Episode 483 - IT

I'm way late to the party (finally making a concerted effort to get caught up) but I wanted to mention that there is a great comic book adaptation of this story in Supernatural Thrillers #1 (1972) from Marvel. There's some excellent art by Marie Severin and Frank Giacoia. Worth checking out if you like this story and are into comics.

I have to say I wasn't impressed with the story. I thought the writing was rather flat, and the trope of the exposition letter falling into the girl's lap was uncomfortably shoe-horned in. Classic Sturgeon final sentence, though. Just a simple statement of fact and goodbye. The one thing that DID catch my attention, he mentioned the location as Tyler and Angelina Counties. That's where I grew up! it's in deep East Texas, near the Louisiana border, and it is indeed swamp country. Not full-on bayou terrain, but we did have the occasional anemic alligator sighting.

Keith McCaffety

Loved the coverage on this one, and am so glad he didn’t go with his original title of ‘Wood Thing’ (that’s a very different story).

Unease over the power science had/has culturally once you become aware that bad science can be so destructive.

The sort of scientific detachment while dismembering the dog reminds me of the detached vivisection by the elder things in mountains of madness...the same sort of scientific confusion about 'life' completely unlike ones own.

Love a Kolchak shout out!

For those who plan on reading Saga of the Swamp Thing, brace yourselves for one of the most awesome Lovecraftian moments ever: what I call the "Wish You Were Here" panel which drives one character insane for having witnessed it.

Setting aside the whole Freudian/Jungian aspect of the monster (which is like setting aside a city block). This monster seemed a lot like an embodiment of the dark side of science. A cold rationalism, and curiosity which, unchecked, can lead to awful things like The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. However, having set Freudian/Jungian notions aside, it's not a choice by humans but an instance of "what if." The thing that pretzelized my mind was the "not alive" aspect. Moving, thinking, growing, but not alive? Maybe you could say that he was the product of decomposition rather than life. The Night Stalker episode "The Spanish Moss Murders" is on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0yayFq0Q18. Parmafait isn't a real cryptid (you can break it down in French to mean "by my doing"). Wikipedia says "Swamp Thing" first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971) so this story came first. BTW: My Husband says that HPLHS should call their podcast "The HPPodcraft letterary podcast" because he is clever like that.

Circling back to the Swamp Thing discussion, if anyone’s interested it’s all on the DC Universe streaming service. So if you don’t want to shell out the $120 for all the trades you could just drop $8 for a month and read it all. Either way it’s totally worth the read.

The Screaming Moist

Thanks for the heads-up! Pseudopod does good work, and Andrew Leman is always absolutely aurally awesome.

Mandy Reznor (She_It)

Really good episode guys! What a great story

Nothing to add about It! except thanks as always. But I wanted to let everybody know they can get their necro on with a full reading of Eddy and Lovecraft's The Loved Dead over on Pseudopod this week. Read by none other than Andrew Leman.

Your theory about bologna might actually work. At least it did in Troll 2.

Josh Decker

I could not read this because of the really brutal animal abuse. Thank you for covering horrific stuff so that I don't have to.

This may be my favorite story that you've covered in the last year or so. Just ordered a copy of collected stories so I can check it out for myself. Thanks! ( On a side note, I thought I detected some weird uncomfortable sexuality in the "It" creature itself. I thought it was just me, then I realized this is the author who wrote the Trek episode "Amok Time", so - nailed it.)

This beautifully written tale caused at least two night terrors for me as an 8-year old after I read it in one of my dad’s SF/horror collections. A couple years afterwards, I foolishly watched “The Spanish Moss Murders” on Kolchak: The Night Stalker, putting me well on the way to having unreasonable(?), deep-seated fears about human/plant chimeras. Hats off to Sturgeon’s cinematic pen—his scenes are written so vividly that the text is already halfway to a screenplay. And that ending... I like to think that he wrote it, shuddered, then stayed up all night smoking his pipe and staring into the woods.

Dan Pratt

Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday...

Mandy Reznor (She_It)

Loved this one, thanks! An additional knock off of this story's monster might also be the Superman comic book character, Solomon Grundy - a corpse dumped in a swamp, with a "body" slowly refashioned around the skeleton by years of supernatural stewing. He's a sort of very cranky swamp-muck zombie. The character appears in print just 4 years after Sturgeon's tale...

That was absolutely delightful. And weird.

That's a superb story, very atmospheric. You said that the conclusion was the Carrie ending, but I think it's even more disturbing than that: it's the Copacabana ending.

Is there someone I can pay or threaten to get a full reading of IT by Andrew Leman?

You guys, I found this mysterious haiku. -IT 2- Once nubbled and flaked It’s lumps and crusts were unmade by a fine bidet

Jeff C. Carter

He was right, in any case. Ninety percent of everything *is* crap.

Mandy Reznor (She_It)

Great story! I also liked the advert on the link you posted. "As a mongoose whips as cobra - or a cowboy throws a steer so does the Shadow, his eldritch laughter mock- ing in their ears, attack the criminal hordes that infest the country and thwart their evil ends." Sturgeon, of course, also remembered for his law, which totally does not apply to this story.

Steve