Our Daily Lovecraft – Day 9

“My impulse to visit and enter the temple has now become an inexplicable and imperious command which ultimately cannot be denied.”
(The Temple, pg.101)

Welcome back to Our Daily Lovecraft. Glad to have you partake of the madness.
If you’re just joining us, you can start your Lovecraftian journey here!

“The Cats of Ulthar”

It is against the law for anyone to kill a cat in the land of Ulthar. Why? Well, once upon a time a nasty old man and woman lived in a hut and they hated cats. Hated them to the point that they would essentially torture them to death if they caught one. When one day a band of traveling folk came through town, a young boy’s black kitten went missing that night. After hearing about these two awful old people, he prayed to his gods, and the night the travelers left, all the cats in the town went missing. They

returned later on, fat and happy – and no one ever heard from the old folks again.

SPOILER ALERT: The cats ate them.

And that’s why no one is to kill a cat in Ulthar. Although, to be fair, it seems like at that point the cats are going to take care of the problem themselves. Unless the god in charge of all that gets angry people are still dumb enough to kill cats and does something even more drastic. Although in my own cheeky way I thought it interesting that the boy’s prayers to his god worked for revenge against the killing of his kitten, yet there was nothing to be done about the plague that killed his parents. Selective gods doing their selective thing, I suppose.

It’s a solid creepy tale that, like so many it seems, remind readers not to be mean to cats. It’s actually rather fascinating to see how many horror stories feature cats in supernatural fashion. Maybe we’re all on to something but we’re just too afraid to admit it. Perhaps Egypt had it right when it came to cats after all.

“The Temple”

This was an interesting tale

in that I never really expected a U-boat to come into play in a Lovecraft story. Goes to show how much about Lovecraft I know. The focus here is again the main character’s descent into madness, though it has some disjointedness and unanswered questions. After bombing a British freighter and taking no prisoners, the German submarine U-29 is found to have a dead man stuck on its hull. They pull him off and discover a carved ivory figure on him.

Long story short – the engine explodes, U-29 is adrift, and everyone on the sub loses their minds. Most of them are dealt with by the superior officers. Some are whipped. A lot of them are shot. One commits suicide. Until there is only one man left while U-29 slowly sinks to the bottom floor. It finally rests on the remains of an old city, right beside a temple. As provisions and batteries dwindle, eventually the narrator espies lights inside the temple and decides, “What the hell?” and leaves his story unfinished as he lets the reader know he’s going to venture out and see what’s up.

While the supernatural elements are indeed odd both in choice and connection (i.e. the ivory figure is never fully explained, we’re not sure if this force is malevolent, etc.), the concept is unsettling. A few times the narrator is stuck inside the sub. In the dark. On the bottom of the ocean. If that’s not uncomfortable, I’m not sure what is. I know my sister would hate this story simply because the idea of being on a submarine freaks her out. You’re in a small metal tube with the weight of the ocean surrounding you. Not exactly a comforting thought. You’re also left wondering – what did the narrator find out there? Was he truly crazy or did he stumble upon something genuinely mystical?

We’ll never know. But I do think it’s becoming more and more apparent that Lovecraft definitely has a thing for the sea and civilizations beneath it. It makes me wonder just what spurred on this unique fascination of his…

Featured image © Nicole Taft