Ancient Astronauts and The Old Ones | At the Mountains of Madness & Prometheus | CC EP: 6 

I will never stop being mad that we didn’t get a del torro mountains of madness and got prometheus instead.

Quinn’s voice is like ASMR. I like listening to him at night before bed.

This is really going great. The premise that James is interviewing you and then every now and then comes in with his own ideas that are brilliant is really fun. And I feel you on Alien: Covenant. The bombing scene was one of the biggest middle fingers to the fans in any movie Ive ever seen. And then you have to sit through this whole dumb movie that makes no sense after that. It was just infuriating from start to finish. Prometheus was somewhat disappointing, but Covenant is the only movie in the franchise that I watched once and have no desire to see again.

This podcast is like an oasis in the desert. I am always looking forward to it!!

Easily my favourite podcast to date. I hope to see this grow to new heights 🎉

How did I sleep on this channel! Effin awesome!!! ❤❤❤

The stuff about language and senses? That's GOLD. Brilliant, my man. The Incomprehensible existential primacy. Terrifying

I see Papa Quinn blessed us with another Podcast. 3 blessed holy balls. 🙏

It's upsetting to know that Ridley Scott switched gears for Alien: Covenant in order to address criticism, but in reality, he didn't know what the criticism was. It wasn't that people wanted more xenomorphs, it was that the Prometheus crew were painfully stupid.

The cosmic horror of Alien is sooo clear now.... Our search for our creators is fruitless and disappointing, and the realization that OUR creations may be both superior to us AND doesn't give a SHIT about us. Existential Disgust is worse than bitter hate. It's terrifying because there is no FEELING, no connection, no connotation of significance of life merely because of its being. Ontological value is subordinated to UTILITY, or curiosity. THAT is how David sees humanity, and how Cthulhu sees humanity. Like mice and rats... pets, pests, or test subjects

God this podcast is so good

Honestly just commenting to help give exposure I don't have anything to say other than thanks for continuing to make some of the best content in the genre of scifi and fantasy.

Thank you for making a good and thoughtful podcast 🥳

Loving the series! It's so interesting the way you talk about the engineers, the potential experiment and the black goo has definite echoes in the opening of Children of Time, intentional or not.

I love this podcast. Catching up on episodes now. Planning on checking out comicbook girl 19 Prometheus as well.

The algorithm has failed me. All good thanks and praise to be bestowed upon The Mighty Quinn! Only SOIAF RU-vidr to call out the BS. The GOAT Dune fluffer who got more people in to Dune than Jenna Jameson got in to porn. For free! From the benevolent depths of his gregarious congenial heart! Show some god emperor damned respect, museum Fremen!

prometheus is my all time favorite movie but my god i wish we got mountains of madness instead

Love this! Definitely going to tune in from now on! Thank you for the research and love you show for great writings.

Absolutely loving this podcasts, easily one of my favorites by far!

Yesss scifi daddies

Actually I think in the story he mentions that while the Old Ones are from this galaxy but from another system originally, the Spawn of Cthulu and the Mi-Go are most likely from another dimension entirely. Because their bodies and methods are truly alien, according to the Old Ones. But the Old Ones were made up of the same building blocks we are. And I've always assumed that what Danforth saw when he turned back was a glimpse of the Mountains beyond the Mountains of Madness, and maybe saw the Proto Shoggoth (using that same ice crystal/refraction that shown them the original city skyline), with arms/tentacles waving miles above even the mountains it was squirming within. I know that would snap my mind after already having seen a regular one.

I enjoyed "The Thing". But, I also feel there was a more direct connection between Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" and "At the Mountains of Madness". Maybe too direct to warrant mention. But, I enjoyed that movie as a kid.

Omg how have I only just found this!

Consistent heat

Dunno if you're much of a gamer but this is a perfect podcast for my No Mans Sky play through thanks man

Love the idea of an ancient cosmic horror waiting and watching ....?

Loving this podcast ❤ look forward to your releases!

Hats off to Quinn. Including for minor things, like the correct use of "gone sour".

If the Engineers did kick-start life on Earth, they sure didn't change a lot (physically, technologically) for about 4 BILLION years.

On the subject of Elder Thing space travel, my bestie and I have always headcannoned (in accordance with modern science) that they did indeed use their wings in space, but by extending them many times their normal length to act as solar sails. The Elder Things are shown surviving in a hibernative state over at least tens of millions of years, so they could certainly handle the slow version of interstellar travel that doesn't require breaking physics to move faster than light.

When you say the Shagas were big Bubbly things I think naturally like Slime Rancher and Slime Rancher 2 lol.

Having read mountains of madness, genius, for its time. He wasn't a pleasant man, and wasn't the most poetic writer, but how many people come up with a unique genre. I dont think prometheus is like it, or even cosmic horror, like people say, Ridley seems to be having a bit of a God complex in the last few years, in prometheus the Spacejockeys basically hate humanity after creating us on purpose, and want to destroy us, because of our moral failings. Where as in Mountains of Madness, everything is just indifferent to humanity, like we are germs, we came about through accident, and like other species before us, we'll die again, meaninglessly, the horror is humanity's realisation of our own insignificance.

