Just an observation about unnatural things

[smarttman]

I've seen this in an article somewhere, but I see a base for a large majority of unnatural things we see or hear about: symmetry.

Look around your house, and you'll be hard pressed to not find something symmetrical. Be it bi-, radial, or whatever, mostly everything we see in a day-to-day basis has symmetry. It's the asymmetry that is really strange and hard to grasp.

An example in the Cthulhu Mythos: Sure, Cthulhu is scary, but he is still symmetric. His left is identical to his right, and though he excretes mind-blasting menace, he is not altogether unnatural.

Now take a look at shoggoths. They have no set shape or layout, making them asymmetrical. It's hard for people to understand what they look like, because they could come in so many forms. I'm more afraid of reading about a shoggoth than Cthulhu, and I think it is mostly from just how unnatural it is on account of it's asymmetry.

So, open the forum for discussion, and let's see what you think. Do you agree, disagree, both, neither, or what have you? Then post, and we can see what you can quantify as unnatural.

 

[MediaGhost]

Well, I'm not sure we can say that asymmetry is 'unnatural' (in the sense of being 'abnormal' or contrary to the ordinary course of nature) since asymmetry occurs fairly frequently in nature.  In that symmetry has been considered an attribute of beauty since Plato, and conversely asymmetry an an attribute of ugliness, we may infer that Cthulhu, who possess the former, is less ugly than a shoggoth, who possess the later. 

[Genus Unknown]

An example in the Cthulhu Mythos: Sure, Cthulhu is scary, but he is still symmetric.

Says who?

[Bob Lovecraft]

An example in the Cthulhu Mythos: Sure, Cthulhu is scary, but he is still symmetric.

Says who?

Well, the bar relief and the idol, both found in "Call of Cthulhu" are each symmetrical representations of Cthulhu, although it could be argued that they were filtered through human minds, thus taking on shapes and proportions that exist in the deepest levels of human consciousness. Although that having been said, I prefer to think of them as much more real-life incarnations.

Bob

[old book]

I'm much more concerned with the salt found at the abandoned camp. Hey, salt is symmetrical too, it's crystals.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Once again, Old Book brings some much-needed sanity into our discussion. Let's hear it for symmetrical salt.

Bob

[Genus Unknown]

Well, the bar relief and the idol, both found in "Call of Cthulhu" are each symmetrical representations of Cthulhu, although it could be argued that they were filtered through human minds, thus taking on shapes and proportions that exist in the deepest levels of human consciousness. Although that having been said, I prefer to think of them as much more real-life incarnations.

Bob

I don't remember anything from that story about the bas-relief and idol being symmetrical.

[kulain]

Well, the bar relief and the idol, both found in "Call of Cthulhu" are each symmetrical representations of Cthulhu, although it could be argued that they were filtered through human minds, thus taking on shapes and proportions that exist in the deepest levels of human consciousness. Although that having been said, I prefer to think of them as much more real-life incarnations.

"They had, indeed, come themselves from the stars, and brought Their images with Them." - call of cthulu

the idols in the swamp came from cthulu, not from the minds/dreams of men. he is probably making a duck face in the idol though, not sure if that's symmetric.

the elder things are radial symmetric, being plants. the shoggoth, being a bunch of bubbles or circles, are even more symmetric. i don't see how being "formless" can be said to be asymmetric.

[Sedge]

I tend to find perfect symmetry more unnatural than asymmetry, since even supposedly symmetrical things (e.g. the face) are rarely actually 100% as such. I'm looking around the room and I'm actually having trouble finding things that are symmetrical-- there's always a little spot or hole or other small defect somewhere that makes them only "kind of" symmetrical.

It seems like a concentrated effort would have to be made in order to to have truly unmarred symmetry. And then there's the question of "Just what would be making that effort?"   

If I see someone with a face where each side is a mirror image of the other, I'm running in the other direction, because I must have accidentally wandered into the uncanny valley. Example: It seems like being eaten by THIS would just be all the more horrible for the fact that you could fold it in half and have it match exactly. That's what I would be thinking, anyway. As I was being eaten.

[TheMediocreYoungishOne -Tom-]

After seeing this topic, I decided to make my face asymmetrical.



THE HORROR!

[vortexgods]

I tend to find perfect symmetry more unnatural than asymmetry, since even supposedly symmetrical things (e.g. the face) are rarely actually 100% as such. I'm looking around the room and I'm actually having trouble finding things that are symmetrical-- there's always a little spot or hole or other small defect somewhere that makes them only "kind of" symmetrical.

It seems like a concentrated effort would have to be made in order to to have truly unmarred symmetry. And then there's the question of "Just what would be making that effort?"   

If I see someone with a face where each side is a mirror image of the other, I'm running in the other direction, because I must have accidentally wandered into the uncanny valley. Example: It seems like being eaten by THIS would just be all the more horrible for the fact that you could fold it in half and have it match exactly. That's what I would be thinking, anyway. As I was being eaten.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

[Sedge]

What's really scary to me is a world where you can get away with rhyming "eye" with "symmetry". Or would it be the other way around?

Oh hell, now I've looked into the abyss.

[vortexgods]

What's really scary to me is a world where you can get away with rhyming "eye" with "symmetry". Or would it be the other way around?

Oh hell, now I've looked into the abyss.

Well, talk to William Blake, after you've raised him up from his essential salts.  Careful, though, I think he might have been a dangerous sorcerer...

[Sedge]

Don't worry; I'll punch him in the saltes before I raise him up, so I'll have the upper hand from the start.

Meanwhile,

SYMMETRY: Nothing to Worry About Here, Folks


(What? So I temp as a minor forest god on the weekends; it's a living.)

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

the shoggoth, being a bunch of bubbles or circles, are even more symmetric.

Think of them as a ball of slime. That slime certainly could become symmetric, but it's as easy to smush it into something with no symmetry at all.