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Episode 458 - The Pool (Patreon)

Published:
2019-07-07 18:11:06
Imported:
2021-07

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Content

Patton Oswalt is back to talk Michael Shea in the summer party classic The Pool!

Warning: some language and themes not appropriate for younger listeners.

Don't forget to pick up your copies of The Ghost Box and The Ghost Box II from Hingston and Olsen! You deserve it!

Can't get an affordable copy of Copping Squid? Check out Demiurge: The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea!

Next up this month: On the Slab by Harlan Ellison

Comments

Anonymous

Yes! More Shea and more Oswalt.

Anonymous

Last night I watched one of Patton's stand up specials on Netflix, just because of hearing him on your show. I can't wait to listen to this episode. I hope he drops more Scottish C-Bombs! :D Come at me Patton! Back now after listening to the episode. This is one I had time to prepare for by actually reading the story beforehand. What really struck me about this is the evolution of Shoggoths (something which perhaps Shoggoth Lord could shed more light on?). I remember back in the 90's there was a Call of Cthulhu adventure with a man called Mr. Shiney who hired the characters and was sort of an ally, at least for a while. *spoiler alert* Shiney turned out to be a Shoggoth wearing a man suit. I thought that was neat, because it showed this eldritch horror integrating itself into modern everyday life by mimicry. Like the story Mimic you guys covered (loved the movie by del Toro too!). Anyway, here in The Pool the Shoggoths continue to evolve their mimicry skills. I have to admit, I had no clue until the lady jumped into the pool. Then suddenly it all clicked into place. The spell that Mike Love tricks her into saying, the protagonist reading At The Mountains of Madness, the way the pool was miraculously finished in time, the strange descriptions of the water, it all came together into a moment of penultimate horror. Of course! Btw, is Patton also doing the podcast Every Little Thing Shea Does Is Magic? What about Shea Blinded Me With Science? Crazy Shea Calls Me?

Anonymous

Contrary to the women written by male authors, most women of non fiction, reality as it is called, are not so hyper aware of their boobs at all times they would necessarily notice one coming out of a swimsuit.

Anonymous

You wanted to see a music video with some pool action: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMK7rcS0bdI

Anonymous

Having listened to this podcast for many years, I must say Patton Oswalt is one of the most entertaining guests you guys have had on the show. He's charming, funny, and genuinely insightful on the stories. His sense of humor and that of yourselves mesh together brilliantly well, and I hope to hear more of him in the future.

Anonymous
>>24502395

Ahh, yes; while I've never played the game, I have a tangential awareness of Albert Shiney. As per the evolution of shoggoths, there's actually a brief paragraph on that in the Shoggoth entry in Dan Harms' handy-dandy Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia (3rd Ed.) If I'm being honest...that's *kind of* where I cribbed the user name "Shoggoth Lord" from. Like Shiney, the Lords are a smaller, more intelligent subspecies that can make their imitation of various tissues and members both more detailed and more stable, hence roving about pretending to be great big fat people. Actually, the fact that shoggoths are subject to evolution and speciation is how I always explained the Dark Young; as in Bloch's tale "Notebook Found in a Deserted House," they *are* shoggoths--but they're a subspecies whose form has largely stabilized into the "obscene tree" shape they have.

Anonymous

Thanks for the links to two great-looking books I can't have. It's just this kind of disappointment I tune in for each week. Seriously, The Ghost Box I and II look pretty awesome. Maybe I can catch III before it goes bye-bye.

