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[truepenny]

In our upstairs hallway just now, I slew a large and Goreyesque insect with my copy of H. P. Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories.

Before I could dispose of the corpse, one of our half-grown formerly feral cats came toddling along, said, Ooh, hey! Bug! And ate it.

---

I've been meaning to post this HPL quote anyway, and this seems like the quintessentially opportune moment.

It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroë and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle's lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.

--H. P. Lovecraft, "The Cats of Ulthar"

Comments

[poukledden.livejournal.com]

Ooooo...

My name is Gregory, and I've been kinda lurking on your blog for a few weeks, enjoying your posts and keeping my mouth shut. :-) But had to pipe up with this post. That has always been one of my fav, fav Lovecraft stories. Half creeps you out, half has you rooting for the cats, and jsut plain captures the essential alienness of cats so well...

If only I had thought to use a Lovecraft book to kill the Cockroach the Size of Denmark last week, it would have been wonderful. The thing certainly had a Lovecraftian look to it...about the right size for an Old One, too.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't Hamlet have been more appropriate to kill the Cockroach the Size of Denmark?

[poukledden.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. It did seem a rather moody cockroach. But then again, it didn't have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern cockroaches tailing after it. Of course, maybe it had already sent them to England with their letters of doom...

[handworn.livejournal.com]

HAMLET THE ROACH: That is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them?

YOU: End them! [crunching sound]

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

It wasn't even a matter of thinking. It was just the book I had in my hand. And then the appropriateness hit me, and the kitten ate the bug, and well ... voilà! Blog!

[handworn.livejournal.com]

That's certainly the sound I'd have made upon seeing the cat eat the dead squashed bug.

[libskrat]

We had to move David's computer desk today so that he could take the machine to the shop. Dream meandered in, said Ooh, hey! Cobwebs! and commenced slurping them up like cotton candy.

My in-laws have this incredibly eldritch orange-eyed grey cat named alternately Silverbud for her color and Wop for the weird little "woorlp" noises she makes at intervals. The most eldritch thing about this unbelievably eldritch cat is her preternatural ability to take down crickets and katydids on the wing. Yummers, apparently.

So it isn't just your cats.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I have a cool pen-and-ink Cats of Ulthar drawing by Todd Klein that I got at Fiddler's Green.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, someone's been at the Walter Pater, haven't they? (Though presumably HPL burns with an eldritch smoky, rather than a hard gem-like, flame.)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Like all great artists, HPL did not borrow. He stole.