1 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:08,430 Hello and welcome to meet us pod. I'm your host de Mitas. For 2 00:00:08,430 --> 00:00:14,940 this episode, I'll be reading HP Lovecraft Dagon. HP Lovecraft 3 00:00:14,940 --> 00:00:18,720 was born in 1890 in Rhode Island. He was friends with 4 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:22,920 Harry Houdini and he inspired Batman Black Sabbath and more. 5 00:00:24,630 --> 00:00:28,170 You can check out more about HP Lovecraft on his Wikipedia page, 6 00:00:28,470 --> 00:00:33,150 or you can go to hp lovecraft.com links in the show 7 00:00:33,150 --> 00:00:39,120 notes without further ado, day gone by HP Lovecraft. 8 00:00:50,820 --> 00:00:56,610 I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since 9 00:00:56,610 --> 00:01:03,480 by tonight, I shall be no more penniless, and at the end of my 10 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,950 supply of the drug which alone makes my life and durable, I can 11 00:01:07,950 --> 00:01:12,810 bear the torture no longer. I shall cast myself from this 12 00:01:12,810 --> 00:01:18,900 Garret window into the squalid street below. Do not think from 13 00:01:18,900 --> 00:01:23,250 my slavery to morphine, that I am a weakling or a degenerate. 14 00:01:24,870 --> 00:01:28,290 When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess, 15 00:01:28,830 --> 00:01:34,020 though never fully realize why it is that I must have 16 00:01:34,020 --> 00:01:44,040 forgetfulness or death. It was in one of the most open and 17 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:49,470 least frequented parts of the Pacific that the packet of which 18 00:01:49,470 --> 00:01:55,110 I was super cargo fell a victim to a German sea Raider. The 19 00:01:55,110 --> 00:01:58,890 Great War was just then at its very beginning, and the enemy 20 00:01:58,890 --> 00:02:03,270 Navy had not reached its degree of ruthlessness so that our 21 00:02:03,270 --> 00:02:09,270 vessel was made legitimate prize. Whilst we have her crew 22 00:02:09,300 --> 00:02:12,840 were treated with all the fairness and consideration do us 23 00:02:12,930 --> 00:02:18,150 as naval prisoners. So liberal indeed, was the discipline of 24 00:02:18,150 --> 00:02:23,130 our captors. That five days after we were taken, I managed 25 00:02:23,130 --> 00:02:27,780 to escape alone in a small boat, with water and provisions for a 26 00:02:27,780 --> 00:02:32,490 good length of time. When I finally found myself adrift and 27 00:02:32,490 --> 00:02:38,460 free, I had a little idea of my surroundings. Never a competent 28 00:02:38,460 --> 00:02:42,930 navigator. I could only guess vaguely by the sun and stars, 29 00:02:43,050 --> 00:02:48,600 and I was somewhat south of the equator. Of the longitude I knew 30 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:54,420 nothing, and no Island or coastline was in sight. The 31 00:02:54,420 --> 00:02:59,130 weather kept fair, and for uncounted days, I drifted 32 00:02:59,130 --> 00:03:03,840 aimlessly beneath the scorching sun, waiting either for some 33 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:08,700 passing ship, or to be cast on the shores of some habitable 34 00:03:08,700 --> 00:03:15,210 land. But neither ship nor land appeared. And I began to despair 35 00:03:15,210 --> 00:03:22,740 and my solitude upon the heaving vastness of unbroken blue. The 36 00:03:22,740 --> 00:03:30,300 change happened whilst I slept. It's details I shall never know. 37 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:36,870 from my slumber, though troubled and dream invested, was 38 00:03:36,870 --> 00:03:43,890 continuous. When at last I awake, it was to discover myself 39 00:03:44,100 --> 00:03:48,870 half sucked into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire, which 40 00:03:48,870 --> 00:03:53,670 extended about me in a monotonous undulations as far as 41 00:03:53,670 --> 00:03:59,100 I could see. And in which my boat Lake grounded some distance 42 00:03:59,100 --> 00:04:06,420 away. The one might well imagine that my first sensation would be 43 00:04:06,420 --> 00:04:10,470 of wonder at so prodigious and unexpected a transformation of 44 00:04:10,470 --> 00:04:17,520 scenery. I was in reality more horrified than astonished, for 45 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:22,230 there was in the air, and