Episode 96 - Winged Death

[Genus Unknown]

I've never read this story and I have not yet listened to the podcast, so instead of a pertinent comment to start it off, here's a random image I got after searching for "Winged Death" in Google Image Search:

[Chris Lackey]

I'm afraid the image is quite a bit scarier than the story. But still, I liked it.

[Bob Lovecraft]

I liked the story right up until the fly started messing with the killer. That countdown got really tedious. Other than that, I liked it.

Bob

[Genus Unknown]

Lot of team-ups in a row here. Remember when Lovecraft said his fiction-writing days were over because Derleth trashed "The Dreams in the Witch-House?" Maybe he was more serious than we thought.

Of course, he obviously changed his mind eventually.

[catamount]

To call these stories "collaborations" seems ridiculous to me, since Lovecraft seems to write the vast majority of the story it seems. The so-called "collaborator" seems to throw out a VERY general idea. In my mind it basically goes like this, "say H.P. how about a horror story that takes place on a beach?" or "how about about a love triangle that involves a wizard?" or "a wax museum is a really scary place, I bet it would make for a spine-tingling tale!"   

[JulieH]

The main thing that makes a collaboration - H.P. got PAID.

[osyrisdiamond]

The main thing that makes a collaboration - H.P. got PAID.

There was some doubt over that with previous collaborations, if memory is correct.

[old book]

It reminds me of some old-time radio episodes I vaguely remember, and of some of El Ron's pulp fiction. It's also the only Lovecraft foray into South Africa, as far as I know. Back in the late 70s the tse-tse fly was in the news quite a bit for spreading some disease in Africa. American newscasters said "tse-tse" in a different way than Sich and Chard, but that doesn't mean they had the right pronunciation either.

[Genus Unknown]

To call these stories "collaborations" seems ridiculous to me, since Lovecraft seems to write the vast majority of the story it seems. The so-called "collaborator" seems to throw out a VERY general idea. In my mind it basically goes like this, "say H.P. how about a horror story that takes place on a beach?" or "how about about a love triangle that involves a wizard?" or "a wax museum is a really scary place, I bet it would make for a spine-tingling tale!"   

While this is true, there's one thing that really marks the "collaborations" apart from the rest of his work: quality. With maybe one or two exceptions ("Under the Pyramids" and "Curse of Yig," specifically), the team-ups are all pretty shoddily slapped together. You can tell he's slumming for a paycheck.