Wednesday, September 25, 2013

An island rose out of the sea and I instantly thought of Cthulhu

Yesterday, a deadly earthquake in Pakistan caused an island to rise from the sea. Now, I don't mean to make light of such a tragedy by drawing a connection to fiction, but I can't help but think of Cthulhu and his home/prison of R'lyeh.
R'lyeh by Decepticoin on deviantART
For those of you who aren't familiar with the Cthulhu mythos, R'lyeh is a fictional lost city that first appeared in the H.P. Lovecraft short story "The Call of Cthulhu," first published in Weird Tales in 1928. According to Lovecraft's short story, R'lyeh is a sunken city in the Pacific that makes its appearance for one day every thousand years or so.

Here's how Lovecraft describes it:
The nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh...was built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the stars. There lay great Cthulhu and his hordes, hidden in green slimy vaults.
Norwegian sailor Gustaf Johansen, the narrator of one of the tales in the short story, describes the accidental discovery of the city as a coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror--the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh... loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours.

TL;DR: An island rose out of the sea, and I instantly thought of Cthulhu. It's eerie how fiction can sometimes show up in one form or another in real life. Crazy, right?
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18 comments:

  1. stephen HayesSeptember 25, 2013 at 7:23 AM

    This is all very interesting. Life imitates art imitating life.

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  2. Alex J. CavanaughSeptember 25, 2013 at 7:26 AM

    If R'lyeh has risen, we are in deep shit.

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  3. PT DillowaySeptember 25, 2013 at 8:16 AM

    Or maybe it's really Monster Island and we'll soon need Jaegers to protect us from Godzilla.

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  4. Susan Gourley/KelleySeptember 25, 2013 at 9:15 AM

    Amazing that Lovecraft had the concept way back in 1928. It's a really great idea for a story.

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  5. Sheena-kay GrahamSeptember 25, 2013 at 10:04 AM

    Super creepy but truth is stranger than fiction, right?

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  6. Andrew LeonSeptember 25, 2013 at 12:44 PM

    You made me think of the Cyclopean Tomb from Magic. I need to go look up the art for that card, now.

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  7. Sarah AhiersSeptember 25, 2013 at 12:48 PM

    LOL! What Alex said!

    But in all seriousness, i hadn't heard about this, and now i'm super intrigued

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  8. H. R. SinclairSeptember 25, 2013 at 1:31 PM

    True. --And what Alex said!

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  9. Carol KilgoreSeptember 25, 2013 at 1:58 PM

    I thought about Atlantis, for which the opposite could have happened - a place many scoff at its existence.

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  10. mooderinoSeptember 25, 2013 at 2:24 PM

    Now that is freaky. I wonder if the island belongs to whoever sticks their flag in it first.

    mood

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  11. Luanne G. SmithSeptember 25, 2013 at 3:09 PM

    The writer's mind always goes to what would make a good story, even in tragedy. I've noticed that myself over the past couple weeks. :)

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  12. Liz A.September 25, 2013 at 4:38 PM

    I saw the headline online somewhere but didn't click on the story. Very eerie. I thought it might make a good Thursday what if.

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  13. mshatchSeptember 25, 2013 at 4:57 PM

    This is very interesting! I'm going to have to look into this myth further. Thanks!

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  14. Rachna ChhabriaSeptember 25, 2013 at 8:58 PM

    Its interesting but freaky, read about it yesterday.

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  15. Rusty CarlSeptember 25, 2013 at 9:21 PM

    Ah, the old ones, finally.

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  16. dolorahSeptember 26, 2013 at 12:19 AM

    Wow, that is freaky. Loved the Rylen picture.

    .....dhole

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  17. HelenaSeptember 26, 2013 at 12:27 AM

    I just saw that story about the rising island off Pakistan on the evening news. I know when I was a kid there was an old nonfiction paperback around the house about a "disappearing island." So I wouldn't be surprised if Lovecraft had some geologic knowledge behind his story.

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  18. Bish DenhamSeptember 26, 2013 at 6:05 AM

    I had forgotten about that Lovecraft story... The world is a wonderful, mysterious and dangerous place.

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