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Episode 573 - The Shining Pyramid (Patreon)

Published:
2021-11-25 16:03:43
Imported:
2022-01

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It's Thanksgiving and your favorite drunk uncles have showed up to talk about The Shining Pyramid by Arthur Machen!

Special thanks to reader George Woodruff!

Next up: Bonus Episode on Fairie Myths!

Comments

Anonymous

At last, I can describe the final malevolent Shee of the month! We're sweeping back to Scotland, though this is one with regional analogues everywhere: the Kelpie! Kelpies (and their relatives like the each-uisge and cabyll-ushty) are shapeshifting water horses. These amphibians have a penchant for appearing before lone travellers in the form of a horse and, if they can trick the person into mounting them, take them for a terrible ride. Exactly what happens then varies from one version to another, ranging from running the rider ragged to leaping into a river and soaking tjem through. In the more malevolent cases, though, once the rider is on the creature's hide becomes adhesive and they stick fast as it leaps into the water to drown them so it may devour them off of its hide. This last version inspired my best friend who, as I mentioned before, penned a Fae-focused MLP fan fic. He has his own unique idea of Kelpies, and commission the talented Hana Russell (whose work can be found at hanarussell.com) to make artwork of a Kelpie character of his. I bring this up, because the design...well, it's the sort of thing that'd interest fans of the show: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IVg1mxKWX4RGaJK8PGdFmyZSIPW3gtow/view?usp=drivesdk I'll get back to the story in a reply, since I read it last week. Now, however, I'm cooking.

Anonymous

Well I haven’t listened to the episode yet but I just popped in to say I had such a weird dream last night where I was hanging out with Chris and Chad! I vividly remember ripping on Chris for how much milk he put in his tea and how Rachel could ever stand for such an abomination, and there were a lot of jokes about his stinky vegetarian farts. Then I was given this cool copper spear which we used to score a massive tentacle we were throwing on the grill. Then I was the butt of joke for not being shot at by hunters while I was working and for how silly I look digging holes (I’m an archaeologist). Finally, Chris burnt his finger making Pot Noodles for everyone and wouldn’t proceed until Chad kissed it better. I woke myself up by laughing so hard. What a great start to Thanksgiving Day. Thank you for all the laughs over the years.

Anonymous
>>72484020

On the month nomenclature, I'd like to recommend you do the next Fae-themed selection in the third month of the year so you can just call it "March of the Fairies." On the tale itself, there's not much I can say. There's a meandering first half the builds to a legitimately eerie conclusion that nicely recontextualizes the unresolved mystery of the pyramid...and then it keeps going with nothing but synopsis of everything we just read. A poor story that'd be great if it had a decent editor. Though it does suffer from genre confusion like "The Red Hand" did, which might result from the fact these genres weren't defined at the time. Often, that genre-busting quality is what makes weird fiction great, but it's frustrating when a story is a horror tale—it *wants* to be a horror tale, it's good at it—but the author insists on writing it as a Holmesian deductive mystery, and he doesn't have the chops for the style. Oddly, though, it makes ne really want to delve into more Machen. I've not tried to hide my disdain for the man's writing in past comments: "The White People" is one of the best weird tales ever written, and I've hated literally every other story of his I've encountered. But this tale made me realize that in Machen's bad tales so far, he always delivers ONE (1) truly evocative, menorable scene of the supernatural impinging upon reality, or else something legitimately horrifying. "The Great God Pan" has the tangent about the little girls playing in the woods which ends with the implication a supernatural entity raped one of them. "The White Powder" has everyone's second favorite amorphous mass with eyes after the Shoggoths. "The Red Hand" has the scene with the Pain of the Goat. And so-on. I get the feeling I'll never like Machen outside his masterpiece, but there's still valuable things to add to my frame of reference from his other tales.

Anonymous

Although this story has some issues particularly in the first section it really builds up to a really great ending. Definitely not Machen's best but I still enjoy this story quite a bit. I love the descriptions of them in the woods around the house and the final ritual scene. I definitely think the way Chad read it was better the 5th chapter is unnecessary.

Illegal_Structures

I was hoping you guys would cover this story in your fairy survey. I read it several years ago and remember it as a credible addendum to The Novel of the Black Seal. True, this is minor Machen and many of his characteristic faults are on display — wooden characters, too much explanation, unneeded digressions, not to mention the period-era racism and xenophobia — but I was still chilled by the ritual in the pit and the hissing creatures. I have to imagine this was an inspiration for HPL’s Dagon, particularly when the Old One worships its cyclopean idol. And, like Chad, I also have to imagine that Lovecraft was also disappointed by the unnecessary 5th chapter and decided instead to focus on the disordered mental state of a narrator who just had his world rocked by horror.

