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The SFFaudio Podcast #886 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Ablest Man In The World by Edward Page Mitchell and The Man That Used Up by Edgar Allan Poe

The SFFaudio Podcast #886 – The Ablest Man In The World by Edward Page Mitchell (38) and The Man That Used Up by Edgar Allan Poe (24 minutes) – both read by Tommy Patrick Ryan, followed by a discussion. Participants in the discussion include Jesse and Tommy Patrick Ryan

Talked about on today’s show:
2 stories, The New York Sun, 1879, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, 1839, a 40 year difference, will have listened if they’re going to, cyborg, not a novel, not a book, people say that, what’s so fun about reading and hearing people’s reviews of The Man That Was Used Up they are in the story, lots of fun, in the Poe, a bit of a broken record, they’re programmed, speeding up more and more, firebrand, clever of Poe, scan through those words again, The Tempest, very boring infodumps, did it with voices, with names, read books, the use of the n word, negro, you don’t understand, if that’s your tripwire you’re not in twice, the other n word, not in there, if you edited that out that’s really bad, it is there!, you’re a bad person, bosom said I scalping is a rough process, Pompey, Del Ormes, “Now, you nigger, my teeth!”, it being in the literature, comfortable, necessary, to be faitful, it’s okay for Huck Finn to do it, the one time, part of what’s happening, Elijah Wood, where the Duke and the Dauphin, if they’re this then I’m a that word, totally said the word, epithets, down to the bottom of the text, D-N the vagabonds said he, who wrote that?, the character, “D—n the vagabonds!”, The Rats In The Walls, Wayne June, didn’t know it was in the story, so important to keep it in, words like that, don’t want to say it, so much hate in it, integral to the story, demonstrating, other and reduce the humanity of black people, natural to call them that, Twain is anti-racist, Poe is not, H.P. Lovecraft, Poe would have fought on the Southern side, lived in the North, not for the right for men to own slaves, Poe is a super-weird guy, the puzzle piece that was missing, a question on twitter, it was the answer, The Cask Of Amontillado, exemplifies, a less stripped down Tell-Tale Heart, almost no context, names and dates, the old man is his father, the old man, the narrator is crazy, based on metadata, not quick to disagree, a curious little scene, are you of the brotherhood?, give me a sign, removes a trowel from his pocket, a gesticulation, I am a Mason, a secret society thing, active in this period, more than a little, this story is really angry, mysteries encoded in, hiding things in the stories, makes it rich, took him in as a ward, Poe’s adopted dad was a Mason, abusive to his adopted mom, traveled to Europe together, the wealthiest man, left Poe nothing, trynna reconcile, cheating, left the bastard children money, the one chosen child, we don’t have access to John Allan’s mind, a revenge story, a personal revenge story, joined the army, went to West Point, about a military man, how would we prove that Poe would have joined the south, more than just slavery, boil it down to slavery, think about H.P. Lovecraft, wanted to join WWI, applied and accepted and his mom got it scotched, makes no sense, athletic and imposing, a good walker, it wasn’t about athleticism, it was about being a man, what if this story if not about being a man, they are very similar men, 1000% percent, caught up, lose track, in common with both of them, Pompey, the black valet, Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, second richest man, Crassus, private army guys, triumvirate with Caesar, the colour of the man who’s used up hair, black, it has no colour, black is all the colours, his whiskers, also black, oh that’s Poe, a black mustache, black hair, in the black and white photographs, Brutus, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, the evil that men do, et tu Brute, the one word to describe Brutus, his dash word, Dante’s Inferno, a traitor, the argument that they’re trying to keep the Republic, in both stories, his scientist creator, engineer-watchmaker, extracts a promise, how do we get this story?, he kills him, and then we get the story, one way of keeping the secret, a betrayal, literally murders robot men, talking about it, in the context, something to pair, cyborg or whatever, the original cyborg story, of the two which one is the cyborg story?, partially cybernetic, partially person, seems to still retained his original consciousness, brain dead, a mechanical brain in him, a human with a computer brain, still a computer, just not called that, where’s the cy-part?, where’s the borg part, a guy with a toupe is a cyborg, a hearing aid, cochlear implant, not human anymore, t-800, Robert Patrick t-1000 is not a cyborg at all, breaks the rules for time-travel, like the Bionic Man, Cyberpunk 2077, Neuromancer, Robocop, mechanical elements built into the body, mechanical components, what is ultimately the story?, a really good sense of humour, they’re supposed to be funny, wry smile funny, wears glasses, what really is going on?, unpopular channels, talking about books, no that’s wrong, the man THAT not WHO, he’s not a man anymore, he was used up, argument, doesn’t have any humanity left, where is his consciousness coming from, he/it seems to be self-aware, really just a robot, robot brain in a human body, W.C. Morrow, The Surgeon’s Experiment, finds a monster in the house, a man who’s had his head removed, a feeding tube in the neck, glandular excretions, a super-muscleman, no eyes, no ears, weird facts about the 20th century, Mike The Headless Chicken, ran off but didn’t die, a sensation, a roadshow, still roost, some success, chopped a lot of chicken heads off, what makes a man a man, asking that, man in the title, theoretically about cyborgs, really bad eyesight, a satire, the reputation of a man, what that man is actually like, he’s an assemblage, it starts with his name, the last sentence, kind of a joke story, going in, an artificial element, if you didn’t know, you might not have known, wires, pulleys, a heap, pushes away with his foot, explicitly mentioned, that heap is talking, our readers in 1839, twist endings for a joke, not a ha ha joke, this is a truth, an aspect of a joke, Brevet Brigadier General John A.B.C. Smith, 1 start general, he’s not, a brevet captain is not a captain, because of respect, interject, adhd perking up, Hamlet, as brevity is the soul of with I shall be brief, he’s aware the words are related, that’s not brevity, that’s the joke, Polonius is a doofus, proceeds to talk uninterrupted, his advice, he’s stupid, a pompous fool, not the greatest investigator, where or how, coulda been a major, the yellow hair who George Armstrong Custer, they promote, they call him a general to puff him up, John Smith, what his actual name, who is the doctor, John Doe, middle initials, A. B. C., E.A. Poe or Edgar A. Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, the fashion of the time, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, T.P. Ryan, Tommy P. Ryan, every part of his name is fake, if this story was set in the 20th century, this would be a Kardashian, a lot of work done, personality is fake, the music is fake, wearing make up, about being a man, a man is a man is a man, the shape of his legs, a really good set of shoulders, a shoulder connoisseur, I know what good shoulders look like, Tacitus, the received pronunciation, Warhammer 40,000 related, while the Kickapoos are real the bugaboos are not, the thing every body is afraid to say, a fake man, fake received opinions, supercuts, safe and effective, newsreaders paid to read ads, he’s this he’s that, the newspapers, a puffed up man, a puddle on the floor, the remains of all the things that was taking from him, scalped, leg shot off, the elephant that’s standing on him, he was used up, ship of Theseus as a man, bugbear, boogeyman, boggart, use over time, just before 1900, 1950, copies of Poe, almost created this word, popularized it, when we look at it, all the thing that Poe is laying down, reviews of Poe, contemporary reviews, a lot of reviewers were getting what he was laying down, resented it, [Our Opinions Are Correct], ‘Poe is third rate’ is this jealousy or stupidity?, super-ignorant, his nova, his explosion, The Pit And The Pendulum, Hop-Frog, as a kid, conventions or rules, pedestrian with the language, well written, once, twice, remember, spectacular, fascinating, he has a thing for orangutans, his poetry, The Raven, Annabelle Lee, Eric [S. Rabkin], more to say, hidden stuff in everything, wait 20 years, read it again, read it again, extracting things, one of his humour pieces, not your everday fare, they’re kinda bitter, doing his best, what happened to this man?, served his country, used up every little bit of him, puffery, in use to describe, grade inflation, mediocre and shitty, our country has never been better, bullshit, this is that phenomenon, with stocks, not self, you do it to your peers so they do it to you, what the fuck?, toss that off at the end, hatin on Lovecraft, a throwaway, trying to make Jesse angry for no reason?, you don’t need to read anything past ten years ago, read contemporary people to do puffery, scratch my back, you can’t say it then everybody would know, log rolling, something that people do, we told them they would, this immoral, super-common, a fake election, it’s not what you know it’s who you know, so angry at his fake dad, rejected by the masons, parents were actors, a lot of shit is fake, get a job, enlisteds, buy your way out, I’m going to be an officer, I can outrace you, I can outswim you, gunnery shit, the calculation shit, mixing the gunpowder, this is also not me, I’m better than this, I’m going to make myself the first wage earning writer in the United States, without the nepotism, what is a man?, puffed up generals, took an injury, a pathetic asshole who doesn’t know shit, not what’s going on in the other story, we need to talk about the Mitchell, a tendency, umbrage, your telling me the earth is hollow, okay maybe, Poe is not a good writer?, jealousy, articulate, a lot of the greats, take the time to see what’s in there, more people probably dislike Shakespeare, as an English major as an actor, puns and wordplay, the Hamnet movie, being at odds, the push and pull, the complete works of Shakespeare, being forced to read Shakespeare in high school, travel to other places, other languages, to speak Spanish, they feel stupid, read my novel and my friend’s novel, their stuff sucks, willing to entertain Hollow Earth theories, second rate, third rate!?, one of the best, how does he stack up, these are not the same story, The Ablest Man In The World, really fun, Arnold Schwarzenegger accent: *take the brain out of der! throw it in the Atlantic*, hints of it, the Swiss guy was on point, the valet, Auguste was a French man, another Caesar, an outline of the story, the same hotel room, my master needs help, doctor professor, anybody who wears glasses, the connection, carrying a nice handbag, so hard to see, read more, the artificial title, these stories run along similar lines, very famous, a baron, not a baron, fake name, administers some bourbon, whiskey from Kentucky, medicine, not a doctor, a reaction that’s positive in some way, screw my head off, a “deceptive wig”, so good?, some other kind of deception, pressure on his brain, messes up the lubrication of the gears, why was he sick in the first place, examine a little more closely, better than plot happens, the inventor caretaker, stop touching his head, a payment of two gold coins, on a parapet, kicks the ladders down, wants to force the interview, kick the ladder down after you, so nobody else can climb up, good writing, making a metaphor, the backstory, some sort of autist, abandoned by his parents, doesn’t speak, can sniff a little, can taste a little, calls out Charles Babbage, 19th century mechanical computer, IBM Hollerith machines, the most caparable man in all the Russias, Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother, he is going to become a Napoleon, the domination of two continents, removing his brain, Kentucky bourbon, to his wife: thrown the man overboard, Mycroft Holmes, saved two continents, look how goddamn smart Edward Page Mitchell is, smart things, having fun, there is something about being smart, being smart as a man is, this stupid part of being a man, continuously making the same mistake, taking alcohol when he shouldn’t, dating girls, the baron, not drink the bourbon again, the maid said oh go on so he did, a girl’s whim, not very fucking smart, inventing a mechanical brained man, getting away with it, a comedy piece, we can take it seriously, having a crutch is making your a cyborg, men become Napoleon, the descriptor, the infodump section, on the precipice, Napoleon wasn’t ten times higher than every other man, look at what he did, a Star Trek episode for this, Spock’s Brain, Spock was always robotic and inhuman, because of a kind of discipline, he’s vegan, operates only on logic, unlike Data, an improved man, more ordered, he’s a stoic, along those lines, riding through the emotions, slightly different, Spock’s mom is her name, full Vulcan and really emotionless, overcompensates, the Worf story too, half-space-elf, even more cut-off from his emotions, more Klingon than the klingons, hey this is fun to be a klingon, all the Star Trek memes are fun, Professor Rapperschwill, Professor Dumbkopf, we respect these guys, a fun and funny story, I’m not an expert on anything unless it were poker, an American overseas, called for it, nothing to drink over hear, my wife wants to hang out with the barons and the dukes, the titles are important, very simple guy, if you don’t do this, he bluffs him, the winner of this contest to save the world, the ablest man in the world’s brain, a big joke, a smart quick and wise man, Poe is the guy who constantly has this battle with alcohol, rumors, really really smart, unappreciative of that, make your feelings change, take drugs, works fast, cheap, available on every corner, The Angel Of The Odd, The Black Cat, alcohol in Poe’s life, a factor in his death, what’s he doing in this, the smartest man in the world, can speak many languages, he tricked the British, he flustered the French, easily tricked by a pretty girl, a supercompetent man, what makes you able, disabled real fast, the lifting of the wrist, what makes you able, what’s hidden in this story, the monster who’s the professor, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, in the tradition, conceived in Switzerland, a