Leave Cthulhu Alone.

[Doclector]

The frog people of innsmouth are pretty interesting, although seemingly linked in with cthulhu. Their influence on popular culture is alot vaster, if you think about it. Resident evil 4's village? Innsmouth. Alan wake's Bright falls? Innsmouth. It's practically a trope of it's own, the town with a dark secret, a secret that demands blood and sacrifice. Personally, I'm a fan of the rats in the walls. A terrifying beast is one thing...

Spoiler

finding out you are the monster is altogether another.

I think what attracts people to Cthulhu is that it's plausible. We know less about the depths of our oceans than we do about the surface of the moon. Who's to say something isn't down there, something ancient, massive, and evil? Matter of fact...look up "the bloop" if you feel like questioning reality.

 

[Thistlehart]

This reminds me of a humorous anecdote from a few months ago.

I had purchased the Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft (because I would finally be able to read The Dunwich Horror). It is a gorgeous book, leatherbound with gold-trimmed pages and some trippy inkwork on the covers.

Well, I took it with me to read while at the laundromat since it generally takes about an hour. My roomate was with me, also with a big fancy book to read. Out of nowhere, this grubby old fellow came up to us and spoke a few words. Since I had my MP3 player going, I only caught a brief snippet of what he said and it didn't really catch until a minute or so later. It seemed mostly positive, though. I nodded and smiled at him and he smiled back and waved as he left.

After the aforesaid minute, I pulled out my earbuds and asked my roommate, "Did he just say, 'it's good to see two young men reading the Bible?'" To which my roommate responded, "Eeyup."

"Why would he think we're reading the Bible?"

"Well, for some people, it's the only big black book they've ever seen being read in public, and we're reading big, black books."

I couldn't quite process this, so I just chuckled and went back to reading about the demise of Wilbur Whately.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

I recently bought a big ass hardback copy of H.P's (mostly) complete works, and it's awesome.
I was first introduced to his writing through The Nameless City, and while I had heard of Cthulhu before, I only discovered they were connected after looking into the rest of his stories.
While I agree with you that more people should study the history of characters before making fun of them, Cthulhu has been written and re-written by dozens of authors as both a serious threat and as a gag character for decades. He's slowly become a literary in-joke.

 

[Vkmies]

I have read Lovercrafts Cthulhu-material, I love the bugger and I will continue mentioning him when I want. Because I like to.

My two cents.


Cthulhu is awesome.

 

[PaganAxe]

How about Yog-Sothoth? Or Shub-Niggurath?

This. I actually think the outer gods are infinitely more terrifying than Cthulu, especially since their artist interpretations of them are mostly amorphous blobs.

 

[Pearwood]

I couldn't quite process this, so I just chuckled and went back to reading about the demise of Wilbur Whately.

I'm sturggling with that one as well, I think mostly because my bible is red. It's not even like they're all printed with black covers... makes no sense.

 

[Matt King]

my first thought when i saw this was that video on youtube where that women is like LEAVE BRITNEY (was it britney i dunno) ALONE, LEAVE HER ALONE

 

[Austin Mcgough]

This reminds me of a humorous anecdote from a few months ago.

I had purchased the Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft (because I would finally be able to read The Dunwich Horror). It is a gorgeous book, leatherbound with gold-trimmed pages and some trippy inkwork on the covers.

Well, I took it with me to read while at the laundromat since it generally takes about an hour. My roomate was with me, also with a big fancy book to read. Out of nowhere, this grubby old fellow came up to us and spoke a few words. Since I had my MP3 player going, I only caught a brief snippet of what he said and it didn't really catch until a minute or so later. It seemed mostly positive, though. I nodded and smiled at him and he smiled back and waved as he left.

After the aforesaid minute, I pulled out my earbuds and asked my roommate, "Did he just say, 'it's good to see two young men reading the Bible?'" To which my roommate responded, "Eeyup."

"Why would he think we're reading the Bible?"

"Well, for some people, it's the only big black book they've ever seen being read in public, and we're reading big, black books."

I couldn't quite process this, so I just chuckled and went back to reading about the demise of Wilbur Whately.

Ten bucks says that guys name was Neil'O Tip, face it that WAS his Bible broski.

 

[KefkaCultist]

This reminds me of a humorous anecdote from a few months ago.

I had purchased the Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft (because I would finally be able to read The Dunwich Horror). It is a gorgeous book, leatherbound with gold-trimmed pages and some trippy inkwork on the covers.

Well, I took it with me to read while at the laundromat since it generally takes about an hour. My roomate was with me, also with a big fancy book to read. Out of nowhere, this grubby old fellow came up to us and spoke a few words. Since I had my MP3 player going, I only caught a brief snippet of what he said and it didn't really catch until a minute or so later. It seemed mostly positive, though. I nodded and smiled at him and he smiled back and waved as he left.

After the aforesaid minute, I pulled out my earbuds and asked my roommate, "Did he just say, 'it's good to see two young men reading the Bible?'" To which my roommate responded, "Eeyup."

"Why would he think we're reading the Bible?"

"Well, for some people, it's the only big black book they've ever seen being read in public, and we're reading big, black books."

