1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,440 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, this is Robert Lamb. We tend to avoid 2 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: politics on the show. Most of you, like us, are 3 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:07,960 Speaker 1: probably looking for a break from all of that when 4 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:10,119 Speaker 1: it comes to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. But for 5 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: our us listeners, I feel like I'd be remiss if 6 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: I didn't urge y'all to head out there and vote. 7 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: Vote with your hearts and vote with your minds. Early 8 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,760 Speaker 1: voting is up and running in various places, So get 9 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:28,040 Speaker 1: out there and make your voice heard if you can. Thanks. 10 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:35,159 Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 11 00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is the 12 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 1: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 13 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 1: Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 14 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 1: Since this week is Halloween, I decided to draw inspiration 15 00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: from a particular elder tome of other world evil. Nope, 16 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: it's not the Necronomicon, not the Book of Ebon, and 17 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: not even the Denton Affair. I'm talking about the two 18 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: thousand and six Malius Monstrorum from the role playing game 19 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:20,039 Speaker 1: Call of Cthulhu. Now I realize there's a far more 20 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: recent edition of this book. Essentially, it's a monster manual 21 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: for the sixth edition of the Call of Cthulhu game 22 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 1: from Chaosum, Inc. But the two thousand and six book 23 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: this is the one that I really love. It features 24 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:38,120 Speaker 1: scrapbook style illustrations, so a mix of repurposed and altered 25 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:41,280 Speaker 1: images from various times and places that creates a haunting 26 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: sense of horror. It implies that all of these things 27 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 1: are lurking just beyond the limits of our senses, the 28 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: limits of our sanity, just waiting to burst through. And 29 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: we have all of these various illustrations, woodcuts, suspicious photographs, 30 00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: and so forth that hint at their forms. Dark gods 31 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: and creatures in the books stem from many different sources, 32 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 1: obviously from the works of HP Lovecraft, but also from 33 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: many of his contemporaries such as Clark Ashton Smith and 34 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: also later admires like Stephen King and Michael say So. 35 00:02:16,639 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: In this special Halloween episode of The Monster Fact, I 36 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:23,400 Speaker 1: thought we'd dip into the Malleus Monstororum and discuss a 37 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: few different unspeakable horrors from this dreaded volume of your 38 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: first up. The dreaded gugs black furred ogre like creatures 39 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 1: with bifurcated four limbs branching into separate limbs. Their heads, however, 40 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,239 Speaker 1: are the most distinctive feature on these creatures. As Lovecraft 41 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,919 Speaker 1: described them in the dream Quest of Unknown Katath quote, 42 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:49,600 Speaker 1: the eyes jutted two inches from each side, shaded by 43 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:53,679 Speaker 1: bony protuberances overgrown with coarse hairs. But the head was 44 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:56,959 Speaker 1: chiefly terrible because of the mouth. That mouth had great 45 00:02:57,040 --> 00:02:59,680 Speaker 1: yellow fangs that ran from the top to the bottom 46 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: of the head, opening vertically instead of horizontally. Now, there 47 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,880 Speaker 1: are many wonderful depictions of the Gug by talented human artists, 48 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: including the legendary Wayne Barlow, one of the absolute bests. 49 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: But I find the illustration in the two thousand and 50 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: six Mallius Monstororum quite amusing, as it depicts what is 51 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,280 Speaker 1: said to be a nineteen hundreds children's cutout doll of 52 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:26,679 Speaker 1: a gug as found in a Swiss museum. It makes 53 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: me chuckle, and somehow it makes the unseen reality of 54 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:33,800 Speaker 1: the gug even stranger to contemplate. Again, the illustrations are 55 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:37,119 Speaker 1: tremendous in this edition, so if you get a chance 56 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: to pick one up used, I highly recommend it. I 57 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,080 Speaker 1: bought one years ago and then I somehow lost it 58 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: and I had to purchase it again. So I definitely 59 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: have one on the shelf now. But what can we 60 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 1: say about the vertical mouth of the gug and therefore 61 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: strictly horizontal chewing action for these eaters of human dreams? Well, 62 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: certainly we see something like this in the mandibles of arthropods, 63 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 1: with the mandibles possibly evolutionarily derived from legs. There's nothing 64 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: quite like a gug in the history of the natural world. 