ghost contest, Dr. Poliodori, Lord Byron, innovative, sardonic sense of humour, not a light and fluffy story, neither of them, doesn’t dwell on child abuse, and murder, what is your reaction to finding out that most people are super stupid, investigate for uourself, regular smart american, Connecticut Yankee, studied engineering, a blacksmith, knows how to make stuff, telegraphs and printing presses, invest my money, printing is going to be huge!, all the right answers, the point of the second story, pretty hard reach, really not seeing what is being laid down over and over again, what really matters, as smart as this guy can be, even the robot, literally has somebody has access to this very treasure, calculator brain, certain ways of looking at it, alcohol and women, the dumbest shit, as a man, men are different from women, men think of themselves as disposable in a way men don’t think women are, property, in that time, often though of as ways to cement marriages, the patriarchy, the way of the world at the time of these stories, treating women as inferior, not the focus of either of these stories, about being a man, one is like what is a man, a man is Napoleon, a war hero, not getting your body parts shot off, immense pressure to go off and join the war, roving gangs of girls pinning chicken feathers on them, the meatgrinder, cute and fun and a way to meet boys, volunteers instead of conscripted guys, girls have power over men that’s hard to quantify, your not a man, a sense of yourself as a man, war hero, he was used by the government, they rewarded him with all these honors, all fake, lost all his body parts, kind of an asshole racist who needs help to have himself assembled every morning, there’s a big gap between them, model of a man, current congressperson, eyepatch, fell into the trap, now I’m a war hero, this is fake, everybody says about, brought into themselves, now regurgitate, Michael Jackson, and afterwards, they were all saying the exact same things, the narrative created around it, take stuff in and regurgitating is not being a man, investigating, hero protagonists are just regular men, the reality is not what they thought it was, saving us from a Napoleon, saving us from a certain kind of body modification stuff, reading that much into it, not the title characters, the investigators in both cases, in the Poe, to tell us what’s going on, doesn’t take a lot agency in the story, why is he doing that?, whenever you start investigating things on your own, Poe is a third rate writer so I don’t have to read Poe, Desultory Notes On Cats, these incredible stories, the contrast, both the source of the narrative, doesn’t really effect the narrative, takes an active role of agency, blackmailing the guy, hinting he knows more than he does or saw, get the guy’s brain out, even silly to say more than it’s fun, ridiculous premise, ridiculous conclusion, worldbuilding, the Poe is a little more cagey, learn it at the end, the repetitive nature, a true desperado, something is going on, how beautiful his bust, we learn early that there’s something, he is in fact, he has a computer brain, the Mitchell, more realisticly a cyborg, more science fiction, what would it mean, did he kill that boy long ago?, wasn’t much of a boy, fits into a really good tradition in science fiction, Flowers For Algernon, a dumb guy gets uplifted, becomes lonely, heavy lies the head that wears the crown, Understand by Ted Chiang, oxygen deprivation, see patterns, Limitless (2011), Stranger things, Fallout, Pluribus is the way to go bro, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, makes me think, A Picture Of Dorian Gray, what do you do with a monster like that?, the prequel sequel series is even better, Ted Lasso, something of a sports fan, what’s cool, their invasion is quite different, meaning, its smart, is it for or against it?, it’s complex, tried it, want to believe it is healthy, affected, rna sequence, transmission from outer space, telepathic, peace on earth, they don’t kill anymore, indeed, how do they eat, if the apple falls from the tree by wind, when you get focused on ideology, missing pictures, lots of places where there’s no evil, no an evil thing ever happens on Mars, also no good things happen on Mars, Satan’s world, we live in a fallen world, we suffer through it, more modern in aspect, holy books, veganism is a way to make the world a better place, cheaters, breatharianism, water once in a while, our bodies need food, eating living things, watch it dialogue free, have things happening, a confirmation of what you’re inferring, shows that are designed to do that, opposite in this, working on an art project, the only thing, write in my journal, the correct way to be, probably making a mistake, aesthetic judgements, through argument, which is the better story here?, of these two, excellent stories, in terms of being entertaining, clever wordplay, an actual plot and a message, the condition, flip them both ways, partially articulated it, wordplay, we have this, reveals that the technology exists, a clump on the floor, this guy and this technology, a change in the world, even more power in the world, why does he do that?, threatened by him, can’t take either one seriously enough to make an argument that strong, cartoons, some level of empathy, Wile E. Coyote, our guy is worried, hyper-intelligence, it’s not even him it’s the professor, if this guy were this smart and doing all these things with a regular human brain would he have tried to kill him, in a certain sense, his body, the baron is dead, the child that was the guy, our narrator is okay with it, I didn’t kill this guy, threw him overboard, a scream, maybe it was the seagull, our narrator, make all these political changes, poisoned or stabbed him today, feel justified, the reason it is not murder, so cartoonish, so light, done funnily, done for serious, horrible and scary things in it, a light touch upon his arm, Ms Ward, bless me, to save the girl from a marriage to a robot, how white you are, it has effected him, saving your peace of mind, how have you done that, too droll, the reaction, why these stories exist as they do, laughter is the consolation for the pain of reality, bad marks in school, people who seem to not have a sense of humour, in order for humor to happen, that’s not fair, humorous, a humorous person, a good laugh out of funny and terrible situations, gallows humour, reacting in a way that’s a coping mechanism, being a man, to be aware, he’s amazing, a little rundown, The Crystal Man, an invisible man story, decades before Wells, a time travel story, The Man Without A Body, transports himself across town, fairly funny stories, The Tachypomp, faster than light, infinite speed, building up on argument, infinite speed, super innovative, legit science fiction stuff, that H.G. Wells does later, after Poe, aware of Poe, published anonymously in his own newspaper, not magazines or books, you’ll never see it again, these are all by him, supergenius stories, thinking all about science, if this goes on, it doesn’t feel like one because it is so funny, The Senator’s Daughter, California, Boston, New York, vacuum tube transport all over North America, Chinese in love with a white girl, Chinese Vegetarian Party, he’s in love with this girl the father is racist, Boston, all in the course of an evening, marriage laws, still