Dear Editor- I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is

no Great Cthulhu. Papa says, "If you see it on Alt.Horror.Cthulhu,

it's so," Please tell me the truth, is there a Great Cthulhu who will

rise from the watery depth of the Pacific to clear the Earth of all

living things? ------Virgina Marsh

Virgina, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the

fever of enlightenment given to them by a so-called "enlightened" age.

They do not believe in anything unless it carries the weight of

scientific authority. They think that nothing can be which is not

comprehensible by their little minds. Reality is that which can be

cataloged and measured, to be spooned out in rational doses to the

common people. All minds, Virgina, whether they be adult's or

children's, are little. In this vast chaos we laughingly call the

universe, man is a mere insect, a bug, whose intellect has as much

chance of grasping the whole truth, as an ant has of understanding

non-Euclidian geometry.

Yes, Virgina, there is a Great Cthulhu. He exists as certainly as the

cold unfeelingness of the cosmos exits, and you know that this

meaninglessness abounds and gives to your life its highest absurdity.

Alas! how comfortable would be the world if there were no Cthulhu! It

would be as comforting as if a Santa Claus truly did care and reward

children for doing good. There would be childlike faith then, a world

of sweet believable poetry and romance to make existence idyllic and

appealing. The external light with which childhood fills the world

would never end.

Not believe in the Great Cthulhu! You might as well not believe in

Hastur or the Necronomicon. You might get your papa's science books

and Skeptical Inquirers to see if Cthulhu is mentioned in any

historical contexts or if R'lyeh truly does rest under the Pacific

Ocean, but even if you did not find either mentioned in your 'holy'

books, what would that prove? Nobody sees or knows of Cthulhu, but

that is no sign that there is no Great Cthulhu. The most real things

in the world are those that we can not know through the senses. Can

the headache of your friend be felt by you? No, but his pain affects

your life regardless. Do you feel the angst of living a life you never

wanted through any of your five senses? No, yet the despair remains.

Yet if such realities are known but are never seen, then why should

other's ignorance of the unseen lead us to share in their blindness. By

what right have they earned your obedience? Nobody can conceive of the

inconceivable, including your leaders of thought.

You tear apart the rattle of a baby to see what lies inside to make

such noise, but the tiny balls there can not explain or illustrate the

fear of a hostile world, that makes that baby clutch and shake that

rattle so. Only reaching for insanity can push aside the curtain of

our hopes and view with stark madness the emptiness that lies beyond.

Is that reality? Is that the truth? To give an answer is to replace

the curtain with but one more. And it is this, that makes the Great

Cthulhu as true and as real as any veil we place on the chaos beyond.

If one must create a meaning, why not the Great Cthulhu. At least the

choice is free.

Thank Azathoth! The Great Cthulhu lives and lives forever. A thousand

years from now, Virgina, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will

continue to await the time when the stars are right again. For with

those which eternal lie, with strange eons even death may die.

I stand enlightened, Mr. Lovecraft!