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Episode 470 - The Jar (Patreon)

Published:
2019-10-05 01:37:51
Imported:
2021-07

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Content

We're hitting Halloween season with a journey through The October Country by Ray Bradbury, starting with The Jar!

Check out this week's sponsor Repairer of Reputations - specifically their new record Innsport '86 - featured on this week's show! And for October only, check out their album of horror music covers - The October Country!

Special thanks to reader Levi Nunez - do NOT miss his new Loot the Body music video inspired by Robert E. Howard's famous Conan story - The Tower of the Elephant!

Next week: Skeleton 

Comments

Anonymous

Omg!!! You guys are doing my favorite Ray Bradbury book!!! I’m doing a creepy spooky skinny Halloween happy dance right now ❤️❤️❤️ the art work in this book is so awesome. Thank you so much for covering this book 🤩👍

Patrick Tillett

Lovely episode, i could see the story happening like a cinematic experience. I think Charlie killed his wife and enbalmed just her eyes and hair in the jar, sort of like he created his own side show peice. Or maybe he mutilated her so badly that it's still unrecognizable. I think Tom's reaction is because he knows she's dead (but cant prove it) and he knows he was the last one to fool around with her. As such he's troubled because he thinks Charlie's gonna move on him next. Frankly I don't think he would because he would have to kill the whole town, more or less.

Anonymous

Less than two minutes in an I’m like “oh enough of vat”

Anonymous

Strange. I never got the vibe that his wife's head was in the jar. It was always my thought that he'd killed her, yes, but that the thing in the jar simply reflected horrible secrets. Our protagonist saw what he'd done to his wife and his wife's lover saw her dead because of him - even if he doesn't know that she's dead for sure, he *knows* she's dead for sure.

Anonymous

Loved this episode! Bradbury’s gift for words is just unmatched 💜 You know, as someone who actually does collect bones and “things in jars”, it’s not always clear what you’re looking at when it’s not a recognizable body part. Maybe Charlie’s wife, in lying about the thing in the jar being fashioned from wire and such, gave him an idea for creating his own monstrosity. Mismatched flesh, some hair, an eye, and you could pull off something vaguely human but seemingly otherworldly. He’s had plenty of time to listen to speculation and get creative ideas. Just throwing out this bit too: drowned cat, cat that kept going into heat and having litters, “here kitty kitty”, tomcat. That’s some damn good writing.

Anonymous

For those whose library provides Hoopla, "The October Country" is available on it.

Anonymous
>>27557171

Haven’t fished the episode yet but wow is this story peculiar.

Anonymous

Great episode,fun fact this story was also the inspiration for two classic songs . “Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” by Crystal Gayle and “Whiskey in the Jar” by Thin Lizzy ,hey you need some preservative and nothing serves better than alcohol.

Anonymous

My mother once told me there was a traveling “educator” who went around to schools in the ‘50s (in southeastern Virginia, where she was a student) showing off an honest-to-god mummy. You know, for the kids! I’ve never been so appalled and so jealous at the same time. This story reminded me of that.

Anonymous

Oh, happy birthday, Chad! You're one year closer to the inevitable heatdeath of the Universe!

Anonymous

Here kitty, kitty! An excellent reading! Especially that part where stupidity turns to crazy malice. I’m like 85-90% sure Charley killed Thredy and put her mocking eyes and swishing hair in the jar. This would mean Charley now knows for certain what _*was*_ actually inside the jar. Which makes his new demeanor kinda interesting. Is he a part of the Illuminati now? I imagined they’d be taller. Bradbury is obviously talking about “stoopid pee-pull” and religion or TV (I kept hearing Monty Python’s “Gumby Theatre” on a loop in my brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnKWH2HfoMU) but, the feelings and experiences they talk about are so raw and relatable, I felt empathy for them. Which is a trap. A TRAP!! I tells ya’ It’s a cunning, +19 writer-ability, one-two punch, that tucks our inner skeptic to bed with vague visions of cultural and mental superiority (I want to believe in a Bradbury is so skillful that the did this consciously) Our less dogmatic selves are then freer to explore all the implications a God-jar-yes!/god-jar-no! World would have.

