The SFFaudio Podcast #904 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Grisly Horror by Robert E. Howard

The SFFaudio Podcast #904 – The Grisly Horror aka Moon Of Zambebwei by Robert E. Howard (1 hour 6 minutes) read by Ben Tucker for LibriVox, followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion are Jesse AND Alex (Pulpcovers)

Talked about on today’s show:
Zimbebwei, tells you nothing, spelled differently, a really place, making shit up?, a modern country, historical connection, tweaking it a little bit, seen most of it before, Bristol McGrath, El Borak with the serial, Richard Ballville, Dick Balls, English and Irish, American mutt, Constance Brand, Ethan Brand, De Alba, the quadroon, the fake arab, part african, so much backstory, each chapter is a couple of pages, mastered this knifestroke, hairy hillman, fewer than a dozen men, afghan knife, ran off to Africa, speaks perfect arabic, of course you recognize this symbol, living in a western city, California?, drowned his sorrows, heard the scream one time, Louisiana?, Pine Woods, Pigeons In The Dark, Black Cannan, The Valley Of The Spiders?, in Mongolia, a racial transformation, an white man becomes a very specific mongol, mentality and bodily transforming into Genghis Khan, doesn’t everybody like the white ladies, gorilla gods, a silver and grey gorilla from Africa, Congo, a throwback to when earth was experimenting, poor Thak, Zemba, every gorilla, calling a lion simba, just another zemba, why did any of this happen?, a secret prison, a secret combination lock, I didn’t want to use the whip on her, what a crazy story, how these things get constructed, Robert E. Howard cosplaying as a pirate, a series of scenes where he’s walking through the woods, a dead body, conked or drugs, tricks him twice, pulls his punches, of course I saw it coming, he got me anyway, the drugged whiskey, a series of scenes, a dead guy, a tortured guy, a dying guy, he’s doing it for money, stringing it for longer, might get me in the cover, the description, daughter in the car, read all of Conan, after he gets conked out in the cave, was that Robert E. Howard?, you can tell, three ladies in brass bras and two dudes in turbans, web of living death, almost everybody’s naked, just the headdress, naked in front of the gorilla god, parrot feathers and gorilla overcoats, super descriptive, vibe based descriptions, he doesn’t have to worry about any of the actual details, his fight scenes, it never works, this impression of what is supposed to be happening, into detail, the choke-out scene, he says the magic words, the red mist goes away, then he gets tricked again, awesomely cool, the mary sue for Howard, needs him to keep getting in trouble, an adaptation, set in Turan, their version of Iran, a swamp, the monkey men and the monkey god, gold monkey, falls into a swamp pit, implied, the ancient indians, who knows why, secret indian road megaliths, [Shadows In The Moonlight aka Iron Shadows In The Moon], recycling the same plots, the motive behind, the back catalogue of this podcast, from the guy’s wife, I’m gonna go marry your wife now, an inversion, there aren’t that many plots, friend/rival, girl love-triangle, backstory, krise, short academic paper on afghan knives, a guy who looks like The Shadow, a pesh-kabz, a cool looking knife, a long ape-like arm, focused not on the nudity but the violence, the inhuman rival and the human rival, what makes a man a man and not a monkey, a super-early story, The Last White Man, so ridiculous, earlier than Spear And Fang, things that freak people out, quadroons and niggers, the most racist period under Wilson, reforms after the Civil War, a little less racialized, coming out of that, he’s smart, working out the ideas in fiction, why everything’s so weird, civilization vs. barbarism, doesn’t fit in this, an autarch, let everything fall to ruin, ruined disaster falling apart around his ears, foreign, grew up in an arab household, becomes a wizard, I’m gonna be one of your priests now, stretchin it a bit there, another boxing story, Sailor Steve Costigan, those are good too, he’s playing to a different kind of strength, a boxer himself, writing for fight stories, an exhibitionism, an argument to be made, padded gloves, wrap your fists, a lot less violence, schoolyard and afterschool violence, cyberbulling, physical damage is avoidable (unless doing it to yourself), the writing is vivid no matter what he’s writing, his use of colour, voodoo, this isn’t voodoo, a comparatively young relgion, granite cliffs, a mewling infant, uncounted ages, it is poetry, they never say I