Episodes 104 -- 107: The Shadow Out of Time

[old book]

"With suitable precautions, and in exchange for suitable services, it was allowed to rove all over the habitable world in titan airships or on the huge boat-like atomic-engined vehicles which traversed the great roads,"
I bet these are just nuclear powered 1960s station wagons build to Yith-size but HPL had never seen them before so he describes them as "boat-like". Or the Yith drive car just like Spongebob. Coincidentally. where is my "Spongebob vs the Old Ones" episode where Bikini Bottom is attacked by star-headed half-plants fleeing the cold?

Funny you should mention that. I saw Patrick and Spongebob hide in a rock that looked like the skull of Cthulhu from Squidward today. It might have been "The Fools of April" episode or something like that.

As for gently mocking his exhibitors, I suspect there are some arched eyebrows, body language and deadpan answers going on there. "Of course you would say that"-type replies.

[Bob Lovecraft]

I just wonder what "services" were considered "suitable" for him to be taken on a nice sunday drive by the Yithians. Seems a bit homoerotic to me.

Bob (I'm just saying...)

[JulieH]

...Doing laundry and sewing on buttons?
...Knocking off a good rendition of "People who need People" while dressed as Barbara Streisand?
...Hentai?

[osyrisdiamond]

I'm gonna throw a guess and say that "Pnakotus" is game derived. If anyone has the original game (circa 1981), this might help. If not, comparing the various edition to see if and when the term comes into play. If so, then one needs to track down who created that text and grill them about its source. However, I cannot prove that currently. Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, though I am unsure if it is in its first edition (back in 1994), is the closet so far I've gotten to getting an origin for the term. Someone needs to see if the word or its source is cited in that book (preferably in the earliest edition where the term is found). From there, you follow that trail.

[Genus Unknown]

Huh, that's weird. I thought this was a new thread, but it's telling me "this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days." Where have I been all this time?

Unless...

[old book]

I found this filament embedded in mylar at 23° 18' west of Wrangel Island on a sand bar in late October, 2053. I am responding to this thread using tachyon net via the relativistic relay located at LB-2. The names have not been changed.

Adamip nuliani Eva innaappaa, taannalu naartulerpoq ernertaarlunilu Kainimik atsikkaminik ima oqarami: »Naalakkap ikiuineragut angut pinngortippara.« Kingornalu nukartaartippaa Abelimik atsikkaminik. Abeli savaatilinngorpoq Kainilu naasorissaasunngorluni.

Ilaanni Kaini nunap inerititaanik Naalakkamut pilliivoq, belilu aamma savaatimi piaqqeqqaataasa tunnuinik pilliivoq. Naalakkap Abelip pilliutaa iluaraa Kainilli pilliutaa iluarinagu. Taava Kaini ajuallappoq nakangallunilu angalalerluni. Taava Naalakkap Kaini oqarfigaa: »Sooq ajuallappit? Sooq nakangallutit angalalerpit? Ajunngitsulioruit nakimanak niaqqut makitissimasinnaavat, ajunngitsuliunngikkuilli ajorti matup killingani qamavoq. Pilerigigaluarpaatit, illilli taassumunnga naalagaassaatit.« Kingorna Kainip nukki Abeli oqaluffigaa, ilaannilu silamiitillutik saassuppaa toqullugulu. Naalakkap Kaini oqarfigaa: »Naak nukkat Abeli?« Akivoq: »Naluara, nukara paarisassarinerpara?« Naalagarli oqarpoq: »Qanoq-una ilioravit? Nukkavit aavata nunamit torlorfigaanga. Taamaattumik narsaammit peersitaassaatit, taassuma qarni ammarmagu nukkavit aava illit kuisat imerlugu. Narsaat naggorissaraangakku inerititaminik tunisarunnaassavaatit; inissaasuallutit nunami angalaartuassaatit.« Kainip Naalagaq akivaa: »Pillaatisiara artorpara. Maanna narsaammit peersikkamma illillu kiinnannit isertortariaqalerama inissaasuallungalu nunami angalaartariaqalerlunga, taava uannik naapitsisup kialuunniit toqoriaannaavaanga.« Naalakkalli akivaa: »Toqunneqaruit tamanna arfineq-marloriaammik akiniarneqassaaq.« Naalakkallu Kaini nalunaaqutserpaa taassuminnga naapitsisumut kimulluunniit toqoqqunagu. Taava Kaini Naalagaq qimallugu nunami Nodimi Edenip kangiani nunaqalerpoq.

[Chris Lackey]

I don't know if I've ever done this before, but I thought it might be a good idea to see if any of you guys have anything you want to add to the show. Like an idea about the story or a tidbit or something. If I have it in my notes already, you get no shout out. But if I do, we'll mention that you said it on the forums.

Sound cool? Lame? Squamous?

[old book]

I think I remember once correlating that the latitude and longitude mentioned which lies in Australia is actually very very close to a geological site with the world's oldest rocks, or fossils, or something. The guy who found the rusty looking rocks wrote them up in some science journal and published photos, but refused to reveal their exact location. I triangulated using a Ouija board and some paperclips.

