WEBVTT - Listener Mail: The Ripe Program 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.560 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.320 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. Listener mail. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.040 My name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.480 And I am Joe McCormick, and it's Monday, the day 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:19.720 of each week that we read back messages to the 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.720 Stuff to Blow Your Mind email address. If you have 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:24.680 never gotten in touch before and would like to give 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.920 it a shot, send something please. You can reach us 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.120 at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:33.400 Whatever you want to send us fair game. We appreciate 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.159 all kinds of messages, especially if you have something interesting 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.199 to add to a recent topic we've talked about. Let's see, 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:41.680 rob I'm going to start with a message about the 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.760 recent total solar eclipse that pass through the middle of 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.440 the United States. We didn't do an episode about eclipses 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:51.920 because we've done that in the past, especially tied to 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.080 eclipses in the past. But we did do a weird 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.760 house cinema episode on the movie Dragon Slayer because it 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.639 features an eclipse that'll come up again later in the episode. 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.679 But we also just got a response seemingly about the 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:14.399 eclipse itself, and this is from Hannah. Hannah says subject 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:20.679 line moon exploration via swan power. Hannah says, Hi, Robin Joe, 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.720 I'm helping my husband prepare a lecture that covers the 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.679 eclipse for his physics students. I ran across this book 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:30.640 and I had to share love the podcast. Keep up 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.240 the good work, my best, Hannah. And what Hannah shares 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.240 is a link to a seventeenth century book called The 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.360 Man in the Moon. And this is Moon spelled n E. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.360 I like the extra e in there makes it fancier. 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.680 It's almost like a more costly version of the Moon. 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.320 The Man in the Moon or a discourse of a 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:57.160 voyage thither. So this is a book that was published 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:02.000 under the pseudonymous name Domingo Gonsales. The real author was 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.760 an English bishop named Francis Godwin. And this is a 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.000 novel that was published in sixteen thirty eight, several years 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.359 after the author's death, said by some to be the 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.680 first science fiction novel written in English. So it's a 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.600 first person narrative telling the story of a Spaniard named 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.600 Domingo Gonzalez who travels to the Moon on an aircraft 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.480 powered by swans and discovers that the moon is filled 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.680 with people who have an advanced civilization of their own, 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.560 and I think also are significantly involved in like kidnapping 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:38.600 children from Earth. 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:43.000 On Kaladan, we ruled with air and land power, but 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.720 on Earth we will rule with swanpower. 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.320 How did you describe this Swan machine? Like, there's an 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.680 illustration on the inner fold of the title page I 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.800 found so we can look at this. Rob It's like 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.040 a it looks sort of like the Swan copter. Well, 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.160 it's got a mounted seat really just kind of a 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.640 crossbar on the bottom and the rest is just bars. 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.000 It's like an electrical transmission tower. And they taped a 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.600 bunch of birds to the tower by the feet. And 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.880 also in this this illustration, they're they're like flying him 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.640 over the moon or to the moon and passing over 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:19.880 the mountain of purgatory. 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.040 Yeah. Oh, it raises a lot of questions. Yeah, it's 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.440 it's kind of like a kite scenario. It looks like 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.400 like the bare minimum harvesting of the power of the 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.000 Swan and uh it yeah, right, And then the amount 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.600 of purgatory being there also raised his questions, like how 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.800 does that factor into it? Are you using some sort 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:43.720 of using that as some sort of like a slingshot technique, 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.080 sling shotting off of the mount of Purgatory via eton 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.360 or not that sort of a donic zone on the top, 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:53.680 so that you can just go right to the moon. 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:54.200 I don't know. 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.440 Purgatory O gravity assist, Yeah, yeah, But anyway, so I started. 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.920 I found a full text of this book, and I 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.840 was scanning through it, and a few things caught my eye. First, 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.640 I'll quote a passage here with some edits, just describing 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:11.880 how the character attains spaceflight on the swan copter. He says, 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:14.960 it was now the season that these birds were wont 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.280 to take their flight away, as our cuckoos and swallows 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.760 do in Spain towards the autumn. They as after I perceived, 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.919 mindful of their usual voyage. Even as I began to 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.279 settle myself for the taking of them in as it were, 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.440 with one consent, rose up, and, having no other place 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.120 higher to make toward to my unspeakable fear and amazement, 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:41.120 struck bolt upright, and never did linn linn, meaning cease, 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:45.919 never did cease, towering upward and still upward for the space, 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.120 