Author Topic: PC179: The Gateway of the Monster (Featuring Carnacki)  (Read 14575 times)

FireTurtle

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Reply #25 on: October 30, 2011, 04:30:25 PM
I love it that he gets scared. Carnacki is such a fallible and wonderful hero!
I have to agree about context being important while listening. I was on vacation in Hawaii (yes, yes, poor me) and jogging through sunny cane fields whilst listening to this and I gotta say, I had to work harder than normal to get into "Carnacki mode". After the first story, I was all girlishly eager to get my Carnacki on and it was totally worth it. Despite my overall sunny and non-creepy listening environs, I was helped slightly by the large number of squished and mutilated toads along the road. They were much more awesomely creepy while listening to Carnacki.
As for the queer thing, I'm with Listener on this one. I "grew up" reading literature more than listening to contemporary kid speak, so when I'm reading or listening, I don't hear the word as anything other than itself. Confession: at the end of the story, I was like "where was the qword queer? I didn't hear it! Dave is sooooo making stuff up in the intro." But alas, apparently I was so in the groove that I just didn't hear it as odd. The one thing that always struck me as odd is that he was always going off to gather his (oh, man what did he call them? Provisions? Supplies?) stuff and place it in the center of the room. That was some big stuff. How did he get it up there? No mention of delivery personnel or manservants to help? Hmmmm.
And is there a band named Electric Pentacle yet? Because that is one awesome phrase. I just like to say it out loud for fun!

“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”
Ursula K. LeGuin


Gamercow

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Reply #26 on: November 08, 2011, 07:59:12 PM
Such luscious verbiage and prosaic narrative expulsion.

The cow says "Mooooooooo"


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Reply #27 on: November 29, 2011, 05:20:26 PM
This was pretty fun.  I liked it rather more than the Whistling Room because hand-monsters are frigging creepy.  I did notice the overuse of "queer" and "funk".  In the case of queer, the overuse was not due to the different meaning today--I grew up reading classic fiction like HG Wells where it was used in the older sense of the word.  But he did use the word a LOT.  I can only conclude that WHH was getting some kind of extra pay or perhaps fulfilling the rules of a bet to see how many times he could use the word in his stories.  "Funk" on the other hand, I think I noticed because it makes me think of "funk" as in music, making me think of one or more of the following:
1.  Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk
2.  Play That Funky Music, White Boy
3.  Funky Kong (a family member of the more famous Donkey Kong)
So, whenever I heard "funk" in the story, my mind would wander, I'd laugh a bit, and then realize I'd missed a few sentences.  :P



Sgarre1

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Reply #28 on: January 11, 2012, 11:59:57 PM
For those interested in more Hodgson, check out this guy's blog with occasional podcasts of readings (he's also updating and expanding all the Hodgson entries on Wikipedia)

http://hodgecast.blogspot.com/

There's some interesting and fun stuff to be gleaned therein.  Aside from his own readings of "A Voice in the Night" (compare/contrast), he's also done readings of the pirate romance/mystery story "Captain Dan Danblasten" and the entirety of Hodson's Sargasso Sea lost continent novel THE BOATS OF GLEN CARRIG from 1907 (which I'm currently listening to).



Gamercow

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Reply #29 on: January 12, 2012, 03:35:56 AM
So, whenever I heard "funk" in the story, my mind would wander, I'd laugh a bit, and then realize I'd missed a few sentences.  :P

This is what popped up in my head:

The cow says "Mooooooooo"


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Reply #30 on: January 12, 2012, 05:22:23 PM
So, whenever I heard "funk" in the story, my mind would wander, I'd laugh a bit, and then realize I'd missed a few sentences.  :P

This is what popped up in my head:

Perfect illustration!  Now I want to make a t-shirt with Hodgson wearing THAT hat and sunglasses, but instead of a star on the hat it says "Don't Fear the Funk".



LaShawn

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Reply #31 on: January 24, 2012, 05:31:12 PM
Wow! I liked this one sooo much more than the Whistling Room. Carnacki's blunders added to the tension of the story. I liked how his fear contributes to his blunders, and when he realizes that, he gets even more scared, and you're getting scared with him and it's like OMG WHY YOU'RE BRINGING THE RING IN WITH YOU YES THAT IS VERY VERY BAD OMG DON'T JUST STAND THERE GET THE HELL OUT RUN RUN *FLAIL*FLAIL*FLAIL*

The best part is, you know he's okay, he's right there telling the story. It's all emotion. Nice!

And yes, I too thought of doing drinking game with all the times he mentions 'queer'. At one point, he said it so many times it got me giggling, which paradoxically, worked well with the creepiness of the story. There was also a point where he says "I noticed the creep came over me." and I thought, "Wait...he's doing Thriller Zombie dance?" And apparently with all the funk references, I am amused at how much jiggyness is in this story.

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Reply #32 on: January 25, 2012, 02:41:28 PM
"Wait...he's doing Thriller Zombie dance?" And apparently with all the funk references, I am amused at how much jiggyness is in this story.

HA!  Love it.

And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller.



childoftyranny

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Reply #33 on: March 02, 2012, 06:38:41 PM
I adore this story. Even if in the end it just HAD to reveal a manifestation of the being it hit all the right spots. The hero was believably fallible, and didn't spent all his time whining about it (I'm looking at you Sword of Truth). The manifestations: the knocking door, the oddity of the crumpled bed-sheets, the feeling of something hunting him down the hall, so visceral and real but no evidence left behind. I've always found this sort of thing creepier than an actual monster, I've heard it elsewhere and its so true, "things are a lot less scary when you know(think) you can kill them." As an aside, that is something I learned well playing horror games, when you just have to hide and run from enemies its much scarier.