There is information that most are unfit to know…
This concept is at the core of many conspiracy theories. It’s a direct appeal to being special and important, two things most people value. And in this case, the information is the Necronomicon.
It’s a book of evil magic, at the core of the Mythos stories by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft has gone from being a writer whose concepts were appreciated by a comparative handful of fantasy and horror readers to a defining American author. Cthulhu and the related cosmic horrors are the subject of dozens of games, thousands of short stories and novels, comic books, and movies. Metallica wrote a song about it. There are even dozens of plush creatures and joke t-shirts.
Amidst all of the merchandising lurks one giant secret, though: Cthulhu is REAL… or so some very foolish people would have you believe. In reality, it’s more merchandising.
The idea behind the Cthulhu conspiracy is simple: Lovecraft, who claimed to have created the Necronomicon as a mystic text for a plot device of some of his stories, had in reality become familiar with rumors about such a text, or had encountered the book directly. Feeling a need to warn humanity, while simultaneously not wanting to instill an immediate panic, he wrote the Mythos stories as cover to present the truth to the world.
This explanation falls apart with even cursory challenges. Many of the scientific and geographical theories presented in the stories, plausible at the time of writing, have since been demonstrated to be wrong. Moreover, if Lovecraft were trying to present a warning to humanity, it is exceedingly unlikely he would then encourage other writer friends to make up their own books (such as Robert Bloch’s De Vermis Mysteriis or Clark Ashton Smith’s Book of Eibon). Last, it’s fairly obvious that characters mentioned by Lovecraft, most notably KlarkashTon, are merely references to his friends.
What adds seeming veracity to the conspiracy, though are the many editions of the Necronomicon which have been released through the years… often in highly decorative volumes designed to look ancient or expensive.
The fact that these editions are typically haphazard mixtures of everything from Lovecraftean Mythos stories to Wiccan and Greek myth to actual Satanism is lost on the conspiracy theorists. The reason no calamaties have ever been associated with them is that the “spells” contained within are too dangerous to actually perform.
The idea that somehow a cult member who is eager to destroy the world cannot manage to find a copy of a book that is, in some cases, available for purchase on Amazon for less than $10 does not strike them as strange.
These are the gullible. For them, various authors (especially the pseudonymous “Simon” who has a variety of Necronomicon paperbacks available) are their guides to secret knowledge… and the readers are the authors’ guides to easy money.