Anonymous

Great show guys. I look forward to more Shea and much more Oswalt. Since the Copping Squid episode, I've purchased “Demiurge” and read all of Shea's Lovecraftian stories. They evoke a lot of the cosmic fear and address many of the themes Lovecraft suggested, in spite of almost bordering on parody, as when using the "Lovecraft's stories are real" motif, or at times suggesting that the Great Old Ones have more of an interest in puny, insignificant humanity than one might expect. To be fair, HPL did that as well. Cthulhu apparently had uses for humans and cults, as did Yog-Sothoth, the Mi-Go, etc. “The Pool” is perhaps most Lovecraftian in that it leaves more mystery behind it than resolution. There seems to be, not merely one, but perhaps multiple forces manipulating things from behind the scenes, but we don’t get much of a clue about any of them, except for the connection to Lovecraft and his stories. It’s odd that when I read “The Pool” originally, it never occurred to me that Mike Love was directly involved in the occult goings on. I guess I just decided he was the cliche asshole boss that didn’t care about anything but getting the job done. I felt at the time that he had as little understanding of the words on the fax as anyone else, and that some outside force or set of forces was manipulating everyone towards the concluding event. But once you brought up the idea, it does make sense that Love was a agent of the Shoggoths and/or other ancient evil powers. I’m guessing we are supposed to assume there is another force as well, represented by Lovecraft in some way, and attempting to open the eyes of the properly receptive to the looming cosmic dangers that threaten us all. But is it a separate force, and is it trying to help us, or just blow our minds? The word “messenger” in the name of the answering machine could just refer to the idea that the protagonist was meant to receive a message, but it also suggests to the Lovecraft reader, Nyarlathotep who has been called a “messenger” multiple times in various stories. As you guys discussed, when taken along with other stories in the collection, it does almost feel like a piece in what was intended to develop into a full-blown larger arch of people on the fringes of society becoming aware of the mythos forces and gathering to fight against them. It would have been interesting to see where that might have ultimately gone.

Anonymous

This one (the story) felt a little bit loose to me - or at least the pool party action felt a little too disconnected from Dare's personal haunting. Perhaps that's just a function of how nebulous the motives of HP's Faceghost were. I personally assumed that "get one" was the message being whispered, but it still leaves me mystified and I have to say that being divinely (infernally?) directed to buy an answering machine isn't what I'd call a great plot device. I also wish the question of Dare's life direction and the threat of age were resolved somehow, as they were presented so prominently in the early going. Maybe the point of the end is that he's found his calling and will join the city defense? All that said, the images in that final scene were super uncanny and weird, and tapped an unexpectedly sublime tone out of the pool lady's last moments. It was a smart choice to make the deaths ecstatic rather than strictly horrific. Shea really pulled that whole scene off perfectly.

Anonymous

I live in the Bay Area so this story really hits home for me. SF is so gentrified now it borders on an Eloi and Morlock situation.

Anonymous

Let us say a large and heartfelt "Congratulations!" and "Thank you!" and "Way to use that couple-o-pounds o' thinky-stuff inside ye olde skulle!" to our fine construction workers who noped the heck out at the end. Seriously, I give Shea a lot of credit for endowing his characters with a modicum of sense. Not quite the action movie resolution we dine out on most often, and more the welcome for it.

Anonymous
>>24508403

Nyarlathotep is the messenger was the first thing that came to my mind as well. But who knows? Big floating HP head kind of put me off. It seems more than a bit hokey, though the atmosphere of the story overall is full of dread and tension, so I kind of just pretend it wasn’t supposed to be Lovecraft, but some disembodied elder thing straining through the veil because Dare is clearly a sensitive. I took his divorce and workaholism/isolationism as evidence of that, unable to maintain any kind of personal relationship juxtaposed with the constant need to fill every moment with busy work so he doesn’t see what shouldn’t be seen. Shea’s unique take on that and departure from a traditional Lovecraftian protagonist is Dare doesn’t seem too bothered by it, just like Ricky in Coping Squid. This is Shea’s greatest contribution I think to the Cthulhu Mythos. Late 20th and early 21st century Americans are so burnt out by life, the universe and everything, a little yogsothothery ain’t going do much but get a shrug. As to the seemingly inappropriate human-centrism of these stories, I whole-heartedly agree Clyde that even in HP, there is evidence that the elder gods or Great Old Ones disinterest is a case of “The thing from beyond protest too much methinks.” Clearly Nyarlathotep loves interacting with humans and Cthulhu or even Mother Hydra don’t see us so much as ants, but more like dogs or cats, accepting the idea that we are their “accident” they clearly have occupied themselves finding uses for us if only to alleviate their unfathomable boredom. I suppose it’s the drawback of cosmic horror in general, that without conflict there isn’t much of a story and going on and on about how negligibly insignificant man is just wears a little thin after a while as far as scaring the reader effectively. For a great horror story it can be wonderfully dreadful to know that the cosmic eye does see you if only to make you feel special before devouring you again and again for all eternity. Finally, I got to say that Shea’s other big recurrent theme is definitely eat the rich.

