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Episode 543 - The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis (Patreon)

Published:
2021-04-12 16:24:38
Imported:
2021-07

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Content

We're launching an expedition into The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis by Clark Ashton Smith!

Special thanks to rock star reader Levi Nunez! Check out Loot the Body!

Next up: Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Besser!

Comments

Anonymous

Every since JMS turned me onto Bester I've been wanting ANYONE to discuss... looking forward to next post! Thanks!

Anonymous

Loved the adaption by Richard Corben in DenSaga

Anonymous

I'm glad you gents enjoyed this one, despite its langorous bits. I know I've recommended it before, but when you revisit CAS you should cover "The Dweller in the Gulf." Aside from being his best Mars tale, it's also one that was *worsened* by the editing--Smith published it in a sci-fi magazine rather than Weird Tales, and the publisher insisted on him lessening the awful Weirdness of the tale by adding in a character who can give some pseudo-scientific rational explanation for the vague, awful things that occur in the tale.

Anonymous

Clark Ashton Smith could describe the surface of Mars for months and I would hang on to every word. I do find the prehistory stuff a little boring, but the atmosphere in the first act of the story can’t be beat. “Climbing the low slope of a league-long elevation of bare and deeply eroded stone, we saw before us the shattered walls of our destination, whose highest tower was notching the small, remote sun that glared in stifled crimson through the floating haze of fine sand.” That might be a bit much for a young pulp magazine audience dying to see some space Draculas, but it’s perfect for me.

Anonymous

Ahhh!!! Headcrabs! This monster is so reminiscent of Half-Life, or, more than likely, the zombies in the series were channeling this story. They are very similar in how they ambush prey and then (kill?) control their host as it decays to find food and defend it’s territory. Fantastic story, I shall definitely recommend this one, (perhaps the abridged edition), to friends.

Anonymous
>>57616377

In the case of headcrabs, it's implied the host remains somewhat aware even after the grotesque physiological changes. Headcrabs' orifice is lined with beaks that cracks through the skull so it can enervate the motor system of the brain to puppet the body, and if you play the incoherent screams of the zombies from HL2 backwards they're screaming for help and demanding to be killed.

Anonymous
>>57606250

Also, I know you were just making a joke when you referenced tasting the ground Chad, but apparently one of the fundamental tools for identifying rocks in the geologist's toolbelt is "Okay but how does it taste when I lick it?"

Anonymous

I have wondered for decades if there might be a successful series following the ultra careful group of space folks whose job is to be the next to arrive. "Okay. Has everybody read the first-person account of the parasitical toupe monster? Good. Obviously, we'll all be wearing helmets. That's after we send in the drones, naturally. Light was in issue, so we're going in meter by meter with portable light rigs so we can clear an area without being crept up on..." Same sort of thing with Star Trek and its variants. Aliens nearly does this, but defaults to poorly informed people making bad choices.

Anonymous

Speaking of the stupidly hubristic protagonists of the Golden Age of SF, isn't this the writers either straightforwardly echoing, or knowingly riffing on the Great White Adventurers of Victorian/Edwardian boys adventure fiction that contributed quite a bit of genetic material to the pulps?

Jason Thompson

Sadly y’all AFAIK the Smith Mars stories don’t have any consistent continuity. But that is fine because otherwise we couldn’t have “The Seedling from Mars” (or whatever it is called) and that story is AWESOME

Anonymous

The parasite creatures are excellently creepy, and overall this was pretty fun to read. But I couldn’t help comparing the setup unfavorably to "At the Mountains of Madness." I think there are two pieces in particular that make it much less effective than Lovecraft’s novella. First, the humans in this story already know and live with native Martians, to such an extent that they are ordinary coworkers for the archeologists. Second, the Vaults have already been discovered, and it’s somewhat known how they fit in with the history of the ancient Martians. So, when the narrator and his party get there, there’s no real thrill of discovery like there is in "Mountains." In terms of the narrator’s own experience, compared to what Dyer in "Mountains" experiences, this is more like an American tourist to Mexico going with an indigenous guide to a well-known Mayan temple-- a tourist who then recklessly wanders outside the guide ropes and gets attacked by a vampire bat. Also: Yes! That’s exactly what I pictured too, those flappy bois from the TOS episode “Operation -- Annihilate!” But also: Martian hours *are* different from Earth hours! At least, Martian days are different. The length of time it takes for Mars to rotate on its axis is (in Earth time) 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds. For this reason, NASA's rovers measure time in "sols” (NASA’s term for Martian days). Phillip K. Dick and Kim Stanley Robinson thought humans living on Mars would deal with the time difference by having a normal 24-hour clock that would stop for 39 minutes every day, in a sort of Martian witching hour, before turning over. But David Powell thought that humans-cum-Martians would go native and more radically adjust their whole timekeeping system, so that a Martian hour would be 61 minutes, ~37 Earth seconds (and there would be adjusted Martian minutes and Martian seconds as well). So, Rodney Severn may very well mean when he says he has "only a few Martian hours of life remaining" that he has only a few Earth hours plus five or so extra minutes left. Here’s a wristwatch NASA had made that keeps proper Martian time: https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/spotlight/spirit/a3_20040108.html

Ben Gilbert

The Operation Annihilation episode of Star Trek was inspired in part by the Heinlein novel the Puppet Masters. In typical Heinlein manner public nudity becomes fashionable to show there is no parasite on your back controlling you.