love his poetry, he loved his poetry, those poems are written for him, poetry wasn’t just something you do in a final exam, a real piece of culture, the biblical Cain, tell the story from Cain’s point of view, amazing descriptions, what never gets tiresome is his description, an amazing spell he puts on you, that rhythm to it, that it is written by Robert E. Howard, that spark and depth of beauty, pick any random line, strange alien garb, turkish slippers, distinctly oriental, holding up a gun, sit at his feet and listen to the dialogue flow, pulls out the telegram, such a great mechanic, internal flashback, so good, he’s really good at what he does, scores left to kill you and her, wandered far, grew to manhood, the white blood in me, a mirror of our hero, whole novels about their backstories, the road is full of stumps and new growth, degenerated and morally degenerated, the Cthulhu cult in The Call Of Cthulhu, the white tree, over ranging the earth, similar to The Black Stone, more of this please, the love of poetry and demand for money, he clearly loved writing, workaday writing, he had to love these stories, he is having a lot of fun with these, for the photograph, stringing it together with plot, a storyteller’s mind, poetic language, such a rare combination, Roy Thomas changed it so much, no reason to change it, how many snake stories, The Scarlet Citadel, famous big snake, a Stygian snake, spiders, that’s not an afghan knife, mini-brass bra, proper colour, no pistol, he shoots him down, half-dead, 44, drugs, somehow imported all this to the United States, met in Vienna once, how are you in Vienna, took over all the blacks in town, weird voodoo, dumb plan, showed up with a killer monkey and a cult, the girl gets drugged, a sleepwalker, she was naked, walked like a robot, mechanically, the horror that squatted in the center of the glade, to be the gorilla’s god’s wife, the “bride”, Facts In The Case Of Arthur Jermyn And His Family, his grandmother in the box, she was half monkey, eat her?, rape her?, do miscegenation with her?, a girl in danger, mean things to her, the guy who faked her death earlier, these guys are all Robert E. Howard, two degenerate guys from landed estates after the Civil War, goes off to Africa to explore, Afghanistan to explore, Los Angeles to explore, the adventurer’s club, mount an expedition to the top of this volcano, dinosaurs or King Solomon’s Mines, never from the establishment’s point of view, roughneck, wealth is dissipated, hired by a professor or a wizard, that’s not how we act, right beside Brown, a letter to the local paper disputing an astrologer, how astronomy works, he had a regular column writing about astronomical matters, August is my preferred month, it passes through Virgo!, he’s thinking about that, astronomical matters, so good, the snippy people, People Of The Black Coast and Stragella, Hugh B. Cave, very popular at the time, outside of our weird pulp obsessed circle, alive a lot longer, people interested in reading books, you should definitely read Hugh B. Cave, 1910 to 2004, either of the Howards, issue of Weird Tales, an E. Phillips Oppenheim story, He by H.P. Lovecraft, the magazine is not as shitty in 1926, Ooze, the first cover story, Lovecraft writes a bunch of letters to Weird Tales, this is my aesthetic, very priggish, that’s when he got married, offered him [an] editorship, move to Chicago, handled being an editor, people on other podcasts, Clark Ashton Smith, Farnsworth Wright rejected the story, overwhelmed with stuff, fit certain lengths, editing is not a small job, resubmit the same story with minor changes, come at me right now I’m busy, fill certain slots, two page stories, poems, Weirdisms, a magazine is not a variable length, a certain exact length, “the signature”, each set of folds, this many exact sheets of paper, on a blog or a podcast it doesn’t matter, more key to understanding why something gets picked up, I have this budget too, this story is not ten times better than other rejected, better than Almuric, clearly someone considered it good, gorilla, cult, secret indian hideaway, drugged brandy, I got the gorilla to North America but I’m not going to tell you how, gorilla costumes past customs, a sacred totem of a murder cult, the blacks in the United States, American blacks converted to this religion, reverse colonialism, okay I’m writing a gorilla story, weird gorilla cult, off the rails, absolutely audacious, won’t say no to a challenge, gorillas are in this month (in fact every month), and another John Lange/Michael Crichton, only 4 and a half hours, legit or not.

