Episode 115 - The Night Ocean

[gbsteve]

Great episode, please don't mention me in the next podcast.

Regarding the Bradbury-Lovecraft link, I've got some old copies of Weird Tales. The issue from November 1943 has the sixth and final part of Herbert West: Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft but it also has a Ray Bradbury story (The Ducker) and a short interview with him in which he says:
"I don't particularly care about ghosts, vampires or werewolves; they've been killed by repetition. Lovecraft, Poe and C.A. Smith are the rare ones who did a splendid job with them. There are plenty of good stories in neurotic psychology ready to be used. There are good stories in everyday things. Trains, crowds, motor-cars, submarines, dogs---the wind around the house. I'd like to use them much more. And there's much good stuff buried in the green leafs of childhood and the heaped dead leafs of old age. I want to get at that, too. I want to write about humans; and add an unusual, unsuspected twist."
He was twenty-three.

[Genus Unknown]

I love, love, love this... story? Poem? Atmospheric exercise? Whatever it is, it's great. It's beautifully written, poignant, creepy, mature, and overall one of my favorite weird pieces of writing, from Lovecraft or anyone else.

It's hard to believe that this is the same Robert H. Barlow (with HPL on the assist) who gave us "The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast" and "The Slaying of the Monster." Even "Till A' the Seas," which is much better than those two, pales in comparison to "The Night Ocean." It's like Barlow underwent his own "Lovecraft returns to Providence" moment.

I'm calling it: best collaboration of HPL's career.

[T. Kelly Lee]

Monsters of the Mundane, is what I call it.  Really, the scariest thing there is is death.  A good horror writer just ramps up the terror over the way it can happen.  When a vampire kills you, there's a damn reason.  When Azathoth kills you, you don't even know if he noticed you were there in the first place.  When you vacuum cleaner kills you - that's scary. 

[fubarinpittsburgh]

Donna Summer, Ray Bradbury, did you guys get the equipment you are recording on by robbing the grave of a warlock?

Oh! And could you please bring up Lars Ulrich in the next episode?

Any-hoo, another awesome episode guys. This is another story I read during my first wave (no pun intended) of Lovecraft obsession but did not leave much of a impression on me. Now looking at it, it's nothing short of a masterpiece. Little plot, mostly mood, and the stories you make up in your mind about whats going on makes it more interesting then any explanation the story could give you.

Awesome.

[old book]

Great episode, please don't mention me in the next podcast.

Regarding the Bradbury-Lovecraft link, I've got some old copies of Weird Tales. The issue from November 1943 has the sixth and final part of Herbert West: Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft but it also has a Ray Bradbury story (The Ducker) and a short interview with him in which he says:
"I don't particularly care about ghosts, vampires or werewolves; they've been killed by repetition. Lovecraft, Poe and C.A. Smith are the rare ones who did a splendid job with them. There are plenty of good stories in neurotic psychology ready to be used. There are good stories in everyday things. Trains, crowds, motor-cars, submarines, dogs---the wind around the house. I'd like to use them much more. And there's much good stuff buried in the green leafs of childhood and the heaped dead leafs of old age. I want to get at that, too. I want to write about humans; and add an unusual, unsuspected twist."
He was twenty-three.

Twenty-three, that still doesn't explain why he spelled "leaves" wrong.