Modernity and the Mythos

Moving the Cthulhu Mythos 100 years forward

Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

When Lovecraft was writing his stories, he set them in what was his present day. I think a lot of writers who choose to write Cthulhu Mythos stories, especially newer ones, tend to limit themselves to the 1930, '20s or earlier to imitate the mood and aesthetics that usually go hand-in-hand with Lovecraftian fiction. While I myself love a good Jazz Era pulp story and tend to set my own stories well before the 21st century, this type of horror does not have to be limited to a single decade very few writers nowadays lived to experience. Lovecraft’s contemporaries, those who outlived him at least, continued writing, some still contributing to the Mythos, especially when August Derleth opened Arkham House and tried to turn Lovecraft into a franchise.¹ Some, like Robert Bloch (who was also the author of the original Psycho novel), brought their Mythos tales out of the Jazz and Depression Era; Bloch’s novel Strange Eons takes place in the 1970s and answers the question of what happens when you try to nuke Cthulhu.

One of the problems writers invent for themselves is that the world and universe seems somehow “less scary” than it was back in the '20s. The digital era and reliance on technology has somewhat dulled human senses and interest in the cosmos and the natural world, which are key to writing cosmic horror. In today’s post, I’m going to offer three sections of advice for writers on how we can create Cthulhu Mythos stories set in the modern day without having to overly rely on pastiches, contrite subversions, or leaning too much on what we take for granted as “ordinary” today.

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The Mechanics

When bringing the Mythos to our modern period, one thing that writers should try to do is not write like Lovecraft. His prose is as iconic as it is controversial and the only person who could write that way and get away with it was Lovecraft himself. Today, general audiences and editors might not take as well to such a writing style—as long as a writers can remain true to their own style, however, it shouldn’t matter too much what naysayers might think. What is important, for writing in general, is being able to deliver a cohesive story in your own words. One of the most important pieces of advice I received in college from a Philosophy professor was to be “deep but clear.” As I said above, many newer writers ape Lovecraft’s time period, and his writing style by association, in order to build up the specific mood or tone that makes his stories stand out. In fiction that is set in our present day, it makes a little more sense to be straightforward and less formal (though this can change based on narrative perspective) to deliver a believable, engaging story. Lovecraft’s own stories had a degree of metafiction in the sense that most of them were supposed to be accounts of weird happenings that could have possibly happened. For example, “The Statement of Randolph Carter” is supposed to be a police statement delivered by the eponymous character; “The Call of Cthulhu” is a sort of essay by the narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston, describing his piecing together of the conspiracy regarding the Cthulhu cult and the implications of humanity’s place in the cosmos. His stories often come off as very scholarly, likely due to how academics and stories he would have been familiar with were written; to him and a likeminded audience, such a writing style lends a feeling of verisimilitude and possible realism—save the supernatural and obviously fictive elements. Lovecraft was fully aware he was writing fiction, but the way he presented his stories in a more “scientific” format made them seem like artifacts from the world of his tales rather than simply fictive narratives.

There is a lot of potential for metafiction in modern settings (some of which I’ll go into in the Potential section below), especially with how much written content is available. Today, as much as traditional literacy seems to be left by the wayside, there is a huge desire and demand for written pieces in all topics, genres, and sectors that are either engaging, entertaining, informative, or some mix of all three. Mythos stories set in modern day can easily take the form of blog posts, an entry on Reddit’s r/nosleep forum, or a text conversation like a digital age epistolary. A popular form of casual research many internet-users engage in is going down “rabbit holes” on websites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit to investigate different topics or even conspiracies that are not often discussed in regular conversations. As I said above, Lovecraft’s stories have a bit of a scholarly slant to them in order to give his readers the illusion of credibility. Modern audiences also enjoy similar thoroughness when it comes to narratives covering strange events throughout history, so a Mythos story compiling a narrator’s rabbit hole research is something that could potentially lull readers into a false sense of believability. Granted, it is difficult to pass a fictional story—especially one with supernatural elements—off as having actually happened at this stage of the internet, but there are tools and online spaces artists can use to create an illusion of realism outside standard walls of text. A popular storytelling genre in the past several years for horror-based narratives has been Analog Horror,² which utilizes multimedia forms of presentation to convey stories. This form of media takes a different sort of investment in time and resources to pull off well, however, which makes it understandable why writers may wish to stick with more traditional routes of storytelling.