in the rotting soil a sinister quality 46 00:04:22,500 --> 00:04:29,070 which chilled me to the very core. The region was putrid with 47 00:04:29,070 --> 00:04:34,050 the carcasses of decaying fish, and of other less describable 48 00:04:34,050 --> 00:04:39,090 things which I saw recruiting from the nasty mud of the 49 00:04:39,090 --> 00:04:45,060 unending plane. Perhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words 50 00:04:45,060 --> 00:04:50,010 the unutterable hideousness that can dwell in absolute silence 51 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:56,670 and barren immensity. There was nothing within hearing and 52 00:04:56,670 --> 00:05:01,560 nothing in sight. Save a vast reach of black sly And yet the 53 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:06,120 very completeness and the stillness and homogeneity of the 54 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:13,110 landscape impressed me with a nauseating fear. The sun was 55 00:05:13,110 --> 00:05:18,180 blazing down from the sky, which seemed to me almost black, in 56 00:05:18,180 --> 00:05:23,340 its cloudless cruelty, as though reflecting the inky Marsh 57 00:05:23,340 --> 00:05:28,740 beneath my feet. As I crawled into the stranded boat, I 58 00:05:28,740 --> 00:05:32,760 realized that only one theory could explain my position. 59 00:05:33,150 --> 00:05:37,470 Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval. A portion of 60 00:05:37,470 --> 00:05:42,780 the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface, exposing 61 00:05:42,780 --> 00:05:47,040 regions which for innumerable millions of years, had lain 62 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,610 hidden under unfathomable watery depths. 63 00:05:51,750 --> 00:05:55,530 So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath 64 00:05:55,530 --> 00:05:59,760 me, that I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging 65 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:06,090 ocean, strain my ears as I might. Nor were there any sea 66 00:06:06,090 --> 00:06:11,550 fowl to prey upon the dead things. For several hours I sat 67 00:06:11,550 --> 00:06:16,890 thinking or brooding in the boat, which lay up on its side 68 00:06:16,890 --> 00:06:20,400 and afforded me a slight shade as the sun moved across the 69 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:25,830 heavens. as the day progressed, the ground lost some of its 70 00:06:25,830 --> 00:06:30,780 stickiness, and seemed likely to dry sufficiently for traveling 71 00:06:30,780 --> 00:06:37,530 purposes in a short time. That night, I slept but little, and 72 00:06:37,530 --> 00:06:41,400 the next day, I made myself a bag containing food and water, 73 00:06:42,450 --> 00:06:45,960 preparatory to the overland journey in search of the 74 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:52,860 vanished sea, and possible rescue. On the third morning, I 75 00:06:52,860 --> 00:06:58,320 found soil dry enough to walk upon with ease. The odor of the 76 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:02,280 fish was maddening. When I was too much concerned with graver 77 00:07:02,280 --> 00:07:07,500 things to mind so slight and evil, and set out boldly for an 78 00:07:07,500 --> 00:07:15,240 unknown goal. All day, I forged steadily westward, guided by a 79 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:19,620 faraway hammock, which had rose higher than any other elevation 80 00:07:19,620 --> 00:07:25,740 on the rolling desert. That night, I kept an eye on the 81 00:07:25,740 --> 00:07:30,600 following day, still travelled towards the hammock. Though the 82 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:35,010 object seems scarcely nearer than when I had first spotted. 