Another Peek Beneath the Duct Tape: "Octopus Vulgaris"

First, a quick note about the title: Octopus vulgaris is the official scientific name of the common octopus; once I learned that, I knew I'd never find a more perfect title.

As for the story itself, if you've been reading my blog, you know it was inspired primarily by several pictures from the Cthulhu Lhust list on Model Mayhem - which was, in turn, inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It's not necessary for you to have read any of Lovecraft's short stories to enjoy "Octopus Vulgaris," but if you know a bit about the Cthulhu mythos, you can appreciate my story on a deeper level. If you're interested in learning more, this Wikipedia article is a good primer.

As you can see, I'm playing pretty fast and loose with the original material, but let's face it: for the most part Lovecraft tended to ignore females, both human and nonhuman, in his stories. And considering what a big stick he had up his ass about race, I shudder to think what he would have thought about sexual minorities. So naturally, I had to make a few...tweaks...to fashion a Cthulhu mythos story suitable for my particular audience.

I also took inspiration from a number of other sources:

• Megan's beach house is a slightly fancier version of one I actually stayed in as a child. I only realized after I started writing that its octagonal shape made it that much more perfect for my story.
  
• The scrapbooking bit arose from a series of reunions I've had in recent years with some college friends, two of whom had developed an interest in scrapbooking and who dragged the rest of us, much against our will, into a scrapbooking store once and only once. And yes, I did titillate those friends with the news that I wrote fetish erotica and posted it online. But you know me; I absolutely refused to provide details or a URL. They're still wondering today. ;-)
  
• The barroom flirtation was inspired by a scene from Kissing Jessica Stein, which played much cuter than mine and which concluded, as you can imagine, rather differently. Still, in the long run, I think the men in my story ended up more satisfied than the ones in Jessica's. ;-)
  
• Clark Ashton Smith was a friend and contemporary of Lovecraft's who, like many of Lovecraft's friends, adopted and expanded the Cthulhu mythos in his own works. In fact, I actually discovered him several years before I discovered HPL. The Abominations of Yondo is a real book that I loved as a teen, though I have no idea whether or not it would hold up to my adult scrutiny. I had to use Wikipedia to remind myself of the story titles and this page to reconstruct the cover I remembered. Anyway, if you're interested, I've discovered that pretty much Smith's entire oeuvre is now available online at The Eldritch Dark. One of these days, I'm going to check back in there and see if I still like him as much as I used to. If you get there before me, let me know what you think.
  
• I had only decided on earth's ultimate fate a few seconds before I remembered that Peter F. Hamilton used a similar plot device in a six-book SF epic called the "Night's Dawn" series. Now I have no idea whether I came up with my version on my own or whether I was subliminally influenced by Hamilton. Don't you hate it when that happens? Anyway, if you're interested, the books are very much worth reading even though Hamilton isn't very gay-friendly. The only non-straight characters in his entire vast universe are the 27th-century version of Satanists. :-/
  
• Now here are a handful of odds and ends that weren't cool enough to post as Tentacular Teases but which did aid me in my research and which you might enjoy if you have a few minutes to spare: a photo of strands of octopus eggs,a video of an octopus chasing down and eating a crab, then inking, a video of - no kidding - the Vampire Squid from Hell (okay, so it's not an octopus, but it's still a very cool video once you get past all the annoying title cards). As for the reverse-giraffe look Howard sports in one scene, I honestly did see a picture of an octopus with that pattern; but I can't for the life of me find it anymore. Sorry.
  

And finally, serendipity has just brought me back to this fondly remembered but long-lost Cthulhu religious tract. What a perfect way to end your Sunday, eh?