The Call of the Cthulhu is truly effective as a piece of gothic horror as it makes ‘us feel the size of the universe we hang suspended in, and suggests shadowy forces that could destroy us all if they so much as grunted in their sleep.’[1] There is nowhere to hide from the creatures Lovecraft dreams up. Lovecraft gets this through in his writing by making constant references to the enormity of the universe. It has been said that
Novels and stories of horror which deal with ‘outside evil’ are often harder to take seriously; they are apt to be no more than boys adventure yarns in disguise, and in the end the nasty invaders from outer space are repelled.[2]
However this is far from the case in Lovecraft’s works, especially here. Cthulhu is far too large to be truly banished, and while he may be resting on the sea bed right now, he will never go away, and that thought is unsettling and likely to trouble the reader long after they have finished reading. This sentiment is echoed by the narrator in the chilling climax, ‘Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men’ (p. 169). We are aware that what Lovecraft writes is fiction, but there is no evidence that disproves the existence of cosmic creatures beyond our wildest imagination, as unlikely as it seems. Although in the near century since Lovecraft was writing science has discovered and explained many things, we are still a long way away from knowing every species that lives in our oceans, let alone any that may dwell in the cosmos.
The focus of the narrative is the gradual discovery of evidence of ‘Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky.’ (p. 153) Evans claims ‘much horror literature is predicated upon feelings of insecurity brought about by cultural change’ and by the idea that our ‘cultural forms are… under assault by forces beyond our control’[3], and this is especially true here. (100)
This story in particular relates to Cthulhu, who early on is described from a statuette as being ‘a pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it so shockingly frightful.’(p. 141). Lovecraft builds suspense throughout by only giving us glimpses of what Cthulhu looks like. When a young man has dreams containing visions of Cthulhu, he is unable to make complete sense of them, but described it as ‘a gigantic thing “miles high” which walked or lumbered about.’ (p. 144) It is difficult for the human mind to comprehend something that high moving around, and that is part of the horror of Lovecraft’s tales. We don’t know quite what they are, or where they come from, but we do know that there is no way of escaping them if they were real, which is terrifying. In Call of The Cthulhu, one particular line sums up Lovecraft’s talent for inspiring horror in his audience when referring to the creature in the title; ‘It was nightmare itself, and to see it was to die. But it made men dream so they knew enough to keep away’ (p. 151). The word nightmare is evocative as nightmares are something that we have all experienced, and the theme of sleep is continued when claiming it makes men keep away by sending messages in their dreams. The fact that Cthulhu itself warns men to stay away almost shows that it has a perverse pity for humans. Martin Smith claims that a psychology patient of his, ‘prompted by the desire to find out, he over-reaches dies as a consequence of his discovery while other innocent people suffer and are killed throughout the course of his demise.’[4] This is extremely relevant here. All of these events are driven by our narrators’ desire for knowledge regardless of the effect that it has on anyone else, causing the reader to fear for other characters.
Lovecraft was also ‘struck by ‘the horror of wrong geometry’’[5] something that is used throughout Call of the Cthulhu. There is a slow build throughout the story as much like with Cthulhu itself; we are given hints at what is to come through the dreams of various characters. One in particular ‘talked of his dreams in strangely poetic fashion; making me see with terrible vividness the damp Cyclopean city of slimy green stone – whose geometry, he oddly said, was all wrong’ (p. 158). Lovecraft, who ‘would open the door…but only a crack’[6] hasn’t described the city in any great detail, because the character in his tale can’t. This recalls the technique used by Poe in The Black Cat[7], holding back information so the reader is forced to imagine the most terrifying scenario possible, but Lovecraft has taken it one step further. By not describing the city because it is impossible to do so, it becomes even scarier for the reader, as it makes it also impossible for them to visualise it, and as Lovecraft himself said ‘the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown’[8] (p. 2). Despite building up a fear of geometry throughout the tale, its pay off at the end is anticlimactic. Upon fleeing from Cthulhu, one sailor ‘was swallowed up by an angle of masonry which shouldn’t have been there; an angle which was acute, but behaved as if it were obtuse’ (p. 167). This particular incident is not mentioned again but for that one sentence. The narrative continues at high speed as Cthulhu chases those that have disturbed his slumber and the reader is left with no time to dwell upon such a horrific accident. Placed earlier in the story and under different circumstances, the implication of such an event would place a much stronger fear in the reader.
The writings of Lovecraft can be summed up in one sentence; ‘H.P. Lovecraft made his horrors convincing simply by pretending they were too horrible to describe.’[9] However doing this would be a great disservice to the man. He has a way with words that allows him to burn strong images into the reader’s brain, despite telling them little. Both Dagon and The Call of The Cthulhu are part of a folklore created by Lovecraft that remains popular to this day. Critics have dismissed him, claiming ‘a good horror writer is a good character writer. This flies in the face of Lovecraft, who never created a single engaging character.’[10] It has already become apparent that Poe’s characters are not amongst the greatest in literature, and this is certainly true of Lovecraft too. Strong characterisation has helped writers create fear in contemporary literature, but that is no reason to dismiss Lovecraft or Poe.
Due to the timeless fear of things we don’t understand, a lot of Lovecraft’s work is ‘prescient – he created a text to which a sub-text would be added years later by events in the real world.’[11] Modern terrorism and historical events since Lovecraft finished writing such as the space race can be applied retrospectively to his work and work as a sub-text. Terrorism is a culture that we don’t really comprehend, much like the cults who worship Cthulhu, and the space race was cosmic exploration, something that Lovecraft was very afraid of, as evidenced by the fact that his ‘Great Ones’ came from the stars. Lovecraft’s writings embody universal fears that are unlikely to ever go away. As man explores more of the universe, his stories instil a more terrifying feeling. Advanced telescopes mean we can see far out into space now. How long will it be before we stumble upon something from Lovecraft’s literary nightmares?
[1] Stephen King, Danse Macabre (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), p. 80
[2] Ibid.
[3] Timothy H. Evans, ‘A Last Defense against the Dark: Folklore, Horror, and the Uses of Tradition in the Works of H. P. Lovecraft’. Journal of Folklore Research, 42, 1 (2005), p. 100
[4] Martin Smith, ‘Making a monster? Nineteenth-century British horror novels and their relevance to the counselling process’. Psychodynamic Counselling, 6, 3 (2000), p. 322
[5] Jack Morgan, The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film (USA: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002), p. 194
[6] Stephen King, Danse Macabre (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), p. 135
[7] Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Penguin Books, 1982), p. 223-230
[8] H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature. [Ebook] Amazon Media, Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supernatural-Horror-in-Literature-ebook/dp/B005IZD612/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334933516&sr=1-3 [20/04/2012], p. 2
[9] John Edward Ames, ‘The art of terror: Tap into readers’ fears with 5 techniques for an emotionally rich story’. Writer, 123, 5 (2010), p.23
[10] G.W. Thomas ‘Scare the heck out of your readers—and other horror-writing tips.’ Writer, 121, 4 (2008), p. 15
[11] Don Herron , ‘Stephen King: The Good, The Bad, And The Academic’, in Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Stephen King Updated Edition, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House, 2007), p. 34
The Babysitter Murders 