65 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 1: But his face does vaguely look like a tacco lined 66 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:17,280 Speaker 1: with teeth, which leads me to a comparison to a 67 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:22,239 Speaker 1: very peculiar taco shaped creature from the Middle Cambrian period 68 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:26,680 Speaker 1: known as an Odoria. Its body enclosing shell does vaguely 69 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: look like a taco, and it likely swam upside down, 70 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:34,599 Speaker 1: which enhances this comparison. According to Margarita Bassi in a 71 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:38,880 Speaker 1: twenty twenty four Smithsonian Magazine post, recent studies indicate that 72 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:43,000 Speaker 1: the creature also had a mandible lined toothed mouth, and 73 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 1: that this makes it one of the earliest mandibulates or 74 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: arthropods with mandibles, which is a course of an adaptation 75 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 1: that we've given it. Tremendous chewing advantage over other organisms. 76 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:58,520 Speaker 1: It also had a trident shaped tongue. You can look 77 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,359 Speaker 1: up images of the and I guarantee you'll glimpse something 78 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,840 Speaker 1: as weird and wild as anything from Call of Cthulha. 79 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: Now for my taste some of the deeper cut myth 80 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:13,920 Speaker 1: those creatures are among the most interesting. Consider the vaguely 81 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:20,360 Speaker 1: elephant like reptilian elder god Chognon Foggen, whose long trunk 82 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:25,479 Speaker 1: terminates in a leechlike disc. This is a creation of 83 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:30,719 Speaker 1: Horror author Frank Belknep Long in The Horror from the Hills. 84 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: Long's description of Chognar Fogen alone makes it one of 85 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 1: the most interesting cosmic entities in this book, but consider 86 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: also its strange servants, the merry Negris. These are naked, 87 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:48,600 Speaker 1: vaguely man shaped dwarfs that are not actual humans. They 88 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:51,919 Speaker 1: are fashioned from the flesh of toads that crawl around 89 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:55,520 Speaker 1: on the body of their dark god. Long rites that 90 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: they quote were incapable of speech, and their thoughts were 91 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:05,560 Speaker 1: the thoughts Ofgnar. Now the Malleus mons Thororum summarizes these 92 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: creatures gather victims for their dark god and then drags 93 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: them up to the hills. And this is so that 94 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,160 Speaker 1: the elephant like lizard deity can then suck their blood 95 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: with its strange trunk. Now, we might loosely compare Chognar's 96 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: trunk to the mouth parts of a mosquito, and we 97 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:27,400 Speaker 1: might also compare them to the oral suckers of leeches 98 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: and various analid worms. Again, remember that this dark being 99 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:35,320 Speaker 1: is supposed to have like a disc shaped feeding apparatus 100 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:37,920 Speaker 1: on the end of its trunk. And I'll also add 101 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: here that the suction disks of leeches in particular has 102 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 1: been singled out by scientists as a potential feature that 103 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,120 Speaker 1: could be adapted for use in medical technology. This is 104 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,200 Speaker 1: of course interesting as well, given that leeches were of 105 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:54,919 Speaker 1: course historically used in medicine and still occasionally have have 106 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:59,479 Speaker 1: usages today. Now, as for the creation of minions out 107 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 1: of frog flesh, well we might well bring up the 108 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: human practice of zenograft here, by which the flesh of 109 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,520 Speaker 1: a non human animal is used in human skin grafts 110 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: to repair skin damaged by fire, necrosis, or disease. Believe 111 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,600 Speaker 1: it or not, nineteenth century doctors did employ frog flesh 112 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: in some of their procedures, as David Ksey Cooper describes 113 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:27,720 Speaker 1: in twenty twelve's A Brief History of Cross Species organ transplantation. 114 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: Various mammal skins were also experimented with, but frog skin 115 00:07:32,800 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: was considered ideal given its hairlessness and apparently freshness was 116 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,680 Speaker 1: also prized, as the frog could be skinned alive and 117 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: then immediately have its skin used during a transplant. However, 118 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 1: Cooper stresses that these transplants likely didn't work, and any 119 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: reported successes might have been due to the idea that 120 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,520 Speaker 1: the frog skin covered a skin ulcer and allowed that 121 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:03,560 Speaker 1: skin ulcer to heal beneath the attempted graft. Still, xenotransplantation 122 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,160 Speaker 1: remains a promising field in which genetically altered mammals such 123 