as I might guess of one whole hour. Truly, I 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.800 must confess the horror and amazement of that place was 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.360 such as if I had not been armed with a 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.719 true Spanish courage and resolution, I must needs have died 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.880 there with very fear. But the next thing that did 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.440 most trouble me was the swiftness of motion, such as 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.960 did even almost stop my breath. If I should liken 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:12.200 it to an arrow out of a bow, or to 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.279 a stone cast down from the top of some high tower, 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.160 it would come far short and short. So he's describing 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.120 mind bending speeds. And this passage starts to give a 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.360 hint of how interestingly this novel is not just an 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:32.280 exercise in imagination. It actually engages significantly with scientific theories 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.599 of the day of the seventeenth century, engaging with the 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:39.719 works of Galileo and Kepler. For example, I came across 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.840 a passage where the narrator is using his fictional observations 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.200 to make the case that the Earth does in fact rotate, 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:49.480 and it is not the heavens that spin around a 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.919 stationary Earth. And the author also makes points related to 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.720 the idea of gravity and to the speed of the 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.640 motion of the objects in the heavens, and so forth. 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.240 Nice nice kind of fitting them that we see the 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.880 amount of purgatory in the background here, because as we've 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.200 at least discussed in Passing before you know you have 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.240 you have a number of scientific ideas wrapped up in 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:17.640 Dante's divine comedy as well, something that we might come 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.320 back to again in the future and do a proper 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:20.960 deep dive on. 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.640 Totally agree, though I should be clear, I was just 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:25.839 saying it's the amount of purgatory because it looks like 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.000 it to me. I couldn't find that it says that text. Okay, 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:30.080 that's just my editor. 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.880 I love the idea of it amount of purgatory. I 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.080 accept no other interpretation. 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.880 However, there is another thing that I found really interesting 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.320 about this book, which is that this early science fiction 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:47.000 novel does mix in elements of horror. On the journey 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.200 to the Moon, while traveling through the space between, Gonzalez 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:55.400 is surrounded by spirits of a wicked nature. In his view, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:07:00.880 space is full of devils. I'm gonna read from the 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.160 text here another thing there was exceeding and more than 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.240 exceeding troublesome unto me, and that was the illusions of 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.440 devils and wicked spirits who the first day of my 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.440 arrival came about me in great numbers, carrying the shapes 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.800 and likeness of men and women, wondering at me like 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.920 so many birds about an owl, and speaking diverse kinds 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:27.640 of languages, which I understood not do birds wonder about 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:29.480 an owl. I'm not sure what that means, but I 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.840 like the image, so anyway. The devils of the space 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:35.920 make him all kinds of promises. They tell him they 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.560 can take him safely back to Spain, they can give 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.880 him earthly comforts and pleasures. He turns all this down, 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:46.560 though he does accept some food they offer him, writing quote, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.640 least in the mean, while I should starve, they did 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.520 so readily enough, and brought me very good flesh and 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.920 fish of diverse sorts, well dressed, but that it was 0:07:55.960 --> 0:08:00.360 exceeding fresh, and without any manner of relish of salt. Wine. 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.320 Also I tasted there of diverse sorts, as good as 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.880 any in Spain, and beer no better in all Antwerp. 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.120 But when it comes time to eat, things go south, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.760 he says he quote, in great haste fell to searching 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:19.160 of my pockets for the victuals I had reserved, as aforesaid, 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:24.360 But to my great amazement and discomfort, I found instead 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.560 of partridge and capon, which I thought to have put there, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:32.600 a mingle mangle of dry leaves of goat's hair, sheep 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:37.680 or goat's dung moss and such like trash. As for 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.920 my canary wine, it was turned to a stinking and 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.200 filthy kind of liquor, like the urine of some beast. 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.200 So space demons are always trying to feed you goat 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:50.760 hair and beast urine. 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.319 Oh wow, that is all marvelous. I've so many thoughts 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.680 on that. On one hand, kind of shades of Warhammer 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.040 forty thousand to come there with this idea of traveling 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.320 through space putting you in a demonic peril or potential 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:10.480 demonic peril, and then kind of shades of the Gate 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.960 duology Gate the Gate and the Gate Too or Gate Too, 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:20.320 a couple of wonderful kind of Gromlin movies that I 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:25.800 discussed in Weird House Cinema with guest co host David Streepy, 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.760 because in the second one, the demons will grant your wishes, 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.880 but your wishes turned to the literal poop the next day, 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.640 So you wished for you know, a sports car, Well, 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:37.839 guess what is now parked out in front of your house. 