The SFFaudio Podcast #126 – a complete and unabridged reading of The Statement Of Randolph Carter by H.P. Lovecraft, read by Wayne June (from the Audio Realms collection The Dark Worlds Of H.P. Lovecraft – Volume 3), followed by a discussion of the story. Participants include Jesse, Scott, Tamahome, Jenny Colvin (of the Reading Envy blog) and Mr. Jim Moon (of Hypnogoria.com).
Talked about on today’s show:
H.P. Lovecraft never played soccer?, Mr. Wayne June is the voice of Lovecraft, Michael Clarke Duncan has a swarthy voice, Pat Bottino’s voice might work for Lovecraft, Tama was a Lovecraft virgin until The Statement Of Randolph Carter, The Statement Of Randolph Carter is a good place to start with Lovecraft, forbidden writings, nameless things with many adjectives, Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart, a radical thesis: Harley Warren is a mean practical joker, Jesse renders the story meaningless, The Turn Of The Screw, Big Cypress Swamp, Florida, Imprisoned With The Pharaohs, alligator-men, secret places and cultists, legion (many – demons – The New Testament), The Lovecraft Vocabulary Challenge, necrophagous niter, The Cask Of Amontillado, did Randolph Carter cover up that tomb?, using The Statement Of Randolph Carter for vocabulary expansion, “hoary”, adding horror, The Silver Key, Randolph Carter is an occult thrill seeker, “we’re one lid away from total doom”, I don’t find books of forgotten lore in used bookstores, Harry Houdini’s book on the occult had an introduction written by Lovecraft!, Lovecraft’s letters, the Call Of Cthulhu RPG works differently than other RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons, From Beyond, Re-Animator, Herbert West Re-animator, it’s such a cute little horror, showing Lovecraft on screen may be best done humorously, dripping oozing ichor, China Miéville, piling on the connotations, bringing home the horror, “it was an eldritch night and I was feeling squamous”, night terrors, Tama had a nightmare that DC was going to relaunch all their comics, “Warren is calling”, what does a gelatinous voice sound like? it’s a rip-of from Poe, The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar, hypnotism, Warren’s theory about why certain corpses say fat and firm, Demons by John Shirley, The Unnameable, a funny riposte, “your giant zombie theory doesn’t work”, In The Mouth Of Madness, The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft, The New Cthulhu, Robert E. Howard, The Black Stone, Clark Ashton Smith, Conan lives in a Lovecraftian universe, Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, The People Of The Dark, Worms Of The Earth, Howard’s non-Lovecraftian horror, Pigeons From Hell, Howard was a collector of words and ideas, what’s the Mongolian word for sword?, Cimmeria was a real place, Lovecraft was a crafter of stories whereas Howard was a storyteller, Lovecraft’s poetry, yellow peril, The Horror At Red Hook, raging racist, respectable white folks turning into fish people, Clive Barker, “you’re one puzzle box away from doom”, dark fantasy, hidden secret magical worlds.
Posted by Jesse Willis
I can totally get behind spreading Lovecraft but I felt as though no one did any research into Lovecraft. I don’t want to be “That guy” and i appreciate the efforts to spread literature, But the facts concerning the man seemed in most part to be false and some of the definitions to the words you used were also off. I have made his writing and biography a corner stone in my life and even have dedicated several of my shows to his life and works. I’d love for more shows about him to come along and if at all possible perhaps we could do a cross over because I love literature and if Lovecraft comes up I’d be more than happy to throw my hat into the ring. I don’t mean to be down on your show and i hope this doesn’t come across as just a slam letter. I dig what you are doing.
~Dave
Listened again, didnt spot any errors. David, Can you give me an example of a fact someone got wrong about Lovecraft? Was there a particular word we defined improperly?
First off I must apologize, I mis-spoke and said “Most” when i should have said “some” I didn’t mean to infer that most of your facts were wrong, just a few that i thought you’d like to know about otherwise.