racist, a cryogenic chamber, wait until her father dies, fluffily written, before electricity is a bill thing, why is his reaction to be droll?, a coping mechanism, the world is kinda stupid, stick in these monkey bodies, don’t meet your heroes, makeup and fake boobs, that’s James Cameron, a television show called Intelligence, references it, secret agent with a computer in his brain, Bionic Man but shitty, if there’s a reference there, embracing the government or progress, smile wryly, heavy, they’re not identical, 37 minutes, 24 minutes, 1 hour of listening, one from Weird Tales, March 1923, Ooze, Francis Stevens, a blob story, The Stuff (1985), media savvy, bowels of Holly, Alex (pulpcovers), Die Hard (1988), The Terminator and Predator, summer of 1991, a Christmas movie, that’s the joke, It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), what is a Christmas movie?, set in Christmas, visited by an angel (instead of 3 ghosts), Back To The Future II, Scrooged with Bill Murray, is Groundhog Day a Groundhog Day movie?, The Fellowship leaves Rivendale on December 25th, the other camp, days are shorter, nesting feeling, not go outside, any movie is a Christmas movie [at Christmas], themed to the season, can you put pineapple on pizza, actually it is quite good, everywhere that isn’t pizza, on the ham, that’s fine, by itself, with other fruits, mango, the greatest of all fruits, the pizza is improved, pepperoni, jalapeno, this is important, aesthetics are about making arguments, the mouthfeel of, into your body, literal taste, coffee is a thing that is bad until you like it, smells bad, it is bitter, now it tastes good, you came to appreciate it, the drug that’s in it, nobody really likes the taste of alcohol, when babies are born they like ice cream right away, no acquired taste, levels of sophistication, grok what Poe is laying down, reject Poe, never be able to reach that level, comparing my stuff to him, don’t look over there, that’ll make me look bad, take my word bro, can’t be generous enough, that would be pathetic, not intellectually capable, you grow into, as you get older sweets become less and less interesting, tiger ice cream (orange and licorice), way too sweet, eat this eat this, very undercooked, grown into this man’s body, all over him, a handler he maybe sorta doesn’t know about, a Rashomon sort of thing, a confection of brilliance, awed at the floor show, really early ideas, electricity is mentioned, the part of him that’s not the cerebral part, what triggered the sickness, dashed this off, what a dasher, a sparkling little story of brilliance, Sunfire is her last story, the 5th time, stack em, prereading, ooh wow cool, mountain of stuff, Red Dwarf, the reboot, seeing DVDs of their own show, lived in a world where they were famous, really solid after the 2nd season, pretty entertained by it, hang out in nature, play music, one of the next ones, editing this up in 6 months, no LibriVox version, a lot that don’t, a little more work for them, ultimately you’ll be more longer distributed, more widely distributed, weird restrictions, more exposure, lead to something, how much time I’m putting into it, strict with regard to sources, if not on Gutenberg, it hasn’t been processed, making PDFs, some audiobooks, 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut, a very solid novel, Goblin Feet by J.R.R. Tolkien, Seuss is noice, Scrambled Eggs Super, a nature place, Eric S. Rabkin, how that word should be pronounced, realistic to know, full disclosure, not a paid project, more or less in one take, you a thousand times over any kind of robot, you can make the robots better, they have no consciousness of what your doing, funny and fun, shouldn’t he have the same accent as the hero character?, able to do everything, super-competent, so few opportunities, a lot of the best narrators, slight modifications, straight narrators and performers, if a shitty performer, if you can’t do a voice, go too far with him, Bronson Pinchot, it’s all in the guy’s head, a cast off line from chapter 18, making it harder to access, a performance is good, an audiobook is transformation from the text on the page into a person’s brain, George Guidall, Scott Brick, Tom Parker, Grover Gardner, audiobook narrators have pseudonyms, recording for other companies, we have robots we don’t need them, fun to talk to you about these things, invested, share, the McCaffrey and Philip K. Dick, Prize Ship, pairing really helps too, the length of the stories, how am I spending my time, references and things, a little bit too twee, “excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental”, everything is a reference, a huge problem with nostalgia, unpopular as an idea, funko pops, memberberries, valuable as an idea, set in a period, Ready Player One, the book was better, trying to make me like it, being manipulated, designed to manipulate, heavy on reference, how Star Trek is connected to The Tempest, oh it is The Tempest, seems evil, playing MacBeth, his daughter!, space Hitler, space Stalin, Patrick Stewart loves Shakespeare, getting rid of Trotsky, modernized, it was good, Ian McKellen on stage doing Richard III, is Stalin a Christian?, the dagger scene, kludgy push, agree to disagree, Marc Singer, The Beastmaster (1982), The Taming Of The Shrew, very grainy video, Commedia dell’arte, Kate meets Petruchio scene, wringing, the stage directions, exit, from within, the words of the characters, a fuckton of work, willing to do the work, as a last bit, the period Shakespeare the best, reveals its timeless nature, really well and really poorly, if that’s your fifth time watching the play, Romeo and Juliet set in Mexico as an introduction, hard for kids to relate to, a fair actor herself, a huge project, Shakespearean chops, wring every last bit of juice from it, the more I study Shakespeare, appreciate what he does, he was an actor, so meta, the man for all seasons, a genius, insane, you are a liar and fool if you think that is a thing, having trouble, parents want to watch Yes, Minister, on point and sharp, great dialogue, Scooby Doo and his friend eat dog treats, the kiss me Kate scene, 1976, not not a big deal, equal representation for women, good writing, super innovative, she’s got spark, almost everything we read about Francis Stevens is lies, that’s not her name, she had many names, forget about the representation, has this person got something for us?, hell yeah!, The Elf Trap, not science fiction, not fantasy, a valance of both, either way it is supergenius, she has a Lovecraft story before Lovecraft wrote it, it seems to be anti-racist, Dark Fantasy isn’t really a thing, pushed it a lot, subconsciously, it keeps coming up, talking for 3 hours, The Outfit by Richard Stark, Claimed by Francis Stevens, Lynne Foster Is Dead by Seabury Quinn, Sartor Resartus, Stragella by Hugh B. Cave, Val Lewton, Clark Ashton Smith, A. Merritt, The Trap by Henry S. Whitehead, With The Night Mail, 30 some items, dud, a piece of crap, in comparison, Sheckley is amazing, a rip-off of a Robert Sheckley story, Seventh Victim, spark and explode and think and laugh, we can be done, not the right show, today we’re not reading short and deep, favourite teacher, consider a good friend and care about deeply, time to wrap it up.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #531 – The Hole In The Moon by Margaret St. Clair

