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The Call of Cthulhu

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This article is about the short story. For other uses, seeCall of Cthulhu (disambiguation).

"The Call of Cthulhu"
Short storybyH. P. Lovecraft
Title page of "The Call of Cthulhu" as it appeared inWeird Tales,February 1928. Illustration byHugh Doak Rankin.[1]
Text availableatWikisource
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Horror
Publication
Published inWeird Tales
Media typePrint
Publication dateFebruary 1928

"The Call of Cthulhu"is ashort storyby American writerH. P. Lovecraft.Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in thepulp magazineWeird Talesin February 1928.[2]

Inspiration[edit]

The first seed of the story's first chapterThe Horror in Claycame from one of Lovecraft's own dreams he had in 1919,[3]which he described briefly in two different letters sent to his friend Rheinhart Kleiner on May 21 and December 14, 1920. In the dream, Lovecraft is visiting an antiquity museum in Providence, attempting to convince the aged curator there to buy an oddbas-reliefLovecraft himself had sculpted. The curator initially scoffs at him for trying to sell something recently made to a museum of antique objects. Lovecraft then remembers himself answering the curator:

Why do you say that this thing is new? The dreams of men are older than brooding Egypt or the contemplative Sphinx, or garden-girdled Babylon, and this was fashioned in my dreams.

This can be compared to what the character of Henry Anthony Wilcox tells the main character's uncle while showing him his sculpted bas-relief for help in reading hieroglyphs on it which came through Wilcox's own fantastical dreams:

It is new, indeed, for I made it last night in a dream of strange cities; and dreams are older than broodingTyreor the contemplative Sphinx, or garden-girdled Babylon.

Lovecraft then used this for a brief synopsis of a new story outlined in his ownCommonplace Bookat first in August 1925, which developed organically out of the idea of what the bas-relief in the dream actually might have depicted. In a footnote for his writing down of his own dream, Lovecraft then finished with the suggestion "Add good development & describe nature of bas-relief" to himself for future reference.[4]

Cthulhu MythosscholarRobert M. Priceclaims the irregularsonnet"The Kraken",[5]published in 1830 byAlfred Tennyson,was a major inspiration, since both reference a huge aquatic creature sleeping for an eternity at the bottom of the ocean and destined to emerge from its slumber in an apocalyptic age.[6]

S. T. Joshiand David E. Schultz cited other literary inspirations:Guy de Maupassant's "The Horla"(1887), which Lovecraft described inSupernatural Horror in Literatureas concerning "an invisible being who...sways the minds of others, and seems to be the vanguard of a horde of extraterrestrial organisms arrived on Earth to subjugate and overwhelm mankind"; andArthur Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal"(1895), which uses the same method of piecing together of disassociated knowledge (including a random newspaper clipping) to reveal the survival of a horrific ancient being.[7]

It is also assumed he got inspiration fromWilliam Scott-Elliot'sThe Story of Atlantis(1896) andThe Lost Lemuria(1904), which Lovecraft read in 1926 shortly before he started to work on the story.[8]

Price also notes that Lovecraft admired the work ofLord Dunsany,who wroteThe Gods of Pegana(1905), which depicts a god constantly lulled to sleep to avoid the consequences of its reawakening. Another Dunsany work cited by Price isA Shop in Go-by Street(1919), which stated "the heaven of the gods who sleep", and "unhappy are they that hear some old god speak while he sleeps being still deep in slumber".[9][10]

The "slight earthquake" mentioned in the story is likely the1925 Charlevoix–Kamouraska earthquake.[11]

S.T. Joshi has also citedA. Merritt's novellaThe Moon Pool(1918) which Lovecraft 'frequently rhapsodied about'. Joshi says that 'Merritt's mention of a "moon-door" that, when tilted, leads the characters into a lower region of wonder and horror seems similar to the huge door whose inadvertent opening by the sailors causes Cthulhu to emerge from R'lyeh'.[12]

