Happy almost Halloween, scouts! On this episode, we’re joined by the wonderful Emily Edwards, host of the Fuckbois of Literature podcast, a podcast about the toxic characters you encounter in all your favorite books! (Apparently, Amy March is not a fuckboi (?!)) We also chat about the delightful Grady Hendrix, horror writer and author of Horrorstor and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, two books that will make you laugh, cry, and gasp in horror, sometimes at the same time! We also discuss our experiences with supernatural phenomena, why Edgar Allan Poe was a real son of a gun to be married to, and, of course, Dear David, one of Twitter’s most important—and scariest!—contributions to social discourse.
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You.
Unknown:Welcome to the hybrid club Scout podcast with me, Emily
Unknown:einerlander and me. Corinne kalafke, hello. We're mapping
Unknown:the frontier between traditional and indie publishing today.
Unknown:We're delighted to be joined by Emily Edwards, longtime writer,
Unknown:producer and host of comedy podcast about books fuck boys of
Unknown:literature, on which she discusses toxic people from your
Unknown:favorite novels. She barely graduated with a degree in
Unknown:writing literature and publishing, but is still making
Unknown:a go of it. In addition to the podcast, she also is a freelance
Unknown:writer and is shopping around a mystery novel. Welcome Emily,
Unknown:welcome. Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited. Yeah,
Unknown:thank you for joining us for our favorite episode of the year,
Unknown:too. Yeah, Halloween is always the one we look forward to, even
Unknown:when we got, you know, into mostly interviews or like, no,
Unknown:Halloween is for us. Yeah, Halloween is for fun.
Unknown:I know there's always so much build up to Halloween. It's more
Unknown:important than, like, the actual, like, December holidays
Unknown:that people celebrate. I'm like, Halloween is universal,
Unknown:especially amongst English nerds. For some reason it is
Unknown:just like, it's everything, and it makes me so happy. Yeah, it's
Unknown:a, it's a, just let me have this situation right now. Exactly.
Unknown:Yeah, true.
Unknown:Like, I'm super, super busy right now, but I was with work,
Unknown:but I was like, I'm doing 31 for 31 this year, and I don't care.
Unknown:I need something fun.
Unknown:Yeah, oh, I'm wearing my shining earrings.
Unknown:Etsy. We just did an episode on the shining. It was, oh yeah. I
Unknown:didn't get, I didn't listen to that one. Yeah, fine. It's
Unknown:mostly me going, what? Oh my god, what? Oh my god, the entire
Unknown:time.
Unknown:Did you see? Dr sleep, no, I'm a chicken. Okay, don't see dr
Unknown:sleep. I'm absolutely the most scaredy pants person in the
Unknown:world, so I just don't watch our movies. I apologize. Yeah, no,
Unknown:that's okay. We don't judge. Cool.
Unknown:Yeah, I'm
Unknown:actually wearing Ouija board earrings. Oh my god, that I got
Unknown:Yeah, for my birthday yesterday, but yeah, which was not
Unknown:actually, yet I was like, Wait, that's
Unknown:no.