Coming Next Month

The Grisly Horror by Robert E. Howard

The Monster Of Zembabwei

The Monster Of Zembabwei

The Monster Of Zembabwei

The Grisly Horror art by Ken Kelly

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #902 – READALONG: Hellflower by George O. Smith

Jesse and Scott talk about Hellflower by George O. Smith

Talked about on today’s show:
George O. Smith, George H. Smith, style wise, Venus Equilateral series, 1942 – 1947, Startling Stories, 1952/1953, a little like something from the 70s, old fashioned, the other drugs that are in it, a misimpression from right early on, Farradyne came to the point, who do you want killed?, dumped the Semiramide into the bog, the Titanic, a book about drugs, on the lookout for drugs, rotgut, Venus, a mushroom farmer, the good stuff, White Star Trail?, the description, a godsend, the flavour of fine scotch whiskey, the pure quill, the stylized language, high test liquor, goes to a bar and orders it, synthehol, fake beer, rye whiskey, other drugs, some toxin, the name of his boat, his ship, a person, a historical person, what do you think of this book?, mixed feelings, alien race, Simak, infiltrate, a book about drugs, con-notate, drug touches, the central idea of the book, cynical, history, the SAND, a cut-out, gets his license back, a Lancaster-81, 1981? 2081?, 3 movies with the exact same plot, The Stranglers Of Bombay, Thugees, East India Company vs. the Thugees, a Hong Kong one, Christopher Lee, the British occupation of Hong Kong, Live And Let Die, Caribbean Island nation, opium pushing, tongs and thugees are the bad guys, pushing opium, spread the blame, the hellflower pushers, after a certain point, aliens and interstellar travel, workmanlike, beautiful flowers and science fiction, influenced by this?, All Flesh Is Grass, whenEric S. Rabkin says let’s do a show on food, bad theory, Virgil Finlay is so great at drawing flowers, excellent at it, let the man work at what he’s good at, a problem with the book, a problem with our perception, were men affected by hellflowers, not explicitly enough pushed, it’s not really stated, one way that this works, how this works, a good thing that he didn’t tell us, marijuana, cocaine, coffee, licorice, propaganda, so tasty, so delicious, you don’t give babies coffee generally (although in Costa Rica), nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, what is the effect of it if you’ve never had it, apologizing for the book, like it more than I should, space adventure stuff, ships in space, like Heinlein, zippin around, avoid the defenses of earth and the attacks from the aliens, cartoon miniseries, a lot of action, cool locations, at one point they land at the bottom of Lake Michigan, the submarine comes, a Han Solo without Chewbacca but with more Heinlein physics, a lot like Rocketship Galileo, ftl around the solar system, really cool, glued, fun, the truck drivers, tying people up, how the first Indiana Jones movie works, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, an airplane, a snake, lots of action, because it is awesome, a serial, it feels like a serial, out of Planet Stories, solar system based, several planets, Heinleinesque, spacers, run cargo around, that’s what our guy is, Mercury to Pluto, WWII bomber, overstuffed with aircraft, Brazil please buy an aircraft carrier, conned Canada into buying two aircraft carriers, all the WWII pilots, skills that nobody needed, cargo aircraft for cheap, [DC-3s], ex-military cargo aircraft, quite liked that feel, I like science fiction, reputation is damaged, a womanizer, somewhat aliens, related to humans somehow, Star Trek shapeshifters, human emotions, why they don’t all look like Hortas, recessive voice thing, his first clue, dashed off, it’s good, enjoy science fiction and then have favourites, a dose of things we’ve been missing, four gravities, she can’t stand up, the goodreads reviews, the politics of the gender stuff, strong reactions?, two main women, the hellflower addict who rejects him, the sister of the guy who died, blackmailing him, Carolyn, a strong woman a part of a crime family on Mercury, not a human crime family, crack cocaine, the evil cartels, infiltrate the evil cartels, setup a guy to infiltrate it, you can’t infiltrate, more operators, betraying his own people, in retrospect, so nice, speculates, what could motivate a person, he doesn’t dwell on the horrors philosophically, is it okay to push drugs, not cool, he thinks about that a bit, the dynamics, Carolyn had a flower in her hair, threw it in the trash, he wanted her to be sober, I prefer sobriety, feelings created by this chemical, 20th and 21st century society, Spanish Fly, mythical stuff, date rape drugs, Fat Albert, Bill Cosby, a drug that makes women want to have sex with you, so they can’t defend themselves, an effect that cigarettes have on people, bring you closer, alcohol, lowers inhibitions, an ex-smoker, conventions, the people who are out there, artists out there, deeper conversations, the most important part of it, coffee has replaced that, let’s go have coffee, tea or matcha, it’s basically candy at this point, the whole point of the phrase, let’s spend time together, cigarettes is a need, two different levels, the addiction to cigarettes, we see it in movies, hey sailor got a light, smoke in the classroom, when it is illicit, you’re out there to smoke, you ask them for a light, the social introduction, Victorian style dramas, introduced, where’s your calling card, introduced to society, we only are mutually introduced, your way of self-introducing, all social-strata, a keen observer, a light in their own pocket, they are need of human to human interaction, marijuana, social, smoking pot alone, used to be very very social, you share it, you pass the joint around, drinking alone, out with folks, think about drugs all the time, what’s it purpose, it’s to get the people addicted to keep them down, cannabis keeps people from rebelling, heroin, hooked on that, a bunch of purposes, opiates are used in medicine all day long, people don’t like pain, mental pain, bad news on the telephone, alcohol jar, a smoke, externalizing the internal when it is performative like that, a real phenomena within the human being, in folktales nobody every says I love you they just give you food, the silly premise, sexually irrepressed, the wacky tacbbacy, the same for opium, an invasion, the East India pushing opium into China, extract from China, cartoonish in this book, take over the human solar sytem, the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Dutch East India Company, replace Americans with Japanese, lebensraum, ethnically cleanse the area, the book doesn’t quite work on that level of a historical analogy, an action adventure, those James Bond movies, how silly they are, he was talking about real people, Doctor No, a throwback to Fu Manchu, a Yellow Peril, the Fu-Manchu books, how drugs influence people, the appreciation of beauty, coming in from economic warfare, the flower connection, fields of purple flowers, The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree, Jr., the editorial introduction, May 1952 publication, SPACE OPERA, science fiction at it’s best, science fiction’s greatest asset, space and time and immensity, it’s the ideas, space doesn’t have to be in it, time and immensity, the immensity of the solar system, the immensity of the galaxy, transitioned to another solar system, looking out the bubble, the different constellations, that’s really good stuff, real, stuff happening, the most colour and movement, subplot, purely cerebral story, a thing of beauty and joy forever, no blonde priestesses, he’s selling this book to us, paying my ten cents, looking down my nose at spaceopera, what’s being written today, stuff happening, science fiction is the setting in which stuff happens, the rightful queen, the unrightful queen, favourite stuff, Tau Zero by Poul Anderson, Hyperion, Dune, another drug book, is this a stuff happening book?, a little more than that, well-paced, this book is better than it appears to be, the dedication, one of Campbell’s ex-wives, may that’s his wife, used to be Campbell’s wife, fun to find someone new, my god the sparks!, I just can’t believe how sparky this is, Simak without as much poetry, without as much meditation, philosophical thinking, a collection of stories, The Worlds Of George O., Highways In Hiding.

Hellflower by George O. Smith PYRAMID

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #901 – AUDIOBOOK: Hellflower by George O. Smith

The SFFaudio Podcast #901 – Hellflower by George O. Smith, read by Ben Tucker.

Hellflower was first published in Startling Stories, May 1952.

This UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK (6 hours 13 minutes) comes to us courtesy of LibriVox.org.

The next SFFaudio Podcast will feature our discussion of it!

Startling Stories - Hellflower

Startling Stories - Hellflower

Startling Stories - Hellflower

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #889 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Travels With A Donkey In The Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson

The SFFaudio Podcast #889 – Travels With A Donkey In The Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson (3 hours 51 minutes) read by Patrick Wallace for LibriVox, followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion are Jesse and Maissa Bessada

