Okay, so some time ago I posted about a band called The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets and linked to their song "Yig Snake Daddy". I've since bought their album "Cthulhu Strikes Back", the cover of which is a cool take-off on "Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back" and is full of great, sci-fi/horror/Lovecraft-based surf punk. One of my favorite pieces is an 11-minute audio feast called "Cthulhu Dreams". It's worth a listen, and headphones make it better. Particularly cool listening on a lonely, late night train from London to Portsmouth.
Anyway, this morning as I'm making breakfast for the kids, I have this song playing. My oldest, who has a vague idea of what Cthulhu looks like (enough to draw sketches and make lego figures) asks if he's some sort of "sea monster". Instead of saying yes, I tried to explain that Cthulhu and his merry band of beings are instead a sort of metaphor to demonstrate mankind's utter insignificance in the cosmos at large.
Surprisingly (or maybe not so) he got it, and the conversation carried on to using "scary stories" to teach morals, like "That monkey paw story you told me, or Frankenstein". It was pretty cool.
He told me he sort of likes scary stories, and maybe he'd want to read some of my H. P. Lovecraft books that he's seen down in the basement. I told him since he chose to read The Hobbit for his last independent reading assignment in school, I think he could take a crack at Lovecraft. He seemed excited.
Always happy to convert a new minion. In this case, it took a sort of catechism (or, Cthulhuchism) to make it happen. I always knew Sunday School had a place in the lives of children.
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2 comments:
ways nice to see kids intereste in literature!
Oops. That's "always nice"
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