When it was said that Lovecraft wasn’t influenced by christian mythology that actually wasn’t altogether true. Lovecraft actually drew a lot of inspiration from the christian legends and stories, though often time it was over shadowed by his influence and references to Greek and even Egyptian myth cycles. Without doing a deep look into the subject i can say that in the story “The Horror at Red Hook” the evil at the heart of that tail that Robert Suydam ultimately foils is Lilith. Now Lilith was the first woman that god made out of earth before taking Adams rib to make Eve. Now Lilith was crazy and her story is nuts. (more Jewish old testament but i think you see the point) Next in “The Thing on the Doorstep” the female character that is married to Edward Pickman Derby is Asenath Waite who’s name is in the Bible, Asenath is the wife of Joseph and the mother of Ephraim. And possibly another example is Nyarlathotep for one of his incarnations is “The Black Man in the Woods” which is either a stand in for the devil himself or a go-between from witches to the devil. There are other allegories through the fiction but I think you see where I am going here.
Now the use of the term niter for potassium nitrate, its appearance is usually synonymous with dark places with dripping pools of water or ichor. Potassium nitrate will be found around pools of water rich in the mineral where as nitrated salts (salt peter) will be found in animal waste.
Hoary can mean gray or white with age. But the word used in lovecraftian fiction usually is meant as ancient or venerable since we know Lovecraft to be the premiere antiquarian of his time. I believe he was going for very old instead of simply describing the color of something.
Also someone asked what the best Lovecraft movies were. As far as being entertaining and sticking closest to the actual texts what we are left with is Dagon. It’s actually based on “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and sticks pretty close to the story though it has been updated a bit. (Not counting “The Call of Cthulhu” put out by the Lovecraft historical society.) I could go through the list attempts but i feel it would be a forlorn conclusion where we see they are all just trying to cash in on the name.
Finally I wanted to say that “Herbert West: Re-animator” was actually written as a comedy. Written for the magazine Home Brew, it was his attempt at a comedy piece. The punchline of it all being “Damnit, it wasn’t quite fresh enough.” Also I feel “The Hound” was written pretty tongue in cheek but that’s for another time. Now I am no S.T. Joshi but I did want to put my two cents in and again I do apologize if this came as an attack. I am just a little to sensitive to the material for my own good I suppose. I must say though, anyone who spreads the word of the mythos my hat goes off to. Thanks again
~Dave
No need for an apology Dave. I appreciate your enthusiasm. More than anything it sounds as if you were greatly frustrated at not being in on the conversation. I understand that.
We were indeed speaking in broad strokes, at least when not talking about the story itself. I’d guess that’s probably is not the way you have done your programs on Lovecraftian topics (which episodes of First Full Of Podcasts were those BTW?).
In part our broadness may be due, you will undoubtedly recall, because only a couple of the conversants had read much Lovecraft prior to the podcast.
We may very well do another Lovecraft short story and I invite you to contact me via skype to discuss that.
My skype ID is: jessewillis
With regard to a couple of your points.
Indeed, Herbert West ReAnimator (the story) is certainly a kind of comedy. It is a cosmic comedy – a comedy of error – a tragic, existential, ironic kind of comedy – a little more narrowly comedic than I think was depicted in the excellent film.
And as Jim Moon mentioned on the podcast, with regard to THE UNNAMEABLE, Lovecraft was very capable of such a humorous riposte.
I’ll have to re-read THE HOUND.
Myself, I found the film of Dagon to be rather dreary, not wholly bad, but not worth re-watching any time soon.
I did my due diligence and looked up words in the OED, which never seems to pull out references from Lovecraft. Perhaps they should consider it, to expand into more macabre word-meanings. :)
I would LOVE to discuss Lovecraft on your show! As for the shows I did about Lovecraft between episode 80 and 81 we did a Lovecraft vs Howard show. Also between epsides 45 and 46. Between episodes 38 and 39 I interviewed Toren Atkinson from the lovecraftian band “The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets” I’m always looking to do more with the material but i feel as though there are plenty of people out there doing it already so i do it sparingly.
I’m so late to this Jesse, but many thanks for this site! I’ve given it a recommend on my humble RPG blog. Take care
Thanks J.L.! We’re in it for the long haul – so you’re not actually very late. :D