The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

I'm told this is possibly Lovecraft's finest work. Having read two of his short stories now, I'm starting to get a feel for his style, and I kinda like what he does with language. Strings of meaningless words don't take the place of description but they do convey an impression, which is what he seems to be driving at - the idea of describing the indescribable. It's probably similar to his aim of spelling the unpronounceable by using lots of confusing combinations of letters [I have yet to hear anyone endeavour to pronounce 'fhtagn'].

The Call of Cthulhu showcases this wordstring technique particularly well, either because here Lovecraft reached the peak of his self-created art, or because he couldn't figure out quite what he was trying to describe so he just went for a bit of 'great Cthulhu... began to pursue with vast wave-raising strokes of cosmic potency'. Either way, it sort of works if you relax and let your mind take it. Which I suspect may be the best way to approach Lovecraft's work if these two stories are anything to go by.

Eleanor linked to a terribly erroneous version of the full text which looks like it's suffered at the hands of a bad OCR engine. The Wikisource version is much better [thanks lorne!]. To see what I mean by 'better', search for the exact string 'they saw that it was' in each document and compare the results.

As for the story itself, it's well put-together. The destination is pretty clear from the outset but Lovecraft reveals it bit by bit in a well-paced and careful manner. And I like the use of all the different testimonies - those of the professor, the artist, the inspector and the sailor - to hybridise the story and give it an authentic feel. Unfortunately the scene where Great Cthulhu actually appears in the flesh is something of a disappointment. From some dark, supernatural creature of unspeakable abhorrence, he's reduced to a mere pursuing dinosaur from which the sailors must flee. Strings of meaningless words don't work in an action scene. Fortunately the scene is kept short and the rest of the story allowed to speak for itself.

It's a long time since I read anything from the fantasy side of the sci-fi/fantasy divide, and Lovecraft probably isn't the best place from which to re-enter the genre. The story didn't fundamentally grab me - in fact I think I enjoyed Innsmouth slightly more [still no answers on how those fish-frogs are related to the Cthulhu, though]. But it's pretty good and, after getting used to it, I do like his prose. The man must have had a truly terrifying imagination. I'm glad I never met him.