How H.P. Lovecraft Wrote the Impossible

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There are certain things human beings don't even have the capacity to imagine, let alone render artistically. And yet... they still try. This is our attempt at trying to understand why.

Turns out, you don't have to look much further than H.P. Lovecraft to find a reasonable answer.

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[TheTaleFoundry]

Sign up for a free 30-day trial of audible and get any audiobook of YOUR CHOICE for FREE! Including any LORD OF THE RINGS BOOK, which we talked about in this video! It's a great way to support the show for free!

[ImBatfan]

The thing I've always loved about Lovecraft are the great, extensive, frenzied, poetic lengths to which he goes to tell you that he CAN'T tell you about these things

[mikotagayuna]

The horror of Lovecraft is not in danger and menace but in impotence and indifference. It is the realization that the Universe is under no obligation to make sense to us.

[Star_Skiing_Starskski]

Wow mic drop for who ever wrote the "Light house on the frontier of darkness" metaphor for understanding and human knowledge. Absolutely beautiful.

[Frostything]

I love your wording on being allowed to choose the shapes and constellations that guide you. It was studying astronomy that got me into Lovecraft's works, feeling at awe as I read about the birth and death of stars so unimaginably older than us. Not only that, but the unfathomable scale of it all, from singularities to near, if not actual, infinites. I began to understand the motions of our planet and moon, too. I could _feel_ my latitude on this rock, and the constant motion of the Earth carrying me up and over its orbiting plane each day. But it felt so strange to begin to understand these things. It at times made me feel both fearful and amazed at the universe and our place in it. It was this sentiment that led me to Lovecraft's "comsic horror" and I find it odd that I still chase that feeling.

But, I digress. The idea of looking out into the vastness of space and applying familiar shapes to those points of light in an effort to orient yourself is a beautiful one. I think I take it for granted having already begun learning the officially recognized IAU constellations, but I do find myself adding my own twists here and there in an effort to remember a location or order of something. So, perhaps because I literally use constellations not to orient myself on the sea but to understand the cosmos, your metaphor beomes especially meaningful to me. And it's rich, too, in that I could take multiple meanings from it, but this comment is long enough already to proceed down that rabbit hole.

[dreadrath]

Once when I was really sick and had this really bad fever alongside some dehydration, I thought I was trapped into some domain like the nameless city where directions, space and time made no goddam sense and the vague impression that other things were "There" somewhere that I REALLY didn't want to notice me. It scared the absolute shit out of me and I wanted out, then I'd get out, go back to puking my guts up and taking painkillers for the nasty headache only to lay be down and suddenly back there I'd be. To this day I still think it was a product of being really sick at the time, but still, I hope I never repeat the experience.

[dalelerette]

Lovecraft feared the unknown. His upbringing was horrifying. And it should not surprise us that his fictional works seek to unknowingly deify his worst unknown fears.

[RedCanary]

An eldritch horror that is scary, not because its indifferent or hates you, but because of how much it ADORES you. the terror of something that loves you so much that it destroys reality to get to you. Just... eldritch horror as a writhing, endless, all consuming love. That has always scared me more.

[royal-royel]

Eldritch horror and just everything eldritch is so underrated

[MrMegaMaster_Mind]

Thanos: I am inevitable
Cthulhu: And I’m ineffable

[TheDalston]

You say that before familiarity or comfort humans want power, and I agree that power is something most people strive for. But I think Lovecraft stories show that even before the lust of power humans have an even more basic and deeper desire. If you put a box on the table and leave a person in a room they will look at the box and try to figure out what's in it even with no chance at power. I think humans have a thirst for knowledge and an intense curiosity that demands answers, and that power comes as a byproduct of that curiosity.

[Angelfyre.]

Lovecraft is really talented at making your brain come up with the looks, he never explains it, he gives you only enough details for you to come up with it in your mind. Our brains come up with the horrors we believe not what the author believes is horrific.

[salamandersharp]

the static filter on top of the moving images on your videos makes me think my screen is dirty

[aweeb]

I freaking love your style! Your voice really compliments your character of that narrator robot! This is the first of your videos I stumbled across and I absolutely loved it! Keep up the great work man!

[RJ_Ehlert]

Is anyone else the kind of person who paused the video at 1:21 to look up where "vigintillions" fits in the orders of magnitude of numbers?

[aeternusdoleo]

"Ineffable" is an excuse for a lack of creativity. People have had to create words and descriptions for new concepts many times. Language, at its core, is meant to convey concepts.
The concept of Ch'tulu is that of a destructive force, a predator of, and for existence. Powerful to the point that existence itself is at risk. You as an individual human are insignificant compared to it, and likely far beneath it's attention.

[TheVoidSoul]

A rift/tear in space and time, leading to where time and space is not.

[QA]

He was just great at making things horrifying vague as possible. XD

[TimTheFantastic]

0:54 As soon as I saw the door I knew it was Cthulhu, that big shape looks like an octopus
1:27 I KNEW IT WAS PRONOUNCED RIL-YAY, I KNEW HOW TO PRONOUNCE YAHWEH AND KNOW I GOT CONFORMATION I KNOW HOW TO RPONOUNCE R'LYEH
4:47 uwu, vewy shy
7:20 Temple of Cthulhu

[mandalorianhunter]

Hope we keep getting more horror content, glad I subscribed to you two years ago