Episode 149 - "The Man Who Went Too Far"

[Genus Unknown]

More like "The Story That Didn't Go Far Enough," eh? Although I like that opening paragraph quite a bit. It's a shame the rest of the story doesn't hold up.

[MindlessFocus]

It is a shame. The goats...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpccpglnNf0

[Genus Unknown]

This story is just a worse version of "The Great God Pan," which I didn't like anyway. I think a big part of what I don't like about it (and this is something Chad has touched on before) is how all the main characters are the idle rich. Not just the main characters, but the authors themselves. If the literature of the day is representative of the era, it was an age ruled by people whose most pressing responsibilities involved attending the right f*cking cocktail parties, finding some plebes who can put their pants on for them without too much sass-talk, and acting appropriately horrified whenever a woman spoke without being spoken to. How can I possibly sympathize with some rich fop of a character whose life philosophy is "lie around in the woods all day and never be sad?" Screw that guy. I'm glad he got hoofed in the face.

You know how everyone complains about reality TV socialites like the Kardashians and, formerly, Paris Hilton? "Why the hell are these people famous," they say. Well, imagine an entire era of Western civilization openly run by those people. An entire society that revolves around the Kardashians. Blegh. Steampunk can go right to hell with its Victorian nostalgia. This is not an era that deserves to be resurrected.

[Chris Hutson]

Steampunk can go right to hell with its Victorian nostalgia. This is not an era that deserves to be resurrected.

No kidding. I can't wait for steampunk to go away and never come back again.
Of course, dorks like to play dress-up, so I think it's going to be around for a while.

I'm also getting burned out on zombies.
Zombie zombie everything.
Put a zombie on it!

[Yojimbo]

Steampunk can go right to hell with its Victorian nostalgia. This is not an era that deserves to be resurrected.

In defense of Steampunk, the "punk" in the name implies rebellion, a focus on the underclasses and disenfranchised, and fighting against the status quo. There's also a predominance of lady steampunkers and fashion. <i>League of Extraordinary Gentleman</i> is steampunk (at least initially) and that's pretty good. Nonwhites and ladies kick ass in that book.

Sherlock Holmes and the works of Charles Dickens are also Victorian, as are the works of Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stephenson, and Jules Verne. There's plenty GOOD stuff from the era. Unfortunately Sturgeon's Law still holds, and most of it is crap. It's just that, over a century later, most of the crap is forgotten (except when resurrected by stuff like this podcast) and it's only the good stuff that gets remembered.

[Chris Hutson]

Also, here's a vaguely relevant news item.
Pics possibly NSFW if your work is lame.
Hot Pan-on-goat action ahead:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/9926420/Erotic-Pompeii-goat-statue-arrives-in-the-British-Museum.html

[LambethWarp]

Can't say I was too enamored of this story ether. It does have a few interesting points, however. An obvious antecedent, other than TGGP, is H. Rider Haggard's She in which [SPOILER ALERT] the titular character - a very ancient and apparently immortal woman who is basically wisdom, sex appeal and general awesomeness personified - decides to go for some Highlander-esque Ultimate Prize by immersing herself once again in the beam of mystical woo that originally conferred her powers and longevity, which causes an awesomeness overload that leads to a fate like that of the Nazi who drank from the wrong Holy Grail. [END SPOILER]

I've got more to add when I get home but the discussion of class in these old stories, that kicked off with the Machen story, got me thinking. Yes it seems grotesque to modern readers but just to play Nyarlathotep's advocate for a moment, how is it that liberal or left-leaning readers get hacked off with the unexamined depiction of privilege and the class system yet give HPL a free pass every time on his constant, rabid racism? Or, if not give him a free pass exactly, at least just acknowledge that it's bad, make an executive decision to ignore it and then carry on enjoying the other aspects of his writing? Or to put it another way, is anything in Machen's story or Benson's any worse than the usual backing cast(e) of evil mulattoes, degenerate negro cultists and superstitious Catholics that populate virtually every HPL tale?

Edit: just listening to the podcast - haha, if you're in your fourth decade then you're in your thirties, not your forties, C&C.

[hoppyzicehog]

This reminded me of the famous quote by skeptic James Randi, upon the discovery of some apparent evidence confirming psychic phenomena: "We can't let the mystics rejoice!"
Well, at least Randi didn't stomp anybody to death... :-D