Anonymous
>>24519662

Would've been great though if as they hauled ass away, they saw Fred, Daphne and Velma running in a straight line towards the pool. Hey, it's San Fran. Anything is possible.

Anonymous

Every time there’s a mention of a character reading something they shouldn’t, I always get a Buffy flashback of Riley (worst boyfriend, worst season, best episodes – eg Hush) reciting aloud something from one of Gile’s tomes only to have it burst into flames followed by Buffy calmly remarking “Don’t speak Latin in front of the books.”

Steve

Show me what you got!

Steve

From the Catholic Dictionary. Witness: One who can give evidence based on personal and immediate knowledge of a fact, event, or experience. The Christian concept of witness adds to the popular notion the idea of a religious experience to which a believer testifies by his life, words, and actions, and thus gives inspiration and example to others by his testimony. Implicit in Christian witness is also the element of courage in giving testimony, either because others are not favorably disposed or because they are openly hostile to the message of faith being proposed.

Anonymous

Actually Mike Love is probably a stand in for David Bowie who after moving into a home close to the Sharon Tate murders in Los Angeles (another Beach Boy tie in with Dennis) had an exorcism performance on a pool.This was a fairly famous story during Bowie’s lost time in LA, I lifted this from a story about the procession of the pool. “There’s no easy or elegant way to say this, so I’ll just say it straight. At a certain point in the ritual, the pool began to bubble. It bubbled vigorously (perhaps “thrashed” is a better term) in a manner inconsistent with any explanation involving air filters or the like.” The rock and roll couple watched in amazement. Angie says she tried to be flippant – “’Well, dear, aren’t you clever? It seems to be working. Something’s making a move, don’t you think?’ – but I couldn’t keep it up. It was very, very strange; even after my recent experiences I was having trouble accepting what my eyes were seeing.” Angie insists that she would peak through the glass doors leading to the pool every so often and was dumb founded by what she saw. “On the bottom of the pool was a large shadow, or stain, which had not been there before the ritual began. It was in the shape of a beast of the underworld; it reminded me of those twisted, tormented gargoyles screaming silently from the spires of medieval cathedrals. It was ugly, shocking, malevolent; it frightened me. “I backed away from it feeling very strange, went through the doorway, and told David what I’d seen, trying to be nonchalant but not doing very well. He turned white but eventually became revived enough to spend the rest of the night doing coke. He wouldn’t go near the pool, though.”

Anonymous
>>24544444

I’d still go with Mike Love being Mike Love. All Bowie did was try to purify the area, not sacrifice anyone (though if he had known how batcrazy Angie was going to become… well maybe). Love on the other hand, from everything ever written or said about him, would enthusiastically perform any ritual to reanimate Carl and Dennis and mindwipe/control Brian if it would get him on the ticket at a local fair.

Anonymous

There’s another possible reason why Mike Love doesn’t read the spell himself: “Okay, okay, let me just find this spell... where is it? Ah! Here it is - Enchant Swimming Pool! What the... costs 10 Magic Points and a point of permanent POW?!? No way am I casting this myself... Hey! Lady! Come over here and read this... uh... weird fax my building materials supplier just sent me! Yeah, that’s the ticket!”

Anonymous

I'm eagerly waiting for the Shea story about the mythos mural that all the local graffiti artists put together, can't remember what it's called, one of my favorites from Demiurge.

Anonymous

Lovin’ me some Oswald!

Anonymous

Can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE encourage Patton to write is own weird tales???

Anonymous

These episodes have ruined me. I can't read Shea anymore without hearing it in Patton's voice, or watch Patton in anything without picturing his character as being in a Michael Shea story.

Anonymous

I’d like the Finding Bigfoot guys to get into these stories. If it helped them, we could say with glee: “Shea cured Moneymaker”