Of H.P. Lovecraft and Winston Churchill

"The Cimmerian" blog recently published this interesting article entitled "R'lyeh's Finest Hour?" It analyzes a shocking similarity between statements by UK wartime leader Winston Churchill and H.P. Lovecraft. The Anglophilic Lovecraft would've been flattered beyond words to see his opening lines from "The Call of Cthulhu" mentioned in the same breath--and a lengthy one at that--as Churchill's most earnest attempts to rally a nation to arms.

The most startling possibility suggested in this piece is the slim, but not entirely impossible notion that some of Churchill's selected words were inspired by the late Lovecraft. Perhaps this is something S.T. Joshi and other talented scholars in the field of Lovecraft studies should cross-study. Though the possibility is unlikely, as "Cimmerian" writer Steve Tompkins points out, Churchill was well aware of literature from across the Anglosphere, including the supernatural variety. The possibility of Lovecraft as a mover of history and international politics in an age of tremendous uncertainty--or at least the words behind them--is
very exciting.

Even more exciting, however, is the spectral chance that subsequent politicians across the West (and perhaps beyond) could have been inspired in their choice of words by Lovecraft's work. Let the scanning of speeches begin!

-Grim Blogger