"Infinity war is the most ambitious crossover in history" The lovecraft and writer friends: hold my primordial horror. hahaha I like the combination of styles, each with their own passion and way to see things.
It would have been especially interesting to read Clark Ashton Smith's contribution to such a project. Does anybody know if such a collaboration exists?
Wait! What? Yes but there were mushrooms and other hallucinating drugs and a bad trip can make you see the most scary and weird monsters and objects and witness weird things.
I found amusement in how quickly he came to terms with the swapping bodies with some wormipede creature and went about exploring and taking over the world.
It isnt really like that, though. From the second he found himself in the new body, he was undergoing the mental changes. It is more like he was getting certain instincts scrubbed away, leaving others to stick out more until they got scrubbed too. He loses all human fears in order of importance, and his actions mirror their relevance. He loses his fear of the unknown and decides that this is a great opportunity. (Biggest, oldest fear in humans) Then he loses his fear of weakness as he realizes how strong he is(fear of mortality) Then he loses his fear of authority and goes on a killing spree. (He hates his job at the college) Then he loses his fear of religion and grabs their god for himself (He wasnt very spiritual to begin with.) Simultaneously, he is expanding his view of himself. He thinks how he can kill the box worm (1 on 1), then he thinks that he is super powerful (1 vs many), then he thinks he can rule Yekub (1 vs city), then he thinks he can rule the worm empire (1 vs all). There is a logical progression as his new body scrapes the base instincts of humans out of his mind, which effectively unshackles the epic willpower we need to keep those instincts in check. It's like a jet engine pushing a train that only goes 5mph. Humans might seem slow, but we are burdened with the incredible weight of 10,000 generations worth of animal instinct built into our body. Take that jet engine off the train and put it on a Porsche and we are the fastest thing there is. Conversely, using a Porsche engine to push a train will result in rapid deterioration leading to a total engine failure. You might even see some black ichor dripping out of various engine parts when the oil pan blows. This story is fucking deep. Absolutely brilliant work on so many levels.
This is actually kind of hilarious. Humans would be just as strange and horrible to giant grey centipede people as they would be to us. Now I want to see a reverse-lovcraftian story where aliens are driven mad by the discovery of humanity.
*Lovecraft:* "Humanity is but a speck of dust in a vast, uncaring universe full of ancient, unimaginably powerful entities who consider us little more than bugs." *Howard:* "Fuck that! Humans are space orcs!"
... And they left Belknap to try and pull together the pieces into a cohesive conclusion. Reminds me of a few writing projects I did in Writing 101 and high school. Though these guys did a much better job than my groups did back then. I'm sure they had just as much fun too.
@@twilightwyrm Looking at the entirety of Lovecraft's works, it's logical to come to the conclusion that life itself is the eldritch abomination. As horrifying as shoggoths and migo and living colors hiding inside meteorites can be, humans are undeniably monsters in our own right as well. Lovecraft always focused on the terror the human characters felt, but how did the horrors he portrayed see us? As food? As pawns? Or maybe something worse than we see them? Maybe Lovecraft's creatures aren't the horrors, and it is simply human perception that colors them as such. Then again, maybe they are all just eldritch horrors and this story simply portrays the one time we got one over on them.
"The Challenge from Beyond" is a work of collaborative fiction by C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long. The tale describes the discovery a strange artefact - an unusual stone imbued with the power to transport its possessor to distant worlds. Chapters: 00:15 - Opening Credits 00:48 - Part 1 (C. L. Moore) 06:17 - Part 2 (A. Merritt) 10:50 - Part 3 (H. P. Lovecraft) 27:54 - Part 4 (Robert E. Howard) 34:16 - Part 5 (Frank Belknap Long) 39:31 - Closing Credits Bandcamp link: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com/album/the-challenge-from-beyond Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble Music and production by Ian Gordon Support us on Bandcamp or Patreon: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com www.patreon.com/horrorbabble HorrorBabble MERCH: teespring.com/stores/horrorbabble-merch Search HORRORBABBLE to find us on: AUDIBLE / ITUNES / SPOTIFY Home: www.horrorbabble.com Rue Morgue: www.rue-morgue.com Social Media: facebook.com/HorrorBabble instagram.com/horrorbabble twitter.com/HorrorBabble
All right, this is rising to top three of my favourite stories. Love the inclusion of the Great Race of Yith, and how they refused the infiltrating entities. And wormlike centipedes? That is curious and sounds fascinating, so far from the slimy tentacles modern takes of Lovecraft seem to use as a crutch.
Score! I somehow missed this. It’s like Christmas morning. Phenomenal happenings. King of the worm people…. I can dig it. 💀 I want to write a lovecraft-like story and make Ian the protagonist. Digging thru some old book or cave or grave! Solid.
Fantastic writing, not only is the elevated language stylistic of the particular circle of writers but also entirely understandable--easily understandable even. and the message conveyed is surprisingly uplifting and empowering, never have thought that I'd feel exhilaration from this typically depressing genre!
Given how Lovecraft's stories typically end, that part must not have been his contribution. Most certainly, the narrative being in the third instead of first person is not of Lovecraft.
Enjoyed the story. Your reading style makes the story live. Could really visualize George 'legging it' with the glowing orb! Do you get it ? 'Legging it' ? Ahem 😁
beautiful reading and truly a great story... I"ve always thought the "maddening" effect of Lovecraftian monsters really stems from fear, and probably an inability to accept that there may be more to this universe than our own perspective. This story is an excellent take on what happens if you could shift your perspectives before they consume you, and fear becomes a hindrance to greater goals rather than a self-destroying state of mind... If and when I do too much hash and find myself trapped on the dreamlands again, this story will be my guide...
