Episode 18 – Nyarlathotep and The Crawling Chaos
The Black Pharaoh is on the scene with a special guest host: KENNETH HITE! Who knew? Well… we did. He shares his thoughts on Nyarlathotep, books and good old-fashioned fun!
- Our guest reader this week is none other than Michael Holmes of The Duck N Cover Show!
Next up: Ex Oblivione & The Nameless City
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In addition to the other works of Kennith Hite I would recommend “Trail of Cthulhu” Role Playing game that was wrote by Mr. Hite published by Pelgrane Press. If you enjoy the Call of Cthulhu RPG you will love Trail of Cthulhu.
The Nyarlathotep story reminds me of “the Repairer of Reputations” in Chamber’s The King in Yellow anthology. Both of these stories are told from the point of view of someone who is crazy. The reader can’t be sure of what is real and what is the narrator’s delusions.
So the only real, second hand reference to racism was from a jilted lover. Sigh.
I assumed the people that attended Nyarlathotep’s shows were essentially brainwashed or possessed by the show itself, as if the show was a spell cast on the masses. HPL says, “Then the sparks played amazingly around the heads of the spectators, and hair stood up on end whilst shadows more grotesque than I can tell came out and squatted on the heads.” Like the Brain Slugs from Futurama, something(s) has been conjured onto the heads of the spectators, robbing them of their will.
Nyarlathotep humorously pops up as Uncle Neil in the young adult pulp novel “Awoken”, a tongue in cheek depressed-girl-falls-in-love-with-a-monster romance written by committee.
“Proud Nyarlathotep”
When Nyarlathotep came to my city
The terrible city of unnumbered crimes
The wise men wished they could outlaw sleepin’
Worryin’ ’bout the moon in the sickly sky
Spectators keep on screamin’
Nyarlathotep keep schemin’
Writhin’, writhin’, writhin’ in the vortex
Writhin’, writhin’, writhin’ in the vortex
Nyarlathotep came out of Memphis
Receivin’ kneelin’ homage from the fellahin
But I never saw such fevered revelations
Until that “Pharaoh” threw them onto the screen
Spectators keep on screamin’
Nyarlathotep keep schemin’
Writhin’, writhin’, writhin’ in the vortex
Writhin’, writhin’, writhin’ in the vortex
If you go see Nyarlathotep
Bet you gonna find some people who scream
“I am not afraid, could never be afraid
I swear that the city is exactly the same”
Spectators keep on screamin’
Nyarlathotep keep schemin’
Writhin’, writhin’, writhin’ in the vortex
Writhin’, writhin’, writhin’ in the vortex