Talked about on today’s show:
1879, blanked out on the Cévennes part, a CBC ideas, travel writing, a Mark Twain, couldn’t do the show, abandoned the book, sad sad story, travel literature, living in Egypt for two years, everything is different, letters home, describing what’s happening, bringing up baby, Bringing Up Baby (1938), exaggerate a little bit, Travels by Michael Crichton, private about a lot of the stuff, public about a lot of the stuff, travels with his sister, before he died, a bunch of things that happened to him, picked from earlier and later things, his parents, what income bracket they’re in, guessing, early stuff is all travel stuff, exotic locations, Spain, very good writer, extraordinarily thing to write down, scuba diving, the bends, not enough air, lucky to be alive, I had to resist that quite strongly, an incredible thing to say, in the desert, elide the relationship, some movie start, a spiritual retreat or something, not a super-spiritual guy, nobody understands, profound effects, hike Kilimanjaro, tall, weird, super-smart, a wealthy background, might have been CIA, lot of people’s dads were CIA it turns out, more like a memoir, not exactly travel, being in medical school, attitudes towards corpses, young horny guys who think they are able to cure all diseases, resisting that, The Terminal Man, writing on the side, instead of being a doctor, more of his stuff, that’s definitely true about him, travel incident, Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonia Express, Eric Idle, travel writing, A Year Off by H.P. Lovecraft, does this sound familiar, a grand tour, really?, a travel guy, so expensive to travel, it fits, the poetry of it, over the top, he’s so cheap, he’s a dreamer, the dream, an inheritance, a small budget, Let’s Go Europe, Let’s Go Central America, a cheap place to eat, you’ve got to if you can, travel broadens the mind, going everywhere, much cheaper: read about those places, we don’t always agree on everything, animal abuse, I’ve made Modestine my slave, it has to have been, he’s much softer that the average person, he felt guilty, he’s in love with her, he had the good manners to cry about it as he’s selling her, wait a minute, I’ll cry now, a new boss, locked herself out of the school, she had her bible group there, a rumor about Jesse, show a student something inappropriate, wallpaper, Mort Kuntsler painting, no nudity, a painting of a woman, offended a student years ago, Predator (1987), just 3 years older than me, go down the street to the bookstore and read the novelization, books don’t have literary restrictions on them the way games do, in this book there’s a scene where Robert Louis Stevenson after a cow, he calls them sluts, referring to Modestine, her faults are based on her race and sex, it’s hilarious, disparages women left right and center, a word for female women, [wench], other than a physical journey, a lot of religion, the least religious parts, going through time, donkey pilled, donkeys are cool, cat pilled, dog pilled, a she ass, a jenny would be the right word, jack and jenny, second in his estimation, even though the wife can read and the husband can’t, they’re inferior, second class citizens if even citizens, up and down stuff, catholic vs. protestant, non-christianness vs. christianness, geopolitical landscape, I’m a lame woman who can’t get out of bed, go next door, it’s like time travel, he’s alive while we’re reading the book, casual sexual partners, a woman with low standards of cleanliness, going into a monastery, not converting, very reasonable, finest set of wrinkles on her face, we won’t meet again because I’ll be dead, my man is completely ignorant of everything, these are all real encounters, shades of his interpretation, just 12 days, felt like months, the audiobook not in the original, it doesn’t fit the book very well, it is not the journey, and now the book is starting, reading with your eyes vs. reading with your ears, following characters, from moment to moment, a section that really caught me, some thoughts are the most beautiful things and then they vanish, wow I love that, so beautiful, “vanish”, more deeply, an atmosphere of pleasure, so disposed my spirit, in another country, in a different time, done me good, scan their features, a god travelling by our green highways, ope, the lighter about our business, I dined with a pair of Catholics, captivated by him, the one that everybody knows, Doctor Jekyll And Mr Hyde, a guy who’s one guy who’s two guys, transforms like The Hulk, all the superhero stories are derived from older stuff, nothing that isn’t, Silver Surfer, Galactus is god, Spider-Man, Superman is the most simple, he has no characteristics, he’s from space, his wife didn’t like it, he threw it in the fire, you could have fixed it, he wrote it again, the sparks of his wife, it was supposed to be a surprise, go in with no spoilers, The Sixth Sense (1999), oh he’s a ghost, not art films, fell asleep while watching the movie, the little boy’s saying: I see dead people, Bruce Willis and the kid, it’s dark, slow paced, a build up, the whole point of the movie, so heavily on the twist being the thing that makes it good, you know who the hulk is right away, the origin story is just to get to the thing, unassuming New Yorker, tension there, with great power comes great responsibility, they’re the same guy, that was the sensation of the book, doing something nobody had really done before, reading Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat, axes his wife and burns down the house, The Tell-Tale Heart, murders in the domestic sphere, it’s a parody, he’s making fun of something, a guy who drinks too much, out of perversity he kills his cat, the cat comes back the very next day, a curious colouration, who owns this cat, he kills the cat a second time, that’s the question: why does all this stuff happen, you drink too much, it’s about teetotalling, what is The Tell-Tale Heart about?, feeling so guilty, the narrator, he’s so upset about what he’s done, he’s hearing the heart under the floorboards, a powerful piece, we interpret him at the end, they can hear the sound of the beating heart under the floorboards, nervous very dreadfully nervous, the hidden thing inside of Poe, late last year, it’s about his adopted father, disowned him, John Allan, Poe