Author Topic: Pseudopod 262: Black Hill  (Read 20270 times)

kibitzer

  • Purveyor of Unsolicited Opinions
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 2228
  • Kibitzer: A meddler who offers unwanted advice
Reply #25 on: January 10, 2012, 10:13:15 PM
To a geologist, the evolution of humanity wasn't all that long ago, but a cicada would feel otherwise.  :)

I didn't see Devoted135 in this thread yet...


Scattercat

  • Caution:
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4904
  • Amateur wordsmith
    • Mirrorshards
Reply #26 on: January 10, 2012, 11:49:02 PM
I also have to be the Keeper whenever we play Mansions of Madness because Rich won't play CoC for real.

If you don't mind losing an evening, go for the excellent "Arkham Horror" board game and it's now at least half dozen add-ons. It's a cooperative board game (you the players versus a randomly dealt GOO/Elder God/etc.) with options for individual goals as well.  Great game. I just wish it didn't take a bloody hour to set up and take down.

Arkham Horror suffers from the Dice Problem.  The last time I played, I got zapped to another dimension randomly and spent the next four hours attempting to roll a 5 or a 6 whenever my turn came around.  25-30 minutes of waiting, one die roll, one sigh, and passing the turn on.



Sgarre1

  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 1214
  • "Let There Be Fright!"
Reply #27 on: January 11, 2012, 01:47:52 AM
Quote
For me these stories were so incredibly similar that one of them seems pretty much redundant (though I'm not sure which one).

And *that's* the part that I find interesting.  Not that you're obligated, but if you do any more cogitating on the subject and come up with something, please post if you are so inclined.



Fenrix

  • Curmudgeonly Co-Editor of PseudoPod
  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 3996
  • I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
Reply #28 on: January 11, 2012, 01:59:17 AM
I liked both Black Hill and The Sound of Gears. Black Hill had a pulpier Lovecraft tone. I loved the resonance with the drilling rig hitting home to the opening of the door in The Call of Cthulhu. The Sound of Gears, felt more like gritty noir to me. My preference lies with Lovecraft, although I dig gritty noir.

Choices like this make it difficult for me to narrow down to three stories for the "best of" nomination list.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


Unblinking

  • Sir Postsalot
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 8729
    • Diabolical Plots
Reply #29 on: January 11, 2012, 03:21:32 PM
Quote
For me these stories were so incredibly similar that one of them seems pretty much redundant (though I'm not sure which one).

And *that's* the part that I find interesting.  Not that you're obligated, but if you do any more cogitating on the subject and come up with something, please post if you are so inclined.

Mostly, the wording of that was a joke.  If the stories are redundant, than they can only be redundant in combination, and so are both equally culpable for the redundancy.  :)  

Like I said, I think I like "Black Hill" just a fingernail-thickness better because it's explanation of the dead/ghostly matter building up in the oil seemed more convincing/eloquent than in The Sound of Gears.  

Just 2 days ago, I posted a Best of Pseudopod 2011 list, and this story was on it as an honorable mention, but "The Sound of Gears" is not.  As I was narrowing down the year's stories for the list, both this one and The Sound of Gears were on it til the very end.  But I was aiming to make the list one entry shorter, and so the choice came down to eliminating one of these or the other because I felt they were pretty much the same--if someone reads the list looking for a good sampling of Pseudopod, I figured it would serve them better to not have basically the same story twice in this collection of 8.  So I set the two on a metaphorical balance scale and measured very carefully to decide which one ended up on the list.  If this story had not been published (or had not been published until after the year's end), then "The Sound of Gears" would've been on the list instead.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2012, 03:23:23 PM by Unblinking »



Sgarre1

  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 1214
  • "Let There Be Fright!"
Reply #30 on: January 11, 2012, 11:38:28 PM
BTW - thanks for that best of list (which I will pimp where I can)!  And I was actually interested in your distinctions between the two, I wasn't being sarcastic or anything - so thanks for those as well!



Millenium_King

  • Lochage
  • *****
  • Posts: 385
    • Ankor Sabat
Reply #31 on: January 12, 2012, 03:02:04 AM
I am a huge fan of this story.  It's a great example of a Mythos story done absolutely correctly.  The desolate place, the slow build to otherworldly horror.  It was very well done.  Orrin's other story ("The Worm that Gnaws") is my all-time favorite story on Pseudopod.  And, like this story, the narration there was top-notch and really sold the story.

However, like "The Worm that Gnaws" I'm not sure how well this one would have done in text as opposed to being read aloud.  But I think this is a great success for the audio medium.  Great job Orrin!  Great job Pseudopod!

Visit my blog atop the black ziggurat of Ankor Sabat, including my list of Top 10 Pseudopod episodes.


kibitzer

  • Purveyor of Unsolicited Opinions
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 2228
  • Kibitzer: A meddler who offers unwanted advice
Reply #32 on: January 12, 2012, 07:30:37 AM
I am a huge fan of this story.  It's a great example of a Mythos story done absolutely correctly.  The desolate place, the slow build to otherworldly horror.  It was very well done.  Orrin's other story ("The Worm that Gnaws") is my all-time favorite story on Pseudopod.  And, like this story, the narration there was top-notch and really sold the story.

However, like "The Worm that Gnaws" I'm not sure how well this one would have done in text as opposed to being read aloud.  But I think this is a great success for the audio medium.  Great job Orrin!  Great job Pseudopod!

