You know, I wasn't expecting to like this one. Robert M. Price talked about this in the introduction to one of the Chaosium "Innsmouth Cycle" books, and clearly didn't think much of it; he makes it sound like the whole thing is a racist mockery the black folk and American Indians that form Fishhead's heritage. I was rather surprised when the podcast opened up with Andrew reading that great opening description of the lake (in a Southern accent, no less!), and then again when the story that followed turned out to be... well, quite good, actually, unless our noble hosts skipped over some awful racist crap in their presentation. Makes me want to read the story.

But what really got my attention was the part about the catfish, and the giant catfish that the guys talked about hearing legends of when they were growing up by the Mississippi. I just about jumped out of my chair at that, because I'm from north Alabama and we have the exact same legend! They're supposed to live in the warm, deep water by Browns Ferry nuclear plant, feeding on the fish and whatnot that have been chopped up by the turbines. I thought it was just a local thing. Of course, our giant catfish are real, so they must have served as the inspiration for all those copycat myths up and down the Mississippi.

Chris: that's actually S.T. Joshi's interpretation, so you're in good company! He wrote the following introduction to this story in the collection American Supernatural Tales:

"The Death of Halpin Frayser" (first published in the Wave, December 19, 1891) is Bierce's most celebrated horror tale. Although narrated in a highly fragmented manner, it can be pieced together to reveal a hideous series of events: Halpin Frayser, moving to California, had married his mother, Catherine, living under the name of Larue. Frayser later kills her, but, overwrought by his actions, loses his memory of these events. Catherine's reanimated corpse then exacts revenge upon him by killing him over her own grave in a California cemetery.

So yeah. In the opinion of the foremost living scholar and proponent of weird fiction, Halpin Frayser is indeed an Oedipus. A dead Oedipus. A Doedipus.

Episode is up. Listen and discuss!

Damn... the spambots have found an area of the forum from which I do not have the power to delete them!

Also, welcome aboard to all the real people.

Way to give the ending away right there in the title, Ambrose...

Anyway, episode is up! Discuss! I demand it.

Edit - just one curiosity I've been ignoring for a while now. I'm kind of confused as to what the term "cycles" actually means, in the context that I see them used. Is it interchangeable with "mythos"?

Kinda sorta.

cycle,  in literature, a group of prose or poetic narratives, usually of different authorship, centring on a legendary hero and his associates.... The word cycle is also used for a series of poems or novels that are linked in theme, such as Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle of 20 novels (1871–93), tracing the history of a single family.

-- Britannica.com

myth•os (?m?? ?s, ?ma? ??s)

n., pl. myth•oi (?m?? ??, ?ma? )
1. the underlying system of beliefs, esp. those dealing with supernatural forces, characteristic of a particular cultural group.
2. myth (def. 1).
3. mythology (def. 1).

-- TheFreeDictionary.com

So "Mythos," as regards H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, refers to the underlying mythology -- the Great Old Ones, the overall view of the universe presented in these stories, etc. The "cycles" refer to groups of stories joined by a common theme or setting, like Lovecraft's Dream Cycle (dealing with common themes and settings in the world of dreams), his "Cthulhu Mythos cycle" (all the stories dealing with his invented mythos), even a sort of generic "Gothic horror cycle" (his horror stories not dealing with the Cthulhu Mythos, like "The Tomb," "Pickman's Model," etc.).

In Clark Ashton Smith, you would have the Hyperborea cycle (all the stories that take place in Hyperboria), the Averoigne cycle (stories taking place in Averoigne), etc. I don't know if Clark Ashton Smith really has one definite "mythos" of his own the way Lovecraft has, since each of Smith's settings seems to have its own set of gods and monsters and whatnot, though there is some overlap ( like how Tsathoggua, who belongs to the Hyperborea stories, is name-dropped in a couple of Averoigne stories, stuff like that).

Smith is the bee's knees. If you didn't know already, there is a delightful Clark Ashton Smith podcast called The Double Shadow, and you should go listen to every episode right now. If you're looking for a guide as you wade into Clark Ashton Smith, I can't direct you to any better than that.