and his older brother, orphaned, father disappeared, mother died, this one child, they broke up the kids, explains so much, of this famous actor pair, stage actors, adopted mother who loved him, was jealous of him?, win back their relationship, the richest guy, fucking around with Poe, Poe was a handful, a lot of stress, a great artist, I have to be forgiving, a professional writer, they traveled to Scotland when he was a child, early 19th century, wouldn’t fund his education, gambling debts, why the psychology is so awesome, he has massive passions, gave nothi9ng to Poe, his illegitimate children, enmity, some trauma, The Cask Of Amontillado, revenge for something never stated, people’s interpretation, all coming from the personal, hwy he’s going anywhere, an affair with a married woman, trying to walk it off, still living with his parents, get some life experience, Fanny Osborne, adopted the son, Jack London revered Robert Louis Stevenson, makes total sense, Jerry Of The Islands, Call Of The wild but in the South Pacific with a Terrier, boat life, Brother Of Jerry, a Pacific guy, Japan’s invasion of Korea, massive success, big career, very short, Wolf ranch, he buys a boat, many other science fiction stories, he goes to where RLS is buried, Tahiti/Samoa, traveling for his longs, a weak constitution, consumption, photos of him old, 44, brain hemorrhage, a lot of coughing, not good for ya, he wrote a ton, a few famous things, A Child’s Garden Of Verse, age 7, young man, wearing a fez, huge 20 hour biography, précis it, Requiem, by Robert A. Heinlein, the starry sky, poetry of them, almost the people were the problem, sleeping inside, outside with his stars, oh here’s the desk, we don’t use it, the horror of this book, causing so much strife, strife between people, an ultra-right wing, crazy woke leftist, not religious at least in clothing, 1 protestant region, a lot of governesses, their religions are compatible, peaceably together, exporting their people, the means of dividing people, the one paradigm, things are happening in the world, that guy is a demon, he’s just demonic, doing demonic things, if you literalize things too much it clouds your thinking, the way to escape this, alternative points of view, not hiding things from your kids, not allowed to DM any more, keeps kids out of trouble, creates love of vocabulary and reading, positive things, explore morality in ways that are safe, ruinous, never lie to them, tell the kids about stuff, etymology, pencil, pen, peninsula, a male body part, that’s the root of it, penne pasta, it is cool, whenever we’re talking about vocabulary, not bird or bark, metaphor roots, understand, misunderstand, not as things to memorize, a list of SAT words, not designed to last, inscribed, cut into written into, epitaph, euphemism, Phemie’s not a name, well spoken, a name from 6000 years ago, number one and number, I gotta go, misinterpret, the word piss pisses people off, the letter, the letter p has now become a word, caca, don’t mention the t word, the trump word, manupulae comprehension, banning words, banning speech, correcting people’s speech, without censorship, the word “nigger”, the offensive word, changed it, censorship is a kind of manipulation and control of people, a good person in a weird time, in the religion discussions, changing words for other words, that was beautiful, he’s insightful, I learned a lot about a dead donkey, her and her personality, she’as pretending it is too heavy, giver her a switch, times in the book where she’s running, approaching something, sharing his meals with her, not just master and slave, words in the book, horses react to spurs, that’s why spurs exist, give it the heel, the programming that you want to communicate, they enjoy running, if Will were here, girls love being chased more than boys love being chased, little girls, “chase me”, why?, boys want to hit each other with sticks, jungle gym, jumping over rivulets, not going to disagree, it’s built in, knows how to stand up, books allow us to communicate not just by modelling our parent’s but with the ancients through codexes, naughty girls, in the context of it, tripwires for people, how much has things changed, I have a goad!, a pinpricking stick, that’ll make it go, almost nobody rides horses anymore, a famous streamer shocking his dog, shock collar, it wasn’t, it’s not a shock collar!, to stay on the bed, part of the set, a very horrible person, those shock collars are legal, enough pressure, relatively unpowerful, animal abuse, shocking part, for training, prevent them from doing damage with their teeth, contemptible, dogs are tools, protection for our animals, comfort creatures, we are in a strange relationship with animals, 1878, definitely different, haven’t touched a real animal, Alex (Cirsova), the farm animal part of the zoo was the most popular, books about cows and pigs and chickens, that screen, a farm in the middle of Toronto, kids want to see these things, we live in light pollution, behind screens, screens and screens and screens, a donkey braying, go to the feed store and pet the cat, we need to and we don’t, most of them don’t have pets, most people didn’t have pets until the 20th century, menageries, a collection of pets, Poe in The Black Cat, monkey, birds, a cat, an attack on teetotalling, drinking is bad, the love of animals, central, cat moms, fur babies, a little overboard, oh yeah, Cévennes, not super far from Spain, what we know about the world, only partially correct, French wasn’t one language for a thousand years, small languages that came together, English has changed significantly in that same time frame, England invaded by the French, Norman French, right near Paris, the borderlands, North of Nice, more towards Andorra, a country between Spain and France, a valley, a little valley, kinda related, the first modern nation state, the borders of France as they are today, let’s get everybody on the same system, meterize gods, the god of justice, the French Revolution, a pretty simple language, a funny thing early on in the book, in the Scottish, answer a question with a question, a hippopotamus or a alligator, I just need to know where I’m going, the water your swimming in, the people of Quebec, still a colony, evolved somewhat, old France, not wholly frozen in time, a time capsule, a