Isn't it amazing how much a great narration adds to a story? It's very interesting to watch the EA "Best Of..." polls this time of year and consider the effect of the narration on how much people like it.


justenjoying

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 144
Reply #33 on: January 15, 2012, 09:40:03 PM
This was very similar to Terrible Lizard King in the way it ends. This is a much more stark story to say the least, but
I love the Horror in the everyday life, finding the dead things that is not only a part of our everyday life but what makes it
run for us. I won't mangle Alistair's outro, but suffice it to say it stuck with me as much as this story. Maybe there is a finer line
between dead and alive as we chose to see.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2012, 07:02:23 PM by justenjoying »



The Far Stairs

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 127
    • A Thousand Lifetimes in an Hour
Reply #34 on: January 16, 2012, 11:40:16 PM
*SPOILER ALERT* Didn't "Terrible Lizard King" end with the boy eating the T-Rex?

I guess I'm missing the similarity, unless you mean the part about consuming dinosaurs?

Jesse Livingston
Head of Historical Archives
The Far Stairs
www.athousandlifetimes.com


justenjoying

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 144
Reply #35 on: January 17, 2012, 06:22:27 AM
more about the horror is all around us,
the boys relization that things run on dinosaurs and that we are made from the same stuff dinos were once made of.
before he eats the t-rex



Scattercat

  • Caution:
  • Hipparch
  • ******
  • Posts: 4904
  • Amateur wordsmith
    • Mirrorshards
Reply #36 on: January 17, 2012, 03:02:24 PM
In fairness, Orrin Grey was probably not inspired by this comic, as I was.



The Far Stairs

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 127
    • A Thousand Lifetimes in an Hour
Reply #37 on: January 17, 2012, 08:49:24 PM
Nice! (the comic)

You're right. I should have gone back and listened to the story before I opened my big mouth.

Jesse Livingston
Head of Historical Archives
The Far Stairs
www.athousandlifetimes.com


orrin

  • Palmer
  • **
  • Posts: 27
    • Who Killed Orrin Grey?
Reply #38 on: January 19, 2012, 07:51:45 PM
First of all, thanks for all the very nice words about the story!

Generally, when I'm writing stories, even Lovecraftian ones, I tend to try to avoid overt references. Throwing out names like Miskatonic or Cthulhu or whatever. But in this case, I was writing this story specifically for the Historical Lovecraft anthology, and I thought that the "that is not dead which can eternal lie" line was just so appropriate for the theme of the story that I couldn't resist using it.

Orrin Grey
orringrey.com


orrin

  • Palmer
  • **
  • Posts: 27
    • Who Killed Orrin Grey?
Reply #39 on: January 19, 2012, 09:08:20 PM
Also, for those of you who might be curious to see the story in print, in a stunning bit of serendipity the version of it that's going to appear in my forthcoming collection just went up as a stand-alone story for the Kindle on Amazon. It's got original art accompanying it, as well as some author's notes, and it's absolutely free for the time being, so check it out if you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hill-ebook/dp/B006YZIF6G/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1327007091&sr=8-5
« Last Edit: January 19, 2012, 09:14:31 PM by orrin »

Orrin Grey
orringrey.com


Sgarre1

  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 1214
  • "Let There Be Fright!"
Reply #40 on: January 20, 2012, 01:04:32 AM
I'll put a link up on the story page!



The Far Stairs

  • Peltast
  • ***
  • Posts: 127
    • A Thousand Lifetimes in an Hour
Reply #41 on: January 20, 2012, 02:26:44 AM
Generally, when I'm writing stories, even Lovecraftian ones, I tend to try to avoid overt references. Throwing out names like Miskatonic or Cthulhu or whatever. But in this case, I was writing this story specifically for the Historical Lovecraft anthology, and I thought that the "that is not dead which can eternal lie" line was just so appropriate for the theme of the story that I couldn't resist using it.

Well, that answers that. Hard to write a story for a Lovecraft collection without some mention of Lovecraft. Great work!

Jesse Livingston
Head of Historical Archives
The Far Stairs
www.athousandlifetimes.com


orrin

  • Palmer
  • **
  • Posts: 27
    • Who Killed Orrin Grey?
Reply #42 on: August 15, 2016, 09:50:05 PM
Just wanted to let everyone here know that Strix Publishing has just launched a Kickstarter to put out a brand new, hardcover deluxe edition of my debut collection Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings, which includes this story among several others. The new edition will be cloth-bound and fully illustrated by M.S. Corley, and will include at least two new stories not featured in the previous printing, as well as a brand-new introduction by Nathan Ballingrud.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aeeth/never-bet-the-devil-and-other-warnings

Orrin Grey
orringrey.com


Sgarre1

  • Editor
  • *****
  • Posts: 1214
  • "Let There Be Fright!"
Reply #43 on: August 15, 2016, 10:39:48 PM
I've also been posting the Kickstarter links to the Facebook page!



Marlboro

  • Matross
  • ****
  • Posts: 202
Reply #44 on: November 29, 2019, 04:47:25 PM
...I didn't understand why the chief oilman was still involved with the story. I feel that the story rested on the laurels of "typical" Cthulhu stories, where the protagonist or someone in his environment is driven to discover. This story assumed the drive, but never provided a reason, which Lovecraft's stories were always careful to provide. The man is already incredibly wealthy. His wife may be gone, but his daughter seems to be safe, despite his fears. There are a plethora of potential motivations for continuing to be involved with the occult - revenge? His daughter's safety? Sheer obsession - but none of them are detailed, giving the character a lazy, "just 'cause" feel.


This is my question too. I just don't understand the chief oilman's motivation.

Good episode despite that.