PseudoPod 750: The Artist and the Door

[Bdoomed]

PseudoPod 750: The Artist and the Door

Author: Dorothy Quick
Narrator: Dani Daly
Host: Alasdair Stuart
Audio Producer: Chelsea Davis

“The Artist and the Door” was first published in Weird Tales in November 1952


The advent of the artist and the door was almost simultaneous. I have always wondered if the one would have been as sinister without the other. Of course, the evil was in the door, but if the artist hadn’t come along just then perhaps it might never have been released. I say that to comfort myself, but I know it isn’t true. Evil is evil. It is a power and its strength is beyond mortal knowledge. Even without the artist there would have been horror. He only served to give it speedier expression. 

But I am ahead of myself. The story goes back to my desire to have a carved door for my Elizabethan farm house...



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[Álex Souza]

I liked how the MC ignored other people’s advice and bought the door. I felt that she was somehow attracted to its evil. You know, there’s a quote from a Brazilian author: “Sin attracts me, what is forbidden fascinates me.” That’s not only her, that’s human nature.

Fun fact: I only realized that the story was a throwback when I finished it. I thought the language used was meant to set the scenario for the reader, but the author was writing in her current language. All in all, it worked just fine .

There are a lot of missing commas and quotation marks in this one. Was it on purpose?

I wished more tension in the scenes that feature the door, particularly when a major character dies. Also, MC was very indifferent to the death of said character.