colony cut off from the empire, when they import French teachers to be their tutors, also twice removed, the Acadians, regular French, the accent’s going to be different, the culture, an effort to rationalize French, that French rationalization was much harsher, a fashion to add new words all the time, kids fighting against that, the official discipline of it is pretty strong, recreate his his journey, the prequel part, floundering, the kind of book you need to be with it, nice and short, more and more and more, I really like this book, went on a journey with it, probably should be excised, why some things should be excised, The Sinking Ship by Robert Louis Stevenson, Fables, half shaved, to the philosophic eye, she is settling fast, the expression is a strange one, time is only relative, in Davy Jones’ Locker, by parity of reasoning, the position of the ship, spoken like a good officer, the spirit room, there is nothing new in our position, he’s predicting his own death, struck by lightning, something inside you might burst, eating dinner, money in the savings bank, too far gone, or whatever it is, getting drunk since they came aboard, an old salt, good god cried the captain, as she were going down, nothing new in our position, a man’s handsome fashion, hope to be eternal, omit to take a pill, or doing anything at all, perfectly conclusive give me a cigar, a glorious detonation, really really really great, his parents get a doctor, might as well start digging his grave now, find a lady to like me, to lie under the stars with me, where did this person come from?, all of my eggs when I was born, she came into existence around the time of the big bang, I don’t think you take my meaning, the captain has a philosophic eye, his trainee, the wine dark sea, the new day is always rosy fingered dawn, a mental trick to fill time and remember what happens next, Homer is not the author, a beautiful morning, the next day, once upon a time, Brothers Grimm world, When tigers smoked, bad arguments, greeks not having the colour blue, a metaphor, the sea tosses you left and right and makes you a drunkard, when you drink too much you vomit, it’s all metaphor, the effect of drinking unmixed wine, drink wine at parties, put a lot of water in it, tipsy and fall over, snoring on the couch, the host’s duty, mix the wine at the right amount, fell out of fashion, drinking as a vice, a way to make your water purer, we can’t have nice things, when gin came into the UK, blasted drunk, small beer, reading something a little bit older, a lot wiser, bible study, you need read to more than one book, don’t just listen to the one guy’s interpretation, stories from the bronze age and a little later, stories about Spider-Man and Batman, a really good character, trouble in the world, Superman, good hearted, pay your taxes, circumspect, your relationship to the good, old books making think good thoughts, out of the horror of the current thing they want you to care about, a way of engaging, be honest all the time and damn the torpedoes, a man condemned to death, I’m still gonna be me, blowing up early, fits both ways, or do anything at all, convinced by the argument, everything is shaped by what you know, don’t know what cancer is, making really scary faces, smoking causes cancer, the propaganda was, the message little Jesse received, misinformed, skin cancer, what you put into the minds of little boys, looking at it for a long time, schizophrenic, in order to make him less schizophrenic, calmed it down?, afraid of it, a little shaky, gives us a little buzz, a little speedup, largely afraid of alcohol, mothers against drunk driving ads, be a control freak about things, addictive and expensive, if you mix your wine properly, heavy marijuana users, positive effects, chill me out, medical marijuana, stop vomiting, you can sue when they spike your shit, a grow house, filters on cigarettes, a half measure, tar in cigarettes, the disease was solved by having woodsmoke in your home, peanut allergies, exactly, celiac disease, gluten intolerance, glyphosate, why you can’t have any bread, the poison they put on it, our food is contaminated, if you go to Italy, genetically modified wheat, blame autism on Tylenol, when your baby is growing inside of you, folic acid, a good diet to begin with, how did people survive without all the supplements, sold a bill of goods, what happened to consumption, name a guy who isn’t Doc Holiday or Edgar Allan Poe’s wife, the diseases get less worse, at Christmas, with this last name, alcohol drinkers, smokers, 6 uncles, drinking was dangerous, smoking was a bad idea, sailors smoke, everything is explained by looking at the backstory, abstinence from alcohol, get rid of this scourge, husbands to beat wives, cheap alcohol is a tech, fix itself by giving it enough time, China was addicted to opium, a revolution against their occupiers, fentanyl, smaller, cheap spirits were the problem, from too much gin, alcohol poisoning, nobody’s going to be talking about it in 1000 years, maybe we’re talking about, teams and brave talk, our telepathy works fine, cursing you, had faith, chose right, in 2 weeks for a Dortmunder book, space brain, Misha Burnett, Killing Time, this book is great, reading it again, so easy to read Westlake, see the hands spreading apart, audio drama, aphantasia, do you think the way I think, in dreams, see when I’m dreaming, look at the blue ocean, there is a sea, an ocean, rosy fingered dawn is just breaking over the horizon, the sea is wine dark, what colour is the sea, imagine it, good at drawing?, draw a boat, a rowboat, a dinghy, a fantastic artist, another guess, no, do you see things in dreams, the same part of your head, you don’t have conscious access, pink, the colour of wine, the darkness, its deep, hiding its contents from you, why it is evocative, Pulpcovers recorded Rogues In The House, full of colour, a very angry gorilla, takes his cape, I am the master now, monkey see monkey do, a red caped monkey, why is it a red cape?, little red riding hood, all subject to metaphor, monkey men are men who act like monkeys, what’s the difference between us and an animal, a Simak recently, The Visitors, kinda like War Of The Worlds, the invasion of the Earth by slabs from 2001, obelisks, colonizing the planet, bales of cellulose, have a fantastic day.