83 00:07:37,050 --> 00:07:39,690 By the fourth evening, I attained to the base of the 84 00:07:39,690 --> 00:07:43,410 mound, which turned out to be much higher than hitted appeared 85 00:07:43,410 --> 00:07:48,840 from the distant and intervening Valley, setting it out in 86 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:55,350 sharper relief and the general surface. To weary to ascend. I 87 00:07:55,350 --> 00:08:01,530 slept in the shadow of the hill. I know not why my dreams were so 88 00:08:01,530 --> 00:08:06,420 wild that night. But before the waning and fantastically gibbous 89 00:08:06,420 --> 00:08:11,580 moon had risen far above the Eastern Blaine, I was awake, and 90 00:08:11,580 --> 00:08:18,150 a cold perspiration. Determined to Sleep No More. Such visions 91 00:08:18,150 --> 00:08:23,460 as I have experienced were too much for me to endure again. And 92 00:08:23,460 --> 00:08:28,440 in the glow of the moon, I saw how unwise I had been to travel 93 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:34,560 by day. Without the glare of the parching sun, my journey would 94 00:08:34,560 --> 00:08:41,670 have cost me less energy, indeed. I now felt quite able to 95 00:08:41,670 --> 00:08:46,890 perform the ascent, which had deterred me at sunset, picking 96 00:08:46,890 --> 00:08:53,070 up my bag, I started for the crest of the eminence. I have 97 00:08:53,070 --> 00:08:57,060 said that the unbroken monotony of the rolling plane was a 98 00:08:57,060 --> 00:09:02,220 source of vague or to me. But I think my horror was greater when 99 00:09:02,220 --> 00:09:05,700 I gained the summit of the mound and look down on the other side 100 00:09:06,420 --> 00:09:11,460 into an immeasurable pit or Canyon, whose black recesses the 101 00:09:11,460 --> 00:09:16,020 moon had not yet soared high enough to illumine I felt myself 102 00:09:16,050 --> 00:09:19,620 on the edge of the world, peering over the rim into the 103 00:09:19,620 --> 00:09:24,690 fathomless chaos of eternal night. Though my terror ran 104 00:09:24,690 --> 00:09:29,850 curious reminiscences of Paradise Lost, and of Satan's 105 00:09:29,850 --> 00:09:33,840 hideous climb through the unfastened realms of darkness. 106 00:09:35,670 --> 00:09:38,910 As the moon climbed higher in the sky, I began to see the 107 00:09:38,910 --> 00:09:42,720 slopes of the Valley were not quite as perpendicular as I had 108 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:48,000 imagined. The ledges and outcroppings of rock afforded 109 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:54,150 fairly easy footholds for the descent. Whilst after a drop of 110 00:09:54,150 --> 00:10:01,650 a few 100 feet, the declivity became very gradual urged on by 111 00:10:01,650 --> 00:10:06,270 an impulse which I cannot definitely analyze, I scrambled 112 00:10:06,270 --> 00:10:10,530 with difficulty down the rocks and stood on a gentler slope 113 00:10:10,530 --> 00:10:16,140 beneath, gazing into the stag in depths where no light had 114 00:10:16,140 --> 00:10:20,490 penetrated. All at once my attention was captured by a vast 115 00:10:20,490 --> 00:10:24,300 and singular object on the opposite slope, which rose 116 00:10:24,300 --> 00:10:30,120 steeply about 100 yards ahead of me, an object that claimed 117 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:34,860 widely in the newly bestowed rays of the ascending moon, that 118 00:10:34,860 --> 00:10:39,180 it was merely a gigantic piece of stone, I soon assured myself 119 00:10:40,350 --> 00:10:44,670 but I was conscious of a distinct impression that its 120 00:10:44,670 --> 00:10:48,960 contour and position are not altogether a work of nature. 121 00:10:51,030 --> 00:10:56,400 A closer scrutiny filled me with the sensation I cannot express. 122 00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:02,490 For despite its enormous magnitude, and its location, and 123 00:11:02,490 --> 00:11:05,940 an abyss which had yond at the bottom of the sea, since the 124 00:11:05,940 --> 00:11:11,130 world was young, I perceived beyond a doubt that the strange 125 00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:17,040 object was a well shaped monolith was massive bulk had 126 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:23,100 known the workmanship, and perhaps the worship, of living 127 00:11:23,220 --> 00:11:29,610 and thinking creatures, dazed and frightened. Yet not without 128 00:11:29,610 --> 00:11:33,810 a certain thrill on the scientists or archaeologists 129 00:11:33,810 --> 00:11:39,480 delight, I examined my surrounding more closely. The 130 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:45,270 moon, now near the zenith, shown weirdly and vividly above the 131 00:11:45,270 --> 00:11:50,460 towering steep that hemmed in the chasm, and revealed the fact 132 00:11:50,700 --> 00:11:55,350 that a far flung body of water flowed at the bottom, winding 133 00:11:55,380 --> 00:12:00,990 out of sight in both