Author Topic: PseudoPod 491: The Second Act  (Read 4024 times)

Bdoomed

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on: May 23, 2016, 03:50:04 AM
PseudoPod 491: The Second Act

by Nicolas Escobar.

“The Second Act” is a Pseudopod original. “It’s important to remember that not everything in life can or should be understood.”

NICOLAS ESCOBAR is a Registered Nurse in Seattle Washington. When he’s not working the night shift he’s at home with his wonderful wife Emily. He developed a passion for writing after attending a meeting of “The Notion Club” run by Professor Will Mari of Northwest University. Nicolas believes in spooks and thinks you should too. He is currently working on a horror novel called THE EMPEROR OF SEATTLE, which should be out in December 2016..

Your narrator – John Meagher – is the writer and narrator of Tales of the Left Hand, an ongoing fantasy series offering “swashbuckling, intrigue and a dash of magic.” His books are available in paperback, eBook and audio versions, and links to all three can be found at Tales Of The Left Hand.com. In his secret identity, he lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, daughter and two cats.



He was wearing a torn up jacket and soggy blue jeans. Corralled beneath a frayed baseball cap, his hair spilled out in all directions. Both arms clutched a thin yellow book to his chest. He held it tight, as if at any moment someone might snatch it from him. Wild eyed, he slammed the book down in front of me but left his hand on top.

“I’d like to exchange this please” he said.





Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


South of No North

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Reply #1 on: May 29, 2016, 08:24:29 PM
Whoa-Whoa-Whoa!
You can't go and start detailing parts of The King in Yellow without a warning. Much less actually quote it directly.
The warning at the beginning from A. was as good as the bookstore owner's warning that the play was obscene. More a lure than anything deterrent.
No, you need to give a specific warning in cases when you are endangering the listener with a viral form of madness.

The unfair risk aside, I enjoyed this. A well done King in Yellow tale can be a lot of fun, and this certainly qualifies.
----"Mommy, can I play with madness?"------


"Yes, of course I can blame you. Without them, where would all of us outlaws be? What would we have? Only a lawless paradise...and paradise is a bore. Violence without violation is only noise heard by no one, the most horrendous sound in the universe." --The Chymist by Thomas Ligotti


Metalsludge

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Reply #2 on: May 31, 2016, 09:27:07 PM
I have read several King in Yellow stories that hint at various bits of the text, each with their own approach to the imagined play, and this one's approach seems to be designed to get around the problem of how a straightforwardly written narrative would be unlikely to drive someone insane, by implying that it's something deeper beyond the words, and/or one's endless interpretations of them, that makes the play mesmerizing. While not a huge variation on the concept, it's an interesting way to deal with the problem of imagining a viral text.

But beyond that, it felt a bit creepy pasta to me, and not in a good way - character meets creepy object, is driven to madness by the codex, grimoire, whatever, and then does bad things. The telling of the story, while above average in execution, doesn't quite elevate it beyond this familiar level for this kind of story that is easy to find these days. I still like this kind of idea, but something more to generate interest would have been nice. For example, Ramsey Campbell's old story of mixing forbidden Mythos texts with more familiar and sometimes censored forbidden texts from popular fiction in Cold Print was a fun variation on the concept.



Fenrix

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Reply #3 on: May 31, 2016, 09:53:04 PM

For example, Ramsey Campbell's old story of mixing forbidden Mythos texts with more familiar and sometimes censored forbidden texts from popular fiction in Cold Print was a fun variation on the concept.


Cold Print is a great story.

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


Unblinking

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Reply #4 on: June 02, 2016, 02:07:48 PM
I'm afraid this one did nothing for me.

I'm not hugely familiar with The King in Yellow tie-ins but the ones that I have read all seem to be pretty much exactly the same as each other.  When dealing with a 120-year old element that has been used in many variations throughout the years since, I feel that a story has to be remarkable in some new way to make up for the retreading and this story didn't do enough for me.

Besides being overly familiar, the difficulty of the Magical Manuscript Macguffin of Madness like this is that the protagonist has so little agency as to be nearly a prop.  He made the choice to read the manuscript, and that's basically the only thing he's allowed to do in the body of the story before the Macguffin takes over.   Is that choice born of pride?  Sure, I suppose, although speaking as someone who has read books or trilogies specifically because I was told that I shouldn't, I guess I'm guilty of the same--and to me it seems like such an obvious choice to give it a read that I feel like most people would do it, so while it's technically a choice I feel like it's also nearly reflexive in that if you believe the world to be generally mundane in its manifestation that there is not really any harm in reading something at least until you decide that you no longer want to read it.

After he reads the manuscript, then it seems to imply that he's not in control of what he is doing and so ceases to be a character until the end when he makes a futile effort to mop up the mess. 

I don't know, for me to connect with it more, to care about it more, I generally want to see a character with agency... even if that person makes all the wrong decisions, or makes the right decisions and still has the wrong outcomes, I still want them to have some ability to make choices, some way to affect the outcome. And that combined with the well-tread premise...



bounceswoosh

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Reply #5 on: June 05, 2016, 06:11:13 PM
I just didn't feel the horror in this one. I'm not sure why. Maybe I needed creepy music? I could picture this as an episode from Tales From the Crypt or Twilight Zone.



Metalsludge

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Reply #6 on: June 05, 2016, 10:17:56 PM

For example, Ramsey Campbell's old story of mixing forbidden Mythos texts with more familiar and sometimes censored forbidden texts from popular fiction in Cold Print was a fun variation on the concept.


Cold Print is a great story.

Yes, it really is something special. I first read it as a kid and didn't even "get it", partly because it references a very different book selling world and decency standards of the early 1960's that I didn't grow up with. But returning to it as an adult, I could appreciate how well executed and original a treatment of the idea of a mythos text situation it really was.



Vincezen

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Reply #7 on: July 11, 2016, 07:21:45 PM
Love this story! I'm kinda biased, though. You can stamp "Lovecraftian" on the ingredient list of clam chowder and I'll dig it. It doesn't hurt that John Meagher is one of my favorite narrators. Well done gentlemen! Well done!



otter

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Reply #8 on: October 21, 2016, 04:21:52 PM
So, I'm a terrible procrastinator and finally just now listened to the story I promoted to Alex and Shawn.  Thank you for the birthday wishes in the outro. <3

When I read this story, I had never read any Chambers or Lovecraft actually nor had I seen True Detective.  I have since remedied all of these things.  For me, this story serves as my introduction to the "King in Yellow," and I thank Mr. Escobar for that.  I still love this story.  I love the horror element of knowledge being a dangerous thing, and I also enjoyed the cynical wit.