PZ Myers. 2005 Nov 30. Enslave your friends, destroy your enemies. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/enslave_your_friends_destroy_your_enemies/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 04.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Enslave your friends, destroy your enemies

In addition to the Berenstain Bears, my kids were nuts about Lego…but we never saw this set on sale (4MB QuickTime movie).

Posted by PZ Myers on 11/30 at 09:42 AM
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  1. See, this just means your kids didn't have enough imagination when playing with Legos. They probably constructed the Lego-mobiles exactly as they were instructed to.

    Some of us, even when we were kids, tampered with the commandments of Lego-God. We made up our own constructions, weird chthonic Escherian erections that defied the laws of space and time. At least, if we hit the Legos hard enough.

    Little surprise, then, that the unspeakable evil that is Cthulu (oops, I spoke it) has impinged upon the minds of the young and impressionable and creative. They who cannot be named can in fact be constructed in Lego form, and this horror cannot stand. Well, actually, it can, despite protestations by H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft little knew the evil that Legos can wreak upon an unsuspecting world!
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  10:46 AM
  2. minor nitpick...
    The unnameable one is Hastur.

    Cthulhu is just a high priest...
    Nyarlathotep (black goat with thousand young) and 'he who can not be named' are actual "dieties"

    But then I tend to do the Life of Brian routine..
    Hastur! Hastur! Hastur!

    grin

    (Yup read way too many books by Lovecraft et. al., gotta use that trivial knowledge some time.)
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  12:08 PM
  3. That is f*cking a SWEET lego set! I wonder if it is the same guy that brought us the Brick Testiment?
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  01:33 PM
  4. My son has most of those pieces. The only thing he doesn't have is the more pedestrian ones.
    #: Posted by mattH  on  11/30  at  01:46 PM
  5. As a former (all right, current) Lego enthusiast, I have to say that is awesome. It reminds me, though, of how my brother and I used to construct pedestrian scenarios and then have his pet gerbil wreak havoc on the unsuspecting (and perpetually smiling) denizens of Legoland. Apparently an idle mind, if not the devil's playground, certainly gives rise to beasties. Which leads me to conclude that if we were constructed by an intelligent designer, he'd be periodically sending funny monsters to crash our parties. Oh, wait, he is... http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=1013
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  03:01 PM
  6. Nice.

    I've got 10 kg of Lego under my bed*, but neither skeletons nor Elder Gods... I'm feeling soo cheated.

    As a side question, how do you pronounce "Cthulhu"?

    * Where else do you store 10 kg?
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  03:37 PM
  7. As a side question, how do you pronounce "Cthulhu"?


    According to the tag on my plush Mythos Monsters Cthulhu, it's pronounced kah-THOO-loo. But that requires trusting in the nice people from Chaosium, Inc. to get their Lovecraft right.
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  04:38 PM
  8. Step into the Way Back Machine ©, Sherman. According to the pre-Chaosium Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, Lovecraft pronounced it THOO-loo while others (like August Dereleth) pronounced it kah-THOO-loo or kuh-THOO-loo.

    Me, I stick w/ the HPL version.
    #: Posted by protected static  on  11/30  at  04:57 PM
  9. Thanks for the Cthulhu pronunciation history lesson. I'm a bit young to remember pre-Chaosium gaming books, and I knew that just because Chaosium's business is Lovecraft it doesn't mean they got it right.
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  05:38 PM
  10. Lovecraft pronounced it "Khlul'hloo."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu

    "Lovecraft suggested that "the first syllable [of Khlul'-hloo is] pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the gutteral thickness." (Pearsall, "CTHULHU", The Lovecraft Lexicon, pp. 301.)"
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  05:52 PM
  11. I like the small print: "Overly expressive child not included."
    #: Posted by Shannon  on  11/30  at  05:59 PM
  12. Sorry but in order to pronounce he who lies in R'yeh dead but dreaming 's name requires surgery or at least you must be half Deep One.....time to go for a midnight swim....
    #: Posted by  on  11/30  at  06:45 PM
  13. Geez Frank... Go and burst a long-held notion, willya? Harumph. And I must correct myself - it was Deities and Demigods, not the Monster Manual...

    The funny thing? There are differing accounts as to how HPL himself pronounced it.

    So, Tara? Whatever works for you is probably 'right'...
    #: Posted by protected static  on  11/30  at  07:48 PM
  14. have you seen the "Vote for Cthulu" campaign website?

    "Cthulhu for President. Why vote for a lesser evil?"

    Heh.
    #: Posted by Dan Curewitz  on  12/01  at  03:32 AM
  15. Lego is nifty alright. But I notice they have been making more and more specialized pieces. Of course, that's not all bad. Without it we couldn't have done the Robot Ethics course I did at UBC ...
    #: Posted by Keith Douglas  on  12/01  at  08:33 AM