ospalh reviewed Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
Review of 'Call of Cthulhu' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
Horrible, not horrifying.
Just a mix of purple prose and racism. The former would give ★★☆☆☆ or ★★★☆☆ the latter at this level: automatic ★☆☆☆☆.
Even in his time, the degree of Lovecraft’s racism, that shines through in almost every paragraph, was not normal. I had to look up words like “half-caste” because nobody uses that kind of language any more.
Of course Lovecraft makes sure that you know that none of the Cthulhu cultists is white. Oh, he makes sure. They are “hybrid spawn”, “mongrel”, “all (…) men of a very low, mixed-blooded (…) type”, another group “a queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes” “savage”, “hybrid”, “mongrels”, “swarthy”.
For those who still want to know about the plot:
There is a an island in the south Pacific, sometimes sunken, sometimes above sea level, and on it there is an alien, comatose most of the time, and causing …
Horrible, not horrifying.
Just a mix of purple prose and racism. The former would give ★★☆☆☆ or ★★★☆☆ the latter at this level: automatic ★☆☆☆☆.
Even in his time, the degree of Lovecraft’s racism, that shines through in almost every paragraph, was not normal. I had to look up words like “half-caste” because nobody uses that kind of language any more.
Of course Lovecraft makes sure that you know that none of the Cthulhu cultists is white. Oh, he makes sure. They are “hybrid spawn”, “mongrel”, “all (…) men of a very low, mixed-blooded (…) type”, another group “a queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes” “savage”, “hybrid”, “mongrels”, “swarthy”.
For those who still want to know about the plot:
There is a an island in the south Pacific, sometimes sunken, sometimes above sea level, and on it there is an alien, comatose most of the time, and causing nightmares in humans around the world when not. The End.
Also, Cthulhu, the great, powerful, star-traveling being is too stupid to build an alarm clock (“(S)ome force from outside must serve to liberate Their bodies. The spells that preserved them intact likewise prevented Them from making an initial move”) or a dyke (they couldn’t prevent their city, R’lyeh, from sinking below the sea).