Unknown:I did have that moment of sheer terror that I forgot your
Unknown:birthday though, even though I know I didn't. So thank you for
Unknown:that. You're welcome
Unknown:always
Unknown:so Emily, can you talk a little bit just like, tell us what your
Unknown:definition of fuck boy is that you have discovered over time,
Unknown:because it has morphed completely, you know, like, I
Unknown:started with the sort of like Lady blogosphere, you know,
Unknown:definition of like guy you don't want to date and that because I
Unknown:am not hip, I didn't know that, like, fuck boy was a term that,
Unknown:like, was really popular in African American Vernacular
Unknown:English prior to, like, it being co opted by the white lady blog
Unknown:sphere. So I was like, oh, wait a second. Like, let's go back
Unknown:and completely redefine this. So over time, like a fuck boy of
Unknown:literature has really gotten to sort of be defined as, like,
Unknown:it's a melding of the two. So, like, the initial term was,
Unknown:like, just a really crappy guy that you don't want anything to
Unknown:do with, and then it turned into, like a guy you don't want
Unknown:to date. And so it's like those things kind of melded, and then
Unknown:you have to take into like consideration all this sort of,
Unknown:like societal
Unknown:power structures that are involved. So it's like, usually
Unknown:it's like a guy who was born into massive privilege who,
Unknown:like, has a major chip on his shoulder, he looks down on
Unknown:everybody, and he's a really crappy romantic partner. I think
Unknown:that those are, like the big, sort of, like four touchstones
Unknown:of what makes a fuckboy in literature. And let me tell you,
Unknown:they're everywhere. They really are. They really are. I was
Unknown:like, looking at today's book that I read and going, there,
Unknown:there's one, and then there's another one, but in a different
Unknown:way. And this one is certainly a parade. It's a cavalcade of fuck
Unknown:boys of literature. And like, you know, I people get asked me
Unknown:all the time, like, when are you going to do fuck boys from like,
Unknown:Latin American literature or African literature? And I'm just
Unknown:kind of like, not my place. I'm going to talk about the Western
Unknown:canon. Yeah, that seems like a whole thing. Yeah. Easy.
Unknown:Don't want to do. I mean, you already, like, said that fuck
Unknown:boy was, you know, I just assume now, if I see a new piece of
Unknown:slang on the internet that it's probably been appropriated.
Unknown:I'm just kind of like, maybe I should just talk like the total
Unknown:nerd I am. I just never was. That's what's really inside of
Unknown:me so hard to like. I still apologize to people. I'm just,
Unknown:like, I didn't know I should have done more research. I'm
Unknown:really sorry. Like, I'm the whitest woman that's ever walked
Unknown:the planet. I'm from Connecticut, like, I really
Unknown:should have done research before. I'd named my podcast
Unknown:this. Like, sincere apologies. Like I really should have done
Unknown:some googling before.
Unknown:Yeah, it's okay. I mean, I'm not, you know, it's not my place
Unknown:to be resolved. Obviously, several guests of color as well,
Unknown:and they're just kind of like, as long as you know now it's
Unknown:okay.
Unknown:You have some, there's, there's some fuck ladies of literature
Unknown:on your podcast too, though, yeah, oh yeah. It is a gender
Unknown:neutral term. It is just like anybody who plays with power
Unknown:machinations in order to, like, get ahead and spite people is
Unknown:generally like part of the fuck boy canon. So are we? Is Amy
Unknown:March a fuck boy. I personally I'm an Amy March apologist. I
Unknown:love, yeah, like, with Corrine. Hate saying I'm not gonna, no,
Unknown:it's fine. It's totally fine. Like, I oh my gosh, I get into
Unknown:like, tips with people all the time. They're like, What do you
Unknown:mean? Jane Eyre, and I'm like, I'm sorry.
Unknown:I have very unpopular literature opinions. But you know, you
Unknown:have, like, I read lady oddly secret Daisy Buchanan from Great
Unknown:Gatsby. She's a total fuck boy. There's lady fuck boys all over
Unknown:the place. Miss Havisham was the episode. What
Unknown:actually ends up happening, though, is that usually my
Unknown:guests and I will talk about the lady fuck boys. And then they're
Unknown:like, but we actually love her, like, I'm sorry, like, she's a
Unknown:total fuck boy, but you gotta give it to her, right? And then
Unknown:usually it's like, it's the author who's the fuck boy.
Unknown:Generally, yeah,
Unknown:well, I would venture to say that this author that we're
Unknown:talking about today is not, not, not a fuck boy. He seems like
Unknown:someone I'd want to hang out with. Oh yeah, definitely, yeah,
Unknown:definitely. But the Korean what are we talking about? Go ahead.
