Short Fiction · Chapter
The Call of Cthulhu explained
The chapter introduces the cosmic horror of Cthulhu, a monstrous entity from a remote epoch, whose existence is hinted at through fragmented legends and poetic memory, suggesting a survival of ancient consciousness beyond human understandin
What happens
The chapter introduces the cosmic horror of Cthulhu, a monstrous entity from a remote epoch, whose existence is hinted at through fragmented legends and poetic memory, suggesting a survival of ancient consciousness beyond human understanding.
Themes in this chapter
Horror of the Unknown
The survival of ancient, incomprehensible beings from a remote past evokes fear of the unknown and humanity's insignificance.
Forbidden Knowledge and Occultism
The reference to poetry and legend catching 'flying memory' of gods and monsters suggests hidden, forbidden knowledge of cosmic truths.
Characters to notice
- Cthulhu
Referenced as a great power or being from a hugely remote period, surviving in forms now only remembered in poetry and legend.
Key passages
“Of such great powers or beings there may be conceivably a survival … a survival of a hugely remote period when … consciousness was manifested, perhaps, in shapes and forms long since withdrawn before the tide of advancing humanity … forms of which poetry and legend alone have caught a flying memory and called them gods, monsters, mythical beings of all sorts and kinds.”
It is possible that immense, ancient entities still exist from a time before humanity, their consciousness taking shapes that have receded as civilization advanced, leaving only faint traces in myth and story as gods or monsters.
This passage sets the central premise of the story: the hidden survival of Cthulhu and other cosmic beings.