Episode 430 - Between the Lights

Just sayin' "throwing down the skin-gauntlet" sounds like a euphemism for something... ;)

Has anyone made a Howard joke about Thewl-tide yet?

Really enjoyed this episode.

I keep meaning to visit as its so close to where I live but haven't managed yet. Its only accessible at low tide and you need to travel along the rocky shoreline to reach it.

Firstly a huge thanks to Chad and Chris. Only started listening to you guys at the start of this year and am finally caught up to the latest episodes. You guys have been my constant ear-companions for the last 11 months and I've enjoyed every minute. I live up in the north of Scotland (between Aberdeen and Inverness - MacBeth country) and we have loads of pictish sites up here. One really interesting one is just along the coast, called the Sculptors Cave and your story reminded me of it. It's a coastal cave but archeological digs have revealed lots of human remains (including the remains of children). The true nature of the cave is a mystery but there was certainly some crazy stuff that went on in there. <a href="https://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/case-study-sculptor%E2%80%99s-cave-covesea" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.scottishheritagehub.com/content/case-study-sculptor%E2%80%99s-cave-covesea</a>

That Ken Hite guys is great! He should have his own podcast! ;)

Derek Robertson

Bronan the Shetlandian

Top notch episode! Edward N.B. nailed the reading, Ken Hite is always a welcome addition, and as Chris said the story is classically weird. Really looking forward to the rest of ghoultide!

Richard Horsman

I am going to assume the pony is the Robert E Howard character who remembered his fierce savage ancestry, shook the stag off his shoulders with a rippling of his mighty thews, tore some picts apart with his hooves, and galloped off across the crags to lead free barbarian ponies.

I think the pony had been sent back already, while the hunters paused to rest and have lunch. Though it's entirely possible for a pony to follow a known route on its own, I'm guessing they also had a groom with them, just to handle the pony, and Benson assumed that would be more or less common knowledge at the time.

I really liked the story and I really enjoyed Ken Hite's insights. As a listener since 2012, I feel he really is the third host of the podcast. We love him. As far as the story goes, this thing is brimming with repressed subconscious guilt on the part of the Englishman. It is the perfect fodder for the weird tale. The best ones are always violent journeys into the unconscious to be horrified by the unresolved. Even the pseudoscientific theory of the devolved Pict is itself born out of repressed guilt. It is fascinating to learn how it spawned an entire tradition of weird tales. I think the land that we all occupy today was once owned by someone else, just as the haunted house once belonged to someone who has since passed on. That feeling of being the unwanted interloper is terrifying, and everyone alive today can relate to it.

Arc Dream had a good showing at PAX Unplugged this past weekend. I made the mistake of putting off picking up some Delta Green books, which were all sold out by the time I came back. Sucks for me, good for them :) There was a lot of HPL inspired games this year. Missed out on getting to play Masks of Nyarlathotep because there weren't enough Keepers for the demand.

Robert Daniel Pickard

Hearing Ken's voice again made me shed a tear of pleasant nostalgia. That man could scream a list of all my flaws as a person right at my face and I would treasure every syllable.

Great episode! Really enjoyed the discussion. The conversation about Picts and the idea of the fear of devolution as a sublimation/projection of the horrors of imperialism and colonialism is an interesting coincidence, because right before listening to this episode I was reading online about different historic depictions of giants (on one of my random wiki walkabouts), and I landed on some nutty esoteric/gnostic theorist who postulated the Picts were actually the descendents of angels mating with humans called the Nephalim described in Genesis who migrated up from Assyria or nearby long ago. While positive this is pure bunk and mainly used to imbue 'specialness' to a particular lineage and to connect belief to history thereby legitimizing it, I found the idea fascinating (and reminiscent of the witch cult theory that so much weird fiction was/is strongly influenced by). In the story the Picts are depicted as small when the other tradition has them as giants, but the language used to describe the group in the story is remarkably similar to biblical descriptions of the devolution of the world and it's peoples into chaos and evil due to the mating of the angels and humans before the flood. The Nephalim were said to be cannibals who practiced ritual adornment, secret science, astrology and sorcery taught to them by their angel progenitors. This said, there are many legends of cannibal others all over the world, as accusations of breaking taboos are a useful way to reinforce tribal distinctions.

skedazzle

All I want for christmas now is Stanley the Stalker commercials with Greig Johnson.

I have been inspired with another haiku Chad taunts skeletons yet he fell for that classic Trojan horse surprise

Jeff C. Carter

Hey guys, have not listened to the show yet, but wanna get this out there, remember a little bit ago how Chad was talking about needing a new "Edgy Christmas Movie" which he suggested using "The Thing" well I got a good one, "First Blood" if you look carefully in the final shootout scene in the police station, there are Christmas decorations all over the place! I think everyone should celebrate the season with some awesome Sly over acting!

Ken Frankovich

Always good to have Kenneth bringing the lads up to new Hites with his keen observations and love of serpent folk. This definitely feels like the germ of a story - or Act I of the film - and I'd love to see someone use it as a launch pad for more. Still weird, of course, but more. Another's point of view, for example. Someone listening to the story who is terrified by it. Because...

Oh cool, I just picked up a collection of E.F. Benson stories.

Chris Kalley