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