Travels With A Donkey

Posted by Jesse Willis

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

The SFFaudio Podcast #879 – READALONG: Two Much by Donald E. Westlake

The SFFaudio Podcast #879 – Jesse and Alex (PulpCovers) discuss Two Much by Donald E. Westlake

Talked about on today’s show:
1975, paperback fuzz, worth the squeeze?, Fawcett, 1st edition, illustrated painted cover, flocking applied, fuzzy bikinis, if you rub that off you’ll see them nude, they look nude except for the fuzz, lying on a pile of pink fuzz, if it goes down, a great gimmick cover, Brother’s Keepers, a cover that reveals something, that cutout was to show a demon, a reveal cover, a monk on the cover, a halo, his clothes change, an insight, V.C. Andrews covers, what Westlake you got in stock?, trends in paperbacks, out of fashion, all we have is trades, mass market paperbacks, tall format, paperback shelf, hearsay from the internet, fold them into a signature, fold the paper four times, why they’re that size, everything is just glued together, weird big paperbacks now, weird stuff that’s like that, the prices of televisions and phones, a boule, what are the expensive parts?, the big sheet of glass, mechanical things that matter a lot when making physical, such a great writer, surprised and surprised and surprised, a Tamil version as well?, all the movies are long, a remake of the movie not a remake of the book, the French movie, farther and farther away, very close, an expected ending, our guy being convicted of murdering his non-existent brother, he never existed, we’re his cellmate, he just walks off into the sunset with both fortunes, murdered two women, the guy was probably self-defense, witnesses a murder, that’s what happened, chapter 28, quite deep into the book, not a light comedy, almost Shakespearean, a French farce, a French movie, you never get the money at the end, and both girls, actual twins, half French half American, an excellent film, bilinguality, such a fucking great writer, the American version, 1995, Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Danny Aiello, easier to cast not-twins, back to her ex-husband, the book is the best, it hits you way harder, in the end we know he’s a horrible human being, a scamp, cheating, a real sleazeball, somehow even darker, he kills her on the 747, down she goes, sues the airline, even more money, some dialogue is identical, super close, why they wanted to make this movie, that bathroom shuffle scene, better overall, the star, the French guy, French handsome, weird thinning hair, big nose, weird cartoonist guy, too attractive, a mystery, tax purposes, everybody’s scamming everybody, leverage all over everybody, the format matters a bit, he knows what he’s doing, Veronica by Donald Westlake, a farce with a twist, the character and what he’s done, Elizabeth and Elizabeth Kerning, to kern, about spacing between words on a page, an old pulp magazine, right and left justified, a little book thing, their money is in paper and publishing, “Art Dodge”, the artful dodger, one who kerns, Bart Dodge, Robert, spinning up these stories, Fire Island, a very gay island, back to New York, a secretary, they get back together, Volpinex, Vulpine is fox, ex is out, out-fox?, kung fu and karate, the lawyer for the family, this level, relevant earlier this week, conversation with somebody exploited by the Epstein people, Palm Beach, trynna be a singer, the handler, the recruiter, here’s the contract, this Campbell’s soup heir, you need to be his girlfriend, when again allowed to be the head of the Campbell’s soup company, a certain amount of money per month, not that much, have sex with him?, that’s up to you, living off shore on a yacht, a warrant out or something, that’s fine, this doesn’t seem right to me, Hollywood rapes, this is a real thing, at the part, one bathroom, two bedrooms, sex in the closet, the parents died in a piano accident, is this a cartoon?, was it a murder?, there’s no evidence, how does a piano fall on a car, it was New Year’s Eve, his card company, this girl who’s doing her doctoral thesis on comedy, he also has sex with her, the psychology, a deep dark scary story, with a few changes it becomes a light romantic comedy, the shooting scene, thrusts the gun upon him, by accident rather than plan, cloned Darryl Hannah, he murders her twice, it would wreck his career, such a scamp, the tone, the whiplash, cold blooded murder, he’s really a terrible person, willing to overlook it, he’s always been incredibly selfish, he learns his art again, writing up ideas for Christmas cards, you’ve got it too, get well soon card, an idea for a birthday card, your birthstone is hanging around my neck, what does it mean?, the Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, the albatross, millstone from the bible, paralleling everything, responsible for his own murder, quite a bit like Edgar Allan Poe, we hate him, he’s a killer, a mirror image, chirality, sinister – dexter, it all matches, The Cask Of Amontillado, medoc, jokes within the story, medicine, we never really understand why the murder is happening, you who know so well the nature of my soul, the last words of the story, RIP, he’s blessing the murder, relishing the telling, he got away with it, his priest, his confessor, gets to go to heaven, his soul has been cleansed, the legalistic way, if you’re an evil shit, keeps growing in estimation, William Wilson, this problem at the school, exactly my name, the opening of the story, for the present you may call me William Wilson, a doppelganger, in trouble, the mirror trick in book, getting ready for it, well done in the French movie, a swordfight with the other William Wilson, there was no other William Wilson, wakes up a couple of times, he’s drugging the women, the waiter’s getting mad at him, very lightly gone over, right to sleep, less obvious in the book, we forgive him all his sins, so likeable, these debts, $75-80?, he picked a target, what about twins?, twins dating twins, genetically identical, you’re brother’s children, your own children, their cousins are genetically siblings, adopt a pig and make it your child, to mother it, cat moms, pig moms, eat your babies, eat them at the right age, what if you’re a man, Twins, Basil! Twins!, save money on taxes, Two Much (1995), kinda blonde, 1 much, twinning characters together, four girls total?, his friends wife, a maid at the end, going on our honeymoon, you’re never coming back, everything’s working out, there’s the twist, the twist back, every possible variation on it and nailed it, walking across a crosswalk, laughing out loud, Westlake’s so funny, the phone scene, both ends of the conversation, not as well as Westlake does it in the book, so good with characters, the bartender, we have no rum, ha ha ha, ho ho ho, effortless storytelling, focus on hands, he makes a bridge with his hands, observing what they do with their hands, that little flourish of characterization and we’re there, the new family buying their place, horses and horse-racing, having him be a painter, art dodge, they’re all fuckn horrible, modern art in movies never works right, without royalty, modern art on film, like music, this would never be a hit song, the Michael Cain movie called The Hand (1981), it is a tragedy, crazy stupid little movie, it paid for my garage, Jaws IV, I’ve seen the house it bought my mother, greeting cards, sits with us like a stone, greeting card business, being able to come up with something to write inside of them, Jesse’s poor, register for wedding, blessed wedding, “you will always be each other’s greatest gift”, the other French farce, Cyrano de Bergerac, the handsome guy with no words, the