildup of tension, the rising and the falling action, etc. That is a question for another thread. There were also a scene or two that I'm sure was very important, but it is really a mixed bag until those scenes are analyzed.

Which scenes were these?

By the way, you may find some of the answers you are looking for in The H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz; a very handy little reference guide on Lovecraft and his work.

 

[J-WO]

Anyone want to tackle the relationship of the motto from Algernon Blackwood to the tale?

I just went to over to my bookshelf to have a look at it and then remembered I've lent my copy to an unknowing innocent just the other week. Our cult ever grows!

 

[j d worthington]

I just went to over to my bookshelf to have a look at it and then remembered I've lent my copy to an unknowing innocent just the other week. Our cult ever grows!

Here 'tis:

Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival... a survival of a hugely remote period when... consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity... forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds...

- Algernon Blackwood​

This is from his novel, The Centaur, ch. 10. I would suggest reading that entire chapter as well, just for context (it is a quite brief chapter), as it -- and the entire novel, really -- is very much on this theme, albeit with a less maleficent view than Lovecraft's tale....

You can find the text of it at this link; just scroll down to the bottom of the page for chapter X:

http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/blackwood/novels/centaur.htm

 

[Tinsel]

I think I remember that motto from a story in Robert Howard's book on horror stories. It might be the first short story in the book about a werewolf.

Well the thing that I really want to know about is how the story feels. I feel nothing, but I'd need to read it again, sort things out and find out how it feels, but it is some work to do that, but it was a fairly good story. I'm not sure if I like it or not.

I sensed that the scene where the cultists were worshiping the Pantheon in the woods was a quality scene. I think I liked it. I liked the detective being able to uncover the scene and that there were clues left, if there was.

 

[Tinsel]

So a few of these mythological creatures are still around, that is what that motto is saying. In the Howard story, the antagonist is a somewhat sly person, and the narrator trusts him enough to follow him to his doom? They are not necessarily evil than, it is saying that too, if they are not transformed into creatures by human acts of evil. Humans themselves were punished and banished by their God. These creatures are unconnected to humanity. They will become extinct.

Let's talk Natalie Portman.

Wait...the Gods are weak! The Gods are slipping. Perhaps this highlights Cthulhu's alienness.

 

[j d worthington]

I think I remember that motto from a story in Robert Howard's book on horror stories. It might be the first short story in the book about a werewolf.

Which book are you referring to? There are several collections of Howard's horror tales to choose from.... At any rate, I don't recall REH using any quotes from Blackwood as a motto....

Well the thing that I really want to know about is how the story feels. I feel nothing, but I'd need to read it again, sort things out and find out how it feels, but it is some work to do that, but it was a fairly good story. I'm not sure if I like it or not.

I sensed that the scene where the cultists were worshiping the Pantheon in the woods was a quality scene. I think I liked it. I liked the detective being able to uncover the scene and that there were clues left, if there was.

I'm sorry, Tinsel, but the above two paragraphs simply leave me bewildered. Could you please clarify?

So a few of these mythological creatures are still around, that is what that motto is saying.

To some extent, I would agree; though I think there is also the intent to hint that these "shapes and forms" are as much a product of our puny human attempts to put limits on the illimitable as based in actuality. This would tie in with the further comment about "poetry and legend alone" having "caught a fleeting glimpse" of them and labeling them under these familiar terms, or perhaps basing our ideas of these terms on our very dim realization of the reality these "manifestations" of consciousness represent. This would also, I think tie in with something in "The Horror at Red Hook", where all the different manifestations of what we term "evil" are presented to Malone in that underground adventure:

Avenues of limitless night seemed to radiate in every direction, till one might fancy that here lay the root of a contagion destined to sicken and swallow cities, and engulf nations in the foetor of hybrid pestilence. Here cosmic sin had entered, and festered by unhallowed rites had commenced the grinning march of death that was to rot us all to fungous abnormalities too hideous for the grave's holding. Satan here held his Babylonish court, and in the blood of stainless childhood the leprous limbs of phosphorescent Lilith were laved. Incubi and succubae howled praise to Hecate, and headless moon-calves bleated to the Magna Mater. Goats leaped to the sound of thin accursed flutes, and Ægypans chased endlessly after misshapen fauns over rocks twisted like swollen toads. Moloch and Ashtaroth were not absent; for in this quintessence of all damnation the bounds of consciousness were let down, and man's fancy lay open to vistas of every realm of horror and every forbidden dimension that evil had power to mould. The world and Nature were helpless against such assaults from unsealed wells of night, nor could any sign or prayer check the Walpurgis-riot of horror which had come when a sage with the hateful key had stumbled on a horde with the locked and brimming coffer of transmitted daemon-lore. (emphasis added)

It is more crudely handled in this earlier tale, but the idea nonetheless seems present.

