Humans Are Cthulhu: Difference between revisions

Humanity isn't always on the [[Puny Earthlings|low end of the cosmic totem pole]]. If a story takes the point of view of [[Talking Animal|animals]] or relatively weak or primitive non-humans, there'll be a [[Perspective Flip]] related to [[Clarke's Third Law]] where [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|modern humans]] -- excuse us; '''''MAN''''' -- shall be seen as unnaturally and [[Humans Are Ugly|nauseatingly]] ''[[Eldritch Abomination|inconceivable]]''.

To meet this trope, the non-humans must consider either individual (completely normal) Man or the Man's civilization as a whole to be:

* Something akin to a [[Physical God]], [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] or [[Eldritch Abomination]].

* Alien to the planet, despite being born of it. Subject to [[Gaia's Vengeance]]. Human culture is [[Humanity Is Infectious|likely considered infectious]] and bad.

One exception to this treatment happens when some non-humans, [[Children Are Special|usually children]], become [[Pals with Jesus|pals with a human]], again [[A Boy and His X|usually another child.]] The contact is treated [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|as an exception rather than a rule]], in that ''this one human'' is different and [[Rousseau Was Right|kind]], while still considering revealing themselves to ''Man'' as a whole as endangering themselves. The non-humans who engage in this contact may or may not have their society's sanction to do so -- it may be verboten and seen as risky, or alternately a [[Broken Masquerade|useful tradition]] where they [[Bond Creatures|selectively reveal themselves to worthy humans]]. There are advantages to getting on a [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?|god's good side]], after all.

See also [[Humans Through Alien Eyes]] and [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]. In a way we are [[The Fair Folk]] and/or the [[Uncanny Valley]] to others in this trope.

* This seems to be how the bees initially view humanity in ''[[Bee Movie]]'', though that starts to change after the protagonist [[Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?|talks to a human]].

* In ''[[Rango]]'', it's subtle but pervasive: humans with modern technology are treated like incomprehensible gods. Something mundane like a road is strange and incomprehensible enough to become integral to a spirit quest, seeing Las Vegas and it's sprinklers is like a vision of a cyclopian city, we have enough water to just dump it in the desert, artifacts like pipes are treated as a [[Cargo Cult]], and the Spirit of the West...takes the form of Clint Eastwood in a golf cart, with Oscars as the Golden Guardians.

** This is especially strange since the appearance of fellow human [[David Hasselhoff]] has a decidedly non-eldritch tone.

*** Which makes sense, [[Fridge Brilliance|because the "cyclops" is wearing a diving suit, so they might not recognise him as Human.]]

== Literature ==

* ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' and ''[[White Fang]]'', at least, have the wolves consider humans as gods--but not all of them are evil, and White Fang manages to develop a positive relationship with a benevolent human. On the other hand, Buck {{spoiler|killing a human at the end of ''Call of the Wild'' completes his transformation into a wild beast, realizing that they are just as mortal as any other prey.}}

* The short story ''[http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-menageriechildsfable/ Menagerie: A Child's Fable]'' (which is actually not at all meant for children) is about a group of animals in a pet shop who figure out a way to escape their cages once the owner of the shop mysteriously vanishes, and form their own society. The animals, especially the owner's dog, view their master as a god who has abandoned them, despite the fact that he was horribly cruel, and at the end the dog wonders if their society crumbled because of their losing faith that he would return.

* ''[[Watership Down]]''. Humans are portrayed as a force of nature and their influence is everywhere. Every single plot point in the books and the state of all four warrens somehow relates to humans. For example, the entire justification for Efrafa's police-state regime is to conceal its existence from Men. In addition, the description of the human technology that threatens the first warren is Lovecraftian in style, and fiver's mystical visions warning him of the coming of humans (a presumably unintentional paralell with the actual story "The Call of Cthulhu") emphasize this perspective.

* ''[[The Plague Dogs]]'', by the same author. At one point, the fugitive dogs discuss whether or not it's possible that humans can communicate across great distances. While they eventually conclude that it's a silly idea, they mention lots of other things -- like making the sun shine indoors just by touching a wall -- that demonstrate just how many "miracles" (from the canine perspective) we perform every day, without even thinking about it.

{{quote|"I now estimate there are between 100 and 150 Fingers on the planet".}}

* Wonderfully evoked in the short story ''The Horror Out of Time'' by Randall Garrett, which appeared in his 1980 anthology of pastiches, ''Takeoff!'' In the typical Lovecraftian manner it is a first-person account of the narrator's discovery of prehistoric ruins on an island recently lifted from the floor of the sea, his entry into what appears to be a temple there -- and the mind-breakingly horrific sight of the crucifix, complete with Christ figure, that he finds on its back wall, at which point the reader finally realizes the narrator is not a Victorian human, but some other type of creature which evolved long after mankind disappeared:

{{quote|The creature's horrible five-fingered hands and five-toed feet were ''nailed firmly to a great stone cross!''}}

* Clifford Simak's ''City''.

* Averted in ''A Rustle in the Grass'' by Robin Hawdon, a novel about ants told in a [[Heroic Fantasy]] style. Only one old ant has even heard legends of humans ("If such creatures exist, our activities would be but a rustle in the grass to them"), and the other ants scoff when scouts return with wild reports of a giant creature standing in the middle of the river without being swept away. Although the campfire lit by the man later proves crucial in fending off an invasion by a more aggressive species of ant, the man himself is regarded as neither good nor evil, but simply a colossal beast with strange abilities.

