Home
Artists
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register
Partychan Telegram ThePornDude
Home Artists Posts Import Register

Patron Deities, Episode 33: Cthugha to Deep Ones (Patreon)

Published:
2019-01-30 23:33:39
Imported:
2023-12
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Our exploration of the Cthulhu Mythos continues with an episode in which I ... kind of come down on the side of the Deep Ones? I dunno, this went to a weird place. 

Comments

Anonymous

I liked your thoughts on a modern reading of Shadow but wondered how it fits with current ideas on identity which often focus on choice more than nature/inheritance. The protagonist in Shadow embraces an identity that is forced on him - he is not really in control of his own identity and joining his genetic kin is the only option available to him rather than a free choice. His enthusiasm reminds me of Stoic fatalism - a dog tied to a cart can either trot happily with the cart or be dragged; better therefore to trot, as the end result is the same and the only thing is the individual’s control is how to approach the inevitable. On the off chance you don’t know this already, John Eric Holmes, author of the original Basic Set, first presented Lovecraft for D&D in an early Dragon. Holmes was a Lovecraft fan and his own campaign contained many Lovecraftian elements. There’s a good overview of Lovecraft in early D&D in the Zenopus Archives blog. Keep up the good work.

monsterman
>>19492268

I have looked at that Holmes article -- maybe we'll revisit it in a later episode! I agree with you that Lovecraft's view of identity is very different to how we see it today. I don't know that we *completely* view identity as a choice -- it's a midpoint between something you do and something that is done to you. I think we're meant to read the Shadow narrator's enthusiasm as chilling madness, but I think that fatalism also works. Still, though, I think it reflects a pretty common fear that given a choice between being a nobody and being a monster, quite a lot of people would choose monster.

Anonymous

I totally agree with your comment that identify lies somewhere at the intersection between how we view ourselves and how others perceive us, with the weight given to each viewpoint varying depending on what particular identity we are laying claim to, and I think your reading of Shadows from a Lovecraftian perspective is spot on. I think I was somewhat inarticulately trying to reflect on your variant reading of the story from the perspective of a member of a marginalised group and trying to tie it into my experience as a secondary school teacher. Among many of my students, the dominant concept of identity seems to me to emphasise the element of personal choice, which fits in with a broader emphasis on individual agency (perhaps as a reaction to their comparative powerlessness in many aspects of their lives). From this perspective, I felt the ‘choice’ forced on the protagonist still retained its horror, even when divorced from HPL’s racist viewpoint. Your podcast has forced me to reconsider my views on HPL’s work - I have always enjoyed CoC more than the stories on which the game is based - and think harder about how to read the stories from a modern perspective.