Episode 112 - The Disinterment

[Konrad Hartmann]

OK, so, you've been confined in a bed and not permitted to see any of your own body. You finally escape by bludgeoning to death your captor. Would you not, at any point, happen to notice that you now have gorilla hands and feet? Would you not want to see what your body looks like? Or do you just run along saying, nope, not looking down, no matter what? You can see the candlestick in your hand, you can see the guy you're beating to death, but you can't see your hands? 'Ah, man, my fingers are bleeding from digging up this grave. All this blood and dirt makes it look like I have chimpanzee hands.'

I think the story would have been better if the narrator's body was running around with the other head on it, horrified with his own body.

[T. Kelly Lee]

OK, so, you've been confined in a bed and not permitted to see any of your own body. You finally escape by bludgeoning to death your captor. Would you not, at any point, happen to notice that you now have gorilla hands and feet? Would you not want to see what your body looks like? Or do you just run along saying, nope, not looking down, no matter what? You can see the candlestick in your hand, you can see the guy you're beating to death, but you can't see your hands? 'Ah, man, my fingers are bleeding from digging up this grave. All this blood and dirt makes it look like I have chimpanzee hands.'

I think the story would have been better if the narrator's body was running around with the other head on it, horrified with his own body.

Well, I think this is why a lot of us - including Joshi - think that the narrator's head was actually on a black person's body.  In the dark you would notice the change in skin color, presumably. 

[Bob Lovecraft]

Let's be honest here, this entire story is one big plot whole. Absolutely none of it holds together under its own internal logic. Long-story-short: bad, BAD writing.

Bob

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

Come on, don `t be so negative. Yes, it is bad bad writing. But that guy did a great job in writing a bad story! It `s trash deluxe. At some point somebody must have been convinced that he was writing something really cool. I always have to picture someone sitting at his desc, scribbling frantically and he `s like: „Yea! Now it works out! I `m writing this awesome story. Everyone is gonna be  psyched! And then THE HORRIBLE REVElATION will freak them out! Like totally! HA!“
This is another example of a „just like one of those silly B-Movies I love so much stories“.  

[Bob Lovecraft]

Sorry, GvAE, I just can't go with you on this one. I think the editor just needed something to fill space when this story got printed. I can't imagine anyone thinking this was worth reading more than once for any other merit than it was so perfectly horrible. I can only think of this as the "Jersey Shore" of its time.

Bob

[T. Kelly Lee]

Yeah, this is pretty firmly a case of the writers bringing their C game.  The premise is a good one, but the execution terrible.  There are SO MANY other ways you could have played this out without the stupid reveal.  I read this story ages ago and always thought it could have a great homo-erotic ending in that the dude has put his head on the body of a hot WOMAN to fulfill his ultimate, twisted fantasy.  In the end, the transformation would have been a twisted act of love.  When I first read this story, that's what I thought the small foot in the shoe alluded to.   

Good story, eh? 

[Genus Unknown]

The premise is a good one

You're too kind.

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

Most probably you are right, Bob. And that just adds to the fun of it.
The Weird Magazine editor randomly picking something from the junk-folder. „All right, it `s terrible but I have to make up the next issue somehow. So let `s take that stupid ape story.“
And back home that Rimel goes: „Yes! They accepted it, they like it! I knew it was awesome, I should write more stuff like this. But what `s that sillytalk about an ape? What `s supposed to be so horrific about that? Didn `t I make perfectly clear it was an oppossum?“
Someone should make a movie about that...

Yeah, this is pretty firmly a case of the writers bringing their C game.  The premise is a good one, but the execution terrible.  There are SO MANY other ways you could have played this out without the stupid reveal.  I read this story ages ago and always thought it could have a great homo-erotic ending in that the dude has put his head on the body of a hot WOMAN to fulfill his ultimate, twisted fantasy.  In the end, the transformation would have been a twisted act of love.  When I first read this story, that's what I thought the small foot in the shoe alluded to.    

Good story, eh?  

Now that IS twisted.

[Konrad Hartmann]

Sorry, GvAE, I just can't go with you on this one. I think the editor just needed something to fill space when this story got printed. I can't imagine anyone thinking this was worth reading more than once for any other merit than it was so perfectly horrible. I can only think of this as the "Jersey Shore" of its time.

Bob

If they take the cast of the Jersey Shore and transplant their heads on each other (opposite gender only) or on opossums (either gender) or gorillas, I will watch every precious minute of every episode.

[Graf von Altenberg Ehrenstein]

They already did that. Gorilla bodies with human heads and of course oppossum brains.