Episode 455 - The Phantom Coach

But of course, T.V. Tropes has a term already formulated: the "Monster Faint." https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fainting

Personally, I'd call this narrative device "pitching." As in "pitching a fit" or "pitching forward."

I wonder if perhaps the fourth perished passenger was in the carriage, and our poor protagonist was actually sitting inside of them, giving him that chill, so often accompanying these sorts of stories, as well as an added feeling of uneasiness. Just a thought!

Robert Curtin

David Halstead, there must be! To the Google Machine!

plot naps. should totally call them plot naps.

Enjoyable ghost story comfort food, and a bravura performance from Chad.

How about, instead of saying, “In conclusion, so and so was explained to the main character after he or she regained consciousness...,” we could say “In confusion” to get straight to the point. Or, perhaps, even the Latin equivalent “In confusione” (as translated to me by google) would be more preferable to sound more scholastic, and therefore, important.

Just once I want a weird tale narrator to start off a story by saying, "Look, I'm totally off my rocker insane. I drink too much, I'm on meds, I've taken psychedelics and hallucinated A LOT. There's no reason to believe what I'm about to tell you. That said, here's some weird s*** I saw." Any stories like that?

David Halstead

I'm not sure if it's the material that's funny or Chad's devotion to a bit that makes me laugh. Regardless, good stuff as always!

PS: When I was at school, we were told a 'ghost coach/coachman' tale that provided a fake etymology for the name of nearby Whippendell Woods (Watford, UK). It was rubbish!

For a vivid demonstration of what an 'insenstant' looks like, see Peter the cocker spaniel, featured recently on the BBC News website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-48725582/the-dog-who-falls-over-when-he-s-excited

The moment of fainting at the crucial part of a weird tale: insenstant?

Hmmm, I like it, brings the feel of the classics to the writing.

When I was a kid we used to go camping in the mountains near an old abandoned stage road. Around the campfire my dad would tell us, essentially, this very story - just with the location changed to the American West. Now his fraud has been exposed! Seriously, it was fun to hear the real version of this.

A shaggy faint story. It builds, and builds, and builds, and then the author handwaves what should have been the payoff with a loss of consciousness. Sometimes a writer swings for the fences and misses hard when they attempt to verbally convey the Weird, but this sleight of mind almost never fails to disappoint. If the end of the Screwfly Solution had been "I saw an angel, it was like a treeless Christmas tree, so rad I fainted!" it would have lost a huge amount of its impact.

I was listening to this podcast on a Phantom Couch.

Ben Gilbert

Chad beat that joke to a pulp XD

Am I the only one who got a total "Manos: The Hands of Fate" vibe from the beginning of the story? When the servant said "The Master?" I totally heard that in Torgo's voice. Despite the obvious title of the story, I almost expected that the punchline was going to be that the house in question didn't exist. Or maybe I just watch too much MST3K...

One of my favorite childhood books was the Phantom Cyclist and other Ghost Stories. Ainsworth, was the author. I think I still have my copy from school somewhere!

Freeze Faint? Maybe get J Geils to update the song?

Eh, it’s been done. ;) https://youtu.be/SG9vKjANfmQ

Bret Kramer

As a woman, I've got to say, this is hands-down the scariest phrase out of all the stories you've covered: "the speculum, so far as I could estimate its size in the dim light, measured at least fifteen inches in diameter."

Christine M

Hey fellas, a fun show as always. You’re right that there is a long-standing trope of the phantom vessel, from trains to ships to rickshaws. It’s odd that Lovecraft never really used that trope. But it’s ever popular today. (It may be a spoiler: the last act of the Ballad of Buster Scruggs is arguably on a phantom coach.) I like to call the sudden fainting syndrome (consult a physician) at the end of stories ‘Narrative Collapse.’ After all, it happens when the author runs out of ideas and wants to jump to the resolution. Or, in the case of HPL, it happens when he wants to end the tale (mostly). It’s worth noting that Amelia Edwards was really atypical for her day, beyond the many professions she held. She traveled as a single woman (though often with companions) in a period where women generally did not, and when she traveled to the Dolomites it was hardly known as a travel destination for tourism. Her work popularizing Egyptology helped raise the funds for Flinders Petrie’s expeditions. She founded the Egypt Exploration Fund, but was ultimately cut out of it by men in the British Museum, namely Reginald Poole. The role of the British in professionizing archaeology in Egyptology may not have been jump started had it not been for her. Speaking of women, I really hope you two have time to cover more Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Hill House is arguably a weird tale. And there’s always also The Turn of the Screw (which I’ve noted before), which I hear Mike Flanagan is adopting as a sequel to The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix.

Ben A

And of course, Celtic folklore also has Dullahans, those headless Fae that drive carriages through the night and use whips braided from human skeletons to slash out the eyes of those who look upon them.

Mandy Reznor (She_It)

I'm a sucker for a medical term. So I propose: Syncope. I might be persuaded to go with Swooner or Later.

sans - san. As in "Upon seeing the unspeakable unnamable fiend lurching towards him, our overly prepared and normally overly loquacious narrator, also unnamable for reasons never given, went a little sans-san."