The Stakes

A massive trend with modern speculative fiction entertainment is world-ending stakes or heroes rushing to save the world. While the anxiety of Earth’s and humanity’s destruction is a recurrent theme in Mythos stories, it’s more of an inevitable, slow burning reality that this will be the fate of our world rather than a plot point that protagonists need to address within the constraints of the tales. I would venture as far as to say even in our daily lives, we are living a similar nightmare; sometimes society and Earth both seem headed towards inevitable destruction but no normal person has the ability to slow or entirely halt the march of time and those in power who can just continue to leach off the destructive forces contributing to the end of days. In a modern Mythos story, adding alien gods and unspeakable supernatural creatures on top of an already bleak world is sure to drive a person insane no matter how many times they might tweet “I’ll just comprehend the eldritch monstrosity.”

As much as Lovecraft’s stories emphasized the smallness of humanity, there is still that human element grasping and straining to pull the narratives together. His protagonists aren’t heroes, but more so ill-fated prophets or seers (in a metaphorical sense) who helplessly try to warn readers about what happens when you stumble into the wrong corners of the dark or how bad things can just happen to people without rhyme or reason as a hazard of simply existing. Sam Raimi, director of the Evil Dead films, outlines common “laws” he noticed in horror films: “The innocent must suffer…[and] the guilty must be punished.”³ In Mythos stories, there isn’t really a sense of morality or injustice vs justice; Raimi’s observations somewhat fall in line with the idea that everyone is equally tormented in horror stories, but uses the binary of the innocent and guilty to exemplify his point. Everyone is or can be damned from the start in these types of tales, even those who attempt to collude with eldritch forces out of some vain hope to be spared or “get a leg up” on other humans.

Another theme Lovecraft includes in his stories is the criticism of humanity’s ego. In our time, thoughts that degrade our place in the cosmos runs counter to the cultural narcissism and personality cults running rampant through popular culture. Anyone with Instagram and enough confidence (or lack of self awareness) can turn their account into their own reality show. In addition to the external dooms orbiting and pervading Earth and reality, there is also the breakdown of human beings as a species in Lovecraft’s stories. “The Lurking Fear”, “The Rats in the Walls”, and “Pickman’s Model” are a few examples of how humans can degenerate under the wrong (or right) conditions. Lovecraft essentially says, through these stories, that humans have the potential to devolve into animals that would eat our own kind or be the cattle that are slaughtered. In a purely scientific sense, our very existence seems to be an evolutionary fluke rather than something that is preordained or with exact purpose as most world religions or positivity gurus try to promote. In cosmicism, we don’t have a noble destiny and whatever fantastic powers we might acquire are corruptive influences from greater, darker powers that would destroy us without warning.

The Potential

To conclude this post, I thought it would be fun to provide some prompts to emphasize the potential Cthulhu Mythos stories set in the modern day has. Notice that none of these are meant to be social or political commentaries as I don’t believe Lovecraft or most of his contemporaries ever tried to make their tales “lessons” to their readers. Writers who might run with these prompts can do with them what they will, but I think focusing on politics and social agendas just makes stories too “human”, when the point of cosmicism is to break down what people think is important or what makes our species so “special.”

• An urban explorer (or an entire crew) discovers an entrance to K’n-Yan (featured in Lovecraft’s collaborative story with Hazel Heald, “The Mound”).

• A creature or wizard uses smart technology to invite supernatural entities (e.g., the Hounds of Tindalos) into homes.

• Miskatonic University funds an expedition to the moon.

• An influencer or reality show team travels across “Lovecraft country”, running into horrific secrets along the way.

• A group of artists discuss dreams they’ve had online about similar dreams concerning R’lyeh, Carcosa, or other Mythos vistas.

• Some tech moguls try to make a deal with Mi-Go, but soon regret the return on investment.

• A YouTuber thinks he’s come across a conspiracy theory linking past Mythos events but soon discovers the true nature of them are not simply government coverups or aliens.

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Special Announcement!

This weekend (from Thursday the 15th to Sunday the 18th) I will be in Providence, RI attending NecronomiCon! If you see me wandering around, feel free to say “hi!”.

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Thanks for reading this week’s post! How else should writers present the Cthulhu Mythos in the modern day? What sort of story would you write that involves modernity and the Mythos? Leave a comment below!

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1. For a fantastic and thorough breakdown of how Lovecraft’s name made its way into the mainstream, I highly recommend checking out my good friend Rose’s articles on her Substack

The Midnight Blue Sea

:

The Legacy of Lovecraft: How the Mythos Emerged from the Shadows, Part I

The Legacy of Lovecraft: How the Mythos Emerged from the Shadows, Part II

2. I wrote a post about this form of storytelling as the “folk horror of the digital age” last October. I include some examples of analog horror stories that use the medium rather well:

3. From “This is Horror”, 1989.