directions, and almost lapping my feet as I 134 00:12:00,990 --> 00:12:07,470 stood on the slope. across the chasm, the wavelets washed the 135 00:12:07,470 --> 00:12:12,960 base of the Cyclopean monolith on whose surface I could now 136 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:19,680 trace both inscriptions and crude sculptures. The writing 137 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:24,210 was in a system of hieroglyphs unknown to me, and unlike 138 00:12:24,210 --> 00:12:29,430 anything I had ever seen in books, consisting for the most 139 00:12:29,430 --> 00:12:33,960 part of unconventional alized aquatic symbols such as fishes, 140 00:12:34,110 --> 00:12:39,330 eels, octopi, crustaceans, mollusks, whales, and the like. 141 00:12:40,500 --> 00:12:44,280 Several characters obviously represented and marine things 142 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,910 which were unknown to the modern world, but whose decomposing 143 00:12:47,910 --> 00:12:52,440 forms I had observed on the ocean risen plane. It was the 144 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:57,090 pictorial carving, however, that did most to hold me spellbound, 145 00:12:57,870 --> 00:13:01,770 plainly visible across the intervening water, on account of 146 00:13:01,770 --> 00:13:06,090 it their enormous size, were an array of bass relief, whose 147 00:13:06,090 --> 00:13:13,380 subjects would have excited the envy of adore. I think that 148 00:13:13,380 --> 00:13:18,030 these things were supposed to depict men, at least a certain 149 00:13:18,030 --> 00:13:22,800 sort of men, though the creatures were shown disporting 150 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:27,360 like fishes and waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage 151 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:31,530 at some monolithic Shrine, which appeared to be under the waves 152 00:13:31,530 --> 00:13:36,630 as well. Of their faces and forms I dare not speak in 153 00:13:36,630 --> 00:13:40,980 detail, for the mere remembrance of them makes me grow faint. 154 00:13:42,540 --> 00:13:47,040 grotesque, beyond the imagination of a poem, or a 155 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:52,140 bulwark. They were damnably human and general outline 156 00:13:52,140 --> 00:13:56,760 despite webbed hands and feet, shocking, shockingly wide and 157 00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:01,650 flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less 158 00:14:01,650 --> 00:14:08,700 pleasant to recall. Curiously enough, they seemed to have been 159 00:14:08,700 --> 00:14:13,470 chiseled badly out of proportion with the scenic background, for 160 00:14:13,470 --> 00:14:16,380 one of the creatures was shown in the act of killing a whale 161 00:14:16,380 --> 00:14:22,740 represented as but little larger than himself. I remarked, as I 162 00:14:22,740 --> 00:14:29,220 say, on their grotesqueness, and strange size, but in a moment 163 00:14:29,220 --> 00:14:33,330 decided that they were merely the imaginary gods of some 164 00:14:33,330 --> 00:14:38,790 primitive fishing more seafaring tribe, some tribe whose last 165 00:14:38,940 --> 00:14:43,470 descendant had perished errors before the first ancestor of the 166 00:14:43,470 --> 00:14:50,460 Piltdown or Neanderthal man was born. awestruck at this 167 00:14:50,490 --> 00:14:54,450 unexpected glimpse into the past beyond the conception of the 168 00:14:54,450 --> 00:14:59,970 most daring anthropologist, I stood musing while the moon cast 169 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:05,970 Square reflections on the silent channel before me. Then, 170 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:13,290 suddenly, I saw it. With only a slight churning to markets rise 171 00:15:13,290 --> 00:15:18,570 to the surface. The thing slid into view above the dark waters, 172 00:15:19,710 --> 00:15:25,410 vast, poly famous like and loathsome, and darted like a 173 00:15:25,410 --> 00:15:30,840 stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith. About what it's 174 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:35,220 flung it's gigantic scaly arms and while it bowed, its hideous 175 00:15:35,220 --> 00:15:43,050 head and gave vent to a certain measured sound. I think I went 176 00:15:43,050 --> 00:15:43,680 mad then 177 