Love ya quinn!

That was great 😊

What I always thought Danforth saw when they were flying away was similar to the end scene of the music video DyE Fantasy. All the Shoggoths combined into a mountainous monstrosity, waiting. (if you like Lovecraft, you'll get a kick out of the music video fyi).

My understanding is, that the Black Goo was for propagation. Like almost all advanced races, they eventually decline in population growth and have to turn to technology to propagate. The Black Goo was the "Blood / Essence" of the Matron Queen. Her ability to propagate was apparently limitless. It was able to bind, transmute and mutate, any other biological lifeforms. For the Engineers, this was a form of true immortality for themselves. They were very spiritual , and worshiped the Matron Queen above all. It was the coveted gift, that gave them time. Yes, a religious sect, was interested in CREATING life, which was in conflict with the use of such a sacred resource. Like the two of you discussed, the mutations can be unpredictable, if not kept in check. In the Dark Horse mini comics, for the Alien series, it showed one of the home worlds of the alien species. The Xenomorphs were near the bottom of the food chain, like ants. There were enormous creatures that consumed the xenomorph colonies like ant eaters.(Apparently, face hugger eggs are quite tasty!) The Queen had to reproduce in the thousands to protect their territory from competing colonies of different colors. The Engineers, most likely stumbled across one of these planets, and discovered such a Queen. Great Podcast. I look forward to more. Thanks.

This is so fucking dope Quinn

Closest thing to Lovecraft's mythos is Marvel's Watcher. Totally unrelated yet allegorically similar.

I wish I could remember where it says this, but the Elder Things that came to Earth because they thought their civilization was too mechanistic. So they're basically space amish

Alien Romulus is being written and directed by Feddi Alvarez of thriller film Dont Breathe. It takes place between Alien and Aliens with Ridley only having production credit. However F X is making a Weyland TV series by the guy who did Legion and Fargo series.

Alien: Romulus is being directed by Fede Alvarez, not Scott, and details about whether or not it’s connected to the prequel series are scarce at the moment.

I honestly believe you guys give Prometheus a lot more credit than it deserves. Certainly, there are great ideas in it, but wow, the characters are just so contemptibly stupid that it is hard to watch. But that's what happens when all your scientists are creation scientists I suppose. I interpreted the entire situation as the engineers all being nothing more than weapons engineers. All those maps are like engineering instructions. To make the weapon you need the explosive, but you also need the detonation device as well. The eggs are the explosives. The humans are the detonation device. What would you think if you were the engineer in an explosives plant and all the sudden some idiot shows up in the middle of the plant with a bucket full of detonators? You'd be mighty pissed. Your first inclination might be to destroy the damn things immediately. Everything I have seen also assumes that what we see at the beginning of the movie is a sacrifice. But there's every possibility that it is also an execution. i.e. that part of a death sentence in their society is that you are now disposable materials for whatever manufacturing sector needs your bodily materials. And the engineers need genetically broken down through death materials to create their detonation devices to work with their explosive devices. The black goo? I never understood it as anything other than Plot Goo. Some method for the writer to infect the crew without exposing the eggs or aliens at first. I mean, if anything, the only thing you could interpret it as is semen or ovum of the alien species leaking out over the years in a poorly run manufacturing facility. But... it is beautiful to look at, Prometheus. Probably the most beautiful 1950s scifi B-Movie ever made. It's full of greedy idiots, stupid robots, and even stupider 'scientists'.

Cthulhu always reminded me of Enki from the Sumerian tablets. The Anunaki were the old ones. Edit: I am certain that the Atrahasis epic is what inspired the Mountains of Madness. It’s a very similar story where the Igigi rebel against the Anunaki and refuse to do the work, so Enki, the great scientist, creates humans to be slaves.

My favorite 🎉

The only thing I would do is make James' microphone a little softer.... whenever he speaks, it sounds super loud.

HPL was popular in some circles when he was Alive. But not like he is now !

Sooo, androids like David are our Shoggoths? Can be programmed to do what we want but he eventually rises up against us.

In the first alien the derilict craft and the space jocky are very diferent from the engineers while still possessing xenomorph biology/technology so i belive that the two species are different the space jockys possibly older. The engineers found ancient tech from the space jockys species began worshipping them but eather the space jocky or xenomorphs come first. I think the xenomorphs could be eons older than any species found in the series its only remnants being there dna encoded into a miraculously biotechnology capable of near uncomprehinsible things when used by smart enough beings and causes unchecked evolution when nature is in the drivers seat. The engineers worshipped it the space jockys used/possible originated from it, humans can bairly comprehind it whilst more advanced humanoids can along with some other sufficiantly advanced species can unlock and master it some what.

