http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptP0OR-e7rI

Robert M. Price annoys me for the 2nd time.  I freely admit I am not an expert, but some of his connections sound very tenuous to me.  What he said about the people of Insmouth hiding from their sin seems especially to be viewed from the wrong direction.   

The interview with Loucks was amazing and I wish it had gone on for another hour...or been the whole show. 

Why 3 parts on a terrible story?


WHY!!!!!!!!!  *throws hands to the heavens as the cleansing lightning strikes*

At the Mountains of Madness

Del Toro had gone on a quest, but he came home with no treasure. The triumph of “Pan’s Labyrinth” was now five years old. He needed a comeback project. In Wellington, he hadn’t been able to film the proof-of-concept video for “Frankenstein.” That could be next. But he was thinking of taking an even bigger risk, and pursuing the adaptation of Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness”—his “Sisyphean project.” He had begun sketching images for an adaptation in 1993 and had completed a script in 1998. But the project had seemed too daunting; digital effects weren’t yet good enough to render creatures that changed shape far more radically than Transformers. Then, while del Toro was in Wellington, “Avatar” was released, and its landmark effects made “Madness” seem plausible. Crucially, James Cameron, a friend, had agreed to be a producer for “Madness,” sharing his expertise in designing strange worlds. And del Toro was now less wary of making digital monsters. At Weta, he had experimented with a “virtual camera,” which allows a director to maintain a sense of physicality when filming a C.G.I. creature. “They lay out the animation, you grab a camera, and you can change the angles within that virtual environment,” he said. “One day, I ended up dripping sweat from handling the virtual camera on the motion-capture stage. This camera would be very handy on ‘Madness.’

He told Greene that digital-effects houses needed to understand that each Shoggoth had at least “eight permutations.” He said, “Let’s say that creature A turns into creature A-B, then turns into creature B, then turns into creature B-C. And by the time it lands on a guy it’s creature E.” He discussed one grisly Shoggoth transformation: “It’s like when you grab a sock and you pull it inside out. From his mouth, he extrudes himself.”

The Science Fiction show Babylon 5 had a novella and TV-Movie called Thirdspace that was very Lovecraftian. 

Am I the only one sad that this is Robert M Price's last guest host slot for The Dunwich Horror? This episode had everything. Terrific guest host, one of my favorite readers, laughs and chills. Come on...Old Man Whateley big pimping? A Model T with rims? <giggles>. But the description of the dying Wilbur Whateley in the library sent shudders down my spine. Tentacles? Eyes set in his hip sockets? Yikes!

ETA: one last thought...what happened to Lavinia? Did Wilbur feed her to The Other?

I thought his analysis of the story was far too Biblical and wrong.  Several times during both 'casts his point was completely contradicted by what was said by Chris and Chad from the story two seconds later.  

On my second listen of the podcast already this morning!

Thought occurred to me re the late Mrs Whateley and her mysterious death by violence when Lavinia was 12. Could it be possible that the stars had been right 23 years before Wilbur's birth and Mrs Whateley died during an earlier attempt to create the being to open the way to the Old Ones?

Then again, I could have eaten one too many Hershey Kisses for breakfast this morning.

It was such a treat to have Robert M. Price as guest host for this episode. Pity he can't stick around for the whole bit!

That is a good suggestion. 

I recently finished reading the Gunslinger series by Steven King.  I thought it was an outstanding series with an absolutely lazy ending.  No more detail in case some of you are reading or are planning on reading them.

Man, I must be the only person who thinks the ending was brilliant.

Do NOT read any of the Dune abortions by Brian Herbert.  They are more terrible than Azathoth's taste in music, and completely ruin the grand possibilities left at the end of Chapterhouse Dune.  They go against every theme of Frank Herbert's series.  I could write a novel about how vile they are.

It's definitely from Lovecraft's Arkham, no doubt at all.

Lovecraft's favorite asylum was Danvers in Mass. Quite an imposing towering brick edifice.

Washington Irving popularized the name Gotham for New-York supposedly from a Dutch tradition.

Bat-man sort of overlaps with Devil Man or Satan Man or someone from the pulps, who sort of overlaps with the Man in Black from the pulps and radio. His radio debut predates the first known Man in Black encounter associated with a UFO sighting, which was in late June, 1947.

Either the aliens have a good sense of humor, or we're dealing with something much grimmer, manifestations of the concrete imagination.

Session 9 is a decent horror movie that used Danvers as a set.  Creepy place. 

I use Audible for most books now; am listening to True Grit.

Carter does not die in Through the Gates.  It's been a while since I have read it. 

del Toro will make the movie.  It will just be a few years.  When I heard he was Directing the Hobbit, the first thing I thought of was that the money the Hobbit makes will give del Toro the power to make Mountains happen.

The other issue is that there is a prequel to the Thing being made right now.  It will take place in the Norwegian base that was dead at the beginning of the Thing.

If memory serves, it's Howard and Donald Wandrei on the steps of Frank Belknap Long's browstone in Brooklyn.



I like this one:

His Lover...(someone had to say it)  

Item in Cataclysm: Looks like a little Barker got into the Lovecraft

http://cata.wowhead.com/item=64482#comments

Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron whispers you one upon use:
At the bottom of the ocean even light must die
The silent, sleeping, staring houses in the backwoods always dream. It would be merciful to tear them down.
There is no sharp distinction between the real and the unreal.
Even death may die.
There is a little lamb lost in dark woods.
All places, all things have souls. All souls can be devoured.
What can change the nature of a man?
The stars sweep chill currents that make men shiver in the dark.
You will all be alone in the end.
Do you dream while you sleep or is it an escape from the horrors of reality?
Look around. They will all betray you. Flee screaming into the black forest.
In the land of Ny'alotha there is only sleep.
In the sleeping city of Ny'alotha walk only mad things.
Ny'alotha is a city of old, terrible, unnumbered crimes.
Y'knath k'th'rygg k'yi mrr'ungha gr'mula.
The void sucks at your soul. It is content to feast slowly.
The drowned god's heart is black ice.
It is standing right behind you. Do not move. Do not breathe.
Have you had the dream again? A black goat with seven eyes that watches from the outside.
In the sunken city, he lays dreaming.
Open me! Open me! Open me! Then only will you know peace.
You resist. You cling to your life as if it actually matters. You will learn.
The tortured spirits of your ancestors cling to you, screaming in silence. Apparently they are quite numerous.