The Call of Cthulhu

Posted on August 14, 2008 by BjoernBitter
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The Call of CthulhuApparently the hugely awesome masterpiece The Call of Cthulhu came into public domain in April 2008… How could I miss it! I’m three months late! Anyway, here is a link where you can download the title in various formats:

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

I. The Horror In Clay

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle wherein our world and human race form transient incidents. They have hinted at strange survivals in terms which would freeze the blood if not masked by a bland optimism. But it is not from them that there came the single glimpse of forbidden eons which chills me when I think of it and maddens me when I dream of it. That glimpse, like all dread glimpses of truth, flashed out from an accidental piecing together of separated things – in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead professor. I hope that no one else will accomplish this piecing out; certainly, if I live, I shall never knowingly supply a link in so hideous a chain. I think that the professor, too intented to keep silent regarding the part he knew, and that he would have destroyed his notes had not sudden death seized him.

- H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu 1928

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  • Cuchulain

    Finally a Lovecraftian post on Dice of Doom which I didn’t write!

    In fact, you’ll find that pretty much all of Lovecraft’s works are now out of copyright, 70 years after Lovecraft’s death on the Ides(15th) of March (he shared his death day with the Big C himself), 1937 – although I believe copyright ends at the end of the 70th year after the person’s death, so Jan 1 2008. So you’re later than you think, BjoernBitter.

    I’ve always thought the first paragraph quoted above was the very crux of Lovecraft’s mythos, the essential point underlying it all. Quite inspiring in a twisted kind of way.

  • Cuchulain

    Finally a Lovecraftian post on Dice of Doom which I didn’t write!

    In fact, you’ll find that pretty much all of Lovecraft’s works are now out of copyright, 70 years after Lovecraft’s death on the Ides(15th) of March (he shared his death day with the Big C himself), 1937 – although I believe copyright ends at the end of the 70th year after the person’s death, so Jan 1 2008. So you’re later than you think, BjoernBitter.

    I’ve always thought the first paragraph quoted above was the very crux of Lovecraft’s mythos, the essential point underlying it all. Quite inspiring in a twisted kind of way.

  • BjoernBitter

    There is quite a list of available works from the link I posted above…
    Here’s the direct link to the other H.P. Lovecraft stories on that site.

    On the copyright issue, there is some dispute:
    H.P. Lovecraft Intellectual Property

    Basically, in the U.S. the issue is that the copyright extension acts in 1976 and 1998 made all works retroactively copyrighted until 95 years from publication… (see above link for more details).

    Anyway – I live in Japan. And copyrights here only last for 50 years :)

    Works authored by an individual, under his own name or a known pseudonym, are protected for fifty years following the individual’s death. Works authored anonymously or under an unknown pseudonym, as well as works authored by corporations, where the individual author or authors are unknown, are protected for fifty years following publication. - Japan Copyright Law (length of protection)

  • BjoernBitter

    There is quite a list of available works from the link I posted above…
    Here’s the direct link to the other H.P. Lovecraft stories on that site.

    On the copyright issue, there is some dispute:
    H.P. Lovecraft Intellectual Property

    Basically, in the U.S. the issue is that the copyright extension acts in 1976 and 1998 made all works retroactively copyrighted until 95 years from publication… (see above link for more details).

    Anyway – I live in Japan. And copyrights here only last for 50 years :)

    Works authored by an individual, under his own name or a known pseudonym, are protected for fifty years following the individual’s death. Works authored anonymously or under an unknown pseudonym, as well as works authored by corporations, where the individual author or authors are unknown, are protected for fifty years following publication. - Japan Copyright Law (length of protection)

  • http://twitter.com/CelestialElff Celestial Elf

    Thought you might like my Cthulhu machinima film
    The Highlander; Cthulhu Enigma

    Ia Ia Cthulhu Fhtagn!