History YMMV / TheCallOfCthulhu

** It should be considered a case of TechnologyMarchesOn, at the time of the writing a steamboat could be considered the largest vehicle and man-made object, if the story was written in the curent days, a [[NukeEm nuclear weapon]] could be used for the same effect, as written in the [[TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu RPG game]]: ''"So what happens if you nuke Cthulhu? He reforms ten minutes later, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but now]] [[FromBadToWorse he's]] [[InfernalRetaliation radioactive]]!"''

%%Unfortunate Implications require citation from reputable sources * UnfortunateImplications: Considering at the time of writing, Lovecraft held some questionable views on the subject of race, the story can be seen as fear-mongering about immigration and the influence of foreign aliens on the civilised culture of the pure white race; thematically, Cthulhu himself is a metaphor for said influence, and the only way to curb that influence is to deport him back to where he came from, making it no surprise that Cthulhu is defeated via boat. It certainly doesn't help that all of the 'heroes' of the story are white men of high social stature, while all the cultists are described as "mongrels" or "half-castes" or in terms of racial epithets like "Lascar", "Kanakas" or "Eskimo".

* UnfortunateImplications: Considering at the time of writing, Lovecraft held some questionable views on the subject of race, the story can be seen as fear-mongering about immigration and the influence of foreign aliens on the civilised culture of the pure white race; thematically, Cthulhu himself is a metaphor for said influence, and the only way to curb that influence is to deport him back to where he came from, making it no surprise that Cthulhu is defeated via boat. It certainly doesn't help that all of the 'heroes' of the story are white men of high social stature, while all the cultists are described as "mongrels" or "half-castes" or in terms of racial epithets like "Lascar", "Kanakas" or "Eskimo".

* {{Narm}}: While the colorful and vividly grotesque descriptions of various nightmares, alien cities and otherworldly horrors are indeed powerful, it loses a bit of its punch when the narrator describes most characters of colour the same way.

* HarsherInHindsight: The return of the Great Old Ones is described as when the earth would "flame with a holocaust of ecstacy and freedom". Post World War II, that line sounds a lot more frightening. (It should be noted that Holocaust before the Nazis meant "burnt offering to God," although it had been used in reference to genocides going back to the early 20th century.)

* HarsherInHindsight: The return of the Great Old Ones is described as when the earth would "flame with a holocaust of ecstacy and freedom". Post World War II, that line sounds a lot more frightening.

*** "[[''VideoGame/Doom'' That can't be good!]]"

*** "[[Doom That can't be good!]]"

*** [[DoomFranchise "That can't be good!"]]

*** [[VideoGame/Doom "That can't be good!"]]

*** [[Doom "That can't be good!"]]

* ValuesDissonance: The non-white cultists are described in terms that make them sound more like savage animals than human beings. Lovecraft's depiction of the cultists isn't much different than, say, Creator/DWGriffith's perception of "The Negro" in ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915''.

* CommonKnowledge: Like many of Lovecraft's creations, Cthulhu was ''never'' portrayed in his stories as a particularly powerful combatant. He was intimidating because of the influence he held, his alien incomprehensibility, his near immortality, and the fact that his mere presence is a BrownNote, not because he could NoSell conventional weapons or end cities by snapping his fingers. He wasn't even one of the stronger Great Old Ones. As a result his depiction here can contrast quite sharply with his image in pop culture.

* ValuesDissonance: The non-white cultists are described in terms that make them sound more like savage animals than human beings. Lovecraft's depiction of the cultists isn't much different than, say, [[Film/TheBirthOfANation1915 D.W. Griffith's]] perception of "The Negro."

* {{Narm}}: While the colorful and vividly grotesque descriptions of various nightmares, alien cities and otherworldly horrors are indeed powerful, it loses a bit of its punch when we see the narrator describe almost every non-Caucasian in the exact same way.

* MainstreamObscurity: Cthulhu is easily the most well-known of the [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos titular mythos']] entities and as the story where he is first introduced, ''The Call of Cthulhu'' is arguably Lovecraft's most well known work nowadays, but the pool of people who actually know of the story further than the title and that Cthulhu is in it or Cthulhu's actual relevance in the story is much smaller.

* DeathOfTheAuthor: Cthulhu is actually one of the only entities Lovecraft himself illustrated, where he (or technically, a statuette of him) is [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Cthulhu_sketch_by_Lovecraft.jpg depicted as having multiple scattered eyes and a very rotund body]]. Almost all fan-art of Cthulhu tends to completely ignore this, usually giving him only with two symmetrical eyes and having a slim or muscular body.

* UnfortunateImplications: Considering at the time of writing, Lovecraft held some questionable views on the subject of race, the story can be seen as fear-mongering about immigration and the influence of foreign aliens on the civilised culture of the pure white race; thematically, Cthulhu himself is a metaphor for said influence, and the only way to curb that influence is to deport him back to where he came from, making it no surprise that Cthulhu is defeated via boat. It certainly doesn't help that all of the "heroes" of the story are white men of high social stature, while all the cultists are described as "mongrels" or "half-castes" or in terms of racial epithets like "Lascar" or "Eskimo".