I would love to body swap with the cone people or put my brain in a can and go off with the flying crab people, maybe not the worm people though. I just want to be Randolf Carter and travel freely through the universes and between, it sounds wonderful, sigh.
Wow this was a different story. I love how he embraced his new form and metamorphed not only physically but also spirituality instead of descending into madness which is the usual outcome in Lovecraft stories!
The "monetary" ad foe which you are more then deserving, is breaking the immersion, myself, i would prefer to listen to the ad at the end of the readings. Thank you for the much needed quality entertainment you give us.
Thanks for the heads-up - we've removed them. There wasn't supposed to be any mid-roll ads on this recording. Also to note, our entire collection is available to listen to ad-free and free-to-stream over here: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com
The best part of this is he is separated from his body and immediately goes to fucking shit up so that in fact, we are the true horror in this story. We thought murder and conquest. It never occurred to the worms. In fact they likely had forgotten their artifact was on earth. The worms aren't evil. We are as soon as we saw opportunity and power to be so.
Going from complete shock of inhabiting a extraterrestrial insectoid to man, can't wait to give this alien chilopda junk a test drive and being a human is so dull! Is actually incredibly refreshing. Rather then spending his time panicking he chose to think on the positive aspects of his situation. I can say with myself in a similar situation I'd follow that same thought process. Although I wouldn't grab that Orb God. Excellent telling as always Ian.
Ian, your reading has brought this story to life! i had previously found it ... i guess 'inherently' disjointed, and while it does rove around somewhat you've tied it together perfectly! thanks man! :)
This story is fascinating. Not much.of anything happens until the last quarter. It's more a shared world building exercise and resulted in a unique universe-wide setting. Lovecraft does the heavy lifting of that world building in the third part. Then Howard comes in at the end and abruptly shifts the genre from cosmic horror to golden age sci-fi adventure. The protagonist reveals an ambitious streak which was completely unforshadowed in the previous sections does [spoiler]. Merrit, Moore, and Lovecraft must have been ticked off at Howard for this bizarre twist, but it sure makes for an entertaining read.
all we don't know is whether or not the alien worms are really as big around as a man, this is due to the possible miscalculation of scale due to George's new and alien eyes as well as him lacking anything to reference it to, after all his eyes could be the size of peas or, as gross as ostrich eggs
Great content as always, real quick; did you guys have to take down your version of the gunslinger (Pity about the movie D: ) that you did I cant find it anymore, I enjoy it very much and rotate it with George Guidall and Frank Muller readings, thanks!
Another great reading Ian. I was wondering if you were going to do "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce. I was also curious if you would be interested in "The Hell Screen" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.
I know there is a translation of it in The Weird which is a massive anthology that contains stories that all would be a good fit for this channel. Not to give anything away, it's about a painter who goes insane wanting to paint a depiction of hell.
just as you ended this story, a rare crow cawed twice - it was perfect. i love crows, but not many inhabit the back of my NYC apartment house, so it made me feel really good 🌷 🦅
So... what are the odds that your king switches bodies with a serial killer from a species that knows your species once tried to wipe them out? That's some bad luck my Yekubba. The twist at the end is awesome. The worm mind forces the human body to revert through the stages of evolution until it falls apart, with the desire for destruction inherent to the body, which shapes the mind. Conversely, the human mind is hyper evolved in the worm body, though it takes some time for that to happen. You might say that human instinct is more potent than human rationality, and a human mind in a human body is constantly struggling between those drives. Over the course of a human life, the willpower required to battle base instincts is immense. Once the weight of instinct is removed, the human will is indomitable. This is basically the story of Superman. On Krypton, he is just a regular dude, but on earth he is godlike. They just added what might happen if an earthling swapped places with him. The red sun would cause degeneration and eventual death since it wouldnt provide the vitamin E we need.
This is why I don't pick up cubes like that, too many tales of this kinda shit happening. Going thru 7 NDEs and doing remote viewing was weird enough. I'll just keep the rest of the weird to narrated horror and other amusements on YT. As always great read Ian !!
It was definitely cosmic horror up through Lovecraft's part. Then Howard did this crazy genre shift to adventure. I bet the other guys hated him for that, but it sure made for a great story for us.
The man has a lot of stories and several are general duds. A lot are what I call "cosmic horror tourism" which gives some cool concepts, but a lame protagonist who basically does nothing but feel overwhelmed by the indescribable unspeakableness of it all. The ones that shine, really do shine.
@@murrfeeling oh, thank you so much, i thought i was the only one. well said, the ones i heard just went on and on and on. you made me feel a lot better about the whole thing as sooo many people like him, whom i like. Keep safe :)
@@feralbluee No problem. I'm a big fan of his, but that means I've read (or listened) his stuff enough to know where it falls short. Two of my favorite "Lovecraftian" stories are The Willows by Algernon Blackwood and Notebook Found in a Deserted House by Robert Bloch because they have better writing fundamentals and characters. Lovecraft was a misanthrope with multiple personality problems which lent something unique to his horror stories BUT it left his with a lot of misanthropic characters which came off as teen angsty as often as they worked as psychologically complex.
I love Howard all his works from conan to gona from soloman to bram mok mon ram but this made me laugh "it's such a queer thing he came upon in the dark" lmao