Anonymous

Great episode, as always, gentlemen! As far as the ending goes, I also got the impression that he killed his wife and switched out just her eyes and hair with the thing in the jar. It's a bit twisted, but explains why only a few people notice the change. It also explains the reason Tom is so horrified at the end: he recognizes the eyes in the thing in the jar.

Anonymous
>>27585917

Oh, also, Happy Birthday, Chad! I hope it's an amazing day for you!!

Anonymous

This was a great episode, and great story. The phenomenon of exhibiting spooky things in jars (usually fetal animals, but ocaisonally fetal humans, amongst all manner of other things) was known as “pickled punks” by carney folk. They were still showing versions of them as late as the 1980s at the Mississippi state fair, along with other hokey freak show oddities, although I’m certain by then human fetuses were not being displayed. The tradition of using human remains in various capacities by carnies seems to have been very strong, and puts me in mind of the Elmer Mcurdy story. From probably the late 60’s until 1976, a California amusement park unknowingly used an actual human corpse hanging from a gallows in one of its funhouses. There’s lots more to the story that a quick search of the name Elmer Mcgurdy should reveal. For those who want to experience carney style human remains gandering in this modern age, one has but to travel to “The Thing” roadside exhibit in Arizona. Although it has apparently been enshrined in a UFO museum, The Thing in question is reportedly a genuine Native American mummy...I remember driving past the attraction about ten years ago, and have since regretted not giving into my baser urges and ogleing that mummy. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Scott Lloyd

Jellyfish, with eyes? Makes me think of a cubozoan, a sea wasp, which has multiple eyes with retinas, lenses, and corneas! Loved the episode...

Ben Gilbert

It reminds me of “The Other” with the hydrocephalic boy in a jar at the fair. Though there was no ambiguity about what was in the jar.

Anonymous

This story brought back memories of my time in college, when my brother-in-law gave me a bottle of habu sake (a bottle of sake with a venomous snake coiled in the bottom of it). It didn't hold quite the same contemplative sway over people, the most common responses to it being "Is that a REAL snake," "That's creepy, I don't like it," and "Why would you want that?!" Oh, and the "alcohol plasma" in the bottle was terrible.

Anonymous

You might want to talk to Jason Thompson about doing an episode about Lovecraft in Japan. Jason is a master of manga and Lovecraft has influenced several manga authors. Not to mention Dark Horse is currently printing Gou Tanabe's manga adaptations of Lovecraft's stories. Be sure to ask Jason about the lolicon Nyarlathotep.

Anonymous
>>27635065

..."Lolicon Nyarlathotep" is an evil of truly unspeakable proportions.

Anonymous
>>27560564

I thought something similar! One man saw the kittens he’d drowned. One woman saw her missing son. It’s like the thing in the jar is almost telepathic. Maybe is shows people something that they are deeply ashamed of. Tho that doesn’t explain how the other man says he sees the beginning of life. Maybe he’s supposed to represent one of the few kinds of people that doesn’t carry around that sort of shame.

Anonymous

You know how everyone sees something different in the jar? Well, my take on the ending was this: Charlie kills Thedy, but I don't think he puts any part of her in the jar. Everyone is talking about her and then some of them see things in the jar that remind them of her -- because she's on their mind? As for Tom Carmody, "who would never smile again" -- he never smiles again because Thedy never returns, he suspects Charlie because Thedy would have told him she was leaving, and now when he looks in the jar, where before he said he saw nothing, now he sees Thedy. Yeah, I'd never smile again, either. He's the most horrified person in the story because he has knowledge.

Steve

I think people see in the jar what they have lost. And Tom has never lost before, which is why he doesn't see anything until he loses Thedy. I think she's dead, but not in the jar. I love Levi's reading and I enjoyed the episode, as ever, although I've never got on with Bradbury (except for his Mars stories). I really can't put a finger on why. If I wanted a carnival story, I'd go to Aickman's The Swords.