Reading, Short And Deep

Reading, Short And Deep #531

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Hole In The Moon by Margaret St. Clair

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story |PDF|.

The Hole In The Moon was first published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1952

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The SFFaudio Podcast #885 – READALONG: Destiny Doll by Clifford D. Simak

Jesse and Scott talk about Destiny Doll by Clifford D. Simak

Talked about on today’s show:
a prediction, cut you off, “liked” and somewhat similar to “Special Deliverance”, Shaun D. Standfast people, stopping watching, second read, liked it even more, about a year ago, felt familiar, much more into it, one of his better ones, it’s great, some theories, what’s going on, Way Station and City, casual search through twitter, new audiobook, this is my favourite novel, that’s really odd, I like it too, even if we made a list of all the Simak writings, the top slot, really?, what is the phenomena, objectively, not particularly cohesive in terms of being an original sort of thing, Philip K. Dick, short stories vs. novels, designed to be a thing, aim at a target, which is the best Philip K. Dick novel, Evan Lampe, psychedelic feeling novels, Galactic Pot-Healer, fairly similar to this, Tin Men and Cowardly Lions, another Oz book, really spoke to people who read them at a certain age, you can’t disabuse people that those books are bad, why you can love this book, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, the message is more of a question, what is our relationship to the artifical rather than the real?, it’s a what if?, what if America was occupied by the Japanese, mind expanding ideas, work and meaning, this is about art, your relationship to higher meaning, there’s a god, restoring the sunken cathedral, it has everything, what is it about?, I have no idea, it’s great, a starship captain, rich big game huntress, mixing of fantasy and science fiction, hobby horses, very Ozish, talking toys, don’t you say they’re robots, Star Trekish, triggered captain Kirk in me, finally found Lawrence Knight, fawning over the guy, the “tomb world”, not the person but the skull behind their face, steppin through doorways, what makes Simak so special, didn’t discover him earlier, almost no exception, he has this quality, more things in the universe than we understand, an unorganized religion person, there is a God, mythical layer, keeps appearing, appreciate it a lot, a line in here, the doll itself, Friar Tuck, like this book for some people, near the end, the captain guy, the only one left, back in the city and just thinking, philosophical thinking, they built this city, there’s something even older here, they built stuff, the carven plains of that saddened face of the doll, another race, the church-like edifice at the city’s age, the carving of the doll, the planting of the trees, that’s beautiful, this item, this art, a greater feat than all these buildings, calling out to the darkness, speak to you, old fantasies, Lord Dunsany and older, this quality, a quest novel, on a trek, a mythical quality that simak brings to the discovery, Rendezvous With Rama, a much more sterile book, an awe there, a mythical depth, it has that, they’re looking at the city, landscapes, who did this?, an emotion in here, touching something that’s transcendent, thinking for pages, he’s alone, amazing the thought that he has, pushed along by destiny, throw some facts down, kinda serialized, in one issue of Worlds Of Fantasy, Spring 1971, a note explaining it, a piece of an interview, 1978, 1971, Simak himself, the problem with Destiny Doll, a companion magazine, Worlds Of Fantasy, condense Reality Doll, cut it half and ruined it, what had had to be done, nominated for a Nebula, Destiny Doll was never nominated, interesting note, strictly for money, Westerns, spent the weekend reading them, cowboys as heroes, other people out west, I had things to say, 1949, this genre he’s writing, 5 fingers on it, Shakespeare’s Planet, whatever qua means, guy, girl, robot, weird monster, alien planet, no plot, roll the dial back, The Fisherman, plot driven telepathy, magic is real, the tin, man the cowardly lion, the scarecrow, an alternate dimension, they stop at an inn, they meet some creatures, some possibility of danger, quickly dispensed with, Simak is against conflict, where’s the conflict, the neighbours are a bit worried, spying on him occasionally, gets out the laser gun, centaurs, thousands will die, dude chill, the superior version according to Simak, unless included in anthologies, huge difference, one would presume, Lester Del Rey’s title, turns toward the Philip K. Dick aspect, shifting realities, Small Town, making changes to reality, outside the borders of his yard, the little model of it, takes out the bars and puts in libraries, look at this objectively, meet the characters, the blind guy and Friar Tuck, hobby horses run up to them, let’s go, suspicious, they go elsewhere, customs inspection, some gnomes, chapter 2 is the backstory, our Han Solo style roguish, back to our planet, that’s the whole book, adventures continue, they never leave back to go to earth, similar scenes, Cemetery World, the building are all white, robots, telepathic rhyming robot, what is this if not, the Final Frontier, checkbox, Shakespeare is in here, maybe she has a tattoo, check, religious elements?, check, strange planet, check, a place people go to and don’t return from, they’re all dead, Humans leave earth, dog starts to arise, The Faithful, religious elements, revisits, refines, The Visitors, Project Pope era, this is Simak, a lot of writers don’t have that, this is a Clarke novel, the perversity, got to put his perversions in there, you didn’t know I was a nudist?, let me drop some nudism in there, theses, at some point in every novel that’s a good novel the novelist reviews his own novel in the text, chapter 3, chapter 23, chapter 24, the DAW paperback, not synchronicity it is special attention, near the end of Chapter 3, the dune was no longer there, in it’s stead was silence, an insane crying, my friend is back again, super mysterious, the whole purpose in their journey, a venus fly trap, a honey trap, ships that come to this planet do not leave, is this God?, is this the sweet call of death, unusual for a Simak character, aggressive and yelly, shut-up!, that silly sickening look of ecstasy painted on his face, a creature from out of the desert world, that night that had lain over the white world, blocked out, no sign of the hobbies, earlier in the chapter, all good stuff, reading text, near the end of chapter 23, page 177, wispy filaments, wind whispered overhead, campfire smoke, something was chuckling softly to itself (that’s Simak), Shakespeare?, had it been Shakespeare?, how had Roscoe known of Shakespeare?, carried his knapsack, Shakespeare is a book, actual Shakespeare you have to read the actual Shakespeare, writing with an outstretched finger, also Simak, here’s the review: blue and high, stars ahead, and blue, blue laughter, think