Unknown:No, no. Go ahead. I was gonna say because, like, we are gonna
Unknown:have to touch upon a different writer, you know, much older
Unknown:writer, definitely, fuck boy.
Unknown:Oh yeah. And I've got another one to throw in there too that I
Unknown:founded my research. Do you
Unknown:want to introduce our topic? Corinne, sure, yeah. Just read
Unknown:his bio. I assume you mean, well, yeah. And I mean, at least
Unknown:say the name. Oh, yeah. Okay.
Unknown:So we're going to be talking about prolific, I would say
Unknown:horror writer Grady Hendrix, so he writes fiction and he writes
Unknown:nonfiction. I'm sorry, I'm like, reading this bio, and it's like,
Unknown:funny, so it says it doesn't, you know, I'm just gonna read it
Unknown:because it's, it is, it's like, two pages, but you know what?
Unknown:Yeah, it goes back to our roots. I'll just read, I won't, yeah,
Unknown:where we just read? Like, article.
Unknown:Those were the days. All right. Back to that. Let's keep I don't
Unknown:have any more interviews on the docket. Let's just start talking
Unknown:done with with professionalism by all of my listeners,
Unknown:all of our listeners, bang with a lady who hosts a podcast
Unknown:called fuck boys of literature. Yeah, I think it's gonna be
Unknown:called hybrid pub Scout goes to hell.
Unknown:I don't know, like Corinne, you and I can have a brainstorming
Unknown:session. Yeah? No, I like that. I like that.
Unknown:All right. So, okay. Grady Hendrix writes fiction, also
Unknown:called lies, and he writes nonfiction, which people
Unknown:sometimes accidentally pay him for. He is the author of horror
Unknown:store, the only novel about a haunted Scandinavian furniture
Unknown:store you'll ever need. It has been an obvious
Unknown:All right.
Unknown:It has been translated into 14 languages and is being turned
Unknown:into a movie from the people who made quality films like 1917 and
Unknown:Black Swan. Foolishly, they are paying Grady to write it. He is
Unknown:busy inserting a whole lot of tutus into it right now. That's
Unknown:exciting, all right.
Unknown:I don't remember a ballet from that book, but, oh, wow. We'll
Unknown:see what happens if anyone can do it. I'm sure he can his novel
Unknown:my best friend's exorcism, about demonic possession, friendship,
Unknown:exorcism and the 80s is basically beaches meets The
Unknown:Exorcist, and it caused the Wall Street Journal to call him,
Unknown:quote, a national treasure, and received rave reviews from
Unknown:everyone from carcass to Southern Living. Surprisingly,
Unknown:this is still not enough.
Unknown:For him to earn his mother's love,
Unknown:Southern Living, yes, Southern. He's from South Carolina, so I
Unknown:think, like, he's right, like, so, yeah, he's probably, like,
Unknown:a, you know, hometown cried kind of guy, all right? And you still
Unknown:like him. I do regardless. Yeah, you know, you despite the fact
Unknown:that he's from the south or very Korean, was traumatized by the
Unknown:South I was I'm from Connecticut. I get it. Yeah,
Unknown:all right, refusing to stop trying to prove himself to his
Unknown:family. He also wrote paperbacks from hell, a history of the
Unknown:horror paperback boom in the 70s and 80s. It is so popular it won
Unknown:a Stoker award. And while you may not know what that is. Trust
Unknown:me when I say that it's a big, big deal that gets Grady 20% off
Unknown:all purchases at the Franklin
Unknown:All right. His next novel was we sold our souls, a heavy metal
Unknown:take on the Faust legend, which hit bookstores in 2018 and got
Unknown:selected as one of the best books of 2018 by Library Journal
Unknown:the Chicago Public Library, and finally, his mom, it's
Unknown:also
Unknown:one of locusts recommended novels of 2018 and earned him an
Unknown:article in the LA Review of Books that makes him sound like
Unknown:some kind of smart person or something. He's not, all right.
