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Lovecraft:HP:Cthulhu Mythos

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

This page connects to the Cryptonomicon via Lovecraft's fictional Necronomicon

Stephensonia

When Stephenson came up with the title Cryptonomicon, he was not aware of the word's origin. He was directly inspired by the fictional book's appearance in the Evil Dead series of comedic horror films. Mining the same source material are Penny Arcade and Megatokyo with the use of the Necrowombicom; And, Howard Hallis makes light of this Jack Chick tract while talking of the elder gods (which earned him a phony cease and desist letter). A mysterious character like Enoch Root will always invoke mages and monsters*.

Lovecraft could easily qualify for the oddest duck in a room of odd ducks - but that is a different tale for another day.*

Authored entries

Wikipedia: Cthulhu Mythos plus enhancements

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Howard Phillips Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos is the label coined by the writer August Derleth for the shared world based upon the themes, characters, and story elements found in the works of H. P. Lovecraft, as well as his protegés and later writers influenced by him. Combined, they form a kind of mythos—a system of symbols upon which Lovecraft could craft his dreamy, richly resonant stories. However, it should be noted that much of the mythos published after Lovecraft's death is at great variance with Lovecraft's original concept of a valueless, meaningless universe of chaos. Derleth presents a codified mythos influenced by his own Christian values, a struggle of good versus evil. Lovecraft himself was an atheist who claimed Kant's "ethical system is a joke." Indeed, some Lovecraft scholars contend that the Cthulhu Mythos is merely a theory proposed by Derleth; it was never intended to be a cohesive, singular entity by Lovecraft, but rather a collection of images which can be used in separate works to provoke the same emotions.

Derleth was able to insinuate his own concepts, which were frequently at great variance with those of Lovecraft, into common conceptions of Lovecraft's work in two ways. First, he was the publisher of Lovecraft's texts in book form, and provided them with introductions, giving his ideas greater influence on the reader's experience then they would otherwise have (he also spread these interpretations far and wide in magazine articles). Derleth tells us, for example, that: "As Lovecraft conceived the deities or forces of his Mythos, there were, initially, the Elder Gods . . . these Elder Gods were benign deities, representing the forces of good, and existed peacefully at or near Betelgeuze in the constellation Orion, very rarely stirring forth to intervene in the unceasing struggle between the powers of evil and the races of Earth. These powers of evil were variously known as the Great Old Ones or the Ancient Ones" -- August Derleth, Introduction to Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, viii

This is all very unlike Lovecraft, in whose work the Elder Gods never appear (but perhaps this is merely a limit case showing how "rarely" they stir forth -- never), and there is no unified pantheon of Great Old Ones. Indeed, the term "Ancient Ones" only appears in one story, "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", and this says of the protagonist:

"He wondered at the vast conceit of those who had babbled of the malignant Ancient Ones, as if They could pause from their everlasting dreams to wreak a wrath upon mankind. As well, he thought, might a mammoth pause to visit frantic vengeance on an angleworm." -- H. P. Lovecraft, Through the Gates of the Silver Key

Derleth's work, on the other hand, is filled with recaps of his basic cosmic good guys vs. bad guys scenario. Derleth further tells us that "To supplement this remarkable creation [the Necronomicon], Lovecraft added . . . the R'lyeh Text". In fact, Lovecraft never referred to the R'lyeh Text, as it was invented by August Derleth after Lovecraft's death. Indeed, it was Derleth who falsely quoted Lovecraft as stating,

"All my stories, unconnected as they may be, are based on the fundamental lore or legend that this world was inhabited at one time by another race who, in practicing black magic, lost their foothold and were expelled, yet live on outside ever ready to take possession of this earth again." -- attributed to H.P. Lovecraft by August Derleth

If anything, the collection of monsters in Lovecraft's writings are far from consciously hostile to humanity, but rather absolutely indifferent, and as such, causing harm with as little regard as an unaware human foot crushing an insect.

Central to the mythos are the Great Old Ones, a fearsome assortment of deities led by the dreaded Cthulhu (though there are other beings in the mythos that are even more monstrous), who lies in a state of hibernation in the lost and sunken city of R'lyeh. "When the stars are right," Cthulhu will awaken and wreak havoc upon the earth.