I couldn't quite process this, so I just chuckled and went back to reading about the demise of Wilbur Whately.

xD Now that's a story to tell your children before reading them "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a bedtime story. (That's how you make kids mentally scarred manly!)

OT: Gotta agree with the other guy that said this: the meme actually gets people into Lovecraftian literature, like it did for me. No Cthulhu meme and I wouldn't have found one of my favorite books.

 

[Quaxar]

Ye blind idiot, ye noxious Azathoth shal arise from ye middle of ye World where all is Chaos & Destruction where He hath bubbl'd and blasphem'd at Ye centre which is of All Things, which is to say Infinity....

What I'm currently reading:

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/103250000/103251003.jpg

Now I'm not too far in, but I do believe there are better stories than the Call of Cthulhu, like The Cats of Ulthar. One of my favorites so far.

Hey, I've got that on my shelf as well! Haven't read it yet though since I own most of Lovecraft's work as various single books anyway but it's nice to have it collected in one too.

But I have to disagree with the Cats of Ulthar, I really did not like that story much at all. To me it was a tad bit confusing and not really scary. Now Shadow over Innsmouth, that was a truly frightening piece of literature, I actually didn't sleep well due to mild paranoia for weeks after that.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

I've actually been feeling this way lately too OP, while I used to take glee in small references to Cthulhu, his popularity and how everyone seems to recognize the name even if they've never touched the books has made it loose it's charm. Now rather than being a cute in-joke that only passionate lovers of horror fiction would get it's become just another MEME.

My thoughts are as follows: Before you make Cthulhu references you should read the books (at least the main Cthulhu stories). I don't particularly care about the concept of referencing other bits of the fiction, but I do want people to know what they're talking about.

Plus everyone should have a concept of what the Lovecraftian style feels like, or maybe I'm just saying that because that's how I like to write.

 

[Thistlehart]

xD Now that's a story to tell your children before reading them "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a bedtime story. (That's how you make kids mentally scarred manly!)

OT: Gotta agree with the other guy that said this: the meme actually gets people into Lovecraftian literature, like it did for me. No Cthulhu meme and I wouldn't have found one of my favorite books.

Heh heh, I can't listen to Dethklok's Go Into The Water without thinking of Shadow Over Innsmouth. I almost think it was written as a tribute to the story.

 

[Dascylus]

I think we should be careful with overusing his name because eventually he'll wake up and want his morning coffee and I am not finished grinding the beans upon the bones of the innocent.

If you wake him early he's your problem.

 

[KefkaCultist]

xD Now that's a story to tell your children before reading them "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a bedtime story. (That's how you make kids mentally scarred manly!)

OT: Gotta agree with the other guy that said this: the meme actually gets people into Lovecraftian literature, like it did for me. No Cthulhu meme and I wouldn't have found one of my favorite books.

Heh heh, I can't listen to Dethklok's Go Into The Water without thinking of Shadow Over Innsmouth. I almost think it was written as a tribute to the story.

Haha, never made that connection, but yeah, I could totally see that being a reference. I know the Metallica song The Thing That Should Not Be is a clear reference to the story.

 

[Drenaje1]

Isn't this supposed to be a good thing? Some people will actually wonder what the hell he is, and so they'll hunt down some of Lovecraft's writings. It's what happened to me, at least. On the other hand, me and my friend have taken Cthulhu and imagined what it would be like if a family sitcom were made of him as a father of three trying to settle down and manage a day job.
Also, the better half of my maths notebook is just filled with pictures of Cthulhu wearing a top hat and monocle.

 

[DoPo]

(especially considering that Cthulhu isn't even the most frequently mentioned Great Old One, not by far).

Cthulhu isn't the most frequently mentioned but it's called the Cthulhu Mythos. Even if he it isn't referenced a lot in the works of Lovecraft, most of them can be summed up with his name up there. It's not the Azathoth Mythos or anything else.

And besides, Cthulhu has been famous for quite a while before going to the Internet, so being annoyed with it now is rather pointless.

P.S. Cthulhu Saves the World was sort of all right but the premise was flawed from the beginning - it isn't evil. I still enjoyed playing it, though.

And one more thing.

Spoiler: Hastur

Hastur

Spoiler: Hastur

Hastur

Spoiler: Hastur

Hastur

Spoiler: WHAT HYAVE YOU DONE?!

 

[Bassik]

I don't mind, it's just one of his stories that gets so much publicity. And not even his best one.
Colour out of Space... man, that was a story that made me lie awake at night. Creepy...

 

[Fappy]

Most people don't know that Lovecraft's lore is deep-seeded in nearly ever science fiction and fantasy world ever created. Some instances are more obvious than others.

 

[Xenowolf]

Hey, look on the bright side: Cthulhu's new memedom has surely gotten SOME people to read Lovecraft. I'll give you a good example: yours truly.

So yeah, some people will just throw his name around, while others will actually read about him. And as an admitted fanboy, shouldn't that make you happy?

You know, I actually looked about Lovecraft as a result recently(ish) and have been toying with the idea of reaing some of his books for quite a while now.

 

[TophatEmperor]

as a saying goes

"there is no bad publicity just publicity"

if there is any memes going along about the bloke...then its more of a positive thing than a negative

because more people want to know about him and read the books (i am slightly interested but right now i am already reading a book)