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Episode 493 - The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (Patreon)

Published:
2020-03-26 21:23:10
Imported:
2021-07

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Content

We're drawing the cape on March is for Draculas with The Girl with the Hungry Eyes by Fritz Leiber.

Special thanks to our reader, Nick Vienna!

Next up: a whole MONTH of Leiber, starting with Smoke Ghost!

Comments

Anonymous

Looks like we're in store for...April FRITZ' Day!

Anonymous

A whole month of Leibers! WooHoo!

Anonymous

“If you want to get laid go to college,if you want an education go to a library ,if you want to do both go to Ocean Park Library near Chad “ Frank Zappa’s Ghost

Anonymous
>>34245176

I would be *so* on board with a retelling of this tale where the Girl is an (anti?)hero. It'd be really easy to make that last few moments of her relationship with the narrator slide right into that version, too, with him putting his arm around her--she finally gives in and tries to feed on him because he finally dismisses her consent and tries to violate her personal space.

Anonymous

I nominate you discuss "The Black Gondolier" and "The Pale Brown Thing."

Richard Horsman

"I mean, you correlate the contents..." oh this made me so happy. Thank you for being here!

Anonymous

Greatly enjoyed this. Loved the story. *Loved* the reader (more of Nick, please!), Appreciated your insights about the noir genre, advertising, and especially the take on how The Girl could be presented as the "hero."

Anonymous

That was immensely satisfying! I wonder if Neil Gaiman borrowed from this a bit for American Gods. I don't need your money. I just need your devotion. And you'll want to give it to me. You'll need to give it to me.

Rick Hound

I wonder if this inspired the Tomie stories

Anonymous
>>34259407

I agree! HPPodcraft has a proud tradition of excellent readers - when they don't excell, the worst you could say about any of them is that he or she gave a rock solid performance. But this guy Nick really nailed the noir tone you referenced! It's so cool that you have professional voice actors like him read to us!

Steve

Great story, great episode. The porn in the library made the news over here, in the fake outrage prurient Sun, of course.

Anonymous

Great episode! I thought the answer to what he was doing when he grabbed her arm was harassment. Additionally, perhaps the girl has cultivated a very interesting way of repelling unwanted sexual attention, namely scaring the hell out of these horny men so that they run away or suffer heart attacks. I for one would likely run away screaming if a partner said the words, “feed me, baby“ to me during a sexual encounter, but then maybe I’m just vanilla.

Anonymous

The girl in the story also reminds me of the character Lil from The Broken Kingdoms by NK Jemisin. She’s a god of hunger in the mythology of Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy who finds emotions of great longing and ambition to be especially appetizing. One of her lines is “Such longing in you, for so many things. Delicious.”

Scott Morrison
>>34295596

To be fair to the man, it wasn't just 'feed me, baby,' it was that whole litany of his life she laid on him before saying that.

Scott Morrison

Very nice episode, and I'm thrilled you're doing more Fritz Lieber. I highly recommend 'Our Lady of Darkness'. He also did a bit of sci-fi in 'The Wanderer' and 'A Spectre is Haunting Texas', both solid novels. If you like fantasy there's his 'Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser' series which may have started the more 'grounded and gritty' style of that genre.

Scott Morrison
>>34248366

'A Pail of Air' is also a great one of his, but sadly not a weird or horror tale.

Anonymous
>>34301508

And which were licensed as an official campaign setting for AD&D. That was Lankhmar, wasn't it?

Anonymous

I loved this episode & I am especially a fan of the Noir! Though I know it’s not “Lovecraftian” for the most part, it is an era that I personally love. I have spent most of my time reading & studying in the detective/forensic area, both fiction & non-fiction. I started to feel stuck in a rut as far as books go, so ventured out to other genres. This is when I went back to Poe, Lovecraft & other authors I had read from the past...this is also how I found your podcast, which I love!! And through you, found The Lovecraft Historical Society!!! I am very grateful for the knowledge from both podcasts & the others who follow them! But back to this podcast. The reader was excellent & I was excited that it seemed like both of you were fans of the Noir! Tonight, especially, I am listening to The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler & read by Ray Porter, which I have basically memorized. I have trouble sleeping, so listening to something familiar helps me relax. If anyone would like to hear a classic detective novel read by someone who is made for this genre, take some time to listen!!! Freakin’ awesome!!! Xanax doesn’t hurt either! (Wink,wink, nudge, nudge, say no more!)

Anonymous

Y'know, I mentioned above how the Girl is a sort of psychic vampire, glutting upon the memories, feelings, and identity of her prey. It only *just* occurred to me that this is a one-way transaction. She goes to great, thorough lengths to make sure nobody else gets anything of hers--none of her memories shared, none of her likes or dislikes discussed, no public life or relationships. She doesn't even give her *name.* The most she gives to anyone else is an extremely controlled, largely one-sided relationship with a single photographer whom she needs for her wider depredations to work. Hell, outside of her photographer and those she eats directly, she makes damn sure nobody sees her face-to-face. In a highly exploitative (and, y'know...Weinstein-y) industry, she manages to take as much as she possibly can without anyone ever taking something from her. She consumes, but is not consumed--unless you want to regard the viewing of her ads as such, but I already commented on who's doing the consumption and who's getting consumed in advertising above.