unhard, slowly I picked the words apart, blue foreverness, runners after nothingness, talk is nothingness, nowhere comes the answer, it was gibberish, worse than gibberish, the gibberish went on, page 52, far is distant, neither short nor long but deep, no stick to measure with, purple leads to nowhere, there is nowhere to lead to, to prevent the pages getting out, strange enchantment, Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, even if she knew, page 181, near the bottom, totally unintelligible, an utter moron, why my thesis is so true, laughing at himself, seemed to make some sense, blue and purple knowledge, all spectra of knowing, lonely planets, far lost in space, in the blue of time, trapped it is, a time of golden harvest, another tomb world, great orchards of mighty trees, down at the city, up at the city, the whiteness of the sky, the whiteness of the ships, as other planets soak in the golden sun, seeds trapped with knowledge, fruit is many things, sustenance for the body and the brain, it ripens and it falls, nonsensical rambling, thinking about his own thing, you can’t have that it the short story, a short story is like a device, like a pencil sharpener, it can be elegantly put together but it is not a dress, … a novel is like a wedding dress, why their stories suck, why does this guy have 6 brothers, the best stories, 1 character is enough, 2 is more than enough, in order to write a Simak novel you have to have a bunch of character, squid alien, Hoot, seems like a threat, immediately not a threat, are we not friends?, I sucked the poison out of you, what is he doing on this planet, we needed a cowardly lion, the man behind the curtain in the end is always Simak, let’s go, another Oz adventure, a formula that works, sit around a campfire, gets angry, calms down, a group on the road somewhere, one guy and a mystery, The Canterbury Tales, very similar to a lot of Simak, people on a pilgrimage, progress down the road, it’s ancient, told 1st person, and yet, when people disappear they disappear from him, lots of quest books, Nebula Grand Master, one of the fist ones, audio at an awards, dentures, 1977, a Stoker Award, Fritz Leiber, Frank Belknap Long, 1987, died in 1988, The Grotto Of The Dancing Deer, Hugo, Nebula and Locus, an early start date, before everybody, Murray Leinster, first short story, The Cubes of Ganymede, Campbell rejected it, many such cases, The Cosmic Engineers, Empire, a LibriVox version, not terrific, Project Mastadon, Mastadonia as the novel, Grotto Of The Dancing Deer and The Big Front Yard, when doing multiple stories, contrasting authors, H.G. Wells vs. Robert E. Howard, Conan vs. Conan Doyle, The Adventure Of The Cardboard Box, the one story that’s more interesting, they both have merit, having contrasting food, some real salty fish, some sorbet, completely, sherbet, sorbet, playing with ai (Gemini), notebook LM, 9 Simak interviews, ask questions, source documents, to make a podcast, one of the options, what it is useful for, a learning tool, make me a podcast and focus on his religious views, the NPR people, more interesting than good, people learn that way, ancient Greece, some aspect of ancient Greece, food in ancient Greece, educational mentors, BC Civil Liberties guy, [John Dixon] advisor to Minister of Justice, promoted to Prime Minister, politicians are good at shaking hands, they’re not geniuses, getting elected, they need smart people who know how to understand the world, all of them have them, dumb people as their advisors, he was not dumb, thoughtful, good taste in movies, write up something, write up a paper advising, busy gladhanding, what should be done, what should your policy position be, they’re not people, solve a bank problem for me, they’re untrustworthy, you don’t know who they are, a super racist Robert E. Howard story The Last White Man, a race war story, collaborated with the Asians somehow, one last man on the hill, as a man in a racist world, go max on Irishness, they say great things about it, there’s no sense of how stupid it is or how funny it is, no personal reaction to it, all the worlds associated with religion, a large language model, grey NPC character, that’s true of these products, which is Clifford Simak’s best novel, it really spoke to me, not what the tool is for, is Simak a religious person, testing this tool, list things that he talked about, here’s where you find that, a position paper, people are doing that right now, use data in some way, this group rated, Goodreads, pointing to the Shaun Standfast show, every book on Goodreads is 3.6, no one has read, the finest book I’ve ever read, modern stuff, it’s a thing, picking 4s, 4.5, gamified, to read a 3.5 would be absolutely not, movies and tv shows that are new, bots, work on the show, the corporation itself, there can be a rerelease, the same on utube, likes subscribers, in the end, I like to read Simak, he seems to reward me, I believe it, John W. Campbell, overrated, shit on him right now, good at coming up with ideas, go with Simak, go with Donald Westlake, part of their equations, the only other time, a journalist, a newspaperman, many such cases, strictly for money, pumpin em out, sounds familiar, feature length, super well produced documentary, Linotype, the business of paper and ink, answers so many weird questions, tears books apart, little marks beneath the page, an artifact, publish coordination mark, very kind of key, trays, electrical, you type a letter, a tray full of dies, negative dies, every line of the column, page 83, one column across, all a magazine styles with two columns across, this is the amazing thing, the letter that got inked were made of lead, the letter as you need them, every size every comma, that makes a slug, lead castings, same lead bucket they came from, like a printer that prints one line at a time, astounding, incredibly complex, the kinda training that nobody else will ever get again, just happened to come at the tail end of it, no demand for it, xeroxing, this is what made newspapers possible after the time of Benjamin Franklin, changed the world of knowledge and knowledge production than anything else, the machine the size of your kitchen, it’s big and you sit at it, hot lead spurtin out of it, Pay For The Printer by Philip K. Dick, a being from another planet, it copies the cup, very tired, the colour is faded, for making newspapers, every newspaper had one of these, technical people, superinteresting, people who run trains, not this job, bigger, every city that had a newspaper, every book publisher, guys, Mr. Pulpcovers, how well produced, I watched the whole thing, nice to learn things, thank you, a happy new year and merry xmas and a bruiseless boxing day, go Cowboys, which team is kicking the ball better, some kicking, throwing, running, some carrying, can you make a novel out of it?, some deeper purpose, too fun, cheerleader with a tattoo on her breast, collected fiction, spread out his best stories, sell em all, kindle, audio.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Reading, Short And Deep #530 – The Last Train by Fredric Brown