* Alan Dean Foster's science fiction trilogy ''[[The Damned]]'' has two vast coalitions of aliens at war with each other for millenia across the Milky Way. One faction (the good-guy underdogs) discovers Earth and finds that compared to every other known intelligent species modern-day humans are unbelievably fast and strong and savage, both physically and psychologically (none of the other species is particularly good at the concept of "waging war"). They ultimately decide they have no choice but to recruit humanity to their cause anyway, knowing that once the war is won they'll have a very dangerous situation on their hands trying to figure out how to live safely with their allies.

** His short story ''With Friends Like These...'' takes a look at the theme from another angle. Ages ago, the old galactic civilization deemed humanity too dangerous and [[The Wall Around the World|sealed off Earth]] until it became a myth, but now aliens needs Mankind's skill at battle against another alien race. So a few representatives go to Earth, see a quiet pastoral culture relaxing in a hammock, and ask the "mythical creatures" to help. Cue the [[Freak-Out|little shock]] when aliens see {{spoiler|that humans are so calm because their hammock is [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|too high]] on [[Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun and Profit|The Kardashev Scale]] to worry. Not only have humans evolved psionic powers and are in telepathic contact with various other mammalian species (which presumably they [[Uplift|Uplifted]]), not only is the whole planet filled with machinery and computers for miles below the surface, but ''the entire freaking planet Earth (with moon) breaks orbit to follow the aliens' starship''!}}.

* Mike Resnick's novella ''[[wikipedia:Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge|Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge]]'' follows a group of alien archaeologists studying Earth after the fall of the vast, tyrannical Empire of Man and extinction of the feared human race.

* [[Stephen King]]'s short story ''[[wikipedia:I Am the Doorway|I Am The Doorway]]'' (appears in the collection ''[[Night Shift]]'') combines this with [[Eldritch Abomination]] when a Lovecraftian alien invades the body of an astronaut and makes him do unspeakable things to his fellow men. It is eventually revealed that the creature is behaving this way because [[Go Mad From the Revelation|it finds humans just as horrifying]] as humans find it.

** Also in ''[[From a Buick 8]]'' there is a mutual exchange of absolute revulsion and horror {{spoiler|as the intelligent beings that dwell through the Buick's portal find humans as mind-rapingly alien and horrible as the humans find them}}.

* In ''Saturn's Children'' by [[Charles Stross]], humanity died out long ago and left behind a race of intelligent robots that took its place. The book deals with a plot by a consortium of wealthy robots who are trying to recreate a living human, which could have cataclysmic effects on robot society because obedience to humans is still hard-coded into their programming. A military organization called the "Pink Police" is dedicated to ensuring that something like this never happens.

** Biological matter ('pink goo replicators') is viewed by the robots with approximately the same horror as [[Grey Goo|nanotech]] in some modern sci-fi: ''there's no off switch and every single cell contains its own repair/reproduction machinery!''

* The Toad series by Australian Author Morris Gleitzmen is about a toad named Limpy's plans to save his family from the wrath of humans.

* There's a short story out there called "The Hunters" where the world is invaded by ferocious and pitiless aliens who relentlessly destroy all of civilization. [[The Reveal]] is that {{spoiler|this is another planet, and the invading aliens are actually human conquerors}}.

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

** Exposure to humans exacerbates the condition of "domestication", which dulls the senses and causes a general loss of survival knowledge.

* Someone made the case that [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7134170#post7134170 Parson is an eldritch abomination to the people of] ''[[Erfworld]]''. Forbidden knowledge, ability to break the (for them) set-in-stone physical laws of Erfworld, has already lived for thousands upon thousands of turns, unholy intelligence and learning - face it, he is Nyarlathotep.

** Also, there are words in his language that cannot be uttered in their universe. Specifically, even mild swears are automatically censored. And then he [[Precision F-Strike|broke that restriction]] ''by sheer force of will.''

* [http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2007/10/festive-lobotomy/ This] strip of ''[[Amazing Super Powers]]''.

* ''[[Off White]]'': The wolf Gebo, upon seeing a human with a gun on a horse, interprets this as a two headed elk with a voice like thunder.

* "The User" in ''[[Re Boot]]''. They rail against his/her taste in games, but come season 3, he/she does the right thing and restores mainframe from its grim and gritty state. Expanding on that, the sprites respect and fear it, being a dangerous entity who challenges them in games and occasionally creates viruses, but at the same time [[Thank the Maker|sends upgrades and stuff to help the people out]].

** To be fair, the User probably doesn't know that winning a video game would reduce the entire sector it landed in to rubble and its inhabitants to mindless leech things.

** Also in ''[[South Park]]'', this time with "sea monkey" brine shrimp, in the episode aptly named "Simpsons Did It".

* Played in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' with Lisa's tooth city in the Treehouse of Horror short "The Genesis Tub".

== [[Real Life]] ==

* See the [[Humans Are Cthulhu/Fridge|Fridge]] tab for more ideas.

* There's a theory that Centaurs (half-men, half-horses) were inspired by sights of the first horse-riding peoples who tore through Greece and terrorized the locals.

* Some Native Americans had legends about "pale skinned people who would come from the sea foam". As such, the European invaders were mistaken for these mythological people.