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yourstrulyemi 's review for:
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories
by H.P. Lovecraft
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Finally finished this book that was sitting on my shelf for almost a decade. Yes, that long. But I also remember not understanding a single word when I tried to read the first time. But I guess today I'm mature enough to enjoy it in its entirety.
While it didn't introduce me to new concepts, The Call of Cthulhu definitely impressed me for being the first written horror work of its kind, influencing deeply the horror genre that we know today.
The protagonist being introduced to the horror through manuscripts and correspondence left behind by his uncle was a nice way of building the eerie atmosphere. Almost making us feel like we're probing into something we shouldn't have, which was probably intended. After all, Lovecraft himself believed that the key to happiness was utter ignorance.
Today, we obviously aren't strangers to monsters or any other fantastical species, so none of his descriptions of Cthulhu and his species did anything to me. Except for the sunken city. I was quite amazed by the type of bizarre fear it instilled into and later I thought it might be because of its wrong and non Euclidian geometry that messes with our sense of space. Things that appears convex being concave, or angles that should have been obtuse being dangerously sharp? Scary, right? I definitely love being disconcerted by illusions and having characters not knowing what to do as a result.
I would have also enjoyed the weird cult rituals if it wasn't for the author's aversion towards non white ethnicities. Him simply describing the cult members by their skin colour or facial features was shameful to read, regardless if his views were common at that time or not. Because all I could visualize were simple people that were victim of his racism. He could have made up something else that didn't lump all non Anglo-Saxon people into one bad mess, given the fact that he had the creativity for it but whatever...
Other than that, the plot is extremely simple and straightforward, which actually serves as its strength, bringing attention to the horror elements which were new at that time. And I can see why why Lovecraft's ideas are so widely used.
While it didn't introduce me to new concepts, The Call of Cthulhu definitely impressed me for being the first written horror work of its kind, influencing deeply the horror genre that we know today.
The protagonist being introduced to the horror through manuscripts and correspondence left behind by his uncle was a nice way of building the eerie atmosphere. Almost making us feel like we're probing into something we shouldn't have, which was probably intended. After all, Lovecraft himself believed that the key to happiness was utter ignorance.
Today, we obviously aren't strangers to monsters or any other fantastical species, so none of his descriptions of Cthulhu and his species did anything to me. Except for the sunken city. I was quite amazed by the type of bizarre fear it instilled into and later I thought it might be because of its wrong and non Euclidian geometry that messes with our sense of space. Things that appears convex being concave, or angles that should have been obtuse being dangerously sharp? Scary, right? I definitely love being disconcerted by illusions and having characters not knowing what to do as a result.
I would have also enjoyed the weird cult rituals if it wasn't for the author's aversion towards non white ethnicities. Him simply describing the cult members by their skin colour or facial features was shameful to read, regardless if his views were common at that time or not. Because all I could visualize were simple people that were victim of his racism. He could have made up something else that didn't lump all non Anglo-Saxon people into one bad mess, given the fact that he had the creativity for it but whatever...
Other than that, the plot is extremely simple and straightforward, which actually serves as its strength, bringing attention to the horror elements which were new at that time. And I can see why why Lovecraft's ideas are so widely used.