Convenientius Blackoutisma

The mental blink

The Nerve check fail

F/r/ainting

The Phantom faints

the fright crescendo moment

The Swedish Noble Prize winning author Selma Lagerlof wrote a short story Thine Soul Shall Bear Witness, which was turned into the early horror silent movie The Phantom Coachman. This movie went on to influence both Bergman and Kubrick. The 'Here's Jooohny' sequence from The Shining is practically lifted from this movie.

Lars Backstrom

No, that's the stage name of my favorite goth go-go dancer.

Judging purely by C&C's coverage of the two stories, I'd say The Phantom Rickshaw has much more going on.

“Faintus ex machina.” What do you think?

Thanks for the shout out guys! It was most pleasant. I usually get Robin Hood/Sheriff jokes or it's mispronounced as Sharif. If i had the choice of getting into that phantom coach or being pursued by a phantom of my creepy high school PE coach i'd take the horse drawn one every time.

Rob_Hellfire_Graves (Cult organ donor, wrestler, poet & Satanic Reverend)

It's an old Celtic myth for death to come get you in a coach, Wikipedia says it's called the Cóiste Bodhar. I learnt about it as a child at Uncle Disney's knee in "Darby O'Gill and the Little People."

Weren't Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody detective novels inspired by Amelia Edwards?

Ben Gilbert

So I don't know if there is a literary term for the convinient blackout but I work as a Veterinary Technician and we have a variety of names for similar situations. In particular a vagal response is when a patient has a sudden drop in heart rate due to a variety of causes impacting the Vagal nerve, but it often results in feinting. So I propose it being called a Vagal Point. Or as is tradition with medicine you can name it after me because I came up with the idea! This moment is called a Sunser Response.

No mention of Kipling's The Phantom 'Rickshaw? Edwards's story came out in 1864. Kipling's in 1888. Not a ton in common besides spectral transportation, unless you want to factor in the doctor.

I always thought fainting was just a fade to black or change of scene.I imagine most writers were fans of plays and wanted to make a transition,so they take the lazy way out and write a fainting scene into the story.

Thank you so much for doing this story. Several years ago when you were looking for stories from female authors I emailed you this one. Nice to finally see if covered. To answer Chads question about the number of passengers; when the coach pulls up there is Guard and Driver and one outside passenger. So evidently one ghost was nice enough to make room for the pushy lawyer inside. Another thing I would like to point out is you mentioned the telescope but didn’t mention its size. In the story it is described as being halfway to the rafters and having 15” optics. That is a huge telescope for that age and I can only imagine the cost associated with grinding optics that large. And what the heck was he doing with it? As for the end of the story and the question Chris askes; Did the Master specifically send him out with the expectation that he would indeed stumble upon the possessed coach? I would add to that; Not only did he do that but did the “Master” summon the storm that actually brought him there specifically for that purpose in the first place? During the fireside chat the Master explains that his self exile is expressly for his commitment (in public) of support of ghosts and specters. I would not put it past the old man to have been an actual wizard. Between all the books and gear (the decorated organ reminded me of a Dresden files story) I would not be surprised if he had the Necronomicon on the shelf as well. The description of his room and the fire side soliloquy the Master gives is entirely in support of the super natural. Now with THAT said, how about the other way around? Rather than the Master summoning him, did our pushy lawyer simply stumble through the Moors, getting colder, until he suffers hypothermia and simply falls down the hill and whacks his head. Was this all just a dream? I don’t think it is because of the details in his story, but he technically has no proof. And the last item I’ll mention is; Who else did he tell? He said he would not tell his wife. The doctor he just mentions he could not talk about it without falling into arguing. Did he go back and find the Master? I would like to think he did, and of course asking, WTF Dude did you try to have me killed?

How about calling the fainting climax a "curtain keel?"

Mandy Reznor (She_It)

Or "Deus ex Languidus."

Mandy Reznor (She_It)

(Forgive me - I'm in a weirdly silly mood) So - what if the other passengers hadn't been KILLED - but merely KEELED? I shouldn't make jokes about people merely passing out when they actually died. I know it's far too swoon.

All this talk about a Male Coach though - I mean it was the 1850s. Surely we would have inferred that the coach was male? I'm surprised Chris didn't comment on this.

I really like "Faint to Black" - but I may have an unconscious bias.

Obviously John Madden is The Phantom Coach and this story is a allegory about the December 24 1977 AFC Divisional Playoff game that ended in the famous “Ghost to the Post “ play.

Deus ex Defectus

Fainting in stories is called HP Swooncraft.

Steve

“Faint to Black..?” 🤔

Dan Pratt

I just realized that the ridiculously cheesy episode "The Tale of the Phantom Cab" from the Canadian TV show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" was most likely inspired by this story. I don't know what to do with that information, though.

Hey guys - just a quick note to say thanks for all you do. When there are small delays in a piece of scheduled creative work that I consume it always reminds me that there are people behind that work scrambling to get it out to us. And then it reminds me that I never actually thank them for all the hard work. Which then reminds me that I'm kind of an ass for not thanking them. So thanks!