Unknown:His latest novel is the New York Times bestseller, The Southern
Unknown:book Club's guide to slaying vampires, which is being turned
Unknown:into a TV series by Amazon right now because they own everything.
Unknown:Isn't that true? All right, in a surprise twist, this book is
Unknown:actually about a Southern Vampire getting clubbed to death
Unknown:with books by the band Slayer. Grady Hendrix used to be a
Unknown:journalist, which means that he was completely irrelevant and
Unknown:could be killed and turned into food at any time. He he is one
Unknown:of the founders of the New York Asian Film Festival, but he is
Unknown:not response responsible for the bad parts of it. He is also not
Unknown:Asian. For years, I have something I'm going to throw in
Unknown:something right now because I was doing research on him. He
Unknown:has a podcast that he started in May. Oh, cool. And he's doing a
Unknown:whole series on vampires. And there's an episode about Chinese
Unknown:vampires, which, like I was, I taught in China for a year in a
Unknown:college, and they were all learning, like English
Unknown:literature, and they were reading Dracula, and I was
Unknown:sitting with my like small group, one of the girls goes, we
Unknown:don't have vampires like that here. And I was like, Well, what
Unknown:are your vampires here? Like she goes, they hold their arms out
Unknown:and they jump, jump, jump.
Unknown:What are you talking about? And apparently it's this, like,
Unknown:zombie, vampire hybrid that like can't bend its arm, but its neck
Unknown:gets really low. Anyway. I'm gonna totally listen to his
Unknown:episode about it. I don't all I know is they jump, jump, jump.
Unknown:All right. For years, he was a regular film critic for the New
Unknown:York Sun, but then it
Unknown:went out of business. He has written for Playboy magazine,
Unknown:slate, the village, voice, the New York Post, film, comment and
Unknown:variety. He has a hard time making up his mind. There is a
Unknown:science fiction book called occupy space that he is the
Unknown:author of, and also a fantasy book called Satan loves you,
Unknown:which he wrote as well, along with his BFF from high school,
Unknown:Katie crouch. He's the co author of the YA series, the Magnolia
Unknown:League. He co authored Dirt Candy, a cookbook, the first
Unknown:graphic novel cookbook in America with his wife and Ryan
Unknown:Dunleavy lady. It's now in its seventh printing, which means
Unknown:that at least 24 people have bought his fiction has appeared
Unknown:in strange horizon pseudo pod and the anthology, the mad
Unknown:scientist guide to world domination. He is very, very
Unknown:beautiful, but if you ever meet him, please do not let this make
Unknown:you uncomfortable. He does not judge. The New Yorker once ran a
Unknown:short profile of him, and this means that when the time comes
Unknown:and they are lining people up for the space arcs, he will be
Unknown:guaranteed a seat ahead of you the end. So that's a great buy.
Unknown:I wish,
Unknown:God, I wish every author had that much of a sense of humor
Unknown:about themselves, like you know, that would make my job a lot
Unknown:easier. But whatever, apparently also, like he in every book, I
Unknown:don't, I don't remember this. Maybe I don't know if you have
Unknown:the book with you, Corinne
Unknown:in the dedication or acknowledgement, he like, kills
Unknown:his wife or something. Oh, let me see you said something like,
Unknown:my wife, Amanda, demands to be killed in every book.
Unknown:Oh, yeah, because it says, it says, For Amanda, who knows the
Unknown:reasons why? Asterisk, asterisk. And then at the bottom, it says,
Unknown:But if she doesn't, I would suggest she have her attorney
Unknown:consoled, both protective orders filed against her the criminal
Unknown:complaint, which outlines these reasons in great detail, and
Unknown:maybe also her conscience, because disclosing the
Unknown:whereabouts of the bodies will finally bring some kind of
Unknown:closure for my family.
Unknown:That's awesome.
Unknown:Oh, my
Unknown:God.
