Episode 553 - The Black Stone Statue

I must say, I appreciated "The Black Stone Statue" more on a technical/craft level after listening to Chris and Chad discuss it, and yet I can't bring myself to consider it a great story. I think it I would have liked it better if the narrator hadn't glossed over the period between his "breakthrough" and his impending suicide. There must have been a learning curve — I want to hear about how he chose his models, and what happened to the "statues" that were posed wrong or had stupid expressions.

Sorry about your bones, Chad

Jeremy Impson

The intro hit a little close to home. Hopefully I never commit any strange and terrible crimes. 😂

Tiffany Toland-Scott

It's funny y'all mentioned the General Electric Theater as while I'm listening to this, I am building washing machines in GE Appliance Park :D

So I was listening to this on my commute and was really excited when the jungle was mentioned. I immediately thought we were going to get the treat of a clever reference to Manimal. I was so let down by the missed opportunity.

Kevin Lama

Mass murderers can have songs with a note of fun. One-Eyed Doll does it rather well with their track, "Be My Friend." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfd0QNbZIFo&ab_channel=Brock So Chad, have at it.

Ah, confessions of a Weird serial killer. I wonder what we would make of this artist if they had gone about their business turning corpses to stone. Perhaps the pilot could have died from an illness contracted in the jungle; or a heart attack; or a slip in the tub. There's no real need for the narrator to have committed murder. And no need to keep committing murder, of course. It would be, I imagine, a much simpler matter to use folks who are already dead as raw material rather than run all the risks associated with a track record of hired models who are never seen again. (knowingly) Heck, our narrator could simply announce that they've got a sweet, sweet process of turning stuff into stone and have people volunteer to donate their bodies for art. Not so different from plasticized bodies, no? It is certainly possible to become a famous artist because of one's process instead of pure, representative sculpting ability.

I think this guy just wasn't a very good sculptor. The response to the camera was the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, the most painterly of painters, folks like Monet, Cezanne, Van Gogh. If you are an artist you can create art, but if you're a wannabe like the narrator, you get jealous of a jellyfish.

“How many Popes, exactly, are buried here, Mr. Bacon?”

Bret Kramer

Carbonite.

Thunk

Yeah, that whole touching business takes a little scrutiny in the story when you read it. The way I interpreted it, once turned to stone, an object no longer can infect another if it isn’t in contact with the creature. And by “sleeve” Counselman meant the shirt, not the arm. All clothing touching the body would get petrified. But a person would not when touching the shirt worn by someone else in contact with the creature. Also, no one else would have been petrified by the narrator, who dropped the box and creature into the water when when turned to stone.

Ben A

My thoughts exactly! Chad, sorry to hear your skeleton was attacking you. If you need a good doctor, I know a M. Munigant who can relieve you of your pain & burdens…

Ben A

Exactly. Had a feeling of dread at the thought of it getting dropped into the ocean

I liked this story a lot too. In lesser hands that tight style gets too sparse and flat, but Counselman had an incredibly deft touch here. Definitely look forward to you covering her more, and already have a library request in for Half in Shadow. This is the stuff I keep coming back for!

Richard Horsman

I don't know if it's a coincidence or something more of stars lining up, but this is the second or third time that as you guys are going through the story, I realize that I know it but can’t remember actually having read it, only then to find out it was on Pseudopod or Tales to Terrify or one of the other horrorcasts I listen to. This is not a complaint as I don’t get to read what I would like anywhere near as much as I would if I had the time to just sit and read (unfortunately, I don’t really, so most of my reading for pleasure are all the podcasts and audible books I consume while commuting to and from work – and during work – but we don’t want to talk about that). Anyway, thanks for serendipitous synchronicity and keep it up if possible.

When the narrator said "my real work is no better than a rank novice", it made me feel that what really pushed him over the edge was the realization that nothing he sculpted would ever come close to what this mindless jelly could create. His efforts as a sculptor to capture the human form in clay or stone would never be as perfect as what the creature could do in seconds. It reminds me of how painters once strived to paint as near to life as possible, then the camera comes along and can do in a matter of seconds what would take them months to do. Even after a lifetime of practice. To me the creature is like a representation of how machines and now AI catch up to and surpass human ability in skills and trades. It offers tremendous potential for human society, (industry, bridges, and infrastructure like Kennicott imagined) but it can also devalue human labor, and sap the meaning out of our drive to express ourselves through vocations and art. Which could lead in time to a society that is stronger and harder, but devoid of color.

Ian Cook

Some questions that one who has read it might be able to answer: Does the thing still have to be in contact with the first object turned for the effect to transfer to a second object via the first? Related to that: Is the pilot forced to touch the book or the thing directly ? It says his sleeve turns to stone, is that his shirt sleeve or another word for his arm? If it's his shirt and he actually touched the thing directly, won't anyone and anything touching the pilots skin turn to stone also? And what happens to the people discovering the narrator's body? Won't they try to move him and turn as well?

Sludgecrawler

Not so sure about the humility of artists, especially sculptors, given Damien Hurst, and more so Eric Gill.

Steve

The Willows and the Wendigo also spring to mind. I'd also say the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath but that's just because I never want to slog my way through it.

So what are other HP Podcrafters' contenders for best stories covered by the podcast? Outside Lovecraft's big hitters, Repairer of Reputations and The Screwfly Solution jump to mind for me (though there's many I haven't read yet).

Colm Kearns

I kinda wish you'd added the classic soundscape of Chad fighting water *after* the narrator says, "But tonight, gentlemen, I shall know all the answers." As for the story: someone on YouTube pointed out a similarity to A Bucket of Blood (1959) insomuch that the main character's sculptures are really his murder victims.

It reminds me of Vonnegut’s Ice-9.

Ben Gilbert

Imagine if some 1920s writer had predicted the “Body Worlds” plasticized corpses museum exhibit. It’d be saved for a big secret: “THEY WERE REAL DEAD BODIES!” “Uh yeah, everyone knows that, these people died of natural causes and signed their bodies away”

Jason Thompson

I also loooved “In Amundsen’s Tent.”

Jason Thompson

The detail about the black “iron” jungle is so cool. Reminds me of JG Ballard’s “The Crystal World”. Any story like this in which there is an (even implied/potential) environmental change or apocalypse is always so powerful.

Jason Thompson

I’m not sure if Chad’s injury required medication but his love for this story reminds me of my own enjoyment of Terminator Salvation after three too many mojitos. It was the greatest film experience of my life until I sobered up. My wife and I started listening to this and when Chad said it was one of the best. I told her to stop the episode! We immediately put on a reading of this story. Good story but come on, one of the best? I’m not even sure it’s top twenty. It is nice and clean but compared to Lovecraft’s big five, the Willows, Wendigo, Fishhead, Fatface, the Great God Pan, it just doesn’t have the “weight.”

Can I make a comment that isn’t also a question?

Michelle Elbert

Wasn’t there an episode of the Friday the 13th tv show along these lines? I think it was called “Medusa’s Shard” or something like that.

Michelle Elbert

Attacked by your own skeleton? Didn’t you already cover that story? Is your wife going to find you a blobby pile of flesh on the living room floor as a skeezy “doctor” flounces away sucking on your finger bones like they were peppermints?

Michelle Elbert

This is included in the fabulous collection "Women of the Weird" if anyone's interested in reading the analog version.

PSA the podcast pseudopod just read this story a few weeks back if anyone wants to hear it in its entirety as a supplement.