Some Cthulhu/Lovecraft references

Acooljt · Post by **Acooljt** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:56 pm

You may have heard of these or you may have not. Either way, I thought I'd share.

Metallica - The Call of Ctulu(they spelled it this way perhaps to avoid copyright infringement? It's on the Ride the Lightning album)

Metallica- The Thing That Should Not Be(based off of The Shadows Over Innsmouth which is not part of the Mythos, but a great song none the less and it also quotes the story, "Not dead which eternal lie, stranger eons Death may die" which is obviously changed a little bit from the story so it would fit the rhythm and rhyme of the song. It's on the Master of Puppets album)

And lastly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer(the series). I'm a big fan of the show, and right now I've been watching Season 5, and just in the first half of this season I've already heard 2 Lovecraft references. They mentioned the Necronomicon in an episode(don't quite remember which) and in another episode, Buffy found this object of importance called the "Dagon Sphere".

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:44 pm

Actually, it's "Call of Ktulu", with a K. CLiff chose the name, it was orignally going to be "When Hell Freezes Over".

Plus, I've posted it in another thread, there's an Iron Maiden album cover, "Live After Death", with the infamous couplet engraved on Eddie the Head's tombstone.

Acooljt · Post by **Acooljt** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:11 pm

Yeah, you're right, I guess it's been a while since I've looked at the title of the song. Kinda embarassing being the huge Metallica fan I am.

As I'm just now reading The Call of Cthulhu, it also has the words, "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die." I've yet to read The Shadow Over Innsmouth, is there some correlation between these 2 stories since they both hold these phrases?

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 2:00 pm

that couplet is mirrored in so many places it's not even funny. it's supposed to come from the writings of abdul alhazred in the necronomicon, i think. probably the most famous 'scripture' in the mythos.

Yog-Sothoth · Post by **Yog-Sothoth** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:55 pm

yeah, i mean... i saw that Couplet in the Book "Barney's Sunshine Summonings", it was right under a picture of Barney in this Brick Room with one Candle, a Baphomet Pentegram on the Floor, and two Kids in Black Robes on the other Side of the Pentegram.

Acooljt · Post by **Acooljt** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 12:52 am

Hey Yog, your location is spelled wrong. It's "R'lyeh". Don't ask me for the pronunciation though, I couldn't even begin to guess.

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 1:24 pm

heh.. i don't know if spelling is such a concrete thing, since the language is so alien that our alphabet can barely begin to phoneticize it. i believe hpl said something to this effect in 'the call'

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 1:59 pm

Lovecraft - the man with the plan! wrote:That is not dead which can eternal lie
And inn stranger aeons even death may die

That's the only real correlation between much of Lovecraft's fiction - the "infamous couplet", as it's known, and mention of either Yog-Sothoth (the nigh-omnipotent being, not the guy obsessed with the Necronomicon) or the Necronomicon (the "real" one, or as real as it gets, not the Evil Dead/Deicide one).

Acooljt · Post by **Acooljt** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:36 pm

Jesus Prime wrote:
Lovecraft - the man with the plan! wrote:That is not dead which can eternal lie
And inn stranger aeons even death may die
That's the only real correlation between much of Lovecraft's fiction - the "infamous couplet", as it's known, and mention of either Yog-Sothoth (the nigh-omnipotent being, not the guy obsessed with the Necronomicon) or the Necronomicon (the "real" one, or as real as it gets, not the Evil Dead/Deicide one).

You use one more big word with me and I'll bitch-slap you!

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:31 pm

What's the root cause of your disconcerted demeanour? Is my syntax and lexicon too sesquipidalian for you to adequately handle?

Acooljt · Post by **Acooljt** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:05 pm

I think I just passed out in a puddle of my own drool.

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:14 pm

Hahahaha.

nortonew · Post by **nortonew** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:48 pm

JJ Burke wrote:heh.. i don't know if spelling is such a concrete thing, since the language is so alien that our alphabet can barely begin to phoneticize it. i believe hpl said something to this effect in 'the call'

Heck, even some human languages are like this. Hebrew and Arabic can be translated into English with a multitude of spellings simply because the languages don't contain vowels. (Actually, now days they sometimes use diacritical marks to specify vowel sounds, but the more ancient texts don't have these). Moreover, there are several letters in Arabic that don't really have any good representations in English. For instance, one Arabic letter, I think it might be called gayn, supposedly is supposed to be pronounced with a sound something like a choking gargle while humming. What letter would that be in English?

JJ Burke · Post by **JJ Burke** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:08 am

beats me.. i say cut spelling some slack

Jesus Prime · Post by **Jesus Prime** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:22 pm

nortonew wrote:
JJ Burke wrote:heh.. i don't know if spelling is such a concrete thing, since the language is so alien that our alphabet can barely begin to phoneticize it. i believe hpl said something to this effect in 'the call'
Heck, even some human languages are like this. Hebrew and Arabic can be translated into English with a multitude of spellings simply because the languages don't contain vowels. (Actually, now days they sometimes use diacritical marks to specify vowel sounds, but the more ancient texts don't have these). Moreover, there are several letters in Arabic that don't really have any good representations in English. For instance, one Arabic letter, I think it might be called gayn, supposedly is supposed to be pronounced with a sound something like a choking gargle while humming. What letter would that be in English?

It's the same with Hebrew - that's why we have now lost both the pronunciation of the tetragramatton, and the 200+ letter alternate name of God (if you've ever seen the movie "Pi", that's actually real).