Octopus & Propaganda

[o.vulgaris]

umm... I guess I'll start with The outsider, the title sound's catchy, hehe.
has anyone read the art of deception?

 

[nanoteuthis]

umm... I guess I'll start with The outsider, the title sound's catchy, hehe.
has anyone read the art of deception?

THE OUTSIDER is a good choice. It's short, and even though it isn't a Mythos tale, it will give you a taste of HPL's unique style, which is a "love it or hate it" sort of thing.

When you read the story, bear in mind that Lovecraft himself had a sad childhood, with an unbalanced mother who dressed him as a girl, refused to hug or kiss him, and was constantly telling him things like "You are hideous." Many might disagree with me, but I believe THE OUTSIDER comes closer than any of his other stories to expressing the alienation he felt as a little boy. This adds a distinct touch of poignancy to its horror.

Let us know what you think of it.

Nope, haven't read THE ART OF DECEPTION. Intriguing title, though -- why am I thinking that whenever and wherever it was written, the author must've been a politician

The Tanster

 

[o.vulgaris]

Nope, haven't read THE ART OF DECEPTION. Intriguing title, though -- why am I thinking that whenever and wherever it was written, the author must've been a politician

nope try again, think along the lines of someone called kevin mitnick.

 

[tonmo]

The octopus as an oppressive micro-manager:

http://www.lava.net/~pritchet/octopus.htm

 

[Clem]

Tony,

Eek, that's a good (and bad) one. It seems to be a comparative rarity, using an octopus to depict an individual. Perhaps the artist sat through one too many viewings of "The Little Mermaid." Ms. Lindsey must have been a quite capable operator; the octopus image suggests a measure of grudging respect.

:|

Clem

 

[Tentacular!]

The worst thing about being offline for 2 days out of 7 is the Tonmo catchup on Monday morning!

Hey Tentacular, don't be ashamed of your work as a teuthsome rubber-clad dominatrix! As a matter of fact, I am a tall voluptuous swordswoman who wears a metal bra and tunic, breathes fire, mixes it up with gods, and throws a mean chakram.

You go girl!!!

Cthulhu is a recurring character in the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. There are some at TONMO who actively worship Cthulhu and take pride in being his minions. Steer clear of them.

Some of us actively worship Cthulhu with dice and character sheets. Ooops... 1d20 san loss.

 

[nanoteuthis]

"My father used to tell me I had an octopus-complex... Analogies fail, but I am capable of behaving like an eight-armed cephalopod while protesting the innocence of my two arms on the table". JW

Sounds like this frat guy I dated a couple of times....

 

[Clem]

Two more French-language evocations of monopolistic excess, featuring our friend le pieuvre.

http://mdh.limoges.free.fr/support/fsg2002/manif92.JPG

http://macalecole.free.fr/TALC/Images/1_m_ms_pieuvre.jpg

:|

Clem

 

[Tentacular!]

Oh my god. A Bill Gates/octopus hybrid. Now that is truly horrifying.

 

[o.vulgaris]

Oh my god. A Bill Gates/octopus hybrid. Now that is truly horrifying.

oh god... :|

 

[Clem]

"The Arms of the Octopus" appeared as an advertisement in The Journal of Syphilis(!), paid for by Squibb Brothers, in 1943. Since the publication's readership scarcely needed such a graphic depiction of the disease's vectors, it might have been used in a much larger campaign, directed at a very large population: American servicemen fighting and working abroad. One can scarcely argue with the goal of STD prevention, yet the illustration remains a truly bizarre piece of public-health propaganda. If the illustrated vignettes were to be arranged into a coherent narrative, it might go something like this:

Once upon a time, a strapping American Officer met and fell in love with a wholesome young American (blonde) girl. They had moony-eyed conversations in cafes, danced in the evenings and afternoons were spent sitting chastely on the girl's parents' couch.

The Officer went overseas and spent a night with a foreign (dark-haired) woman of ill-repute.

He contracted syphilis and went to jail.

THE END

Clem

 

[WhiteKiboko]

i found two cartoons in my book Dr Seuss Goes to War, comprised of his political cartoons from PM....

one has a octo (unfortunately of the goose stepping sort)

the other nautil-ish

quite disappointing that the man who brought us the sneetches casts cephs in such a disreputable manner, but no ones perfect (his cartoons dealing with the japanese make this clear enough)

my apologies for the less than perfect scans, i dont want to hurt the book's spine

 

[Clem]

WK,

Those are truly excellent drawings. (Thanks for risking the book's binding to post them.) Given Hitler's propensity to use octopus metaphors when referring to Jews, Seuss (Geisel) must have taken some delight in turning the weapon back on the Nazis.

The nautiloid character "V. Gayda" shown writing for Mussolini is one Virginio Gayda, editor of Il Giornale d'Italia, one of fascist Italy's house organs. Gayda is also the author of this memorable quote:

"Culture is necessary, but it must be alive and not too much of it."



Clem

 

[WhiteKiboko]

"Culture is necessary, but it must be alive and not too much of it."

have we found a slogan for this forum?

i tend to view gayda as a sort of goebbels lite in a watered-down verison of the axis....

ill keep my eyes open to see if i missed any in the book, and might just thumb through geisel's other works for any octos...

 

[Phil]

Here is a great WW2 propaganda poster called 'Victory through Airpower' depicting an American eagle swooping on the Japanese octopus. Apparantly issued by Disney in 1943, it is most un-Disney like.