Anonymous

The disappearing maidens going to be with the fae or taken shows up in a lot of stories though I remember a few where they left a copy of them like an adult changeling. Also a few myths that could be seen as sequels where a fairy king in a horseless carriage takes a blindfolded midwife to deliver a baby. In the stories the pregnant wife is human and the fairy king is worried about the birth which is odd for fairy stories. At the end the birth is successful and the midwife is paid in raw unrefined gold with dirt on it which remains gold in the sunlight the next day which is also different from fairy stories. I always thought it was a neat story that showed people as the alien thing to the fae eyes in having to get a midwife as I guess they don’t understand human birth. Are you going to do more Machen in the future. Thanks for all the great episodes

Anonymous

You guys watched the kids show Hilda? It’s one of those shows that is enjoyable for adults as well, or i found it so. It has really fun and interesting takes on faerie, from trolls to elves. It’s a pretty conceptually interesting fantasy show.

Anonymous

this is not even slightly topical but will you guys ever do more Mr. Kicks and Dr. Go? I still say 'almost too nobody around' at least twice a month. XD

Anonymous

Xenophobia, bigotry, and racism aside (not that they should ever be) this story also has the terrible trope of "They're taking our women!" The trope does double duty in 1) making xenophobic, bigoted, racist men the heroes because they are out there saving the fairer sex, while 2) warning the women folk that they'd best stay with the menfolk of their kind because no matter how bad they might seem, they're not as scary as them "others" who will snatch them up and do unspeakable things to them. I think this one deserves a rewrite. A woman has gone missing. She is found living with these weird others who - it turns out - are very different but also intelligent, cultured, and kind. She loves living there. It's awesome. The investigators express how impressed they are with the ways of these folks - that they've found different and very cool ways to communicate - and in the spirit of curious generosity, all and sundry set up cultural exchanges and appreciations that last forever! Yeah. Too far-fetched.

Anonymous
>>72516569

You might like Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys which reworks the aftermath of The Shadow over Innsmouth.

Anonymous

Arrgh I had a really long comment typed in but Patreon seems to have eaten it. I've rewritten it, hopefully more coherently. This is about some religious horror elements which I noticed. Machen, IMO, really does write religious horror on some level. This is part of why he doesn't quite click for some modern audiences. I remember the guys discussion of 'The White People' (which I, like (She_Her) Shoggoth Lord think is an amazing weird tale) and their confusion at the ending (she poisoned herself in time). They were (IIRC) wondering what that meant- did she poison herself gradually?- without realising that 'in time' here meant before it was too late i.e. that in this case accidental death was preferable to whatever peril her soul was in by indulging in the talking dog variety of Sin that dallying with the White People was leading her toward. Anyway, Machen reads much better if you read him as religious horror. Now, to my point. Vaughan alludes to "the worm that dieth not" when he sees the bachannal of the Other Folk. This is actually a biblical allusion to Chapter 9 of the Gospel of Mark where Christ condemns those who would harm others as sinful: 42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. 43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Now this is interesting because right off the bat we see Vaughan linking the Fair Folk to denizens of Hell, the fallen, damned for their abuse of others, writhing in eternal torment. But The Fair Folk are not tormented- their writhing seems to be sexual. And the reference in the Biblical text to harming the 'little ones'? We have one here- the young woman Annie. But is she being harmed? We don't know- Vaughan is repulsed but we get no clear indication of what Annie feels during the ceremony besides a "faint human moan". Is that distress or pleasure? We hear a "scream of utter anguish and terror" but that's only when she's immolated by the shining pyramid. The religious horror Machen is crafting is, I think, in part derived from the way he's riffing on the bilbical text. The worms of corruption are not the damned- they are here and now in this living world, subhuman and other but able to affect living people. They harm (possibly) others but receive no punishment for it, they exist outside the ordered moral framework of Christianity (edit: can we make a link here to the old Irish belief that the Fair Folk were angels who chose not to side with either God or Lucifer in the War in Heaven?). And maybe Annie isn't being harmed (initially) maybe she likes it- and *that* is the fundamental blow to all the nice certainties of Victorian gentlemen like Dyson and Vaughan, that is this story's equivalent of the White People's singing flower and talking dog. I'm still wondering how to parse the Pyramid itself because that's where we get that moment of anguish from Annie and it seems like this is what the Fair Folk have led her toward, some sort of sacrifice. She's a victim from both sides then- Dyson and Vaughan think it's better that she dies...as in the Biblical text, if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. She can't return to the stable certainties of human society so it's better that she's immolated. And however the Little People took her or enticed her away it seems that her only purpose is to be sacrificed in their ceremony. But there's something interesting in that chapter of Mark- it isn't directly connected to Christ's speech about the damnation of those who hurt children/teir fellow human beings, but at the start we see a moment where the human becomes more than human, the Tranfiguration where 2 ...after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. 3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. 4 And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 6 For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid. 7 And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. 8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves. (That's straight up Weird right?) Anyway "Shining" caught my eye and the blending of the merely human with the otherworldly. Christ's transfiguration is, of course, his revelation as Divine, but isn't Annie also transfigured? For the watchers in either case it is a numinous experience- humanity awed and frightened by interaction with the Otherworldly. I'm probably giving in to English teacher bullshit and reading far too much into this but Machen did choose to use that allusion and he would have been familiar with the Biblical text. Interestingly between the Transfiguration and Christ's discourse on sin and damnation we get an incident where Christ casts a demon out of a possessed Child. To me that's definitely linked to the background context of this story (a child/young woman "possessed" by alien forces). Thank you for listening to my haunTED Talk.