Also, the archetypal image of the library as standing outside of time as a sort of repository for all (human) knowledge... Carl Sagan did some skit in Cosmos about such a library, and tied it back in with the Library/Museon of Alexandria, and then spoke in a marihuana-induced fugue of a certain Babylonian priest named Borus or Berossas or somesuch who had access to an antedeluvian history of the world now lost. I'm not making this up. Well, not the salient points, it's right there in the book and TV series. Could you check into the eternal library archetype for us and report back?

The history of the text(s) is interesting too, how in the heck did an HPL MSS end up in an attic in Hawaii? I didn't think they even have attics in Hawaii. Who was this girlfriend/minion/squeeze Barlow shacked up with in the Aztec capital? Whence did she come and whither goest, and was she allergic to cold weather or something?

Another vague suggestion: I think there is a woman in Australia who believes she is somehow an "intern" for the show. She might be called upon for local colour, information, rituals, arcane lore, etc. Skype her up in Brisbane or wherever and see if she can't do a remote from the lat and long listed using her mobile's GPS function? It couldn't hurt to ask. Actually, it could, she could die of exposure or something. But it's good radio, nonetheless.

I'll go back and read the story again and maybe come up with some better stuff. Iirc there's that same thing going on with alien inhabitation and displacement as in ... Arthur Dexter? Call of Cthulhu? Maybe more, maybe those are the wrong stories, my brain is not working correctly right now. Who was the guy talking up the ladies in libraries across Northern Europe in their native languages, who then came back all like "Sorry, don't remember...."? That will earn you a strong slap across the face in most places, just ask Julian Assange.

[Bob Lovecraft]

I would have to go back and re-read the entire story to find the part where Peaslee is commenting on the different people/entities he meets while doing research in the Yithian library, but I wonder if any of the main lovecraftian influences show up. Are there veiled references to any of the authors Lovecraft loved so much? Is Swami Chadraputra in that mix? What about some of Lovecraft's contemporaries? Are there characters from stories that they wrote making cameos here? As much as Lovecraft and his circle loved to give shout outs, I am betting that every one of the other minds mentioned in that scene are significant.

Also, and I am sure you already have this in your notes, I thought it was interesting that the Yithian's current bodies are not the original bodies, but ones co-opted from another race for them to inhabit at their current temporal state. I would be very interested to find out who these aliens were that the Ythians took over. Of course, I'm sure I never will, but I thought it bore mentioning.

Bob

[old book]

Sich:--

I didn't have time to re-read it, but out of a deep sense of duty to the 'podcraft I did listen to two separate readings of it, Dark Adventure(s) and something called Labia or Uvula audiobooks or something.

I fell asleep during the latter, and the former was merely a dramatised synopsis. I heard nothing that would compel any new questions or suggestions. Except, where do I order Fleur-de-Lys?

If I'm not terribly mistaken, at least one of the captive minds in the library is mentioned elsewhere, perhaps the Mongolian from AD 2525.

Coincidence of coincidences, I happened to hear someone mention that site in Australia again. It is definitely the earliest living organisms, not the earliest rocks. The interlocutor placed the site in "Western" Australia and also found it incredibly coincidental with something else. If the "intern" cannot be "skyped," at least "Google earth" the coördinated provided by Mr. Lovecraft. I hope and pray it is not too late.

Obdntly Yrs,

Le ancien livre

[Eric Lofgren]

If I recall correctly, the Pnakotus Library was created using the individual entries of entities throughout time and space. Isn't that just like Wickepedia? Without the time and space thing, mind you. Okay, I'm really reaching here

But there is an interesting parallel there, I think. Lovecraft is once again at the forefront with his writing envisioning a form of a communal entry of information gathering and collection, as opposed to the regulated means in place then and now, that won't exist for another 80 or 90 years. Yes? No?

[Genus Unknown]

If I recall correctly, the Pnakotus Library was created using the individual entries of entities throughout time and space.

There's some debate about that, mainly due to the fact that the Yithian city is popularly thought of as Pnakotus, even though the word itself doesn't appear anywhere in the story.

And now I have to figure out a way to merge these two threads while preserving Chris's first-post status. Hmmm...

[Bob Lovecraft]

I lied this episode quite a bit, although it was more for the digression about zombie insects and cat poop bacteria than I did about the story. Now, don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the on-topic discussion, but just the strange conversation between our two hosts makes me really want to just be in a room shooting the bull with them every once in a while.

Bob

[Genus Unknown]

Ditto. This was one of my favorite episodes in a while, because of that story-to-commentary-and-banter ratio. We all already know the story, so the banter and commentary are what really make the podcast. It'll take longer to get through at this rate, but it's more full of the stuff I listen for, so that's a good thing.

[YunusWesley]

When my Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign went to Australia and the cult diggings down in Pnakotus, I found the area from satellite to my satisfaction. Lovecraft gives coordinates for the stones: 22° 3' 14" South Latitude, 125° 0' 39" East Longitude. It's a suitably empty, desolate, gorgeous area that plopping down a Rhode Island sized subterranean city doesn't seem like it would get in the way.

The site, in Rudall River National Park!

In an effort to end the campaign on a bang, we blew up Pnakotus. The only Yithian present was there against its will; and they'd all shuffled off to Buffalo and left the place and its enormous purple energy spheres vacant, hadn't they? "So it is in this era that traces of the City are erased! This has been a mystery due to a lack of observing minds. And that it should be by my own claw! How cosmically amusing!" Bang. Hole in the earth, no more cultists, everybody gets on with their schedule without Masks.