H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu - The Most Merciful Thing - Sadler's Lectures

Sadler's Lectures - A podcast by Lectures on classic and contemporary philosophical texts and thinkers by Gregory B. Sadler

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This lecture discusses key ideas from the early 20th century weird and horror story writer, H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a classic work of cosmic horror and absolutely central to what will later come to be called the Cthulhu mythos. It focuses specifically on what he calls, in the first line of the story, "the most merciful thing", namely, "the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." Lovecraft continues: "We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Read The Call of Cthulhu - https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx

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