Anonymous

Is Annie okay ?

Anonymous

As your token Slovak Roma listener, Chad is right, I take no offense at the “G” word. It might be more than a little Lovecraftian that we have a white male cat named Gypsy, just to see who we can offend in the name of my great grandmother’s people. After all, if Lady Gaga and Kermit the Frog can sing a song entitled “Gypsy”, why can’t we all? https://youtu.be/WOvxX7SHKiE

Anonymous

You know, they had to change the title to The Shinning Pyramid in later editions, since they didn’t want to get sued. 🤨

Anonymous

I kinda wish this story ended right where Chad stopped reading. That was a better ending and I could see the cinematic version crescendo with weird otherworldly noises then cut to black. Hey, “Fearsome Fairie - Haunting Tales of the Fae” ed by Elizabeth Dearnley was just released by the British Library. Its currently going for a steal on Blackwells. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Fearsome-Fairies-by-Elizabeth-Dearnley-editor/9780712354301

Anonymous
>>72505183

I second this. Its loaded with Scandinavian fae! My favourite are the nisse. For anyone unfamiliar, nisse in the show are small fairy like creatures that live in the empty spaces in people’s houses. All the negative space behind pictures, above cabinets, and under furniture are actually connected into a single space where the nisse live and can enter/exit from any of those points.

Anonymous
>>72539310

There is actually a free book launch and zoom event tonight if anyone reads this in time. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fearsome-fairies-virtual-book-launch-and-conversation-tickets-212375951187?utm_source=eventbrite&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=event_reminder&utm_term=eventname&fbclid=IwAR0UzxJ40_3cyQ4Jh3wgi3gvFPtiOi3SY1pb-mfjAsZXe9MPvIIFjb0WDIg

Anonymous

And now introducing my new high fantasy themed psychobilly band, Elvish Presley!

Anonymous

Even now, archaeology is one of those disciplines that flummoxes the average person and provides the backdrop for so many horror stories. In another forum I frequent, a poster mentioned the Indus Valley civilization and how it is the "height of mysteriousness," which, no, the Indus language hasn't been deciphered but their cities have been excavated, their lifeways documented, SO MUCH information exists. And I think a lot of Machen's stories turn on this same kind of misunderstanding. He's Welsh, isn't he? And yet so much of his stuff is predicated on fear of an aboriginal people (if an island can be said to have aboriginal people) that dwelled in England before the arrival of the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. Essentially Machen's own ancestors... its the same kind of attitude the English used to colonize Ireland, because it was full of uncivilized savages... and of course it all comes back to religion too, because Roman paganism is the villain in "The Great God Pan" and the snake-people aren't proper Christians either. I'm with Chad, this stuff has never really worked for me, and I think for much the same reason. I've studied Neandertals, I'm not terrified by prehistoric human beings. But I admit that last scene with the moot or the orgy or whatever was pretty damn creepy. I found it amusing that the "heroes" couldn't be bothered to save the "damaged goods" though. That poor kid.

Anonymous
>>72520637

Interesting take, but I don't think there's any merit to an ambiguous reading of what happens to Annie. She is not a willing participant. Nothing in Machen's style would indicate that possibility here. Heck, she's not really even a character; she's pretty much just an object. Machen's Victorian style occludes obscene sexual pleasure, sure, in other stories (such as The Great God Pan), But it also occludes sexual violence and physical torture, as here.

Anonymous

Honestly, this story is one really great plum of scene description surrounded by a thick, chewy piecrust of nonsense. Machen does two things really well: describe weird landscapes, and delicately allude to extremely heinous shit happening just barely off the page. Here in one scene he manages to do both things at the same time, which is phenomenal. But he just doesn't have a good story to put that bit into.

Anonymous

With the talk towards the end of the episode about things that are too perfectly fit for their environment to evolve further, I thought it only fair to introduce the concept of carcinization to the discussion. It's the term for the process by which underwater species keep evolving into crabs. It's happened to at least 5 groups of crustaceans so far. Interestingly, a similar process seems to be turning things into trees, as many species we refer to as trees evolved those characteristics separately from one another.