Anonymous

The story leaves a lot of mystery about what the girl gets out of the psychic feeding. Does it keep her young or something, or just happens to be something she needs? It seems implied that people are being remotely drained, at least a little, while staring at her photos, which helps her feed in some way. It certainly has plenty of parallels with modern media. Sounds a lot like social media snapshots in fact, with views as food pellets for posters. When I first read this story as a youth, it didn't make much of an impression, perhaps because the idea of a psychic vampire is a bit more familiar in more recent times. But this may have been one of the earliest examples of it, so Leiber deserves some credit. Also, as an adult, I can better see some of the social dynamics at play now. Seen from the viewpoint of our evolving understanding of female experience in the me too era, I'm reminded of an ex I am still friends with. She happens to be one of those people who, like the girl of the story, has The Look. That being the appearance of being what most guys seem to want. One would think that would be great, but from what I hear of it, it can actually be a bit of a drag. She told me of her recent search for a new place to live after she moved to another state and, without fail, every time a new potential house to live in included a male among the housemates, or even a male landlord, she would find herself hit on, and one guy even became physically aggressive...all from just trying to find a place to live. She finally had to give up and stick to ads with female residents in the building only, and a female landlord. This story is a relative fantasy of convenience - the girl can somehow control when and how her allure affects people, so that it only works in helpful contexts and doesn't interfere with business, something my friend can only dream of. So many women would no doubt love to be able to keep things all business when its business at hand, preferably without having to a be a vampire to pull it off.

Anonymous

I was shuddersomely affected by Chad’s sign off “For now, I’m Chad Fifer.” It seem innocuous, but then my mind began to whisper “If he is Chad Fifer *for now*, what imaginable thing will he be later?” I fear he seeks to become a god, or something very like one. It will be as if a mountain talks or mumbles with a pleasant voice that fills all of starry heaven. No doubt he will say something in italics.

Anonymous
>>34266729

I think there's a more direct connection between Leiber's "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes" and Gaiman's "Looking for the Girl," about a man's decades-long pursuit of a Penthouse model who is forever nineteen (available in the short story collection SMOKE AND MIRRORS).

Anonymous

Also, another vote for Our Lady ofDarkness. What a good book. I bonded with the boyfriend, now husband, of a close friend when he gave me a OLoD tour of SF when I came to visit.

Anonymous

"I know we’ve had the Face and the Body and the Look and what not else, so why shouldn’t someone come along who sums it all up so completely, that we have to call her the Girl..." Does anyone know if Leiber was referring to actual people, or if he was accidentally prophetic? After some cursory Googling, the earliest model I could find who was called "The Face" was Jean Shrimpton in the 1960s, while both Elle Macpherson and Heidi Klum have laid claim to the title "The Body." Of course, back in the 1920s Clara Bow was dubbed "The 'It' Girl" after starring in the silent comedy "IT" (based on an Elinor Glyn story, not to be confused with Stephen King's killer clown from outer space).

Anonymous

This is entirely unrelated, but Chad, did you do voice acting for Half Life Alyx? If not, you have a legit voice doppelganger out there.

Anonymous

Excellent episode as always guys!!! Lieber is one of my favourite writers! If I could take a moment to plug another wonderful podcast that needs more exposure to likeminded nerds like ourselves, Hugos There Podcast did an excellent episode on Conjure Wife were they reviewed the book and the three movie adaptations all in the same episode. https://hugospodcast.com/podcast/hugos-there-podcast-33-conjure-wife-feat-colin-kuskie-and-james-ralston/

Anonymous

Nick Vienna for president!

Anonymous

If you ever do another vampire week you should consider “My Dear Emily” by Joanna Russ, “The Man Upstairs” by Ray Bradbury and “Grettir at Thorhall-stead” by Frank Norris, which is a retelling of a story from the Icelandic saga about the outlaw and folk hero Grettir.

Anonymous

If you ever wanted to cover a noir story on the show, did you know Chandler wrote a story called The King in Yellow? https://kinginyellow.fandom.com/wiki/Raymond_Chandler

Anonymous

Like Shana above I saw a resemblance between this story and Gaiman's "Looking for the Girl". I was wondering if Chad's remark about the song "Hungry Eyes" by Eric Carmen from Dirty Dancing being an adaptation of this story was a joke that flew over my head, because I couldn't find any reference to a connection between it and the story.

Anonymous

This story has been disturbing me for months. The plot wasn't familiar, but something about your coverage tugged at my memories. Upon re-listening, I realized that the reading of the "I want" section was what was bothering me. One of my favorite songs, "Want" by the band Recoil (Adam Wilder from Depeche Mode's band) uses the same writing structure and has a similar mood. After extensive research (five minutes on DuckDuckGo), I wasn't able to find any conclusive connection between the two works, but the song must be inspired by this story. As evidence, here as some lyrics from the song. The last line is particularly telling, I think: "I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of murder, later. ... I want to be there when you learn the cost of desire. I want you to understand that my malevolence is just a way to win. ... I want you to come on strong. I want to leave you out in the cold. ... I want to know just how much you hate me so I can predict what you'll do. ... I want to stop destroying you but I can't. And I want and I want and I want and I will always be hungry." Full lyrics here: https://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/recoil/want_20345749.html A couple nice videos here: https://youtu.be/ebppvoBlK_E https://youtu.be/SZST-Ok7VUo If you guys like this song, you should also check out "Breath Control" and "Black Box" by Recoil.