Edward Guimont has argued thatH. G. Wells'The War of the Worldswas an influence on "The Call of Cthulhu", citing the thematic similarities of ancient, powerful, but indifferent aliens associated with deities; physical similarities between Cthulhu and theMartians;and the plot detail of a ship ramming an alien in a temporarily successful but ultimately futile gesture.[13]

Plot[edit]

The narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston, recounts his discovery of notes left behind by his grand-uncle,Brown Universitylinguistic professor George Gammell Angell, after his death in the winter of 1926–27. Among the notes is a smallbas-reliefsculpture of a scaly creature which yields "simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature." The sculptor, aRhode Islandart student named Henry Anthony Wilcox, based the work on delirious dreams of "greatCyclopeancities of titan blocks and sky-flung monoliths. "Frequent references toCthulhuandR'lyehare found in Wilcox's papers. Angell also discovers reports ofmass hysteriaaround the world.

More notes discuss a 1908 meeting of an archeological society in whichNew Orleanspolice official John Raymond Legrasse asks attendees to identify a statuette of unidentifiable greenish-black stone resembling Wilcox's sculpture. It is then revealed that the previous year, Legrasse and a party of policemen found several women and children being used in a ritual by an all-malecult.After killing five of the cultists and arresting 47 others, Legrasse learns that they worship the "Great Old Ones" and await the return of a monstrous being called Cthulhu.[14]The prisoners identify the statuette as "great Cthulhu." One of the academics present at the meeting,Princetonprofessor William Channing Webb, describes a group of "Esquimaux"with similar beliefs and fetishes.

Thurston discovers a 1925 article from an Australian newspaper which reports the discovery of a derelict ship, theAlert,of which second mate Gustaf Johansen is the sole survivor. Johansen reports that theEmmawas attacked by a heavily armed yacht named theAlert.The crewmen of theEmmakilled those aboard theAlert,but lost their own ship in the battle, commandeered theAlert,and discovered an uncharted island in the vicinity of co-ordinates of47°9′S126°43′W/ 47.150°S 126.717°W/-47.150; -126.717(R'lyeh fictional location (Lovecraft)).With the exception of Johansen and another man, the remaining crew died on the island. Johansen does not reveal the manner of their death.

Upon traveling to Australia, Thurston views a statue retrieved from theAlertwhich is identical to the previous two. In Norway, he learns that Johansen died suddenly after an encounter with "twoLascarsailors ". Johansen's widow provides Thurston with her late husband's manuscript, wherein the uncharted island is described as being home to a" nightmare corpse-city "called R'lyeh. Johansen's crew struggled to comprehend thenon-Euclidean geometryof the city and accidentally released Cthulhu, resulting in their deaths. Johansen and one crewmate fled aboard theAlertand were pursued by Cthulhu. Johansen rammed the yacht into the creature's head, only for its injury to regenerate. TheAlertescaped, but Johansen's crewmate died. After finishing the manuscript, Thurston realizes he is now a target of Cthulhu's worshippers.

Literary significance and criticism[edit]

Lovecraft regarded the short story as "rather middling—not as bad as the worst, but full of cheap and cumbrous touches".Weird TaleseditorFarnsworth Wrightfirst rejected the story, and only accepted it after writerDonald Wandrei,a friend of Lovecraft's, falsely claimed that Lovecraft was thinking of submitting it elsewhere.[15]

The published story was regarded byRobert E. Howard(creator ofConan the Barbarian) as "a masterpiece, which I am sure will live as one of the highest achievements of literature.... Mr. Lovecraft holds a unique position in the literary world; he has grasped, to all intents, the worlds outside our paltry ken".[16]Lovecraft scholar Peter Cannon regarded the story as "ambitious and complex...a dense and subtle narrative in which the horror gradually builds to cosmic proportions", adding "one of [Lovecraft's] bleakest fictional expressions of man's insignificant place in the universe".[17]

French novelistMichel Houellebecq,in his bookH. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life,described the story as the first of Lovecraft's "great texts".[18]

