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Episode Comments / Re: PseudoPod 685: The Loved Dead
« Last post by Fenrix on Today at 02:08:24 AM »
Negatives: Clark Ashton Smith levels of flowery language.
I'm not sure I see that as a negative.
Of the Weird Tales triumvirate, I would argue that CAS was the most technically capable writer. Speaking of HPLHS, I recommend Andrew Leman's new podcast Voluminous. I'm rather enjoying the podcast. I like the curated aspect of the presentation of the correspondence, as I randomly perused some of Howie's letters last time I was in Providence. There's not enough time to think about a reasonable approach, because the collection at the John Hay Library is impressive.
If y'all want to hear a little more about C.M. Eddy, the episode "Tidings of Comfort and Joy" provides some further insight. https://www.hplhs.org/voluminous.php
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Episode Comments / Re: PseudoPod 685: The Loved Dead
« Last post by Marlboro on Yesterday at 08:26:29 PM »Positives: Extremely effed up subject matter for 1924.
Negatives: Clark Ashton Smith levels of flowery language.
Good reading. I need to get caught up on my HPLHS listening. I think the last thing I bought was The Rats in the Walls.
Negatives: Clark Ashton Smith levels of flowery language.
Good reading. I need to get caught up on my HPLHS listening. I think the last thing I bought was The Rats in the Walls.
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Episode Comments / PseudoPod 685: The Loved Dead
« Last post by Bdoomed on Yesterday at 05:15:17 AM »PseudoPod 685: The Loved Dead
Authors: C.M. Eddy, Jr. and H.P. Lovecraft
Narrator: Andrew Leman
Host: Alasdair Stuart
Audio Producer: Chelsea Davis
“The Loved Dead” originally published in Weird Tales, May-June-July 1924
It is midnight. Before dawn they will find me and take me to a black cell where I shall languish interminably, while insatiable desires gnaw at my vitals and wither up my heart, till at last I become one with the dead that I love.
My seat is the fetid hollow of an aged grave; my desk is the back of a fallen tombstone worn smooth by devastating centuries; my only light is that of the stars and a thin-edged moon, yet I can see as clearly as though it were mid-day. Around me on every side, sepulchral sentinels guarding unkempt graves, the tilting, decrepit headstones lie half-hidden in masses of nauseous, rotting vegetation. Above the rest, silhouetted against the livid sky, an august monument lifts its austere, tapering spire like the spectral chieftain of a Lemurian horde. The air is heavy with the noxious odors of fungi and the scent of damp, moldy earth, but to me it is the aroma of Elysium. It is still–terrifyingly still–with a silence whose very profundity bespeaks the solemn and the hideous. Could I choose my habitation it would be in the heart of some such city of putrefying flesh and crumbling bones; for their nearness sends ecstatic thrills through my soul, causing the stagnant blood to race through my veins and my torpid heart to pound with delirious joy–for the presence of death is life to me!
Listen to this week's PseudoPod.
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Authors: C.M. Eddy, Jr. and H.P. Lovecraft
Narrator: Andrew Leman
Host: Alasdair Stuart
Audio Producer: Chelsea Davis
“The Loved Dead” originally published in Weird Tales, May-June-July 1924
It is midnight. Before dawn they will find me and take me to a black cell where I shall languish interminably, while insatiable desires gnaw at my vitals and wither up my heart, till at last I become one with the dead that I love.
My seat is the fetid hollow of an aged grave; my desk is the back of a fallen tombstone worn smooth by devastating centuries; my only light is that of the stars and a thin-edged moon, yet I can see as clearly as though it were mid-day. Around me on every side, sepulchral sentinels guarding unkempt graves, the tilting, decrepit headstones lie half-hidden in masses of nauseous, rotting vegetation. Above the rest, silhouetted against the livid sky, an august monument lifts its austere, tapering spire like the spectral chieftain of a Lemurian horde. The air is heavy with the noxious odors of fungi and the scent of damp, moldy earth, but to me it is the aroma of Elysium. It is still–terrifyingly still–with a silence whose very profundity bespeaks the solemn and the hideous. Could I choose my habitation it would be in the heart of some such city of putrefying flesh and crumbling bones; for their nearness sends ecstatic thrills through my soul, causing the stagnant blood to race through my veins and my torpid heart to pound with delirious joy–for the presence of death is life to me!
Listen to this week's PseudoPod.
Follow us on YouTube and Spotify!
4
Episode Comments / Re: EP714: Marley and Marley
« Last post by acpracht on January 15, 2020, 08:01:40 PM »I really enjoyed this one. Feared it was going to be that Calvanist predestination stuff where fate is unchangeable. (Big part of why 12 Monkeys was "meh" to me).
Pleasantly surprised to see a more hopeful message about change and transformation, instead.
I think there's a message somewhere in here about the benefits of self-care, too...
-Adam
Pleasantly surprised to see a more hopeful message about change and transformation, instead.
I think there's a message somewhere in here about the benefits of self-care, too...