Anonymous

It was a very good episode. Love Bradbury! :)

Anonymous

Great episode guys! I’ll admit I really hadn’t read much Bradbury but because of your coverage of some of his stories, I just ordered me some new Bradbury books (I’m especially pumped to read the Martian chronicles!) on an unrelated note, I recently read a story called “Sawney Beane, the man eater” by Charles Whitehead which is about a family of devolved cannibals living in a cave, and this got me wondering if Lovecraft had ever read this, because of the similarities to The Lurking Fear and The Rats in the walls. Just a thought.

Anonymous

Bradbury really does write a range of styles! Maybe it's well known and discussed but I hadn't heard it said yet so I'm glad you mentioned it! I personally prefer his sad "romantic" contemplative stuff, like The Fog Horn as you mentioned. Vs. his works that are "meanspirited" (seems like you chose a fitting word). I read The Illustrated Man collection in my early 20s and was surprised to find beautiful stories like "The Rocket Man" and "The Rocket" alongside others that are mean spirited or bizarre or out-there, and ending with the basically offensive gross-out "The Illustrated Man" short story. But I can appreciate his ugly stories even if I don't like them, and I'm glad to hear you two exhibit and talk about Bradbury this month!

Anonymous

There's a Bradbury story that involves a zombie plotting the end of the world that reminds me of the Outsider, what was it called?.....

Anonymous

The Jar exhibited a really evocative tone. I wonder if you think this story would feel similarly had it been written by a less notable or luminary author. The name Ray Bradbury brings with it serious associations.

Anonymous

I watched the Ray Bradbury Theater episode this weekend (Amazon Prime has it). It's very, very close to the text. But it gives Thedy a tattoo, which Tom sees in the jar at the end.

Anonymous
>>27561471

Kelley, you and Jeffrey Dahmer would have had some things to talk about.

Anonymous

Thanks for this one. It's one of my Bradbury all time favorites! Keep it up. Plenty more awesome ones in The October Country.

Anonymous
>>27840872

Erick, it does so primarily because he was a phenomenal author with a marvelous faculty for words.

Anonymous

I've never been to a carnival where they had things in jars on display or any other shows. I've actually never been to a carnival where they even had a fun house. I know some are still around, but carnivals were pretty much dying off by the eighties when I was growing up and the ones I went to were just some shitty rides and games. Reading Bradbury is always like visiting another world in more ways than one. He's considered a contemporary author, but most of his stories are set in very different times and they're incredibly well written and have such an ability to bring that world alive for the reader. Can you imagine a world where a bunch of neighbors all go over to someone's house and stare at a mystery object in a jar for hours and talk about what they think it is? That kind of thing has probably been pretty rare since the invention of television.

Anonymous

Great story. I love revenge stories, especially Edgar Allen Poe. Anyway, I know it was his wife he replaced in the jar. I imagine he spent along time ensuring his wife's remains looked identical to whatever was floating in the liquid beforehand. I was impressed he fooled everyone who had been staring at it for so long that it was the same thing it had been prior to the swap!

Anonymous
>>28089033

Years ago I went to a fair that had "freak" animals with extra limbs, pickled pig fetuses and such. I think I went in because I had a sense it was going away as a "thing." It was so bloody hot (August in the Midwest) The tent was full of flies which massed on the extra limbs where the animals couldn't feel. I spent my time worriedly scratching and petting. It's become my modus operandi. The people manning the tent seemed very impersonal and unhappy. Like farmers that had gotten in beyond their depth.

Anonymous

I really enjoyed this episode! My cat, Bing, not so much. She was sitting with me, listening, and then that aggressive “here kitty kitty!” line and she bolted off my lap and hid under the table. 😹

Anonymous
>>27626599

To Sir: That was one of the creepyist books/movies I've ever encountered.

Anonymous

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