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,480 Speaker 1: as pigs, produce organs and tissues for use in potential 124 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:14,880 Speaker 1: human transplants. The idea of creating a humanoid wholesale from 125 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: the flesh of another creature remains the domain of science 126 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: fiction and of course strange cosmic horr but the idea 127 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,920 Speaker 1: of patching up a humanoid with parts from another creature 128 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,600 Speaker 1: is just a promising part of scientific reality. All Right, 129 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:31,840 Speaker 1: we should cover one more monster, don't you think? Make 130 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:35,320 Speaker 1: it an even three? Well, I've always found the mego 131 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: from Lovecrafts The Whisperer in Darkness to be one of 132 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,520 Speaker 1: the more fascinating of these creations, especially since we have 133 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: a strong sci Fi twist everything here. They're described as fungal, 134 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:52,760 Speaker 1: intelligent interstellar aliens quote pinkish things about five feet long, 135 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:57,200 Speaker 1: with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or 136 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:01,640 Speaker 1: membranous wings, and several sets of articul limbs, and with 137 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:06,640 Speaker 1: a sort of convoluted ellipsoid covered with multitudes of very 138 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 1: short antenna where a head would ordinarily be. The creatures 139 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: are described as a curious mix of biological and technological advancement. 140 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: On one hand, we're told they travel through space without 141 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:21,840 Speaker 1: the aid of spacecraft, using their weird wings to flap 142 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: or swim through the interstellared ether. This is mostly a 143 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:28,800 Speaker 1: reference to the classical and medieval idea that the universe 144 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:32,200 Speaker 1: beyond Earth was filled with a translucent fifth element known 145 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: as ether, and in the early modern period there were 146 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 1: ether theories that discussed space in terms of waves, fields, 147 00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:42,000 Speaker 1: and even mediums. In either case, the migo were said 148 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:44,920 Speaker 1: to fly or swim or what have you through this 149 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:51,120 Speaker 1: strange imagined interplanetary soup. As impressive as such biology would seem, 150 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:54,560 Speaker 1: the Migo are also interested in Earth's rare minerals and 151 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:58,880 Speaker 1: use technology for things like mining and communication equipment, as 152 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:02,440 Speaker 1: well as special cells cylanders that can sustain surgically removed 153 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,960 Speaker 1: human brains for long distance space travel. We see this 154 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:09,200 Speaker 1: horror concept that of a brain in a jar throughout 155 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: horror and sci fi, with ties going back to the 156 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:16,080 Speaker 1: seventeenth century writings of Reneedi Carts, for example, who considered well, 157 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 1: not a brain in a vat, but an existence in 158 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: which a manipulative demon controlled all of our senses the 159 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: brain in a vat scenario. The basic idea is, if 160 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 1: we're just a brain, what have we depended on something 161 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:32,199 Speaker 1: else for our senses, some sort of technology, alien technology 162 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,960 Speaker 1: in this case. A whole string of philosophical demons extend 163 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:39,720 Speaker 1: from this basic concept, including direct brain in a vat 164 00:10:39,920 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: variations dating back to the early nineteen seventies. However, we 165 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:46,000 Speaker 1: should note that the use of such brains in fiction 166 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:50,359 Speaker 1: actually predates Lovecraft's nineteen thirty story, and of course subsequently 167 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 1: has come to factor and do everything. From the writings 168 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:58,120 Speaker 1: of philosopher Daniel Dinnett to the movie RoboCop two. The 169 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 1: Migo deliver a number of terrified concepts in lovecraft story 170 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:06,559 Speaker 1: concerning both outer and inner space. What if the wider 171 00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:09,560 Speaker 1: universe is not what we thought it was. What if 172 00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:12,920 Speaker 1: my own human experience is not what I've long held? 173 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: What happens when all preconceived meanings collapse and the waxen 174 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:22,160 Speaker 1: mask of sanity is lifted from the stranger's face. Such 175 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:27,080 Speaker 1: moments are cosmic horror at its finest, Happy Hallaleen Everywhere. 176 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster, Fact, The Artifact, 177 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,120 Speaker 1: or Anamalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email 178 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:48,439 Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 179 00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:51,520 Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 180 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:55,439 Speaker 2: more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 181 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.