Canadian mathematician Benjamin K. Tippett noted that the phenomena described in Johansen's journal may be interpreted as "observable consequences of a localized bubble ofspacetime curvature",and proposed a suitable mathematical model.[19]

E. F. Bleilerhas referred to "The Call of Cthulhu" as "a fragmented essay with narrative inclusions".[20]

The story, published more than a decade beforeWorld War II,is interesting for its use of the word "holocaust"as a metaphor for a global massacre.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^"Publication: Weird Tales, February 1928".isfdb.org.ISFDB.RetrievedJanuary 15,2020.
  2. ^Straub, Peter (2005).Lovecraft: Tales.The Library of America. p. 823.ISBN1-931082-72-3.
  3. ^Bruce Sterling (July 4, 2011)."H. P. Lovecraft's Commonplace Book".wired.com.RetrievedApril 23,2020.
  4. ^H. P. Lovecraft (July 1994).S. T. Joshi;Will Murray;David E. Schultz (eds.).The H. P. Lovecraft Dream Book.Necronomicon Press.pp. 14–16.ISBN0940884658.
  5. ^The Kraken,The Victorian Web
  6. ^Robert M. Price, "The Other Name of Azathoth", introduction toThe Cthulhu Cycle.Price credits Philip A. Shreffler with connecting the poem and the story.
  7. ^S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Call of Cthulhu, The",An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia,pp. 28–29.
  8. ^H.P. LovecraftArchivedJanuary 12, 2013, at theWayback Machine,Fortean Timesmagazine
  9. ^"Lord Dunsany (1878–1957)".Works; Short bibliography.Dunsany. December 2003. Archived fromthe originalon November 30, 2018.RetrievedJanuary 26,2012.
  10. ^Price, "The Other Name of Azathoth". This passage is also believed to have inspired Lovecraft's entityAzathoth,hence the title of Price's essay.
  11. ^Lackey, Chris; Fifer, Chad;Leman, Andrew(May 12, 2010)."Episode 42 – The Call of Cthulhu – Part 1".The H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast.hppodcraft.com. Archived fromthe originalon August 3, 2021.RetrievedAugust 17,2012.
  12. ^Joshi, S.T. (2010) I am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft. New York: Hippocampus Press. 2 Vols. Vol II pg. 639
  13. ^Guimont, Edward (August 2019), "At the Mountains of Mars: Viewing the Red Planet through a Lovecraftian Lens",Lovecraftian Proceedings No. 3: Papers from Necronomicon Providence 2017,New York:Hippocampus Press,pp. 61–63
  14. ^Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu", p. 139.
  15. ^S.T. Joshi,More Annotated Lovecraft,p. 173.
  16. ^Quoted in Peter Cannon, "Introduction",More Annotated Lovecraft,p. 7.
  17. ^Cannon, pp. 6–7.
  18. ^Michel Houellebecq,H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life.
  19. ^Tippett, Benjamin K. (2012). "Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific".arXiv:1210.8144[physics.pop-ph].
  20. ^E.F. Bleiler,Supernatural Fiction WritersVol, NY: Scribners, 1985, p. 478

References[edit]

  • Lovecraft, Howard P. (1984) [1928]. "The Call of Cthulhu". In S. T. Joshi (ed.).The Dunwich Horror and Others(9th corrected printing ed.). Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House.ISBN0-87054-037-8.Definitive version.
  • Lovecraft, Howard P. (1999) [1928]. "The Call of Cthulhu". In S. T. Joshi (ed.).More Annotated Lovecraft(1st ed.). New York: Dell.ISBN0-440-50875-4.With explanatory footnotes.
  • Price, Robert M. (1996) [1928]. "The Call of Cthulhu". In Robert M. Price (ed.).The Cthulhu Cycle: Thirteen Tentacles of Terror(1st ed.). Oakland, Calif.: Chaosium, Inc.ISBN1-56882-038-0.A collection of works that inspired and were inspired byThe Call of Cthulhu,with commentary.

External links[edit]

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