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Patron Deities, Episode 37: Shoggoths (Patreon)

Published:
2019-03-26 19:34:59
Imported:
2023-12
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Ever hear tell of a shoggoth? Everyone's favourite congeries of protoplasmic bubbles (sorry, Yog-Sothoth!) is the subject of this episode of Patron Deities!

Normally, this would go up tomorrow or even Thursday, but I'm going to be on holiday so you're getting it a little early. Enjoy!

Comments

Thomas McGrenery

Tangential thoughts: I first encountered the sound 'Tekeli-li' in Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" -- so in HPL it's a nod to prior Antarctic weird fiction, similar to his use of 'Hastur' from Bierce. Do you think this would have been a well-known reference to Lovecraft's contemporary readers? And if so, how does that change the 'meaning' of the shoggoths for them?

monsterman
>>21183653

HPL certainly seems to think that "Arthur Gordon Pym" is quite a well-known story, although I don't know how true that actually was among his readership. It was certainly in print at the time, although it's not one of the greatest hit. I think it was definitely a way to remind readers of the atmosphere of another Antarctic exploration story -- and if they didn't know the original, Lovecraft's story works without it. As for the meaning of the shoggoths -- and the Old Ones -- I don't know that it really changes it other than the usual Lovecraftian thing -- it's meant to make you think that all of these things are connected and that there might be some real underlying meaning to all of this stuff. Which worked on me as a kid, by the way! The first time I ever came across the tekeli-li sound was in an issue of the old DC comic Young All-Stars, which had a whole Arthur Gordon Pym subplot at one point and didn't really contextualise any of it. I think the unusual patterns of my youthful comics reading may have contributed a lot to who I am today.

David Azzageddi

I just presented a paper on artificial bodies as representations of oppressed bodies, from Mary Shelley to Janelle Monáe, and one of the brief stops along the way was the Shoggoths. Yes, I came to the conclusion that Lovecraft was taking a dig at the descendants of former slaves, too.