Unknown:She was on an episode of Iron Chef. I literally was obsessed
Unknown:with her restaurant and the cookbook because I saw her like
Unknown:Battle Morimoto on an episode of Iron Chef.
Unknown:I was like, Wait, they're married. That's so cool.
Unknown:That is very cool. What a world, what a world. Yeah, I was
Unknown:listening. I don't want to steal the because it's about my best
Unknown:friend's exorcism, but I don't want to steal this story from
Unknown:you that I like texted you about before this. Steal it. Yeah, he
Unknown:wrote the first draft of my best friend's exorcism and was like,
Unknown:super proud of himself and gave it to her. And she was like,
Unknown:okay, cool. We'll talk about this later. And then they, like,
Unknown:got on the subway, and she was like, so I actually it's really
Unknown:cliche, and I don't think it's very good. He, like, freaked the
Unknown:fuck out, like, jump, like, left the train. It was like, I'm
Unknown:getting on the next one
Unknown:credit. How is it? How is it? Though it's yeah, like I said in
Unknown:my Instagram review, I give it five out of five pentagrams. It
Unknown:was really good, really good. It was like, I mean, so it's
Unknown:basically, it's, I mean, it's true. In his bio, it is like,
Unknown:beaches meets The Exorcist, where it follows these, like,
Unknown:high school girls who are best friends, and then one of them
Unknown:gets possessed, and the other one tries to, like, strike, you
Unknown:know, like,
Unknown:not strike, the demon out. What is the word? Thank you, yes.
Unknown:Cast the demon out of her with the help of, like, an exorcist
Unknown:who's not really qualified to be an exorcist. But anyway, who is,
Unknown:who is exactly, that's a good question.
Unknown:So, but he had no he writes, I will say also, he writes, like,
Unknown:girls very well, yeah, you know, like, he Yeah. Like, I was kind
Unknown:of like, because you know how it is when you're reading or a
Unknown:novel, or any book by a guy and there's a female character, and
Unknown:you're like, how's this gonna go? You know, so many times it
Unknown:does not go very well, but he does it really well, really
Unknown:well. So I was impressed by that. And it's just yeah, like,
Unknown:I was telling Emily before this again, made me cry. The end of
Unknown:it like did, and not because I was scared of the exorcism, but
Unknown:because it's beaches, but it's happened before, because
Unknown:exactly, and it was very, yeah, it was very much about like, the
Unknown:strength and the power of, like, female friendship, which is
Unknown:something very near and dear to my heart. So I felt like that
Unknown:was a really that was really great, that he sort of, like,
Unknown:emphasized that so much in the book. And, I mean, the book was
Unknown:about like, two best friends or whatever, so yeah, but it was, I
Unknown:don't want to, like, give too much away about it, but, yeah,
Unknown:it was just, it was fun and it was spooky. It was definitely
Unknown:more, I mean, it was expect, I guess it's not a YA novel. So it
Unknown:were a book, so it wouldn't be like Christopher pikish, but
Unknown:that's kind of like what I was expecting when I started it. But
Unknown:it's much scarier. I feel like it's much more graphic. It's
Unknown:much more gruesome,
Unknown:like stuff happens in that did not happen. Christopher Pike,
Unknown:books I read,
Unknown:but, but, yeah, I like recommended wholeheartedly. I'm
Unknown:so glad I read it. I feel like I need a break from all these,
Unknown:like, super serious books about current events and everything
Unknown:right now. And this was, like, filled that space perfectly. So,
Unknown:yeah, unqualified recommendation. I love it. I
Unknown:loved it. Yeah, there you go.
Unknown:He
Unknown:after his wife told him it sucked. She gave him, like his
Unknown:her high school diaries, oh, my God.
Unknown:Like, this is how girls think.
Unknown:So you can thank her for that. I think, oh my gosh, that's crazy.