Anonymous

I have been waiting 10 years for this episode!

Anonymous

This is unquestionably one of Smith's most disturbing endings, and I am happy you two got around to covering it. I too think you should read "The Dweller in the Gulf," which I find a little more on the weird side and less on the creepy side. In "The Vaults," I find some echoes to the eerie creatures of Long's "The Space-Eaters" without the tongue-in-cheek jokiness while mucking around with fictionalized versions of Lovecraft. (Has it really been almost _six years_ since you two covered that tale?!) I wonder if Smith was equally inspired by Long's story in some ways as ATMOM. I don't have any evidence other than the similarities of a creature attacking heads and controlling brains. As for people behaving idiotically when confronted with mysterious and dangerous settings, I’d add two thoughts to what you all noted. I agree that the last year has shown that people may end up acting against their own best interests when confronted with possibly horrible outcomes. But I’d also counter that in all these tales (maybe John Hurt in Alien being a notable exception), the bad decisions are often made in the presence of a group. I think this says a lot about the difference of individual thought processes when among others versus when being alone. Perhaps it’s the false thought of safety in groups (e.g. if something happens to me, at least there are other people here to help me out). Or perhaps it reflects less critical thought among individuals in a crowd. My other thought is simply that we wouldn’t have these tales if everyone were cautious and methodical in their explorations. No one wants to read a story about everyone being competent while exploring a sinister ruin. Where’s the tension? Having done a fair amount of archaeology when I was younger—albeit not in monumental tombs on Mars—I can say that while I found the work rewarding and interesting, there was never a compelling narrative to come out of the arduous hours of scraping and sifting through dirt. (Well, except for that unknowable, indescribable ancient curse I incurred deep in a mound in central Illinois…)

Anonymous

By the way, I suggest you two read The Stars My Destination by Bester at some point, not for the show, but just because it's a thoughtful story that presaged some of the ideas that were developed by Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, among others.

Anonymous
>>57640511

Personally, I'd be quite interested in that tourist tale because of the mystery of a Maya temple somehow ending up in Tenochtitlan.

Avlin Starfall

Hey, you all might say it's a funny to compare the alien to a couch cushion but at least it's something understandable unlike many of the other comparisons we hear in these kinds of stories, like Lovecraft's comparing things to the likes of the nights full of ghouls and the howls of werewolves or like a painting of an obscure artist dead 50+ years even before Lovecraft.

Anonymous

“Driving him around like a go-cart”???

Anonymous

You know, now I wonder what some sci-fi medical drama would look like. I'm imagining dealing with things like cancer caused by cosmic radiation, high tech prosthetics being rejected and causing all manner of pain and suffering to the individual and some admixture of Grey's Anatomy, House, and Scrubs providing drama, comedy, and some speculative medical science techno-babble. Also, I'm getting major half life vibes with vortigaunts and headcrabs

Brian Pitt

Fantastic!! I was hoping so much that you'd do this after I suggested it Also, I have to admit all the silliness with the mummies makes more sense when you think about how Europeans used to use mummies as medicine, paint ingredients, and so on a couple centuries ago. Why not inhale mummy dust?

Anonymous
>>57699026

There's a space opera series, Sector General, from the 60s which takes place on a massive xenomedical hospital ship. Never read it but it seems like it would fit the bill. The author was a pacifist who wanted to generate non violent narrative conflict.

Anonymous
>>57639026

A lot of real historical explorers come across as this dumb with hindsight, too. Many real people have died in search of mythical lost cities and I wouldn’t be surprised if they sounded like this from the perspective of some other narrator. Nobody voyages into the unknown without some amount of unearned confidence. If they survive, they’re rugged individualists instead of hubris made manifest. I’m not going to fault Alan Octave for not realizing he’s a character in a pulp science fiction story. Still shouldn’t huff ancient Martian vault gas, though.

Anonymous
>>57672905

Vampiric couch cushions aren’t that much sillier than a cloven sunfish.

Anonymous
>>57708310

Everybody (including locals) used mummies for a lot of stuff and still do.... Including as coals for trains.

Anonymous

It was good to see some "speakable horrors". I have to say, I could easily see how influential this story was. I really have to get my Smith on!

Anonymous

The greatest (and frankly the only one I've found worth reading; there are others but just ugggh) medical science fiction is Sector General. I've read them all and read them again every few years and they are amazing. Some of the science is very "aged" but the stories are. beautiful and amazing. To paraphrase what someone else said about the books: "It's a universe you'd actually like to live in" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_General

Anonymous
>>57657123

I think as others said - I think it's a human thing. If you read the technical details of the moon mission - the way that the astronauts operated was by checklist to avoid dumb stuff and they would tell everyone in ground control what they were doing to prevent this sort of human reaction - when someone can be seperated from the action it can help stop this sort of thing.

