Tag: Cthulhu

The Devil You Know.

“We have company.” Big Red, Selma, Pa Bluth, Abe Sapien, & co are back fighting Cthulhuian monstrosities (and what look to be Warcraft blood elves) in the new trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I said of the first one that del Toro deserves another chance to tell a crackling Hellboy story without being burdened with all the origin stuff. So, hopefully, this’ll be more fun from the word go.

American Problems, Kryptonian Solutions.

“Even a criminal like myself is shocked that millions are not able to get health insurance and cannot pay for basic surgery. Who are these power brokers that allow the pigpen to become wormy and filthy? I demand your very lives, but I am not such an imbecile as to institutionalize suffering and poverty. You have my assurance that this shall change swiftly.” Three years to go and the 2008 slate is already filling up. For the Dems: Hillary, Biden, Bayh, Warner, and Feingold. For the GOP: Frist, McCain, and Brownback. And, although Chris Walken first seemed to have the Indy vote locked up (let’s face it, Cthulhu‘s missed His shot), word is the inimitable General Zod is now coming on strong. Hmmm. I could definitely see him pulling a Stockdale at some point in the debate. (By way of LinkMachineGo.)

Release the Kraken.

And, would you believe it? Boss DeLay wasn’t the only nefarious and nightmarish tentacled creature to be captured in the past twenty-four hours. For the first time ever, Japanese scientists have succeeded in photographing a giant squid in its natural habitat. (I read about this late last night and had some very disturbing dreams about it. After all, there are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.) [Last link inspired by MysVamp.]

circumlocutory pleonastic flibbertigibbet!

Having already exposed Chuck Palahniuk as a (gasp!) hack, Laura Miller, Salon‘s guardian of the literary citadel, now aims to dethrone H.P. Lovecraft (and neither Cthulhu nor a number of readers are pleased). C’mon now…is that really necessary? It’s not as if Lovecraft is some endlessly promoted sacred cow of the literati — he’s just an early 20th-century spinner of pulp yarns with some cachet among the fanboy nation, one with some very Cronenberg-like hang-ups and a better flair than most at evoking unfathomable dread. What with all the goofy adjectives and leaps of hyperbole, Lovecraft is obviously an easy caricature — so why bother? Miller seems to be something of a Tolkienite and generally sympathetic to fantasy writing, so her hit here is all the more surprising. Frankly, I’d find her criticism more scintillating if she didn’t resort to shooting fish in a barrel.