Anonymous
>>72644652

Our Lord Crab is overjoyed to hear you spread his Gospel!

Anonymous

Treehouse of Horror 5 is pretty damn good, but 4 has a fairy creature in it, A GREMLIN!

Anonymous
>>72690704

That gremlin is still WAY scarier to me than the TZ version.

Anonymous

At some point years ago I read something about how alien invasion movies (another, more technological advanced culture shows up and wants to plunder us for our resources) can be seen as an imperial culture's understanding of the the terrible things it does to the colonized and fear that something similar could one day happen to them. Since then I've always read these "un-evolved, degenerate race shows up to take back what's theirs and also rape the white women" stories from the Victorian era (and Lovecraft) as an earlier version of this same imperial anxiety. The way these stories describe the "un-evolved, degenerate race" in question as dangerous, bestial and sub-human is the same language that's always been used to justify the exploitation of other races and cultures. It's almost funny to see an imperial power consider, through art and entertainment, how awful it would be to have people show up to take your land and resources, rape your women, and kill or enslave your people. Like yes Victorian England, that would suck. Is there some reason this was on your mind? Anyway, all that to say I thought you guys had spot-on analysis on this one. There's some really excellent Machen stories, but even without all the racism, xenophobia, and imperialism that can be read into this one, I just don't think it's all that good. I like the scary fairies topic this month and am looking forward to the bonus content.

Anonymous

This episode contains a moment so epic I had to transcribe it: [begin transcription] Chad: This stuff is so hard for me to take seriously. I know this guy [Machen] is supposed to be a master of the genre and stuff, but I'm reading this just going, What? Chris: Yeah. Chad: Because I'm a bad artist, so— Chris: OH YEAH [end transcription] Chris just INTERRUPTS Chad ENTHUSIASTICALLY to agree that Chad is a "bad artist." I know Chris is the visual artist, but it's like he had this line in his pocket, spring-loaded, ready to go, FOR YEARS, and he was NOT going to let this opportunity go by. Oh the joy of that moment. I practically collapsed from laughter. Only the best of friends could have an exchange like that. Wonderful. The buddy comedy of podcasts. Chad and Chris 4EVA.

Anonymous

I read the story before listening to the episode, and was very underwhelmed by it. When I read I generally just take a story at face value and don't dig that deep; when there's a story that I don't really "get," sometimes I feel like I just missed something. It feels kind of validating when people who *do* spend a lot of time thinking about they stories they read (and who have read a lot more of this stuff) feel the same way.

Anonymous

Machen is very hit or miss for me - The White People is one of my favorite weird tales, but I didn't like Great God Pan and the reveal of Novel of the White Powder felt much more silly than scary. This one definitely felt too "Oh no, the degenerates from under the earth are coming for our women" without adding anything very original - plus having read a few Machen stories it was immediately obvious how it would unfold. I did enjoy Chris and Chad's analysis of what a sad man Vaughn is though - as ever their coverage makes even a bad story entertaining

Anonymous
>>72724300

The moment comes at 14:15 in the podcast, in case anybody wants to play it over and over. Love you guys, both of you. Honestly both of you are incredibly talented and creative.

Anonymous

Good show, as always, even though the tale itself is a stinker. Since I am one of your resident experts in evolution, I thought I’d add my five cents to your discussion at the end. It’s true that many organisms don’t seem to have changed much over millions of years—I’m looking at you, coelacanths, sharks, and numerous plants—but this doesn’t mean they are either the most fit, most adapted, or no longer evolving. Not to get too technical: the appearance of a species can be summarized by two measurements, their average and the amount of variation around that average. Natural selection acts to change those two, by always decreasing variation and either changing the average (called directional selection) or reinforcing the average (called stabilizing selection). So, these apparent “living fossils” are probably responding to strong stabilizing selection on their appearance; the average has stayed generally the same for very long periods of time. This doesn’t mean they are the most fit, though, because that appearance may be a compromise with other traits like body size, mating structure, metabolism, or the amount of food available (which are all related). It’s also possible the species is at what is called a local optimum, or local adaptive peak. Think of this as like hiking a ridge of mountains, and you hike to one peak, see there are others that are higher, but can’t hike up to those higher peaks because it hurts too much to hike down to then have to hike up again. In short, the faeries may simply be at a local optimum, or under stabilizing selection. Then again, if they’re magical, all bets are off about their biology… Folks back in Machen’s day didn’t know about these ideas concerning selection (not to mention even conceiving of random genetic drift). Another place where the protagonists would have their minds blown in modern times!

Anonymous

A nice coincidence to report. After I listened to this episode, the first song that my iPod (yes, I am old) shuffled up for me was Fairport Convention's "Tam Lin", a lovely old fairy story sung by Sandy Denny with the perfect unearthly chill in her voice. Check it out on Youtube.