Episode Details

The SFFaudio Podcast #864 – In The Abyss by H.G. Wells (33 minutes) read by James Dixon for LibriVox AND Black Hound Of Death by Robert E. Howard (56 minutes) read by Ben Tucker, both for LibriVox, followed by a discussion of both. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Will Emmons, Cora Buhlert, and Alex (pulpcovers)

Talked about on today’s show:
1897?, 1936, posthumusly, 1896, proto-Lovecraft, both of these stories are science fiction, would you object?, the point of either of them?, half-gadget story, chanting, science fiction elements, not the thing that’s going on, functionally horror stories, what happens at the end, our boy is killed, deep sea monsters, he’s down there living with them now, white surface god of the merpeople, an angel, brough evidence the source for all the goodies that fall, you can’t weld underwater very easily, fire, bring the equipment from above, when Lovecraft has his deep ones, crowns and stuff, treasure from the same source, the village of Innsmouth, immortality, a horror, I’m one of them, impure bloodline, the people I passed over on the Mayflower, so excited to go down again, we have to wonder, The Time Traveler at the end of The Time Machine, explorers, still things to discover, vanish again to explore some more, stick to their room, yithians exploring, The First Men In The Moon by H.G. Wells, a bathysphere spaceship that goes up instead of down, plant the flag and punch natives, he can’t get out, not even a hint, drink the potion, if this window opens, unscrewed, Silurians or Sea-Devils from Doctor Who, deep sea, not blob-fish people, people shaped, houses with no ceilings, the tone is different, a comedy piece, anti-comedy, put up a cheer, doesn’t really go anywhere, the repeated line anywhere, like butter spread on bread, supopsed to object more, tonally not, make the argument, the explanation for what happens in Black Hound Of Death, Mongolia, the Erlik worshipping sect, great at plastic surgery, they gave us all their science, secretly dribbled out, wrapped in a revenge story, other shudder pulp stories, Cat-Woman, set in Quebec, that one’s even science, mailed away for some gladular, the importance of hormones, maybe we can make a werewolf, not contagious right, Garfield, set in modern days, what makes it so shudder pulpy, or weird menacey, prototypical weird menace stories, weird tales pioneered that, trying to get the cover, naked girl tied to a table, Margaret Brundage, a parallel universe Margaret Brundage cover that would have been amazing, Seabury Quinn, a naked lady standing over a grave and a kitten, Sin House, good cover, elements that are super-interesting, is this an actual state, Louisiana, or Arkansas?, there’s a river, the negros call it Egypt, New York city, definitely not in New York City, Texas, pine forests, weird relationship to forests, so freaked out they have to write horror stories, pine trees, the soils become acidic, woodcutting, big plantations, hiking with 1000 year old oak trees, the image of the old growth forest, the first line of the story, Egyptian darkness., unseen things lurking in the blackness, slinking figures, prowl beyond the edge of normal life, not here for no reason, some such thoughts flitted vaguely, deep pineland, dares invade in the night, densely timbered river country, obscurely racial reason, main bad guy is Adam Grimm, Bros. Grim, the bible too, in Exodus, the Jews wanna flee the pharaoh, mark their doors with lambs’ blood, the mezuza, 3 nights there’s darkness, occupied by ex-slaves, one white man living in this forest, honorable white man, save his fellow white man, a little like a Solomon Kane story, treats all races equally, an escaped prisoner, killed a sherriff’s deputy?, forget to mention, a black man killed by this black man, a