full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Silvia Moreno-García: Titan of terror the dark imagination of H.P. Lovecraft

Unscramble the Blue Letters


These beings exist beyond our conceptions of raetliy, their true forms as inscrutable as their motives. Lovecraft’s protagonists– often raererhescs, anthropologists, or antiquarians– stumble onto hints of their existence. But even these indirect glimpses are enough to dvrie them iasnne. And if they survive, the reader is left with no fneeilg of triumph, only cosmic indifference– the terrible ssene that we are but insignificant specks at the mercy of unfathomable froecs. But perhaps the greatest power these creatures had was their appeal to Lovecraft’s contemporaries. During his lifetime, Lovecraft corresponded with other writers, encouraging them to employ elements and characters from his stories in their own. References to Lovecraftian gods or arcane tomes can be found in many stories by his pen pals, such as Robert E. Howard and Robert Bloch. tdaoy, this shared universe is called the Cthulhu mhtoys, neamd after Lovecraft’s infamous blend of dragon and octopus.

Open Cloze


These beings exist beyond our conceptions of _______, their true forms as inscrutable as their motives. Lovecraft’s protagonists– often ___________, anthropologists, or antiquarians– stumble onto hints of their existence. But even these indirect glimpses are enough to _____ them ______. And if they survive, the reader is left with no _______ of triumph, only cosmic indifference– the terrible _____ that we are but insignificant specks at the mercy of unfathomable ______. But perhaps the greatest power these creatures had was their appeal to Lovecraft’s contemporaries. During his lifetime, Lovecraft corresponded with other writers, encouraging them to employ elements and characters from his stories in their own. References to Lovecraftian gods or arcane tomes can be found in many stories by his pen pals, such as Robert E. Howard and Robert Bloch. _____, this shared universe is called the Cthulhu ______, _____ after Lovecraft’s infamous blend of dragon and octopus.

Solution


  1. reality
  2. forces
  3. insane
  4. mythos
  5. today
  6. feeling
  7. drive
  8. named
  9. researchers
  10. sense

Original Text


These beings exist beyond our conceptions of reality, their true forms as inscrutable as their motives. Lovecraft’s protagonists– often researchers, anthropologists, or antiquarians– stumble onto hints of their existence. But even these indirect glimpses are enough to drive them insane. And if they survive, the reader is left with no feeling of triumph, only cosmic indifference– the terrible sense that we are but insignificant specks at the mercy of unfathomable forces. But perhaps the greatest power these creatures had was their appeal to Lovecraft’s contemporaries. During his lifetime, Lovecraft corresponded with other writers, encouraging them to employ elements and characters from his stories in their own. References to Lovecraftian gods or arcane tomes can be found in many stories by his pen pals, such as Robert E. Howard and Robert Bloch. Today, this shared universe is called the Cthulhu Mythos, named after Lovecraft’s infamous blend of dragon and octopus.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
horror stories 2


Important Words


  1. anthropologists
  2. appeal
  3. arcane
  4. beings
  5. blend
  6. bloch
  7. called
  8. characters
  9. conceptions
  10. contemporaries
  11. corresponded
  12. cosmic
  13. creatures
  14. cthulhu
  15. dragon
  16. drive
  17. elements
  18. employ
  19. encouraging
  20. exist
  21. existence
  22. feeling
  23. forces
  24. forms
  25. glimpses
  26. gods
  27. greatest
  28. hints
  29. howard
  30. indirect
  31. infamous
  32. insane
  33. inscrutable
  34. insignificant
  35. left
  36. lifetime
  37. lovecraft
  38. lovecraftian
  39. mercy
  40. motives
  41. mythos
  42. named
  43. octopus
  44. pals
  45. pen
  46. power
  47. reader
  48. reality
  49. references
  50. researchers
  51. robert
  52. sense
  53. shared
  54. specks
  55. stories
  56. stumble
  57. survive
  58. terrible
  59. today
  60. tomes
  61. triumph
  62. true
  63. unfathomable
  64. universe
  65. writers