As for recommendations, here are some of my all-time favorite Smith stories:

"The Colossus of Ylourgne"
"The Beast of Averoigne"
"The Death of Malygris"
"The Double Shadow"
"The Dark Eidolon"
"Empire of the Necromancers"
"The Seven Geases"
"The Door to Saturn"
"The Charnel God"
"The Abominations of Yondo"
"The Maze of Maâl Dweb"

These all take place in various fantasy settings (mostly Atlantis, the future continent of Zothique, the ancient land of Hyperborea, and France). He wrote in cycles revolving around his favorite settings, so you have the Hyperborea stories, the Zothique stories, and so on. He wrote several stories that take place in space, and even a few (like "The Chain of Aforgomon") that take place, at least partially, in the modern world. These include:

"Ubbo-Sathla"
"The Return of the Sorcerer"
"Genius Loci"
"The City of Singing Flame"

... and I'm sure plenty of others, but I haven't read the entire Smith canon yet.

You can read pretty much anything you like by Smith over at The Eldritch Dark, and as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, you really ought to go check out The Double Shadow.

Ghost werewolf represent.

and was wondering if a book existed that collected all the lovecraft mythos together in one place? If not someone should make one!

Well, there are already a few editions of the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft, which would cover it. If you just mean the stuff that explicitly deals with "the Mythos," you run into murky territory. Does "The Colour Out of Space" count? There are no ancient gods or anything, but it takes place just outside of Arkham. What about the dream stuff like "The White Ship" and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath? The Dream-Quest in particular deals a lot with Azathoth and Nyarlathotep, but is generally considered part of a separate and distinct body of his work from the "Mythos" proper.

And if you're including writings other than those of Lovecraft himself, hoo boy, that would be a giant book.

I think that was just a way of saying "but hey, this is the H.P. Lovecraft podcast, not the Howard podcast." I don't think they mean there is already one.

I'm glad the guys linked to a good translation of this story, because the version I read years ago (for free, on the Internet) was awful. I don't know if it was some high-schooler's first-semester French assignment or what, but I finished it thinking "wow, so that's a classic of horror literature? Blegh."

Also, does anyone else keep thinking of the Star Trek episode "Devil in the Dark?"

This story is just a worse version of "The Great God Pan," which I didn't like anyway. I think a big part of what I don't like about it (and this is something Chad has touched on before) is how all the main characters are the idle rich. Not just the main characters, but the authors themselves. If the literature of the day is representative of the era, it was an age ruled by people whose most pressing responsibilities involved attending the right f*cking cocktail parties, finding some plebes who can put their pants on for them without too much sass-talk, and acting appropriately horrified whenever a woman spoke without being spoken to. How can I possibly sympathize with some rich fop of a character whose life philosophy is "lie around in the woods all day and never be sad?" Screw that guy. I'm glad he got hoofed in the face.

You know how everyone complains about reality TV socialites like the Kardashians and, formerly, Paris Hilton? "Why the hell are these people famous," they say. Well, imagine an entire era of Western civilization openly run by those people. An entire society that revolves around the Kardashians. Blegh. Steampunk can go right to hell with its Victorian nostalgia. This is not an era that deserves to be resurrected.

More like "The Story That Didn't Go Far Enough," eh? Although I like that opening paragraph quite a bit. It's a shame the rest of the story doesn't hold up.

I've never seen that one. With a subtitle like "The Marsupials," please tell me the people turn into giant murderous thylacines.

"The Cats of Ulthar" has to be one. It's always been a favorite, and not just because I love cats nearly as much as HPL did. It's a great little fairy tale, short and sweet with just the right dash of gruesomeness.

I also quite like "The Festival," with its final blood-curdling passage from the Necronomicon, "The Temple" with its really evocative and creepy picture of strange happenings on the sea floor, and "The Tomb," which, clumsy Poe pastiche or no, gives us some really great old-school ghost story action.