I was very surprised when I read "The Call of Cthulhu" for myself and learned that Cthulhu actually appears in the story, in person. I would've bet money that Lovecraft wouldn't actually show the monster like that. I kinda thought that was the entire point, to keep it vague, looming and intangible.
It is a little odd, but there is a lot (almost everything) about cthulhu that remains unexplained. You get very little of its actual perspective because its effect on the plot has been from mental noise rather than conscious efforts. It clearly doesn't care much for people, but its broader intentions are left unexplained. You learn a fair bit more in Mountains of Madness (also about the Mi-Go), but there the main monster are the Elder Things, and while you literally get a biologist doing an examination of an Elder Thing corpse in the second chapter, the question of what they are like when they are alive is very different.
I was very surprised when I read "The Call of Cthulhu" for myself and learned that Cthulhu actually appears in the story, in person. I would've bet money that Lovecraft wouldn't actually show the monster like that. I kinda thought that was the entire point, to keep it vague, looming and intangible.
It is a little odd, but there is a lot (almost everything) about cthulhu that remains unexplained. You get very little of its actual perspective because its effect on the plot has been from mental noise rather than conscious efforts. It clearly doesn't care much for people, but its broader intentions are left unexplained. You learn a fair bit more in Mountains of Madness (also about the Mi-Go), but there the main monster are the Elder Things, and while you literally get a biologist doing an examination of an Elder Thing corpse in the second chapter, the question of what they are like when they are alive is very different.