Episode 56 – The Case of Charles Dexter Ward – Part 3
Actor and Hollywood personality Matt Foyer joins us again as we delve into the PostScripts of Charles Dexter Ward!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Actor and Hollywood personality Matt Foyer joins us again as we delve into the PostScripts of Charles Dexter Ward!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
At the risk of sounding like a huge fan-boy, Legrasse’s run-in with Castro in “Call of Cthulu” happened in 1907, about 13 years before the events of “Charles Dexter Ward”. Plus, the narrator of “Cthulu” mentions that Castro died – whether or not he was resurrected and granting interviews though is anyone’s guess.
On another note, I was really confused by the “it must be red” comment overheard by Mrs. Ward. At first I thought this comment might support the masturbating hypothesis posed in the ‘cast; now though, now though I’m slightly more inclined to believe that it’s in reference to the change in Charles’ eye color.
Im gonna git myself sum mummy fer da tummy.
Sterling work as ever from you chaps! Charles Dexter Ward is one of the best apert from The Dream Quest..I miss the meeping..I was half expecting you to mention that noise as one of the weird and inexplicable voices/sounds coming from Charles room..Meep Meep. As for your Graphic Novel,Dead Beats..I think that the best treatment would be in a comic style reminiscent of the Tijuana Bibles of the 20s and 30s…the style that influenced Crumb a lot. That would be great! Good luck if you can find an artist to do that. I cartoon but not to that type or standard..some of my stuff is at
http://stephensblackbook.wordpress.com
anyway keep up the great work!
Stephen
If Ward and Curwen did dig up Benjamin Franklin’s body for necromantic purposes it would actually make some degree of sense since B.F. was a popular figure with 19th-Century Spiritualists. Check out Jeffrey Sconce’s book “Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television” (2000) for more information but in brief, Spiritualists – who were always trying to contact famous historical figures – made several well publicized attempts to contact Franklin during the 1800s. Some even claimed they did and one man in particular, John Murray Spear, even claimed that B.F. gave him special information that allowed him to construct a mechanized messiah called the “God Machine.” Spear took his “God Machine” on tour in New England but unfortunately the thing was destroyed by an angry New York mob, torches in hand.
Ahh … thought you were going to finish it on episode. Starting from the last letter that Charles wrote till to the end of the book has been the best reading experience in my life.
@agent 1815 Pretty sure that “Must have it red for three months” is talking about a need for raw meat or blood that leads Curwen to his vampiric attacks. Hints throughout the story indicate that all these resurrected things require that, for whatever reason.
I was visiting a cemetary this afternoon when I saw a UPS Truck pull into it. I thought it odd and it called to mind Curwen’s strange deliveries.
However, they were just there to deliver a small package to the office which is at one corner of the grounds. Can’t say I was really disappointed.
Regarding the comment on Republicans: Wow! Go Howard!
Well, obviously we have a vampire in Pawtuxet
He’s climbin’ in yo window
Snatchin’ yo people up
*sigh*
All Beasts from the Abyss are equal-opportunity devourers.
sooo he was a democrat and a racist? consistant at least. not crazy about politics or racist, I just like his work and have been reading it since 77. love the show, but disagree on some personal views.
Lovecraft also had this to say: “Democrats invariably ape the grotesque crudities of the lower orders and make conspicuous clowns of themselves; jeering at civilised speech, manners, and standards of accuracy and beauty instead of respecting these things and urging their beloved masses to work up toward them. As long as they persist in this position, they will win nothing but the distrust and hostility of men well-disposed toward civilisation and the fullest realisation of the human personality.” (H. P. Lovecraft to Woodburn Harris, 9 November 1929)
“Conspicuous clowns”! Love it!
And…
“Well, obviously we have a vampire in Pawtuxet
He’s climbin’ in yo window
Snatchin’ yo people up”
Thanks for that. I needed a laugh.
Chad
Regarding the comments on Republicans and Democrats: Wow! Go Howard!
The quickest way to drive people away from any podcast or website is to start talking politics. Let’s have just one place online that doesn’t. Please?
re: tbob
I tend to agree. i think that is the quickest way to kill this podcast. that and taking stabs at certain religions out of spite is bad juju too. lets have at least one spot on teh interwebz where we can feel a little free of all of this. lets keep this a H.P. Lovecraft podcast and leave the politics to the politics podcasts.
“The quickest way to drive people away from any podcast or website is to start talking politics. Let’s have just one place online that doesn’t. Please?”
I agree. Sorry. Will avoid politics. Seriously, thanks for the reminder.
Hey, we didn’t read the quote on the show. I found it interesting because I never got the sense that Lovecraft was very political. I’m glad someone posted what he said about the democrats! Again, still very culturally relevant.
This show is about HPL and his work. We work very hard to keep these shows entertaining.
So if you listened to the show, then read the link and you were offended. I apologize. However, Lovecraft often said things that offended me, but if we presented it in a way that offended you even more. Again, I apologize.
Nope, not offended by the HPL quotes. Other than the party names, there’s almost no relation between today’s Democrats & GOP and those of HPL’s time. It was stuff like this above:
“Regarding the comment on Republicans: Wow! Go Howard!”
And this…
“sooo he was a democrat and a racist? consistant at least.”
…that seemed to be heading down a bad road.
The Corner (National Review’s main blog — a conservative site if ever there was one) has several HPL fans. There was a brief discussion a few weeks back about HPL’s politics. Essentially, you could claim he was conservative, socialist, liberal, communist, or just about anything else and back it up with quotes from his letters. His politics seemed to fluctuate depending on his age and on the politics of the person he was corresponding with.
shoo be doo bop.
Benjamin Franklin was a freemasons and a member of the british “Hellfire Club”. the History Channel talks about his involvement in this club, a secret society that conducted black masses and orgies. Lovecraft wasn´t stupid, his uncle was a high ranking freemason who told him a lot of their occult beliefs. That way a lot of the esoteric/occult references in his work came to be, since HP himself seemingly never joined such organisations. Here are some informative links:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/288090/ben_franklin_and_his_membership_in.html
http://www.infowars.com/articles/occult/hellfire.htm
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=26030714
Best regards!
Sorry, had to correct some mistypings 😉
Benjamin Franklin was a freemason and a member of the british “Hellfire Club”. The History Channel talks about his involvement in this club, a secret society that conducted black masses and orgies. Lovecraft wasn´t stupid, his grandfather was a high ranking freemason who told him a lot of their occult beliefs. That way a lot of the esoteric/occult references in his work came to be, since HP himself seemingly never joined such organisations. Here are some informative links:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/288090/ben_franklin_and_his_membership_in.html
http://www.infowars.com/articles/occult/hellfire.htm
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=26030714
Best regards!
Have you mentioned Dan O’Bannon’s movie version of TCCDW, “The Ressurected?” It lacks Vincent Price, moves the events to early 1990s New England, replaces the senior Ward with a Mrs. Ward, but otherwise accurately follows the story. It has an intercepted shipment of coffins, but B.F. lies not among those nomadic remains.
The quickest way to kill a podcast is mention that whole Cthulu mythos and that HP Lovecraft guy.. Oh wait..
[…] Actor and Hollywo0d personality Matt Foyer joins us again as we delve into the PostScripts of Charles Dexter Ward! Oh, and Lovecraft has some feelings about Republicans. HPPodcraft.com – The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast […]
Take a look at the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s Dark Adventure Radio Theatre production of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward!
http://www.cthulhulives.org/store/storedetailpages/dart-cdw-cd.html
Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers?
My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing several weeks of hard work due to no
back up. Do you have any methods to protect against
hackers?