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Friday Fun Thread for April 14, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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With all the shoggoth talk nowadays, I finally got around to reading (listening to) At the Mountains of Madness. There were definitely some good parts, but it kind of dragged in the middle. You probably couldn't cut it down as short as The Call of Cthulhu (the only other Lovecraft I've read), but this should have been a two-and-a-half hour audiobook instead of a four-and-a-half hour audiobook. One thing I haven't seen remarked upon is that the shoggoths were created by the Elder Things to facilitate construction and economic growth before they became too powerful to control, making the metaphor quite apt.

At the Mountains of Madness is probably to the Cthulhu fanbase as the Extended Directors Cuts are to the Lord of the Rings movie fanbase. Yeah, some other Lovecraft stories were better edited, suggestive-by-subtraction, and well-paced jewels of horror (Innsmouth or Call). But at a certain point you're a super-fan and want a buffet.