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:43.000 It's an elephant sized chunk of just just fecal matter. 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.840 But I like that here he specifies what animal it 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.560 comes from. Does the gate say what animal it comes from? 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:50.920 No, they don't really get into it. But it makes 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:52.760 sense that it would be goat. You don't give him 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:54.280 demonic connotations. 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.080 There have a label on it, like the you know 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:58.800 the ones at the grocery store that tell you where 0:09:58.840 --> 0:09:59.800 the fish came from. 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.920 Yeah, this is from goat. I don't know why. I 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.040 don't know how goat dung would be worse. I've certainly 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.559 been around goat dung before, and it's not the worst 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.160 dung at all. Give me goat dung over dog dung 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:14.720 or any kind of carnivore dung any day of the week. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.560 It's funny. He does specify goats for the dung, but 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:20.560 he does not and for the hair, by the way, 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.040 goat hair and goat dung, but does not specify which 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:24.440 beast the urine is from. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.400 Well, you know, you can poke around in the fecal 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:28.240 matter and you can sort of it can make a 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.280 lot of you know, there is a lot of identification 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:35.200 via feces. Urine, however, is more complicated. Matter that may 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.280 require a bit of science or alchemy. And I guess, actually, 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.640 goat dung, you know, is round, So I guess he 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:42.640 could tell it's like, this is clearly goat dung. Look 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:43.400 how round it is. 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.600 Yeah, anyway, thank you so much, Hannah. It was very 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.360 interesting looking into this book. 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.040 All right. Well, since we're talking about literature and demons, 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:58.480 I'm gonna skip to this one from Jim, responding to 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:05.120 mention of the short story The Hounds of Tendlos. This 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.160 is a story, a weird story from the nineteen thirties, 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.800 actually nineteen twenty nine according to the State I just 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:14.520 looked up by Frank bucking up Long, so was originally 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:19.240 published in Weird Tales. And anyway, we heard some feedback 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:28.800 here from Jim. Jim says, I'm thinking Robert may know this, 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.680 but this tale was the inspiration for Metallica's thrasher All 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.480 Nightmare Long, which was on there in my opinion underrated 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.480 ninth studio album Death Magnetic. I found an audio version 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.600 of the story on horror Babbel, a podcast with a 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.959 great narrator who does a lot of the old thirties 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:50.280 sci fi and horror fiction, including Lovecraft Robert E. Howard Clark, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.000 Ashton Smith and the like. 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.880 Well, thank you, Jim. I did not know the connection 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:56.960 with that song. In fact, I did not know the 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.800 song at all because so I grew up loving Metallica, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.680 but I have never really gotten into their twenty first 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:07.679 century stuff, and so I checked out the track and 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.720 I did not expect to like it. As an adult, 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.960 my Metallica preferences have shifted toward the earliest of their catalog. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.680 Like the Metallica I like now is the stuff that 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.760 is the most immature and anti social, with the driest production, 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.120 the stuff that tends to have like really fast, raw, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.800 a little bit sloppy but still awesome instrumental performances and 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.640 lyrics that always vaguely imply the existence of some near 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:37.400 future conflict called the metal War, which I understand will 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.680 be fought with metal over access to metal. I think 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.600 that sound, however, Jim, despite the fact that I have 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.840 largely stayed away from recent Metallica, I dug it up 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:48.679 and I thought this track was pretty good. I give 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.160 it to him. Maybe it's that classic cosmic horror that 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:56.480 puts the gang back into original form. 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:01.280 Yeah awesome, Yeah, I was not familiar with this nection either, 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.000 and I haven't really listened to any of the more 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.440 recent Metallica albums, though I have to say I love 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.160 I love the old stuff, but I also really loved 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:13.600 like some of the at the time latter day tracks 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:15.600 like the Memory Remains a lot of people hate that song, 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.079 but I could never understand how this sounds pretty good. 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.640 Maryanne Faithful's on this, I don't know. I like it 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:25.760 had a cool video, but at any rate, that's fascinating. 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.320 Though I know that at least one or some of 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.800 the members of Metallica do have a lot of love 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:35.200 for some of the old weird fiction. You know, there 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.880 are some lovecraft in references on some of their older material, 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.800 so it's not all that surprising that they would continue 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.600 to find inspiration and work from this time period. When 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.280 we recorded this episode, I mentioned that I had started 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.400 reading The Hounds of Tendalos, but I had not finished it. 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:55.079 I finished it in the days following that initial episode, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:57.640 and I have to say it's it's a real banger. 