We’re back and we’re catching up with our sleep. You think we’d be trying harder to escape, given that we’ve been tied up and lowered into the abysmal depths under the pyramids. But, no, we’re just going to nod off for a while and hope our dreams offer some useful clues. It’s how Harry Houdini himself would have handled the situation, at least when he was being written by HP Lovecraft. Now, let’s drift off again and see if we can find a way out of this labyrinth!

Main Topic: Under the Pyramids

Following last episode’s exploration of the life of Harry Houdini, we thought we’d follow up with a look at his collaboration with HP Lovecraft — “Under the Pyramids”, also known as “Imprisoned With the Pharaohs”. We spend a little more time than usual discussing the origins of the story, partly because they offer insight into the unlikely relationship between the two men, but mostly because they’re just so damn weird.

The story itself may be a minor one in Lovecraft’s canon, but we still find gaming inspiration. But, mostly, we delight in the phrase “corpse gurgle”. And why shouldn’t we?

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Strange NPCs: Harry Houdini
• A Dreamer and a Visionary: HP Lovecraft in His Time by ST Joshi
• I Am Providence: The Life and Times of HP Lovecraft by ST Joshi
• Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters by HP Lovecraft, ST Joshi, and David E Schultz
• Weird Tales
• Houdini in Weird Tales
• Frank Belknap Long
• “The Mound” by HP Lovecraft for Zealia Bishop
• Sonia Greene
• “Hypnos” by HP Lovecraft
• “The Loved Dead” by HP Lovecraft and CM Eddy Jr
• The Cancer of Superstition by HP Lovecraft and CM Eddy Jr for Harry Houdini
• Spiritualism
• Masks of Nyarlathotep

• The Great Pyramid of Giza
• Khephren the Great
• The Great Sphinx of Giza
• Nitocris
• “The Outsider” by HP Lovecraft
• The Queen’s Enemies by Lord Dunsany
• “The Vengeance of Nitocris” by Tennessee Williams
• Natron
• Subterranean spaces in Lovecraft
• Late Night With the Devil (2023)
• Pschent
• “We All Stand Together” by Paul McCartney and the Frog Chorus
• “The Call of Cthulhu” by HP Lovecraft
• Azathoth

• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by HP Lovecraft
• “Herbert West — Reanimator” by HP Lovecraft
• Ryan George
• Robert Bloch
• Osiris
• The soul and the Ancient Egyptian afterlife
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by HP Lovecraft
• Cities of the Red Night by William S Burroughs
• The Place of Dead Roads by William S Burroughs
• The Western Lands by William S Burroughs
• The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
• “The Nameless City” by HP Lovecraft
• Mysteries of the Worm by Robert Bloch

News

Matt and Paul at Necronomicon

Matt and Paul will be attending the NecronomiCon convention in Providence this month. Please do say hi if you spot them in the wild!

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