HP Lovecraft in the Onion

[cthulhu77]

For those of you who enjoy the online version of The Onion, there is a funny bit re: Cthulhu in the old story section on the first page (bottom left)...cracked me up!
Greg
http://www.onion.com/

 

[Fujisawas Sake]

*sigh* Yeah, I remember those days... Coffee at the Innsmouth cafe, Dagon chasing helpless victims down the street... The Elder Things and those that can not be named. Happy times... *sigh*

Sushi and Sake,

John

 

[WhiteKiboko]

does FDR count as one of the elder things, or just elanor?

 

[Clem]

WK,

I doubt either of them was an Elder God; they were Hudson Valley types, and as such preferred the company of the Headless Horseman.

Closer to home, have you taken a good look at Jesse Helms? That fixed, staring gaze, the shambling gait and the morbid nostalgia are rather suggestive. UNC Chapel Hill's copy of "The Necronomicon" was checked out seventy years ago, and has never been returned; the signature on the library register belongs to one "Jazir Al-Helmza." The University has never pursued the matter, despite the enormous fine now due.

"Will the esteemed elder colleague from North Carolina please keep his tentacles on his side of the aisle?"

 

[WhiteKiboko]

i never used the word god....just "thing" as for old jesse, he probably has taken a gander or two at the book....i just cant stop thinking of a clip from the simpsons where at the opening of a meeting of republicans, bob dole reads from the necronomicron.... finally got my hands on a book with "call of cthulhu" in it... why is it characters with so much possibilities end up in such weak stories?

 

[cthulhu77]

You have to remember that when Lovecraft wrote those stories, they were for dime serials, and the writers had to produce something simple and direct, of less than a certain amount of words, etc...so he was very limited in what he could do. Once he gained a little bit of notoriety, he was able to be a little more creative...and longer. Personally, call me a lover of hack literature, but I really like his short stories! There have been some tremendous new stories based on his work...Stephen King, Robert Bloch,William Murray, and Alan Foster, to name a few. Check out "The Cthulhu Cycle- thirteen tentacles of terror" edited by Robert Price, published by Chaosium. It has some great stories in it, and it is a great read!
Happy Elder Days!
Greg

 

[WhiteKiboko]

the first book of his work i read was annotated so it had how much he made for the stories, who/what published them, etc.... i can understand the need for brevity, but i think, say compared to the dunwich horror (about the same amount of storytelling), that the call of cthulhu was a little weak.... of course i dont know the chronology of what he wrote so maybe he was just a better writer....

 

[cthulhu77]

the DunHorror was well done, I agree...and it certainly had a better flair to it than the "C of C"...I think he tried to encompass too much, and flopped a little...but it is amazing how it grabbed peoples imaginations, and spawned so many offshoots...personally, I like the "colour out of space" the best. Good characterization, good plot...still timeless. A true "B" classic!! Another author (name I can't remember right now...I have been roofing in the full sun, sorry) did a whole series of stories about Det. Legrasse. Lots of voodoo, etc. Maybe once I cool down, I will remember and jot it down.
Greg