Unknown:Wow, that's cool. I have to admit, the only book of his that
Unknown:I've read, it was his debut, which was horror store. And, you
Unknown:know, when it came out, and it was in that format where it
Unknown:looked exactly like an Ikea catalog. That was just like, I
Unknown:love the actual like formatting of books and like how people
Unknown:design books, too. And you know, it's just like, so mind blowing
Unknown:to me six years ago when it came out that they someone had the
Unknown:guts and specifically cork, which totally makes sense, like,
Unknown:to have the just fuck with people's idea of what a book
Unknown:should look like. So much. And I apologize I should have asked if
Unknown:I can curse, because really saying fuck boy over.
Unknown:Yeah, we interviewed Ian dosher, who wrote the the
Unknown:Shakespeare Star Wars books, the forced death awakened and all
Unknown:that stuff. And he did it with cork books. And apparently he
Unknown:just, like, pitched it to them one day, like, out of nowhere,
Unknown:like, didn't know them, just, like, was like, You know what? I
Unknown:think would be really fun. They were like, that does sound
Unknown:really fun? You're right. Oh my gosh. It's like, they just, they
Unknown:just sound like they hear something that sounds fun. And
Unknown:go, Okay, let's do it. So cool, cool. I mean, I don't, you know,
Unknown:aside from the fact that I want to be part of it, I don't know a
Unknown:whole lot about the publishing industry. And, like, how,
Unknown:basically, small, smallish imprints get away with stuff
Unknown:like that. Mm, hmm.
Unknown:I think that for that one, the George George Lucas's people
Unknown:came in, like, and gave them money. Yeah, that's a good
Unknown:point. That's a good point. Yeah, how the other ones do,
Unknown:though? Because that's expensive. What
Unknown:do you think of horror stories? Again, like, I'm chicken, so it
Unknown:scared the living bejesus out of me. And like, you know, I put
Unknown:myself through college working retail, so I was, you know, it
Unknown:was so incredibly realistic in every single character and
Unknown:character type that was there. Because, like, you don't think
Unknown:of those people as archetypes of stories, but you think, but once
Unknown:you see like see them in that sort of setting, there are
Unknown:obviously archetypes of people that you meet when you're
Unknown:working crappy retail jobs. And it was, I just thought it was
Unknown:the most ingeniously delightfully terrifying book I'd
Unknown:ever read.
Unknown:It was, and it was certainly redolent to fuck. Oh god, yeah.
Unknown:Oh god, yeah. I mean, you know, it's just because they had this
Unknown:wonderful
Unknown:sort of setup in the beginning where there's a character named
Unknown:Matt who's working in this giant IKEA knockoff. And Matt is, he's
Unknown:so down on working there, which is like everybody when you work
Unknown:retail. And he, you know, he makes all these references that
Unknown:are so familiar now, you know, five years later that, like,
Unknown:people use of like, oh, this is prison. Oh, this is just like
Unknown:the corporate overlords are driving you and, like, the first
Unknown:time I read it, I didn't pick up on any of that that, you know,
Unknown:this was all going to tie into the haunted bits that are
Unknown:happening towards them. You know, at the end, because you
Unknown:get 50% of the way through the book, and then there's a massive
Unknown:twist, and then it starts getting scary as hell. And so,
Unknown:you know, it's really, it's foreboding, you know, it's very
Unknown:like creepy up until about 50% of the way through, and then
Unknown:it's terrifying. And, like, you don't really, and the first time
Unknown:I read it, I didn't notice all the threads that he wove
Unknown:through. And of course, now that I reread it for this show, you
Unknown:know, five or six years after I read it for the first time, I
Unknown:was like, oh, god damn, you're just so talented. Like, how dare
Unknown:you be this funny and be this good at breadcrumbs and be that
Unknown:talented of a writer, because also, it's hard to write horror,
Unknown:it is really hard to write horror. And I was like, goddamn
Unknown:talent.