Anonymous

Team some of the Sector General stories are crazy/weird you need to read them!!!! PLEASE!

Steve

James White's Sector General! I have the "Aliens Among Us" collection which has a couple of the stories. The only one I remember was rather dodgy and to do with Murchison attending an operation.

Steve

The hood reminds me of the Morel in Brian Aldiss's later Hothouse (1962), a fun dying earth genre tale.

Anonymous

I'm only partway through the story, but the beginning has inspired in me a desire to jot off some micro-fiction. "Well, shall we explore those ruins this afternoon?" "The natives who've lived here for generations say it's a deathtrap and we should avoid it at all costs." "Huh. Well, I suppose they'd know. Lunch at the clubhouse instead?"

Anonymous
>>57773999

But now that I've finished it, glad they didn't go to lunch instead. That was some super- creepy fun, and such a wonderfully unbridled celebration of descriptive language.

Anonymous

Loved it! The potential influence on "Alien" is right at the surface. Those proto-facehuggers were probably creepier than *actual* facehuggers.

Anonymous
>>57636205

To be fair, a competent, well-prepared expedition that does everything right and returns with new understanding and no casualties is hard to sell as a "Thrilling Space Adventure."

Anonymous

A few points: 1. Chad has been pushing "a little mummy for your tummy" for *years* now, and suddenly he's against huffing mummy dust for fun? Someone is in the pocket of Big Mummy, that's clear! 2. "too horrible and outré to be mentioned even in a myth?" Had CAS read any myths? Just in Greek myth, you have Zeus raping someone while disguised as a swan, babies being sewn into thighs to gestate, murder beds, creatures with 100 arms, all sorts of nonsense. In Mesopotamian myth, you have the gods suddenly realize that, after they tried to kill all humans in a flood, that humans are where beer comes from (not really outré, but certainly horrible. And the enmity between Horus and Set seems to have started with and argument over exactly who jacked off whom during a camping trip (which doesn't really belong here, but it does delight me). Myths are almost nothing but horrible and outré stuff.... 3. Chad you say you used to complain about people in stories doing dumb stuff like it was ages ago. It was last week! I know COVID has messed with everyone's time sense, but I am a little worried about you. Have you been possessed by some macabre descendant, like Charles Dexter Ward, but in reverse?

Anonymous

This was a fun story. I thought that I head read a lot of CAS, but I had never heard of his Mars stories. This style was so different from his tales of Necromancers. I am really glad that you guys gave me this great recommendation.

Anonymous

It's probably been said (can't read all the comments, but that hasn't stopped me from pressing onward before), but I wonder if the portrayal of scientists as careless, and ultimately responsible for their own misfortune (as evidence by the last few stories) has to do with the attitude of the public (or at least these authors) toward 'science going too far'. Sort of like how Alien was in many ways a commentary on capitalism; the crew of the Nostromo only ended up in the path of the xenomorph because their company wanted money, and in fact the decision to break quarantine was ultimately facilitated by the company, acting through Ash. I'd like my "Recognized Theme" award now please.

Anonymous

I wonder if there is something about the way the term scientist has changed over the years that influences the terrible choices of sci fi protagonists? In modern times, a scientist might spend years analysing the first samples of mummy dust, pour over the ancient hieroglyphics on the outside of a tomb for several weeks before disturbing them, and send for a specialist team to make intensive records of a mummy before touching it. Their audience for their findings will be a group of similar specialists who may be fascinated by every new insight, and the longevity of these studies could keep them in grants and research papers for years to come. Back in the days of high adventure however, ‘scientists’ were mainly rich amateurs who discussed their findings in clubs and dinner parties. A good story about the smell of mummy dust and a living sofa cushion in a cage would be a much better outcome than some boring explanation of how Martians hated turbans.

Incaptivity
>>57817071

You are correct, “mad scientist” is very much a result of mistrust in science, especially after nuclear. Easier to see nowadays when you compare it to current themes of “military bad.” I wonder what the future will hold for that? I feel like we are getting close or are already in full on “media/megacorp bad”

Anonymous

Fun story! I too really loved the extra details (and love the extended version of any of my favorite films -- don't judge me!). The monsters were especially creepy. It reminded me a bit of the scene in Dean Koontz's Phantoms (book and film) with the giant brain-eating moth that melts through a guy's face. Just horrifically fantastic.

Anonymous

By far my favourite review of Alien came from a tweet and feels kind of applicable here: "Alien is a movie where nobody listens to the smart woman, and then they all die except for the smart woman and her cat. Four stars." Here's the link: https://twitter.com/AdamShaftoe/status/1123389416532213760

Anonymous

I think the fact that Yoh-Vombis isn't too far from a human settlement is meant to be ominous in retrospect. Before the Octave expedition it sounds like there was the occasional excursion by individual brain-eaters through that cleft Severn found, but now the monsters are (1) newly fed, (2) no longer trapped in the vaults, and (3) just over that range of hills.