Episode 111 – Robert H. Barlow Triple Feature...

[Genus Unknown]

... "Till A' the Seas," "Collapsing Cosmoses," and "The Battle That Ended the Century."

[T. Kelly Lee]

I love Battle.  It really is very funny. Read it if you haven't.  The joke at Derleth's expense is quite appropriate.

[Bob Lovecraft]

I had totally forgotten the story connected to "Till a' the Seas". The name is such a non sequitur for the actual body of the narrative, and that just suck because this is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. Now I am reminded that HPL had almost nothing to do with it. Well, hell. The eeriness of the earth just dying off and no one being able to do anything, absolutely nothing, about it was just so depressing and chilling. The barren landscapes and complete lack of other life is not very scary in and of itself, but when you combine that image with familiar setting where their SHOULD be people and buildings and topography adds enough of a punch to make the imagery pretty poignant. The fact that the character dies in a well in a desert was a bit heavy-handed, but still disturbingly apropos.

Bob

[Ming]

"Till a' the Seas" immediately reminded me of that episode of the Twilight Zone where the Earth was slowly moving closer to the sun.  Except the twist in the end was that it was a dream and the Earth was actually moving away from the sun, causing everything to freeze over.

[Genus Unknown]

I know it's not the same words, but I can't help reading "Till A' the Seas" to this tune.

[Genus Unknown]

So as the Earth spirals slowly toward the Sun, all the water on Earth dries up... but where does it go? I mean that's a huge amount of water relative to the size of the planet. I'd think that no matter how hot it got, gravity would keep the water on Earth in some form, wouldn't it? Even if it was just steam? Instead of slowly disappearing, wouldn't all that water form a permanent cloud cover like on Venus (with water steam instead of sulfuric acid)? Wouldn't that, in turn, limit the amount of evaporation that could occur?

Anyway, what caused the Earth's orbit to start decaying like that? And what happened to Venus? Are we in danger of colliding with Venus on our way to the Sun?

Honestly, I'm beginning to doubt that this story is even true.

[Yojimbo]

Honestly, I'm beginning to doubt that this story is even true.

Heh.

Well, when the sun gets old enough and prepares to go nova, it's going to expand, swallowing Mercury and Venus in the process. So the Earth won't get closer, the sun will.

That's so far in the future that human civilization won't even be a memory at that point, though.

[Vulpine]

I remember reading 'The Battle' while waiting in line at the movies on my Palm Pilot and suddenly busting out in laughter as I started getting the jokes.  It really confused my friends, who hadn't been as exposed to Lovecraftiana as they have now.

[Bulbatron]

I seem to rather boringly say the same thing whenever I comment on an episode, but oh well, never mind.

Great show, as ever.  I haven't read any of the stories from the episodes, so perhaps I'll have to give them a go.

[Ferox13]

With regard to your comments on 'Road Warrior' - one of the sub-groups in Humungus' gang are refered to as 'The Gayboy-Berserkers' and another are called 'The Smegma Crazies'.

[Bob Lovecraft]

'The Smegma Crazies'.

Well, that just put me off of breakfast this morning.

Bob

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

There is much complaint about Lovecraft `s habit of randomly banging out silly names. In the case of "Seas" it seems to be different. At least to me the town names Perath Baling Loton sound eerily reminiscient to the modern terms Paris, Berlin, London and I don `t think this just accidental.
Have any of you the same impression and can anyone make anything out of the other names?

[Bob Lovecraft]

Possibly Beijing for Baling, but other than that, no.

Bob

[Deadhand]

So as the Earth spirals slowly toward the Sun, all the water on Earth dries up... but where does it go? I mean that's a huge amount of water relative to the size of the planet. I'd think that no matter how hot it got, gravity would keep the water on Earth in some form, wouldn't it? Even if it was just steam? Instead of slowly disappearing, wouldn't all that water form a permanent cloud cover like on Venus (with water steam instead of sulfuric acid)?

I'm no expert, but it might be useful to consider how Mars no longer has flowing water on the surface, though many believe it once had lakes and oceans.  The change didn't occur because of overheating, of course, but because of a change in atmospheric pressures.  Not that HPL would have known that!

[T. Kelly Lee]

There is much complaint about Lovecraft `s habit of randomly banging out silly names. In the case of "Seas" it seems to be different. At least to me the town names Perath Baling Loton sound eerily reminiscient to the modern terms Paris, Berlin, London and I don `t think this just accidental.
Have any of you the same impression and can anyone make anything out of the other names?

I think this is absolutely correct.  I think this was meant to show just how far in the future this story was set.  Place names changes and Lovecraft was keenly aware of this.  Remember in "Charles Dexter Ward" he is careful to refer to old Providence as "Providence Plantations" and the like.