30 Lovecraft Memes for Mortals In Deep with the Old Ones

Ely Bulnes • Writer and Editor

Jun 20, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

Lovecraft is the father of cosmic horror— a genre of fantasy that focuses on incomprehensible horrors beyond human imagination, helplessness in the face of these horrors, and the existential despair that comes with seeking knowledge that was never meant for human minds. Lovecraft's work features beings of immense, unfathomable size and age, who wield the power to extinguish humanity and even the whole universe, simply by going on about their life normally. We are as minuscule to them as dust on the surface of our own skin. And just as we may brush a thin, barely-visible cobweb off a book, they can sweep away life as we know it in an instant.

Lesser beings in Lovecraft's mythos, though still billions of years older than humans, lie waiting dead beneath the Earth. Although, because they were never 'living,' in the sense that we know it, they are also not quite 'dead.' For millennia these ancient non-Earth beings have communicated with people through dreams and have secretly influenced humanity since its inception. Cults, madness, hidden knowledge, non-euclidean architecture— architecture that is impossible to describe or comprehend because it simply does not follow the laws of physics— are all reoccurring features in Lovecraft's work.

Lovecraft's influence can be felt across all forms of media. Authors such as Stephen King and Neil Gaiman employ many cosmic horror themes in their writings, and director Guillermo del Toro has adapted aspects of Lovecraft's mythos into his work. Video games, board games, and role-playing games like DnD regularly include homages to Lovecraftian ideas.

Don't worry, looking at these memes won't give you dreams of a city long forgotten or have you babbling in an ancient tongue. Feel free to forward your favs to your fellow Cthulhu cult members.