I recently joined a very special line-up to talk about one of the most influential speculative stories of all time — the story whose creepy, tentacley touch everyone has felt, even if they don’t know it.
“When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die.”
— The Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft
Our Cthulhu crew consisted of Jessie Willis (host of SFF Audio and captain of this ship), Paul Weimar (SFF writer/reviewer/podcaster), Jim Moon (narrator and host of the Hypnogoria podcast), Bryan Alexander (futurist, writer, teacher), and Wayne June, aka THE voice of H.P. Lovecraft (and of the nerve-wracking and brilliant game Darkest Dungeon).
We did not voyage too far out into the black seas of infinity (for it is not meant that we should), but our Cthulhu chat did cover a lot of interesting topics, including death, atheism, religion, cosmic indifference, insanity, phobias, ignorance, and cognitive dissonance. i.e. ALL THE GOOD STUFF.
To listen, subscribe to SFF Audio podcast and download episode #404, or hop on over to SFFAudio.com where you can stream the MP3 or download.
You can also read the full story for free at HPLovecraft.com.
“Everyone watched the queer recession of the monstrously carven portal. In this phantasy of prismatic distortion it moved anomalously in a diagonal way, so that all the rules of matter and perspective seemed upset.
The aperture was black with a darkness almost material. That tenebrousness was indeed a positive quality; for it obscured such parts of the inner walls as ought to have been revealed, and actually burst forth like smoke from its aeon-long imprisonment, visibly darkening the sun as it slunk away into the shrunken and gibbous sky on flapping membraneous wings. The odour arising from the newly opened depths was intolerable, and at length the quick-eared Hawkins thought he heard a nasty, slopping sound down there. Everyone listened, and everyone was listening still when It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness.”
— H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Illustration by Salvador Sanz
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to check out all the other Lovecraft readalongs on the SFF Audio podcast, including Episode #396 where I joined Jesse, Paul and Wayne June to talk about Lovecraft’s short story “The Thing on the Doorstep.”
BONUS WELLNESS TIP!!
We all know that sometimes Gwyneth Paltrow’s coconut oil remedies are just not enough and the best thing you can do for your skin is to fill it with dread and foreboding. Start 2017 right and make sure to buy yourself and your family a Lovecraft book read by Wayne June.* Enjoy the invigorating natural health benefits of staring into the abyss together.
(*this is not a paid endorsement).
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
Illustration by HP Lovecraft himself (via openculture.com)