Reading, Short And Deep

Reading, Short And Deep #530

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Last Train by Fredric Brown

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story |PDF|.

The Last Train was first published in Weird Tales, January 1950

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The SFFaudio Podcast #884 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Valley Of Spiders by H.G. Wells and Valley Of The Lost by Robert E. Howard

The SFFaudio Podcast #884 – The Valley Of Spiders by H.G. Wells (24 minutes) read by Robert Dickson for LibriVox and Valley Of The Lost by Robert E. Howard (41 minutes) read by Tommy Patrick Ryan, followed by a discussion. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Alex (Pulpcovers), and Tommy Patrick Ryan

Talked about on today’s show:
other Jim Brill stories, The Mound, set in Texas, the same character in both?, a southern accent, a cowboy, valleys and spiders, other stories with valleys and spiders, a novel by Samuel Delany, listening to him talk about it, gay garbagemen who open a pornographic movie theater, later on they become handymen for a lesbian colony, asking around the robots, fetches reviews, the spiders are metaphorical, dude, spiders and spiderwomen go together, the female creature, a gender flipped vampire, brides of Dracula, Carmilla, LEGO minifigs, Medusa, the Spider Woman, Tiger Girl, a story here, 10 minutes to read aloud, connect these 2 stories, The White Death by Don Mark Lemon, he was an American, Virginia, South America, Mexican guide, in Tarantula Valley?, is it a pestilence of some kind, a snake?, no senor, poisonous gases, banditi?, half savage as he was, queer, policy, treble it, American gold, stack a mortgage, a Catholic, meet the White Death, superstitious, well armed, Winchester, the infernal poet, a diseased poet, with one by his side, sylvan charm, two burros, snake, buzzards, a half-wild burro, somehow, the man fools around the ear of a friend, such quick tracks, three dirty streaks of light, strangest of all, the witness of his own eyes, collections of bones, a open air cosmopolitian graveyard, the cat tribe, a cow, skeleton of a man, the prey of a month or so, a second collection, bleaching in the sun, the third day, what manner of thing it was, a great panther of some kind?, a huge snake?, then he struck gold, down the river in search of game, the latest feeding ground of the Thing, a cool million, try to bag something, proceed to watch, a huge collection of boulders, scratch her sweetheart’s name in the dirt, her name, his own name, more like spades than the human heart, his brains were tangled, 6X3 is 18, squatted upon the pile of rock, he couldn’t do other than watch, not the slightest noise, a gigantic spider, large as a full grown tiger, why, talking or thinking, the light that came out of the eyes, deprived him as the power of motion, the long white hair, intense heat, the 30 foot spring, maudlin lips, “mother”, flashed before his soul, the face had the mouth of his sweetheart, laugh foolishly like a baby, flaccid and flabby, through the hot air, horrible fangs, now I lay me down to sleep, he’s amazing right?, intense little story, a giant snake, massively oversized, the two covers, Forgotten Fantasy, guy on a horse and spider, 1966, Magazine Of Horror, guy on a horse and a giant spider, barely got any spiders in it, a spider cover, super-science fictiony, familiar, The Noseless Horror, another one, werewolf in Louisiana, the mummy one, the dude who went to Mongolia, it is kinda awesome, the number of things that Robert E. Howard does in that story, stack up, a laser beam, a tv movie in the 1970s, The Stone Tape, Nigel Kneale, audio recording company, they bought a castle, the resonance of this chamber, recording people’s experiences in the actual stone, tape doesn’t exist when Robert E. Howard was writing this, television is legit, Electrical Experimenter, recipes for making your own television, mechanical television, amazing and terrible, cathode ray tubes make it viable, so much science fiction ideas, transforming into Genghis Khan, give my wife as a gift to the mongols, jammed together in 10 pages, the Philip K. Dick and the Anne McCaffrey, Alex is fine, in spanish the vowels always make the same sound, unless dipthong, British Columbia goldrushes, reading along, it was good, the better one, of the three, the Wells had a certain ambiance to it, the gaunt man, the silver bridled man, Chinese accent, an Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was fine, the Robert E. Howard, the aftermath, they’re escape, the disintegration ray, still happening, still talking, nothing useful, so much stuff that happens, the D&D escape from the castle, more like Gamma World, it’s not a weird western, it’s science fiction with a cowboy, a revolver?, acp 1911, he’s a cowboy, draw really fast, a cowboy in Mongolia, adapted into a Conan The Barbarian Annual drawn by Gil Kane, a whole battle sequence, Hyrkanians, a mission from Nemedia (not Texas), whenever lifting from the descriptions of the actual story it is good, to fill out the length there’s a circle around twice, Afghanistan, where the evil super-science lives, Genghis Kahn’s tomb, off-limits, sounds found, a forbidden plateau of leng, pretty small, not super important, giant spider, he did a monkey man, runs off screen, save it for the show, a great loneliness of tableland, a woman who has fled with one of the native servants, muted, mestizo, metis, mixed people, a summary of the story with characters, where are you getting the character names from, in the actual text, desciptions and pronouns, “the man”, “lord”, courser companions, waxed mustache, half-breed tracker, poet-like?, explicitly triggered, the insight about ai, Our Opinions Are Correct, people who don’t think like Jesse, science fiction related, on bluesky, almost enough said, don’t get tricked, WWII, Tolkien would hate that, he abhors allegory, Gandalf is kinda like Churchill, if Tolkien denies it later, “so done with Lovecraft”, an interview with Alec Nevalla Lee, Buckminster Fuller, the boss of his community, editor of weird tales, gross and disgusting, pejorative stuff, ugly red hair, the ugly part, good or bad, the argument describing it as good or bad, the one we weren’t supposed to do, awesome, the most interesting and difficult, pursing, mestizo, mixed race, started questioning about the H.G. Wells story, combing it for facts, not explicitly, not Africa, a little too much happening, where is the spanish?, half-breed, silver bride, Argentina, hint, Latin America, a tracker, west, commands a whole city, they have swords, Winchesters, why this story is so weird, medieval armor, a Norman helmet, why it is so interesting, what are all 3 of these stories about?, they’re all about going into unknown places, before we lose this thread, just waking up for Wells, picturing Eastern, New England, England, West Virginia, escaped woman, Appalachian weird, Deliverance (1972), not explicitly wrong, a hallucination, or interpretation, the Howard is pretty good and very fun, fun to read, compelling, what was going to happen, 25 minutes, the Howard dragged at the end, superfluous, paid by the word, rough draft, submitted, rejected, couple of weeks tweaking it, an afternoon pass, an incredibly confused history, stories published later, mistook this story for another story, The Lost Valley As Iskander, Afghanistan, crunchable media, submitted to Strange Tales, announced in the last issue and then never published, profiting by it now, multiple magazines, a story by Jack London, no supernatural element, what kinda story this is, War by Jack London, guys on horses at war at an unknown place at an unknown time, comb through it, the only indication of where it is, apples grow all over, a temperate zone, a deciduous forest, winters and summers, the point of that story, people in combat are on two teams, there’s no context clues, that’s deliberate, trying to read it as South America, make it super generic, so as to create and effect, sorted soon, the mistiness, the effect he was going for, it could be anywhere, what they’re skin tone was, are they white men, pictured as white, the kinda jerks they are chasing down this woman, whatever the deal was, white men tend to be the kind that control other people, happening subconsciously, there is one point, these white men, incredibly present, names and locations, kinds of trees, white is pointed out, the lord is shitting on white horses, the back end of the story, damned white horses, what is the final line of the story and why is that?, as he rode he picked his way, many dead spiders on the ground, feasted guilty on there fellows, in the Conan adaptation, their time had passed, a winding sheet ready, a nautical term, where we get ghosts from, could do him little evil, flicked with his belt, dismount and trample them with his boots, spiders he muttered, I will spin a web, a very weird ending for this story, 3 guys go looking for a half-caste girl, towards colonialism, the target of this story, the class system, there’s three guys, two a servants, questions the leader, the back end of this story, I’m better than you, I’m also a coward, what makes you better?, what defeats the one guy in his pursuit is nature, white men?, white spiders, what does he mean by this, deliberately so, spins a web and waits, figure out a way to trap her, why valleys and spiders go together, a place that’s protected, an attic is full of spiderwebs because their webs will last, maybe the Robert E. Howard one is the one that doesn’t fit, most of the setup for the story, The Last