-Adam
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The Writing Forum / Personal Rejection: Can I ask what the editor meant?
« Last post by chuckt on January 15, 2020, 01:47:51 AM »I've gotten far enough in my writing that I'm starting to get personal rejections. I've gotten two here at EA and I'm really happy about it. Like ecstatic. I think so highly of what EA does and how. But the editor made a comment about my last one that I'm not quite sure what was meant.
I think I already know the answer to my question, which is: Can I ask what she meant? I'm pretty sure the answer is NO. These guys are so incredibly busy. They really don't have time to go back and forth with the authors. It would be unprofessional to ask?
I think I already know the answer to my question, which is: Can I ask what she meant? I'm pretty sure the answer is NO. These guys are so incredibly busy. They really don't have time to go back and forth with the authors. It would be unprofessional to ask?
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Episode Comments / Re: EP683: Flash Crash
« Last post by CryptoMe on January 14, 2020, 05:13:28 AM »I absolutely loved this story!! So much fun. From individual vs herd behaviour predictive market algorithms to trying to save as many people as she could in under 20 minutes. Very well done. I just wish we didn't know she was doomed from the start.
Favourite line in the story: "Squishy little instances of the same spark that flared within her."
I love the idea of being a "squishy little instance" of a life spark object.
Favourite line in the story: "Squishy little instances of the same spark that flared within her."
I love the idea of being a "squishy little instance" of a life spark object.
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Episode Comments / Re: EP682/EP214: Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest (Flashback Friday)
« Last post by CryptoMe on January 14, 2020, 05:00:35 AM »I never liked this story the first time I listened to it. But, I decided to give it another try anyway. Well, I still don't like it. It seemed like the author wrote horrifying things for the sake of being horrifying. I'm not sure how all that gruesome violence adds to the story. I am sure that people would have been disillusioned with this society even without the senseless violence. And it is completely unclear to me how or why a society like this would function. What is the point of being married or friends with someone if that someone is interchangeable and could be virtually anyone from one day to the next. Things like that really exceeded my willing suspension of disbelief. In short, the story did not work for me on multiple levels.
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Episode Comments / Re: EP681: That She Might Fly
« Last post by CryptoMe on January 14, 2020, 04:49:41 AM »I liked the way this story unfolded. I also liked the nod to our current income inequality issues.
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Episode Comments / Re: EP680: A Barrow for the Living
« Last post by CryptoMe on January 14, 2020, 04:46:26 AM »This is probably the kindest, most optimistic version of how the Mars One scam might have turned out possible.
Good point!!
I enjoyed this harsh slice of life for martian explorers story, precisely because it was more realistic than idealistic.
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Episode Comments / EP714: Marley and Marley
« Last post by divs on January 13, 2020, 12:35:43 AM »Escape Pod 714: Marley and Marley
Author: J. R. Dawson
Narrator: S. Kay Nash
Host: Mur Lafferty
Audio Producer: Summer Brooks
This story first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2017.
---
Show Notes
Thank you, Charlie Finlay, for believing in this story.
I never wanted to turn out like her.
When I met her, I was twelve. There was no one else to take care of me. Before she showed up, she was preceded by this man in a pinstriped suit. A harbinger. He sat me down in his sterile office and he said, “Time Law is not a joking matter.” He told me all the horrible things that would happen if I broke any Time Laws. Worlds would collapse. I would turn inside out. Important people would die and important things wouldn’t happen. And that’s when I first felt that clutching sensation in my chest. Like he had his fingers inside my rib cage and he was squeezing my lungs. Do not fuck this up.
“So are you the one I’m going with?” I asked. Because I was a newly coined orphan and I needed someone.
The pinstriped-suit man shook his head. “No,” he said. “The system is hard on children so we’ve come up with a better option. But you can’t go live with her. She must come to you.”
Because she lived in the future.
Listen to this week's EscapePod.
Follow us on YouTube and Spotify!
Author: J. R. Dawson
Narrator: S. Kay Nash
Host: Mur Lafferty
Audio Producer: Summer Brooks
This story first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2017.
---
Show Notes
Thank you, Charlie Finlay, for believing in this story.
I never wanted to turn out like her.
When I met her, I was twelve. There was no one else to take care of me. Before she showed up, she was preceded by this man in a pinstriped suit. A harbinger. He sat me down in his sterile office and he said, “Time Law is not a joking matter.” He told me all the horrible things that would happen if I broke any Time Laws. Worlds would collapse. I would turn inside out. Important people would die and important things wouldn’t happen. And that’s when I first felt that clutching sensation in my chest. Like he had his fingers inside my rib cage and he was squeezing my lungs. Do not fuck this up.
“So are you the one I’m going with?” I asked. Because I was a newly coined orphan and I needed someone.
The pinstriped-suit man shook his head. “No,” he said. “The system is hard on children so we’ve come up with a better option. But you can’t go live with her. She must come to you.”
Because she lived in the future.
Listen to this week's EscapePod.
Follow us on YouTube and Spotify!