SPOOKTOBER RISES AS CTHULHU RETURNS TO HIS SLUMBER (Call of Cthulhu DARE Review, part 4)

         Hello and welcome back to the only blog whose author forgot what day of the week it was yesterday. I am your host, Ay Ay Ron, and today at the Reader in Yellow, we're ironically bidding farewell to one of the best known mascots of Spook, right at the beginning of Spooktober! If only ESUHSD District Superintentent Chris D. Funk could see me now. Oh wait, he probably can, 'coz he's always watching. Without further ado, else ESUHSD District Superintendent Chris D. Funk forcibly expels my skeleton from the Aaron Hilomen Union Highschool District, let's get to evaluating and dunking on the most well known work of everyone's favorite feline enthusiast.

Our boi is ready for Spooktober to commence!

        Call of Cthulhu is one of those reads that you expect to meander for an insanely long time about the nature of the universe before getting to the action, however totally betrays said expectation due to its length, or lack thereof. Due to my preconceived notion that Lovecraft was probably one of those old and boring writers who went on and on and on about how the blueberries set at the table of the priest's house were not simply blueberries but an analogy to how over-analysis of fruit could lead to long term depression, I'd actually forgone reading the actual short story "Call of Cthulhu" until the first of the four DARE blog posts called for it, in favor of the tabletop game manual of the same name.To my pleasant surprise, the story was, while short, surprisingly action packed for what little that panphobic racist man wrote within those pages. While not the most in-depth look into the lovecraftian universe, and also not quite demonstrating the full extent of our tangly boy's powers, the Call of Cthulhu does offer some unique insights into this MCU of horrifying abominations that our buddy Howard-Phillips spent so much of his life developing.

He is providence

        Alot of Call of Cthulhu is quite like Cthulhu itself. One should not fear ol' tentacle beard so much as the threat that he represents. As such, it is quite possibly what the storyline represents that makes it so powerful. Going into detail onto the very nature of "Knowing too much" and pioneering the tentacle monster craze that many americans vibe with and many japanese cartoonists do questionable things with, Call of Cthulhu should be viewed as a story about a "Big tentacled monster who sleeps too much" as much as Iczer Robo should be viewed as a "Normal Mecha Anime", Gundam should be viewed as a "Transformer", and Ghost in the Shell should be viewed as "That Scarlett Johansson movie". There is simply so much more to the universe than that (And also never ever speak of the Scarlett Johansson GitS movie unless you wish to suffer the wrath of a billion cyberpunk fans and ESUHSD District Superintendent Chris D Funk. And NEVER EVER call a Gundam a Transformer. EVER. Unless it's Wing Gundam, then use the small "t"). Call of Cthulhu manages to not simply be a story about a man discovering that the universe is alot darker than it seems, but also a story about mental health (be it intentionally or unintentionally), madness, and the question of "can one truly know too much". One need not agree with the answers Call of Cthulhu brings to these individual questions (As it is simply impractical to ram a boat into all your mental issues), but simply (like the big guy himself) what they represent. Truly, by simply considering the issues and comparing it to the story, it may provoke quite a substantial amount of thought.

Cthulhu truly is the master of the Vibe Check

 

        In short, I would definitely recommend others read the story, if only to experience the wacky world of eldritch abominations, although I would not recommend using it for an AP test, as the story is simply too fleeting to garner much fluff needed for AP work from it. While definitely far from Lovecraft's greatest work, Call of Cthulhu does manage to deliver on exactly what it promises, that being Eldritch Monstrosities, a dark world, and an even darker ending. A thought provoking tale ahead of its time, it is quite easy to see why it remains one of ol' Howard's most well known pieces to this day.

Obligatory image of the only man who could obliterate Cthulhu by simply looking at him.

         Author's sidenote: I never actually got to mention the fact that Cyberpunk 2020 (the old roleplaying system by R. Talisorian Games that the Keanu Reeves videogame is based off of) actually did a crossover at one point with the tabletop game adaptation of Call of Cthulhu at some point. Just thought that was interesting and kind of a fun fact. I couldn't properly mesh it into any jokes though, which was sad.