Valley (1971) with Michael Caine, our wizard, he’s a scientist, a chain blocking the entrance, a roadblock, get zapped, electricity explained, he’s a wizard, quite terrible, elktro, I’m out, one of these stories is not like the other, there’s more than one, a bunch, in both, what could it be in the valley of the tarantuala?, Shelob, Ungoliant, Tolkien’s spiders the valley of shadows, the valley of nightmare, a valley in the first age, consumes herself, birthed out some children, regular spiders, a sign of his genius, the disintegration ray, point it like this, press this button, you will be our king, followed the instructions, Princess Leia on that gun shooting Genghis Kahn, a 6th or 7th level spell, press a button and have things turn to dust, Thanos-like, snap the fingers, genius yadda yadda, hot Chinese dancing girl and nobody wants her, I got a girl back home, he didn’t care for Chinese women, very hot, languorous view of her body, not gonna look too long, a White Stripes song, pretty good looking for a girl, that would have been weird at the time, Skull-Face, our hero goes after the Chinese girl, Egyptian or something?, dark haired foreign chick, the scary race shit, I’m fine with being Genghis Kahn, the most interesting part of the story, meditating Genghis Kahn’s chamber with a rock from outer space, what we see in The Grisly Horror, the werewolf story, from Tibet, Black Hound Of Death, to get the guy who got away, Texas to Mongolia, The Island Of Doctor Moreau, mutating, building man-creatures, degenerating people, the finale in the trailer, almost Big Trouble In Little China, that can’t be right, Buckaroo Banzai, fun for the whole family, the climactic fight sequence, what do you need him for?, he is the sidekick, point of view character, go to Chinatown, as a non-chinese person, almond cookies, the viewpoint, Jim Brill, Steve Brill?, Conan is reused, also a Conan story set in England?, a Bran Mac Morn story, why the Wells story is so interesting, stripping away things, The Valley Of The Blind, genetically blind, he thinks he can see things, acts like an asshole, the two hot things under his brow, very symbolics, the colour of these spiders is white, did the girl get away?, how did she get through, a day ahead of them, the spider wind might have missed her, some native knowledge here, a burrow in both, Don Mark Lemon, so delightful, now I lay me down to sleep, he turns into a baby, killing everyone and everything in the valley, two donkeys, talks to his donkey, that’s odd, maybe I should get my rifle, it’s beautiful I think, Wells is trying to make a point, different kinds of assholes, hubristic assholes, the little man, we’re both cowards, why are you my lord?, the amount of text devoted to it, where the Howard puts action they ave this conversation, both made of the same material, write you into this story, it isn’t really about spiders is it?, is this a science fiction story, giant monsters, nailed it on the Wells, his bridle is silver, two minutes later he abandons him, a wealth distribution thing, he’s trying to make it universal, that half-breed could be anywhere, people realizing this is an asshole, there is no justice, in the Howard there is justice, get konked on the head, Kim Stanley Robinson, great ideas, almost no plot, full of good ideas, what happens and what’s the point, besides entertainment, body horror, turning Japanese, moral horror, what’s it all about, gettin paid, more in the Wells, prefer the narrator did the Howard, British accent, these white men, deleted the word white, does it change the story at all, absolutely not about racism, defy his racial purity, half-caste, let’s look at the actions, colonialism has happened, as a modern thing, that guy who thinks he’s better than me, just fun adventure, inventive and fun, didn’t trust the natives, beautiful fun, he doesn’t pick up the rifle, the anti-Robert E. Howard, our mad scientist, he’s not a hero, what is the white death, a giant tarantula that’s white, mesmerism, 4 giant piles of bones, imma keep looking for gold, dialogue back and forth, really happy, back in Virginia, leaps 30 feet, white hopping death, funnier, The Black Cat, where Jack London was first published, the art is always cats, mushrooms growing, a piquancy, this magazine has a flavour, The Mansion Of Forgetfulness, very Edgar Allan Poe inspired, lost their girl, sits u in a chair, a purple ray makes you forget, he lost his girl at sea, you don’t remember me, meeting again for the first time, the Poe character names, science fiction before Amazing Stories, Howard is a much better entertainer, a pointed stab at people, something beautiful about the simpleness, spoilers is a 21st century invention, Luke Skywalker stabs the guy, podcasting and stuff like that, editor of old Weird Tolds, C.C. Senf spoiled the H.P. Lovecraft, they read that story because it sounds good, every H.P. Lovecraft story starts: yes it is true i sent 6 bullets through the head of my friend, but trust me, bro, you’re going to love this story!, go back to Nemedia, sex with her along the way, that’s not Jim Brill, the honorable guy, clearly in love with this guy’s wife, less honourable, in the middle of nowhere, for honour, if he were not so honourable, makes Tommy’s skin crawl, she was pretty, who is the hero?, we know, Jim Brill’s story Jim Brill is, in the Wells there’s no heroes, man is against man, what is the point of The White Death, well written, he sees in the face of his mother his girl’s lips, he turns into a baby, the white nape, going through the list, featuring the White Death, camping for the next three weeks, Lozo, how did he know not to go there, do not mention my name, I don’t know, anybody who goes there doesn’t come back, a very short story, some white thing, this white thing took them, a little gem, a little placer gold, playfully written, bent toward Robert E. Howard, the most enjoyable story to read, a complete story, not making the same kind of point, a little horror story, pretentions of literary fictionness, dreamland with no details, class and cowardice, what does that mean?, feels like a rough draft, which would be a good movie, a Twilight Zone that’s terrible, a great cartoon, not getting the comedy out of it, rewriting, so many good movie things, more work to do, rewrite a lot of things, she’d be there with him, Temple Of Doom, Willie Scott stuff, absolutely tolerable, not the actress’ fault, we’ve done the three now, as expertly read by Alex,short to the point, extra stuff, the Wells is in the middle, the most relevant, the most important, what is Robert E. Howard’s point? buy this magazine, entertainment value, social commentary, the one they give you at school, at least it is short, Reading, Short And Deep, another precursor to Weird Tales, funny little story, I love living in this house with you, goes to the hardware store for a hammock, follows a butterfly, comes back, can you get me a hammock?, three times, she doesn’t know what I’m talking about, she’s a spider-woman, his eyes had grown more accustomed to the dark, glue covered cords, a thing that had two luminous eyes set in a woman’s face, what is the point of this stupid story, making nests and trapping men, that’s really funny, is it sexist?, I’m in favour of it if it makes me laugh, keep seeing the signs, talking donkeys, it’s a cartoon, reading it on the page, random capitalization, name brand, where nothing is capitalized in the Wells, taking away all allusion, a giant tarantula that eats everybody, a tiger sized tarantula, explicitly set in Mexico, it’s South America, the Mexican was Catholic, Mexicans can travel to South America, I don’t speak Mexican, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish, cross the border into Norway, these are our Norwegian hats, Spanish in Latin America vs. Argentina vs. Spain, my name is Thomas, s into a th, they really shuh, swallowing a potato, Australians, Kiwis, Britain, French Guiana, Mayor Pete, in Peru, people from France, working at a hostel, he knew Englsh, you speak so fast, your accent was weird, is it easier for you to understand me, the Pepe Le Pew accent, laughable, we are speaking French now, German accents = speaking German, you’ve got the accent, an impression of someone speaking Spanish, what was that word, the current Pope is an American, right after Tommy became Catholic, a new Pokemon, multiclassing, do yoga and sing in Sanskrit, when he speak Italian now, the Pope’s Italian is easy to understand for Americans, The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, a wizard guy, drunken destitute British nobleman wandering around Africa, Eaton, Sandhurst!, mission from the German government, man do I love the Kaiser, still a nobleman right?, found a diamond mine, getting into British politics, car sound, bolted down, packing in, Clifford Simak, The Ablest Man In The World by Edward Page Mitchell, cyborg short story, unscrew the top of head, public domain Asimovs, The Man That Was Used Up by Edgar Allan Poe, 1839, no electronics, 19th century cyborgs, replacing body parts, lots of French, A Tale Of The Late Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign, all his body parts are artificial, the brain, compare and contrast, Sunfire by Francis Stevens, from Weird Tales, no previous experience, just did it, couple hours, read stories around with the kid, Treasure Island, before people started this let’s read on our ebooks, people read aloud, snitches and snatches about Poe and Dickens, I read this aloud to my wife and now she’s mad, everyone should do it, why not Mona, Sweet Slow Death, Grifter’s Game, hooks her on heroine, 145 pages.