How the hell did miss this?

"The Barrier Peaks" module from D&D's Second Edition was a fun spinoff of Lovecraft's AtMoM. Anyone remember this?

Enjoyed this. But the alien's lore was shattered by Prometheus's and then Covenant's incoherent writing with contrived plots.

I really like your take on Lovecraft and his xenophobia in this podcast and when you talked about him in a video a while back - you don't give him a pass but you mention that he was a product of his time. Related to expeditions to Antarctica, and I think I've already commented this on a previous episode or video, but Quinn I would really love to hear your opinion on Eversion by Alastair Reynolds. I'm obsessed with it and highly recommend it, especially the Audio book version

11:40. Doesn't that run counter to Lovecraft's themes of the Earth's and humanities' insignificance?

More lovecraft stuff

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No love for "in the mouth of madness" by John Carpenter?

New episode?

Based

Why must the engineers make a distinction between science and religion? Maybe those things are considered the same for them?

the matrix and the highlander exist in the same universe.

Whereas Lovecraft has Cthulhu, Hastur, and Yog-Sapha; the Great Old Ones. We unfortunately have the Mehhhh Old Ones; Mitch McConnell, Diane Feinstein, and Chuck Grassley. Talk about cosmic horror…

Hey Quinn, whatever you do... DO NOT LOOK UP THE NAME OF LOVECRAFT'S CAT!!!

Thank you for the fascinating analysis and comparison. One person's "Xenophobia" is another's "racism". Yes, overt racism was more acceptable during his time (and is also displayed by contemporary writers like his friend Robert E. Howard), but it is still extremely off-putting for me and detracts from my being able to experience unfettered enjoyment of Lovecraft's creativity and prose.

What pain me the most about Mountains of Madness is that you can see where Lovecraft writting was heading toward, a lot more adventurous and a lot racism and classism trops, partially due to the efforts of his wife, he was really changing for the better, and it make it bitter sweet for me that we will never see what his writting would have evolved into .

The very vocal fanbase that rejected Prometheus simply proved Scott's point with the Engineers.

Hancock didn't have to read At the Mountains of Madness for his bullshit. He just stands in the tradition of the same racist 19th century idea about an ancient high-tech civilization that also inspired the works of Lovecraft, Smith and Howard. The idea had its roots in the Ancient Greek myth of Hyperborea, a warm and sunny land far in the North and inhabited by long-lived giants. During the 19th century, when the idea of a (northern/western) European masterrace became popular among certain people, this ancient myth was picked up again and added to. From Wikipedia: "According to Jason Jeffrey, H. P. Blavatsky, René Guénon and Julius Evola all shared the belief in the Hyperborean, polar origins of mankind and a subsequent solidification and devolution. [...] According to these esotericists,[citation needed] the Hyperborean people represented the Golden Age polar center of civilization and spirituality, with mankind, instead of evolving from a common ape ancestor, progressively devolving into an apelike state as a result of straying, both physically and spiritually, from its mystical otherworldly homeland in the Far North, succumbing to the 'demonic' energies of the South Pole, the greatest point of materialization.[61] Robert Charroux first related the Hyperboreans to an ancient astronaut race of "reputedly very large, very white people" who had chosen "the least warm area on the earth because it corresponded more closely to their own climate on the planet from which they originated".[62] Miguel Serrano was influenced by Charroux's writings on the Hyperboreans.[63]"

I hate no answers. I don't want to see a film or read abook that doesn't tell me everything.

I hope you cover or at least read, a Asian version of Lovecraft titled, "Lord of Mysteries" the author has weird name "Cuttlefish That Loves Diving. It may not be your cup of tea though, but it's does have huge following in Asia.

Love the vids quinn but your partner should riff more than do a psuedo interview with you ya know this is like a less organized hosted version of your main channel bro again just a hopfully helpful idea love the work

Sorry I find Prometheus a very bad movie in general. Too many stupidities in the way the story was enfolding. I have the felling it was Ridley Scott’s hybris which made this movie bad. He should have thought the scenario through before trying to do a complexe story.

You made Prometheus sound MUCH more interesting than it was. I think it was the worst contemporary sci-fi film.

Best episode so far. Kinda played down Lovecraft’s racism, but a great analysis regardless.

Am I the only one who sees Lovecraft as a form of predecessor of modern incels? He lived most of his live with his mother, the thought of integrating himseflf into society made him uncomfortable, his wife basically divorced him (or at least did was what the allowed equivalent back then) and he has a quite far right leaning world view due to his isolation.

Congratulations!! You did not jump on the bandwagon of Calling HPL racist. You saw him for what he was. A sad, frightened, lonely man who knew the world through letters, books, newspapers and magazines. He was no more against blacks, than he was against the poor, or certain europeans, or dock workers. He was terrified of anyone different from him. Thank you for portraying him as the unwell, unhappy person he was. Instead of a racist monster.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Highjump