Comments 33 - Check the Fit

If you're looking for weird science fiction, I'd recommend Stanley G. Wienbaum's 1934 short story A Martian Odyssey, set on a version of Percival Lowell's Mars. Marvel Comics did an adaptation of it in the 70s.

Not sure if this was the same King story Chad read but ‘The Library Policeman’ fucked me up when I was younger. I got into King when I was pretty young and was around 13 or 14 when I read that story. I won’t describe the scene that messed me up but anyone who’s read the story will know exactly what I mean.

Ditto.

To my shame, I can tell you without checking that it was Anthony Tedesco reading Lurker at the Threshold. If the part of my mind that remembered minutiae of HP Podcraft was filled with actual useful information, I feel I'd have actually made something of myself...

Wasn't this comments show but the last one where you all read my comment about the sake. When you read my name my heart jumped so badly. I never expected you all to actually read my comment or say my name. It was just an overwhelming feeling that swept over me. After listening to you all for 9 or 10 years I guess I got a feeling of being star struck.

Avlin Starfall

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (or M.O.C. as it preferred to be known in the press) was also an accomplice to Brian Wilson's SMiLE.

I can't remember the episode or reader, but Chad's quote was: "Speaking of tenacious, our reader for this episode is [name]. You know, I once saw him catch a pigeon in his mouth. That's how tenacious he is." — I remember this and have actually paraphrased it on occasion.

Yes, indeed. Chicago had to burn to build the White City. And the White City had to be built as a hunting ground for a Murder Castle. What I'm trying to say is that Mrs. O'Leary's cow was an accomplice to serial murder.

Every single one of Lovecraft’s characters would try on that mask, get chloroformed, and wake up in some temple and go mad from witnessing something unspeakable,

"Governess worries about rich children being exposed to poor people" Actually when you put it this way I'm wondering if we can read the Governess as having a fear of class transgression on the part of Miss Jessel. Governesses had an interesting liminal position- they were of the educated middle classes but from families without the means to secure a good marriage (and thereby had to take up one of the few respectable salaried occupations to women of that station). They weren't servants but as employees were also not part of the upper class families which employed them. To the Governess, part of the horror of Miss Jessel might be the fact that she's let go of her class by becoming the lover of a servant, Peter Quint.

Yeah! And the very few occasions where he did use a conventional “love interest” female character are pretty awful, like “The Last Test”— but of course that is a revision so may have been imposed by the collaborator

Jason Thompson

I was surprised to hear you say that there's an absence of sex in Lovecraft; The act itself is (thank goodness) never portrayed, but the result - reproduction - lies at the heart of Lovecraft's racist terror of miscegenation. The Shadow over Innsmouth in particular carries an undercurrent of sexual violence - that was the price that Obed Marsh ended up imposing on everyone with his fish brides for gold deal. I think overall though, because much of the sexual horror in Lovecraft revolves around his terror of degeneration, it doesn't resonate for us the same way. (Of course, I haven't read Hit Lovecraft Novella Sweet Ermengarde, so who knows how he actually handles "romance") I'm glad you did Turn of the Screw, because I enjoyed, as ever listening to you talk about them, but unfortunately it still didn't resonate with me. I've a deep fondness for Victorian prose, but James manages heights of tedious pretentiousness untouched even by most Victorian authors. Which may be part of my problem with Turn of the Screw - if your mind doesn't go to something horrifying like sexual abuse, it becomes a tedious where Governess worries about rich children being exposed to *gasp* poor people. Anyway all those cheerful observations aside, I do want to second (or third or fourth) the comments about how grateful I've been for you guys during the pandemic - the regularity and humor of the podcast has been a delight.

Stewart Huntsman

Happy to show you guys up...er, lend some input anytime! ;) In seriousness, glad I could add usefully to the conversation. And looking forward to your production (one-man or many) of The Colossus of Ylourne, Chad!

Ben A

I could be mistaken but I remember them mentioning they'd tried it but bounced off it due to the difficulty.

I heartily agree

Also! I hope you guys do the Haunting of Hill House at some point. I definitely wouldn't blame Chris if he doesn't like it, but that book is one of my favorites!

I was wondering if there was a chance you guys would ever look into the game Bloodborne? While the game is punishing, it it the best representation of Gothic and cosmic horror to be made in video game form (in my opinion of course), and one of my favorite Lovecraft inspired works that I have found since I got into the mythos. However, as I said before the game can be very hard, and the story can be pretty esoteric, but I found it worth the trouble to understand the eldritch truth hidden behind what seems to be a pretty standard Gothic setting.

I think the bit about why it is perhaps better that Lovecraft didn't really write women and the fact that his protagonists could really be any gender explains some of the appeal of Lovecraft for me when I read him as a young teenager. Especially back then, it seemed like many stories I read (though certainly not all), included versions of women that I couldn't relate to and who only filled certain roles within the story. Lovecraft's omission of the Vapid Love Interest, the Scheming Temptress, the Nurturing Mother, combined with the fact that usually the only reference to a character's gender was in a name, meant that they were easier to read without rolling my eyes. I was also initially snarky about the events of January 6th when a friend first texted me about it. I thought it was just another instance of militias LARPing revolutionaries and I was just so done with all the clownery. Once I realized how serious it was I felt pretty sick. The full picture of exactly how bad things were and how close they came to being much worse didn't start to develop until afterward.