I Cthulhu

Cthulhu is a short story based on the Cthulhu mythos. Originally published in 1986, this is one of Neil Gaiman’s earlier works. The story is written in first person point point of view. Cthulhu himself narrates the tale, orating his life story to a human named Whateley who, we infer, is supposed to be writing Cthulhu’s memoir. Cthulhu begins with his birth and takes us through his conquering of Earth and subsequent fall. As for Cthulhu’s biographer, we never really meet Whateley so to speak. He is only mentioned by Cthulhu, who gives asides to his biographer and answers the human’s questions, which we aren’t explicitly given. This works very well for the story, giving us at once a familiar set of eyes to experience the story through or with and also allowing questions to be asked and answered for us.

Neil Gaiman

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