Saturday, 14 May 2016
Classic Rant: A New Historical Perspective on Gygax and the Mythos
Some recent reading has led me to a kind of fascinating revelation. I certainly hadn't heard of Lovecraft or his Mythos stories until I first saw them in the AD&D Deities & Demigods book. Now, of course, there were probably many literary nerds who were quite into the Cthulhu Mythos by that time.
But really, was there a mass consciousness of these stories prior to D&D? Or was the transformation of the Cthulhu Mythos into a Geek Staple thanks directly to Deities & Demigods, and the Call of Cthulhu RPG?
Because Cthulhu has been hitting the big time in terms of pop culture these days, and that seems to be only increasing. And if my postulate is right, that means that as well as basically being the man responsible for the appearance and form of the modern computer game, at least partially responsible for the popularity of the fantasy genre in pop literature and film, it would mean that Gary Gygax was also directly responsible for the popularity of the Cthulhu Mythos.
I mean really, is there any single human being who has influenced modern pop culture in so many ways as Gary Gygax? Think about how different the entire pop-culture world would be had RPGs never been invented. Then ask yourself about how "irrelevant" RPGs are.
RPGPundit
(Originally posted November 30, 2010)
When was D&DG released, and how long did it keep the Cthulhu Mythos? I'd be inclined to give that one to Sandy Petersen, but you might be right. (Don't forget Ward and Kuntz alongside Gygax, though.)
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think so. Gygax has had almost zero influence on pop culture.
ReplyDeleteNo, I think D&D (and thus Gygax) had a lot of influence.
DeleteHonestly, H.P. lovecraft has always been a bit of a darling of the sifi fandom. The history of genre evolution makes most of the weird fiction authors kinda crossover hits in the sifi and fantasy camps. I think that the popularization of the geeky fandoms had more to do with the modern familiarity than specifically D&D.
ReplyDeleteI know this, but I'm not talking about in scifi fandom, I'm talking about the point where non-hardcore sci-fi readers started to hear about him.
DeleteHonestly, H.P. lovecraft has always been a bit of a darling of the sifi fandom. The history of genre evolution makes most of the weird fiction authors kinda crossover hits in the sifi and fantasy camps. I think that the popularization of the geeky fandoms had more to do with the modern familiarity than specifically D&D.
ReplyDeleteDeities and Demigods came out in 1980; Call of Cthulhu RPG was published the following year. Since it undoubtedly took more than a year to write, we can't say that CoC was "inspired" by the TSR book. Evidently there was something tentacular going around in the geek zeitgeist right about then. I recall that there was a new mass-market paperback edition of HPL short story collections in the early 1980s, as well.
ReplyDeleteAs the first commenter implied, I think it was Call of Cthulhu not AD&D that kicked things off. But you're right that pop culture (or geek culture) transformed everything. In, say, 1980, the average tenured English professor had never heard of Lovecraft. By 2000, he was looked upon as the 20th century's answer to Poe. This had nothing really to do with anything except changing academic fashions (this time led by pop culture).
ReplyDeleteYou mean the CoC RPG, right? And yes, I think that it's possible. Certainly, if there'd never been a CoC RPG, we wouldn't have seen what we see today.
DeleteGygax made checking for traps and perception rolls popular.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post, and I'd normally have no problem crediting ol' Gygax with yet another massive success in influencing our world, but I feel that the Pundit's analysis here falls a bit short. If anything, because it is based on the idea that Lovecraft's popularity is mostly grounded on the influence of RPGs. As a literature student, I don't know if I'd ascribe to that view, even though the industry certainly had its share of merit (I mean, it even drew *me* into it).
ReplyDeleteI find the idea debatable, but how would one go about measuring the influence of RPGs over mass culture for a topic this specific? So, for the sake of argument, let's say that yes, indeed, Lovecraft's popularity is mostly due to the RPG industry at large.
Still, according to the Pundit, this would have to come down to Gygax's choice to put Cthulhu & friends in the Deities & Demigods handbook, and I don't think that's the spark. What I am *not* saying is that the choice was uninfluential. There is no way to say that, and I'd rather give credit where it's due by supposing that the handbook played a part in making the mythos known to the RPG crowd. Yet, the post seems to affirm that Gygax was the one that "came up with the spark", and I think that's incorrect. As in, factually incorrect.
The first edition of Deities & Demigods was released on August 15, 1980. The first edition of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game came out one year later. This Grognardia article gives a very detailed overview of the process: http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/08/prehistory-of-call-of-cthulhu.html
You will note the quote by Greg Stafford, in the May/June 1980 issue of The Dungeoneer, in which he talks about "a new introductory role-playing system based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft." If that's the case, the chronology simply doesn't add up, unless Petersen had somehow access to Deities & Demigods before the publication date (which I don't think he did, but who knows!? He definitely was a D&D player at the time). I strongly suspect he had begun writing the game before 1980, if anything because these things take time, but I have no say over that.
I will also say that even in the Gygaxian circle of gamers, there is little assurance that the Lovecraft idea was a Gygax original. Check out Kuntz's biography and his 1975 Fomalhaut (unpublished).
All things considered, I wouldn't be surprised if many gamers came to know of Lovecraft and the Call of Cthulhu RPG through Deities & Demigods. I would just be way more cautious in giving Gygax specifically the bulk of the merit. The CoC RPG would probably have happened anyways, I think (but Petersen knows best) - Of course, no Gygax, no RPGs, so that's a moot point, I'm talking about the inclusion of the mythos in D&D - Would it have been as big? No way to tell.