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.959 I highly recommend this particular short story. Again, you can 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.520 find like an ebook of this gentleman's work for like 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:06.880 ninety nine cents and also you can find it in 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:11.760 you know, text form, online and all. But basically skip 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.920 now if you don't want any spoilers. But basically, again, 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:20.080 a gentleman takes some time traveling space, drugs and experiences 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.640 like all of human history and before human history all 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.000 at once, and has all sorts of revelations and it 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.200 just just overpowers him. And then these strange creatures, the 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.320 hounds of tendalos, begin to come after him through the 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.760 corners of things, the unnatural corners of reality. So he 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.000 has a very balanced response to this. He gets some 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.480 plaster and he removes all of the corners from his 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.480 from his home so he can live safely, so the 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.640 hounds cannot get him. But then there is an earthquake 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:55.520 and it disrupts the perfection of these curves and income 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.240 the hounds, and of course the hounds destroy him. And 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.640 then later his friend comes in and finds him. I 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:03.360 want to read just a quick quote here, just to 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.760 give you a grizzly taste of it. Quote. Chalmers lay 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.200 stretched upon his back in the center of the room. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.920 He was starkly nude, and his chest and arms were 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.600 covered with a peculiar bluish puss or eye cores. His 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.080 head lay grotesquely upon his chest. It had been completely 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.160 severed from his body, and the features were twisted and 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.440 torn and horribly mangled. Nowhere was there a trace of blood. 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:29.840 Nineteen twenty nine. It hits pretty hard. 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:33.040 The horror of this period. Does love an unearthly jelly, 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.680 doesn't it. There's got to be an icre on there. 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.240 Yeah. So anyway, a very fun tale. I haven't read 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.800 anything else by this author, but I have a whole 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.120 book of his stuff now, so I'm gonna have to 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.600 get in there and find some other other tales worth discussing. 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.200 All right. Next, we got this message from Daniel on 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.240 Facebook on our Facebook discussion module. This was in response 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.160 to our conversation about different names for what we call 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:11.480 dust bunnies. Daniel says in Swedish a dust bunny is 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.720 dam rata, meaning dust rat, which seems even more fitting. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.160 A bunny is a cute, often domesticated animal. A rat 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.800 is a bringer of decay and pestilence. I interpret Daniel 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.280 to be saying, in the popular imagination, you know, not 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.840 slandering rats as an animal, though of course they do 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:30.760 in fact in some cases bring disease. 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.280 Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm not cutting rats any slack here there. 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:38.200 Gris Daniel goes on. I had always assumed it would 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.560 be the same in the other Scandinavian languages, but apparently not. 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:46.080 Norwegian goes with hohosa stove house dust, straightforward but not 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.600 very imaginative. Danish, on the other hand, seems to go 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:54.480 the other way with nullermand, which translates to the ominous, 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.080 the outright ominous nothing men. 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:02.200 Oo, the nothing men are under your sweetie, we have 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:06.720 to clean tomorrow. Yeah, that's definitely ominous. This is great. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.160 This is exactly what we wanted to hear from everybody. 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.560 Be it because again I found, like, at least the 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.040 resources I was discovering online, it didn't have a lot 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:23.280 about the various international terms for dust bunnies. So keep 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.200 them coming. And thank you Daniel for writing in with this. 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:28.840 Yes, please, yeah, and thank you Daniel. 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:36.960 All Right, this one comes to us from Harry. It says, hey, Robin, Joe, 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:40.400 Harry from Stockholm. Here, listening to your third dust episode 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:42.560 on my way to endo work. I was struck by 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:47.280 a scenario you mentioned just before diving in the Sobriety's Paradox. 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.840 This was the parable of the movie set designer who 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:53.280 has no dust machine and must wait for the scenes 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.480 requisite dust to accumulate. It struck me that this scenario 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:01.320 is a good example of an observer's behavior changing the 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:05.200 outcome of the observation. Like photons bouncing off electrons and 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:09.159 quantum theory, the set designer's breath, their movement to and 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.639 from the point of anxious observation would inhibit the accumulation 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.960 of dust by changing the air occurrence of the room. 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:17.880 It tugs on the heartstrings to imagine the poor set 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:22.920 designer as Tantalus, expectantly watching one spot for dust as 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.600 other neglected surfaces of the set become dusty. Thanks and 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:27.840 keep up the good work, Harry. 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.320 Oh that's great, Harry. What a sad scene you've painted here. 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:33.560 And I kind of want to see it as like 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.880 a short film. Now this is it could be quite interesting, 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:38.520 the dust Wrangler. 