this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
317 points (96.5% liked)
Microblog Memes
5699 readers
2529 users here now
A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.
Rules:
- Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
- Be nice.
- No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
- Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.
Related communities:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You have a good point! But I think it misses, slightly.
Part of the terror of Cthulhu is that this entity is unfathomably OLD, unfathomably POWERFUL, and has unfathomable MOTIVATIONS. It isn't just a terrible creature: it's very existence occupies a plane that we can't possibly understand: it is inscrutable in every way.
And Lovecraft's contribution to horror was that this quality, specifically, possesses a unique element of terror all its own.
Yeah, they’re more creatures that were supposed to be beyond good and evil, with thought processes so alien and eldritch that the human mind just couldn’t even have an inkling of what their true purpose was. And that’s part of the allure of Lovecraft’s brand of horror, the utter insignificance of humanity in the face of these things, it really started jiving with our understanding (or lack thereof) of astronomy and the universe.
The other part IMO is the sort of shared universe we’ve gotten from the Cthulhu Mythos, it was the MCU of horror of its time, with various writers contributing to it over the years. We now have this whole sub-genre of horror fiction that’s been built up.
Yes! Well put.
It's almost as if a lot of the people who are really into Lovecraft or are out to use Lovecraftian influences kind of miss the greater concept and just end up falling on, "Yeah. Squid monster. Also he drives you insane. Got some neat language to use on that latter bit."
Not only does the guy have motivation, he got motivationS. Scary and unfathomable indeed.