Calls For Cthulhu

One night in the early '70's, I heard Dick Cavett (he used to have a late night TV show on ABC, children) singing the praises of H. P. Lovecraft, and especially his evocative way with words. Specifically, he mentioned still being... well, haunted, decades after reading it, by the closing paragraphs of Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark."

I had a job as a night watchman in an office building in the Loop that summer, and decided to read some Lovecraft to pass the time. I ended up devouring everything I could find by him in print

Despite an unfortunate fondness for the word 'eldritch' and a very ornate and cumbersome writing style (to say nothing of a very weird mind), as a writer, the guy rocked. Cavett's comment was right on the money: never, before or since have I come across an author who could draw you into the situation the way Lovecraft can, and make you almost see the scene he's describing- not just as if you were watching it on television, but as if you were there. If a sympathetic character is in danger in a Lovecraft story, it's as if you are. You actually start to perspire, and your pulse quickens. He was that good.

I happened to see a not particularly good movie last night on The Sci-Fi channel based loosely on Lovecraft's "The Shadow over Innsmouth." It moved me to do a Google search on Lovecraft's most famous monsters, Cthulhu.

I came up with this eldritch site.

August Derleth, an admirer and fellow author, made his own contributions to the universe in which most of Lovecraft's work takes place, which Derleth called "the Cthulhu Mythos." In fact, Cthulhu himself appears in only a few of Lovecraft's stories, most notably "The Call of Cthulhu." Thus, the name of the site- and the YouTube "program" it features.

I've reproduced the first episode of the "show" below; there is another, and a brief Halloween message from Cthulhu, are at the site.

Be amazed.