Juliet balcony scene with Romeo tongue-tied, 1984, 2000s, this could be anytime, it could in the 1980s, nothing in it makes it dated, racist slurs in the greeting cards, anti-gay slurs, the race riot, at what point are we supposed to twig this guy is the villain, the way people drink, vodka, rye, a good liqor neat, rail vodka, how beards or hats go into fashion, maybe hats are coming back, time outside, a good chunk of your day, walking to work everyday, having to spend time outside, the number of convertibles has gone down, people doing their tick tock videos in their car, you live with your parents, an enclosed little vocal booth, a weird place to sit, with their phone, things have changed, very realistic, to get his own airplane company, because he’s rich, the heir to this massive, billionaires, calculate for inflation, Bart’s the good one, Art’s the evil one, sleeps with his brother’s wife, cuckold’s himself, Beth and Liz, one’s a bitch, the other’s nice, cuckolding him?, with twins it gets confusing, we’re worried about your brother inseminating your wife, it’s not about genes, red hair, wait a second, looks exactly like you, you can’t be upset, there’s some slippage, you can’t be jealous but you can, so far away you could almost not even notice, that’s from the French movie more, whoever made that Melanie Griffith movie, La Cage Aux Faux (1973), dozens of movies, Cops And Robbers, could this book have been better written by another author better?, The Devils’ Elixirs by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Westlake vs. Stark, The Comedy Is Finished, that turn, the killing, that evil that’s in there, reading Dortmunder, silly criminals, Westlake is more masterful than people can know, art books, tell fun stories, tackles a topic, two criticism, when the author mentions other books, Arthur Hailey, chonkers, Hotel, a novel, Airport, Robert A. Michner, James A. Michener, leaves the novel, you reader are reading a paperback, a shitty paperback, you’re carrying this right out, on the shelf, the good cover with the flocking, wet glue fuzz particles with an electrostatic charge, an arts and crafts thing, diorama of grassy knolls, health issues, flockworkers lung, Kahawa, Kenya train heist, Idi Amin, Raid On Entebbe, famous president of Uganda, eagerly take any Westlake novel, too late to be public domain, Killing Time, Brother And Sister, the reason you fucked it up, for that market, assigned that, my great incest novel, get it done this weekend, until the 70s, early 2000s, so solid, a show that’s never gonna come out, The Screaming Mimi by Fredric Brown, Knock 3 1 2, Virgin Planet by Poul Anderson, done in real time, a serial killer on the loose, Ray Fleck, compulsive gambler, the dame he’s shacked up with, the city boils over, hard-boiled, two-timer, cheater, crop and rotate, colour corrected, look fake, resource for the finding the originals, google is so shit, my plugin guy, the gallery plugin, now fixed, what was in the scan, artifact, cloned, filled but didnt do it with love, an H in the bottom right hand corner, John Newton Howitt, inflating the word count, School Mistress Of The Mad, College For Corpses, title generator, x of the y, defying the rules, a woman in distress (to put her on the cover), male fantasy, married already, sexually grateful, a fantasy for the reader, mad people, insane people, escaped lunatic, weird fiction in weird tales, late 19th century, cut-off somebody’s head, Mike the headless chicken, brain stem, made the body super strong, if it get you it will hug you to death, glands story, goat glands, W.C. Morrow, dip ladies in acid, gold, wax, mummies, to put them in jeopardy, so they can be rescued, The Painter Of Dead Women by Edna Worthley Underwood, Pygmalion in reverse, not quite the formula, saves herself, I need a mad scientist, just so long as she’s in mortal peril, perverted weird tales, the same period, the shudder pulps, depression era, survive WWII, paper shortages, write about paperbacks, heiresses, everything twinned, effortlessly, what a hero, two books that year, Lester Dent, two novels a month for a decade, what’s this book really about? twin, the title, numbered kids, Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Dos Muchos, internet archive.org, the dedication, who knows how, the mistress of Adam’s Apple, Eve, the snake, Abby Adams, he knows what he’s doing there, a quote, two heads are better than one, John Hayward, reviewing his own novel, the front half of a horse suit, was that supposed to be funny?, threw it away, you didn’t get what you thought you were getting, funny on the front, funny on the back, a lightweight farce, evil getting away with evil, he can’t be amused, becomes he becomes a real murderer, Lisa, you make fun of them, Westlake doing his philosophy, what’s going on with humor, standup comedians, bombing, killing, chatting her up, what comedy is and what it is for, practice murder, he’s murdering out there, not everything funny is about murder, defeating expectations, a baboon watching magic tricks, put a lid on the cup, the empty cup, a laughing sound, laughing behavior, we have a map of the world, when they don’t line up, it makes us laugh, somehow built into brains, hyenas laugh, the mirror, why we hate him, the outfoxer who must be physically destroyed, struggling over the gun, blackmail him, in the office, you’re just like me, ultimately, at what cost, its all profit, man this guy’s a good storyteller, an anti-twist, the conventions are so strong, the expected twist, the lack of twist is shocking, a twist and then a retwist, money, house, company, money in the mail, its like Elbe, Napoleon put on an island, what!?, he did it again, what an evil shit, sues the airline, the cherry on top, she died really tragically, yes sir right away sir, didn’t fuck over his secretary, severance and, little bit exposed, its okay, personable, some of the dad’s stuff, korsakoff’s syndrome, a commercial movie, people would hate it, fluff, the French version today, ends like the end of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), he just murdered that lady, she’s not nice, Betty you feel pretty bad about, happens quick, the heat of the moment, the best of a bad situation, twice is a pattern, conversation on twitter, character arcs vs. character revelation, what is Hamlet about?, my uncle murdered my dad, his dad told him, doesn’t believe ghosts, killing everybody including his mom by accident, better than brooding in your bedroom and killing yourself, some built in fatal flaw, no characters in Shakespeare grow they only reveal themselves, it works for Star Wars maybe? over the Hornblower series, he has less hair, more confident, he gets taller, riddled with self-doubt, Admiral Hornblower, talking about your D&D character, level up, character revelation, set your players, see where they go, whatever gears and programming inside of them revealed by the story, how could have we ended this better, cheating, lying to people, the stakes are a little higher, you kill the girl too, that bitch, she’s gonna inform on me, fuck her, this character’s horrible, great book though, Knock Three-One-Two by Fredric Brown, Phantasties by George Macdonald, the book that turned C.S. Lewis gay for Anglicanism?, a fairies romance for men and women, 1858, an ancient fairy lady in a desk, transforming into a forest, fairyland itself, Travels With A Donkey, donkey travel, witnesses dueling societies, officiates at a duel, the tone is mixed, jump off of the Matterhorn with an umbrella, Mark Twain is so reliable, more shudder pulp stories, how nuts they are, nice and short, good book.

Two Much by Donald E. Westlake

Posted by Jesse Willis