Cold Open: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” This is what H. P. Lovecraft wrote in his essay “Supernatural Horror In Literature,” first published in 1927. And if there was one thing H. P. Lovecraft knew about — it was fear. The man lived in fear. Afraid of his neighbors. Afraid of the world changing around him. Afraid of losing his sanity… maybe even afraid of the mysterious monsters he wrote about. He sure knew how to write about monsters that scared others. He knew how to create monsters that were so terrifying they’d become the basis for monsters in film and TV nearly a century after he wrote about them. He know how to blend details about the normal world we know with the details of a fictional world just beyond our comprehension that he made seem all to real. He knew how to make us doubt our own perception of reality and our ability to use words to describe things. H. P. Lovecraft was a master at mysterious, deeply unsettling horror. All of his fictional works would orbit one vital premise: we are all doomed if whatever is out there in space discovers us. Or, as Lovecraft said: "All of my tales are based on the fundamental premise that common human laws and emotions have no validity or significance in the cosmos-at-large." And one of those things out there in the cosmos-at-large would be the mythic monster Cthulhu [kuh thoo loo] In his short story “The Call of Cthulhu [kuh thoo loo] ,” he described it as: “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.” A frightening creature. Not only scary because it’s massive and destructive, but also because seeing it basically ensures that you’ll go insane, get killed by Cthulhu [kuh thoo loo] ’s worshippers, or worse. We’ll learn about Cthulhu [kuh thoo loo] today and some of Lovecraft’s other gods and strange intergalactic creatures. And the influence they’d have on the imaginations of later creators. Stephen King has said the best of Lovecraft's works are "uniquely terrible in all of American literature, and survive with all their power intact.” Lovecraft paved the way for people like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman [gay mun]. We have Lovecraft to thank - in part for so much. Stranger Things, the Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, the X-Files, and so much more - all touched of influenced in some way by Lovecraft’s cosmic horror. Odds are you are familiar with - and possibly deeply love - the work of someone Lovecraft influenced. But do you really know anything about HP Lovecraft? Who is H. P. Lovecraft? What is Cthulhu [kuh thoo loo] and why is it so uniquely terrifying? Let’s find out on this week’s eldritch, tentacle monster, cosmic terror, weird tales edition of Timesuck. PAUSE TIMESUCK INTRO I. Welcome! A.Happy Monday: Happy Monday, Meatsack! Welcome to a strange and horrible, Weird Tales edition of Timesuck. I’m Dan Cummins, horror lover, Cthulhu [kuh thoo loo] tamer, Weird Tales tour guide, the Master Sucker, and you are listening to Timesuck. Hail Nimrod, Get in that cosplay outfit Lucifina, Praise Bojangles, and save us from an unimaginable fate Triple M. B.Merch: A whole bunch of strange, we’ve been Zucked, Real Boy Tiago shut down our original Facebook Cult of the Curious Group merch in the store now at Bad Magic Merch dot com. We have a Tiago Facebook AI robot tee shirt in the store. We have a whole cool “Timezucked” collection with tees, tanktops, and phone cases. Different designs. Tiago - if you missed me talking about Tiago or don’t remember - Tiago’s the AI bot who sent me weekly updates for a few months about our private Facebook Cult of the Curious private group. Week after week I got this message letting my know our at that time suspended group MIGHT come back: Hi Dan, I hope to find you well. Please allow me to update you and let you know that we haven't forgotten about your Group's review request, as it is still under review by the relevant team. Nevertheless, please allow me to mention that we have chased this matter and we'll inform you once we can provide more details. Thank you for your patience and wishing you a lovely day. Kind regards, Tiago Facebook Groups Admin Support Analyst At first I thought Tiago was real. I replied. Never got a message back. Then, my last message from Tiago said: Hi Dan, I would like to follow-up with you, as we've now heard back from the relevant team and this time we have new details to share with you. Thank you for your patience. Please allow me to inform you that after reviewing the 'Cult of the Curious' Group, we can confirm that the Group has been taken down and will not be restored as the Group violations applied to it were deemed to be accurate. As such, it is not possible to further appeal and our team is unfortunately unable to further assist in this regard. I know that this can be disappointing news and that this wasn't the outcome you were looking for, but please do keep in mind that we are unable to submit another appeal as this decision is final. Thank you once again for contacting Facebook Groups Support. Should you have any new questions or concerns, I'd kindly ask that you please create a new support request by clicking on "Groups Support" in the Support section. Although we could not restore your Group, your feedback will allow us to continue to improve for the future and I would invite you to answer a short survey that you'll receive. Kind regards, Tiago Facebook Groups Admin Support Analyst Finally, I was like - That can’t be a real person, can it? The tone is all over the place and the verbiage is so weird. “Please do keep in mind that we won’t do fuck all to help you.” “Thanks for patience! Now beat it. We don’t want your filthy business.” Thanks, Tiago. You real boy you. Now of course we have Cult of the Curious 2, at least as I write this, and so many cool subgroups where meatsacks have downloaded the free subgroup social pack. Unofficial Cult of the Curious groups like the Cult of the Curious Investors groups for meatsack investors and stock traders, and Lucifina’s Galleria - Cult of the Curious Art subgroup. I love seeing so many people find friends with similar interests. Hail Nimrod! C.Segue to Topic: That took longer than I thought to get out so fuck the other announcements. Off to a topic very unlike what we normally do. Comparable episodes would be the Edgar Allen Poe episode from June 1st, 2019. And maybe Dante’s Inferno from February 1st of this year. But this is still pretty different than even those episodes. Which is fitting. Lovecraft was just, well… a very different kind of dude. Also, this episode is different because it’s less about Lovecraft the man - although we will dig into his life for sure - and more about his most famous monster, the sub-genre of literature he essentially created, and the influence he’s had on the much of the fantasy, sci-fi and horror fiction we enjoy today. This week, we’re exploring how H. P. Lovecraft and one of the most fascinating worlds in the history of creative world-building. Let us call upon the great and terrible Cthulhu [kuh thoo loo] - rise from the ocean depths and face us great, mysterious monstrous god - and we accept any madness that comes from your awakening…. PAUSE TIMESUCK INTERLUDE II. Intro/Establish Premiss: A. Set up show here: Who was Lovecraft and who published his early works so that now we know of him? That’s where we’re starting today. Gotta talk about Weird Tales - a pulp sci-fi and horror magazine that was Lovecraft’s main employer. A magazine very influential to a lot of much more modern shows I love, like the X-Files and, I’d argue - the BBC’s Black Mirror. Holy SHIT I love that show. Smart scares. Weird Tales was a magazine very influential to The Twilight Zone which in turn for SURE influenced Black Mirror. Next I’ll lay out what defines Lovecraft’s brand of cosmic horror - cosmic horror also known as Lovecraftian horror - a type of fantasy/ sci-fi horror common now that Lovecraft pioneered. You might be more familiar with this subgenre than you think. Ever watch Stranger Things? Lynze the kids and I love that show. VERY influenced by Lovecraft. I’d place Stranger Things firmly in the world of cosmic horror. Matt Duffer, one of the Duffer Brothers who created Stranger Things, said they took a “an H.P. Lovecraft sort of approach” to the series when creating the monsters that inhabit the “upside down.” He said, “This inter-dimensional being that is sort of beyond human comprehension. We purposely don’t want to go too much into what it is or what it wants.” Very Lovecraftian approach as you shall soon see. That Demogorgon is SO Lovecraft. The imagination of Lovecraft is all around us.