In the Howard story, the antagonist is a somewhat sly person, and the narrator trusts him enough to follow him to his doom?

I'm not sure I see the relation of the Howard story (whichever it was) to how the Blackwood motto and the Lovecraft tale are interconnected, I'm afraid. Could you fill in the blanks there?

They are not necessarily evil than, it is saying that too, if they are not transformed into creatures by human acts of evil. Humans themselves were punished and banished by their God.

First, I agree that they are not necessarily evil; that is an interpretation we make of them, as they are so alien to us and our concerns and well-being. But as for the second point... I would remind you that Lovecraft was an atheist outright and that Blackwood, while a mystic, had no actual use for Christianity or the Christian deity, or even, necessarily, the idea of a "fallen" humanity. This being the case, I don't see how this comes into play at all. Again, could you explain this more clearly?

These creatures are unconnected to humanity.

Agreed... at least to the point that they only (in Lovecraft) take heed of humanity when human beings accidentally get in their way, or when they may prove useful (in much the same way as a particular tool is useful for a particular bit of work, to be discarded as easily and without thought).

They will become extinct.

Which? The beings spoken of, or humanity? If the first, I'd say this is precisely the opposite of what Lovecraft (and Blackwood) are saying: that they may have "withdrawn before the advancing tide of humanity", but wth the implication that they are simply waiting until humanity is no more... with the further implication that genuine action against humanity is simply not worth the bother, as we are but "as mayflies, creatures of a day".

Wait...the Gods are weak! The Gods are slipping. Perhaps this highlights Cthulhu's alienness.

First... how do you get it that the gods (and I question the use of that term, frankly, save that this is how we interpret something so vastly beyond our comprehension) are weak, or slipping? As I argue above, I would say the exact opposite is more likely to be the case. In either event, how does this, specifically, highlight Cthulhu's alienness, in your opinion? I am curious about that point....

 

[Tinsel]

I don't have the resources to do anything with this story, but my next step would be to read it again and than study it. I'd prepare it for a dramatic audio recording. That is the highest form of medium that I believe exists for this type of writing.

We can talk trash here which is okay, but I am not doing that currently. What I think is that I can sit back in the evening and chose to read one of these stories and than raise a question or two and move on. The stories are fairly deep, many of them.

Yeah, I believed that that passage, the motto, fits well with is that first story in that book of Howard R, called "In the Forest of Villefere". The reason why it fits well is because it is dealing with a supernatural creature who's origin is unknown.

 

[j d worthington]

I don't have the resources to do anything with this story, but my next step would be to read it again and than study it. I'd prepare it for a dramatic audio recording. That is the highest form of medium that I believe exists for this type of writing.

We can talk trash here which is okay, but I am not doing that currently. What I think is that I can sit back in the evening and chose to read one of these stories and than raise a question or two and move on. The stories are fairly deep, many of them.

Yeah, I believed that that passage, the motto, fits well with is that first story in that book of Howard R, called "In the Forest of Villefere". The reason why it fits well is because it is dealing with a supernatural creature who's origin is unknown.

A couple of things I am confused about with your post, Tinsel:

When you say "a supernatural creature who[se] origin is unknown"... are you referring to Carolus le Loup in the story, or werewolves in general? (If the latter I would recommend looking up a copy of Sabine Baring-Gould's Book of the Werewolf; a fascinating study of this superstition and its origins).

The other is this: "We can talk trash here which is okay, but I am not doing that currently." Wouldn't this be a complete misuse of the term "talking trash"? At least, my understanding of the term is:

a) To talk nonsense
b) To be verbally abusive
or c) To criticize (not in the sense of critical analysis, which is what is going on here, but as a subset of sense b) above -- to disrespect, cast aspersions on, deliberately insult)

So... how are you intending the use of the term "talk trash" in your post above?

At any rate... I suppose, if you use the idea that we don't know the origin of the werewolf (either in particular or in general), then the motto might be made to fit... but I still fail to see how that relates to its use in connection with Lovecraft's tale, which is of a completely different sort; nor was it used in any text of that story (or any other of Howard's tales) I am aware of. However, if you are aware of where it was so used, I would like to know about it, as I am something of a fan of REH myself, and would like to have a copy....

 

[Tinsel]

It isn't trash talk, that is true.