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.440 All right, we can finish up with a couple of 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:50.840 messages about weird house cinema. This is from Liza. Liza 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.360 says Hi, Rob, Joe and jj E. Liza here, longtime listener, 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:58.360 first time writer. I just finished your Dead Mountaineers Hotel 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:00.679 episode and I have to say, growing up in Russia, 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.119 I have never heard of this film. Perhaps it was 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.320 too controversial or too dark in nature for its time. 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:08.760 I ended up watching it as soon as I finished 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.840 the episode, and boy was I not disappointed. In answer 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.399 to your question, the pool game they are playing is 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:19.120 called Russian billiard or Russian pyramid. It's essentially the same 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.639 as pool, but the balls are bigger, which makes it 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:26.240 quite a bit harder to score. Fascinating, Liza says, I'm 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.040 very excited to recommend you another Soviet sci fi film 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:33.320 called Ivan Vasilievich back to the Future. Unlike Dead in 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.199 Mountaineer's Hotel, it is very much a comedy and an 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:39.720 all time classic. Our version of Monty Python, one might say, 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:42.040 might not be the best fit for Weird House, as 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:46.119 it's not horror by any means, but definitely a must watch. Nonetheless, 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:48.879 Best of luck and keep up the great work, Liza 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.080 from Russia. Oh and it just occurred to me that 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.320 maybe Lisa. I don't know Lisa or Liza. Thank you 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:56.320 for writing in Yeah, and thank you for the recommendation. 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.320 Yeah, this film is completely off my radar. I'm not 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.399 familiar with it. All Right, here's another weird house response. 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.280 This one is from Pat and this is a response 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.000 to our discussion of Dragon Slayer, which also gets into 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.720 a brief discussion of just eclipse movies solar eclipse movies 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:14.800 in general, of which we said there are very few 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:22.359 to choose from. Pat rides in and says, guys, another 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.320 fun show. Best solar eclipse movie A Connecticut Yankee and 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.560 King Arthur's Court a very silly Bing Crosby musical. Thanks 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:30.639 Pat from Larida. 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.600 Yeah, I didn't consider this because I actually have not 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.280 seen this movie, but it's weird to me that there 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:41.680 would be a goofy bing Crosby musical based on a 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.520 Connecticut Yankee, because I mean, I guess the novel is funny, 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:50.640 but so. It's a satirical novel by Mark Twain, which 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.919 is about a late nineteenth century engineer who gets knocked 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.200 on the head and then wakes up in early medieval England, 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.359 figures out the date, and uses his knowledge of a 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.960 coming solar eclipse to amaze the superstitious locals and eventually 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.240 gain a position of power in King Arthur's Court, where 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.600 he tries to go on to turn medieval England into 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.320 a democratic republic. And give them industrial age, technology and 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.199 so forth. But the church and the aristocracy resist his 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:21.320 reforms and revolt against him. 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.560 Yeah. I read this story when I was a kid, 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.800 and I remember, I don't know, being at least mildly 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:31.600 amused by it. I don't remember loving it. But of 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:33.720 course it's been the basis for several films. Of course 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:37.040 the nineteen forty nine adaptation. Also there is a nineteen 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.199 seventy nine film that is sometimes referred to as a 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:44.159 Spaceman in King Arthur's Court. There is a nineteen ninety 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.480 five film, A Kid in King Arthur's Court, and then 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:51.040 of course there is the two thousand and one film 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.640 Black Knight, starring Martin Lawrence as a time traveler. 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:58.200 I think it's interesting that it has all of these 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.359 adaptations where the tone is quite silly. I guess maybe 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.240 the tone of the novel is quite silly, But from 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:09.040 what I understand, the point of the satire is pretty sharp, 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:14.200 like it was a humorous attack on people who unlike Medievalism, 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.640 on people who had a romantic, idealized view of medieval 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.280 European life of monarchy and chivalry or nightly virtues like 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.320 what you would get in Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, and 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:30.240 in the political context where Twain was writing, this romantic 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:35.520 medievalist view was especially common among people who also romanticized 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.840 the US Antebellum South and the Confederacy in the Civil War. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:46.120 So Twain, I think, with that association, is reacting against 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.280 that and painting a picture of knights and kings not 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:53.160 as noble and angelic beings but as violent and ignorant 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:57.199 hoarders of power. And I've not seen this movie from 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.880 nineteen forty nine, but it is fun to think about 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:02.720 it that way and then think they turned it into 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:07.600 a funny musical starring Bing Crosby. But anyway, Bing Crosby 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.040 musicals are not something I know a whole lot about, 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:13.200 you know. It's I think the extent of my knowledge 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:16.399 is having seen the Christmas One, whatever it is, the 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:19.000