00:15:48,660 --> 00:15:53,310 of my frantic ascent of the slope and Cliff, and my 178 00:15:53,310 --> 00:15:57,450 delirious journey back to the stranded boat. I remember little 179 00:16:00,090 --> 00:16:06,390 I believe I sang a great deal. I laughed oddly, when I was unable 180 00:16:06,390 --> 00:16:14,580 to sing. I have indistinct recollections of a great storm 181 00:16:14,580 --> 00:16:22,050 sometime after I reached the boat. At any rate, I know that I 182 00:16:22,050 --> 00:16:29,100 heard peals of thunder and other towns, which nature others only 183 00:16:29,100 --> 00:16:36,870 in her wildest moods. When I came out of the shadows, and was 184 00:16:36,870 --> 00:16:41,010 in a San Francisco hospital, brought together by the captain 185 00:16:41,010 --> 00:16:44,280 of the American ship, which had picked up my boat in the mid 186 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:50,670 ocean. In my delirium, I had said much, but found that my 187 00:16:50,670 --> 00:16:56,220 words had been given scant attention. Of any land upheaval 188 00:16:56,220 --> 00:17:00,780 in the Pacific, my rescuers knew nothing. Nor did I deem it 189 00:17:00,780 --> 00:17:04,890 necessary to insist upon a thing that I knew they could not 190 00:17:04,890 --> 00:17:13,170 believe. Once I sought out a celebrated indologist and amused 191 00:17:13,170 --> 00:17:16,560 him with a peculiar questions regarding an ancient Philistine 192 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:23,370 Legend of Dagon, the fish God but soon perceiving that he was 193 00:17:23,370 --> 00:17:28,800 hopelessly conventional, and did not press my inquiries. It is at 194 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:32,580 night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning, that I 195 00:17:32,580 --> 00:17:38,040 see that thing. I tried morphine, but the drug has given 196 00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:43,050 me only transient searcys and has drawn me into its clutches 197 00:17:43,050 --> 00:17:49,200 as a hopeless slave. So now I'm going to end matters, having 198 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:52,890 written a full account of the information, or the contemptuous 199 00:17:52,890 --> 00:17:59,160 amusement of my fellow man. Often, I asked myself, if it 200 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:04,170 could not have all been a pure Phantasm a mere freak of fever 201 00:18:04,170 --> 00:18:07,830 as I lay Sun stricken and raving in the open boat after my escape 202 00:18:07,830 --> 00:18:13,380 from the German man of war. This I asked myself, whatever does 203 00:18:13,380 --> 00:18:18,840 there come before me hideous, vivid vision and reply. I cannot 204 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,810 think of a deep sea without shuttering at the nameless 205 00:18:21,810 --> 00:18:26,880 things that may be at this very moment. Crawling and floundering 206 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,750 and it slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and 207 00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:35,220 carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks 208 00:18:35,460 --> 00:18:39,810 of water soaked granite. I dream of the day when they rise above 209 00:18:39,810 --> 00:18:43,770 the billows and drag down in their wreaking talons the 210 00:18:43,770 --> 00:18:49,680 remnants of puny, war exhausted mankind. A day when the land 211 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:54,990 shall sink and the dark ocean floor shall a sin amidst 212 00:18:54,990 --> 00:19:02,520 universal pandemonium. The end is near. I hear the noise of the 213 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:09,090 door as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It 214 00:19:09,090 --> 00:19:17,130 shall not find me God that hand the window the window 215 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:27,810 thanks for listening to Dagon by HP Lovecraft our music is 216 00:19:27,810 --> 00:19:31,650 brought to us by od Sprite. You can check out more at odd 217 00:19:31,650 --> 00:19:36,810 sprite.com me just pause the production. Meet us media. All 218 00:19:36,810 --> 00:19:41,130 rights reserved unless otherwise specified. We'll see you next 219 00:19:41,130 --> 00:19:43,500 time folks. Have a good one.