H. P. LOVECRAFT: Artist!

Lovecraft describes some pretty weird monsters in his fiction. The most famous is Cthulhu, which he describes as looking like a cross between a man, a dragon, and an octopus.

In the story The Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft mentions an apparent voodoo cult in Lousiana that has a small, pre-human statuette of Cthulhu that they use in their rites. When the police bust up and arrest members of the group, they get the statuette, which is then taken to a meeting of archaeologists in a vain attempt to identify it.

Lovecraft describes the statue this way:

The figure . . . was between seven and eight inches in height, and of exquisitely artistic workmanship. It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.

This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters.

The tips of the wings touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the centre, whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouching hind legs gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way clown toward the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs of huge fore paws which clasped the croucher’s elevated knees.

The aspect of the whole was abnormally life-like, and the more subtly fearful because its source was so totally unknown. Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was unmistakable; yet not one link did it shew with any known type of art belonging to civilisation’s youth – or indeed to any other time.

Totally separate and apart, its very material was a mystery; for the soapy, greenish-black stone with its golden or iridescent flecks and striations resembled nothing familiar to geology or mineralogy.

The characters along the base were equally baffling; and no member present, despite a representation of half the world’s expert learning in this field, could form the least notion of even their remotest linguistic kinship. They, like the subject and material, belonged to something horribly remote and distinct from mankind as we know it. something frightfully suggestive of old and unhallowed cycles of life in which our world and our conceptions have no part.

Now, since reading the story, I’ve had my own mental image of what the statuette looks like (though I must say that I have a tendency to forget that it’s supposed to be made of greenish-black stone and imagine it as being made of straight black stone instead).

I’ve wondered, though, what mental image Lovecraft had of the statue. He was no artist (despite the fact I just said he was in the title of this post), but he did once draw a picture of it in a letter to his friend F. Lee Baldwin. Here it is:

WARNING! IMPENDING VISAGE OF ELDER COSMIC MADNSS THAT MAY SHATTER YOUR SANITY! VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED! THIS IMAGE CONTAINS MATERIAL KNOWN TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO CAUSE INSANITY!

Cthulhu

(Click to enlarge–IF YOU DARE!)

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

24 thoughts on “H. P. LOVECRAFT: Artist!”

  2. I think I liked my metal image better. He looks like he’s sitting on some sort of anceint Toliet of Madness. Also, he might wanna cut back on the devouring a bit or maybe get a personal trainer.

  6. Two things come to mind. 1. He looks like a Martian mutant buddha. 2. He’s thinking to himself “I’m so happy I could just…..”

  7. It would have been better in a three-quarter view.
    Or a buck-and-three-quarter view…

  9. Yeah, Zoidberg is modelled after Cthulhu. (So far as I know) it was Lovecraft who introduced the tentacles-for-a-mouth thing into sci-fi when he created Cthulhu. It’s later been widely copied elsewhere (Zoidberg on Futurama, the new appearance of Durlans in the Legion of Super-Heroes, etc.).

  10. +J.M.J+
    A stuffed Cthulhu toy! What a lovely present to get ones child. “Here sweetie, I bought you a soft, cuddly ancient entity of chaotic evil for you to snuggle up to in bed at night. Just don’t wake him up or he’ll destroy all mankind. Sweet dreams, honey!”
    With toys like that, who needs monsters in the closet? (Though I guess it’s probably made for adult scifi geeks rather than children.)
    In Jesu et Maria,

  11. I don’t know, Rosemarie. I still find him oddly . . . appealing. Not as in “I’m gonna forsake the One, True God for some horroble monster who’s name – despite being pretty good at such thing ‘cos of my theater training – I can’t hope to pronounce.” But more as in “he just looks so alone & afraid with his 3 eyes starin’ back at me that I’d like to make him some hot chocolate & put on Innocence Mission CDs & be affirming & comforting to him!”
    And, really, isn’t that what every green/black, tentacle-mouthed, eldritch voodoo horror needs?
    Plus, you make pretty much anything into a plush toy & ya got automatic cute!

  12. There was a Cthulu Jack Chick tract parody, but it seems to have been taken off the ‘net.

  14. It looks like a precious moments angel weeping. Hardly an evil thing.
    When I first became a christian, I ditched my h.p. lovecraft books because of their dark spiritual influence. However, I still appreciate some of his masterful storytelling. I have never, however, repurchased his materials. Better things to focus on than unnamable evils.

  15. Just ’cause you can write, doesn’t mean you can draw.
    “Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” by MR James just moved up on my scary story list, thanks to this…

  16. Online pharmacy! CHOOSE:
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-evista]buy evista[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-flexeril]buy flexeril[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-lortab]buy lortab[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-cipro]buy cipro[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-levitra]buy levitra[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-lorazepam]buy lorazepam[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-propecia]buy propecia[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-vicodin]buy vicodin[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-alprazolam]buy alprazolam[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-zoloft]buy zoloft[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/buy-diflucan]buy diflucan[/url]
    [url=http://www.protopage.com/crazy-monkey-games-zso]crazy monkey games.com[/url]

  19. My life’s been basically boring recently. I’ve basically been doing nothing to speak of. That’s how it is. I just don’t have much to say recently. Oh well.

Comments are closed.