Unknown:So it was Matt. Matt also, like,
Unknown:is is very fuck boyish in a very familiar way, like, like guys
Unknown:you've dated kind of Yeah, because, like, you know, there's
Unknown:the archetypes of the people in the store, and they're all like
Unknown:walking stereotypes, which is really hard to pull off without
Unknown:making them seem like walking stereotypes. And, you know, and
Unknown:Matt is doing anything he can to get Trinity, the cute Asian
Unknown:girl, like, into bed with him. He is just like lying through
Unknown:his teeth in order to, like, win over the hot girl that everybody
Unknown:in the who works in the store wants to be with. And it's just
Unknown:like watching his mats, like machinations and the lies and
Unknown:his backing up and then reframing things so other people
Unknown:don't think worse of him, and he's always trying to save face.
Unknown:And I'm like, oh, especially when you work in large stores,
Unknown:there's always that guy, like, it's just so wonderfully crafted
Unknown:of dealing with, like, the high school esque, you know,
Unknown:personality pushes in a store that's staffed entirely by
Unknown:adults, you know, And to pull out those sorts of that
Unknown:pettiness that never leaves you is so just brilliant, especially
Unknown:in, like, a horror story, you know, sort of background,
Unknown:because you always think about horror movies, and it's always
Unknown:like people in high school, or they're young, and they're
Unknown:college aged, and they're always making stupid decisions, and
Unknown:then you just, Like, balk when you see like grown adults doing
Unknown:the exact same thing, and you realize you don't actually ever
Unknown:grow up. That is actually the key of horror. You never do. You
Unknown:never do. Oh, poor Ruthann
Unknown:got the worst spoiler alert.
Unknown:Ruth Ann got done wrong, and when she was like, Snoopy is
Unknown:waiting at home on the couch, I was like, fuck you. Fuck you.
Unknown:You. Grady. Her speech that she gives the main character, Amy.
Unknown:When Amy is just like, I'm above everything. I hate working here,
Unknown:like everything is horrible. Like, even though, like my
Unknown:Italian dad always said to me, when you're hungry, there is no
Unknown:bad bread. Like no job is beneath you. And Amy's like, I
Unknown:need to pay my bills. And then Ruth Ann is like, listen, here
Unknown:you little bitch. Like,
Unknown:also very familiar, so familiar. There's always that person too.
Unknown:There's always like, the older woman who's like, you're you
Unknown:think you're great, don't you?
Unknown:Wait, just wait.
Unknown:Yeah, I was just so impressed. And then Matt, like, the bit
Unknown:where he's, like, trying to impress Amy with how smart he,
Unknown:like, he's not attracted to her, but he still needs to impress
Unknown:her, kind of thing. And when he starts talking about the
Unknown:panopticon, that's like, what set me off? Because, like, I had
Unknown:a boyfriend who, like, used that to impress me one day, like he's
Unknown:like, let me explain to you, like Foucault's like, critique
Unknown:the panopticon. Oh, my God, I'm just like, Jesus Christ. Why I'm
Unknown:I'm having, like, every early 2000s
Unknown:liberal arts education can be summed up by the the theories of
Unknown:Foucault and Derrida. And I'm always just like, Thanks guys,
Unknown:like
Unknown:any guy who pulls that out and like casual conversation, I'm
Unknown:always just like, Ah, yes, you. I see you. Congratulations. I
Unknown:too happy.
Unknown:Yeah,
Unknown:I also like that. But what I did, okay, I do have to give
Unknown:Grady Hendrix, some good credit on that tip where, like
Unknown:how he tied in the villains. Like Outlook to it, because I
Unknown:was recently reading Angela Davis, because I'm pretentious
Unknown:too,
Unknown:but she the our prisons obsolete, and she was talking
Unknown:about, like, the birth of the penitentiary. And she was
Unknown:talking about how it started from almost like this novelist
Unknown:point of view, where it's like, this is a redeeming procedure,
Unknown:like, you go to prison to become a better like, very
Unknown:you said you haven't read Dostoevsky, right? Or, like,
Unknown:okay, so like, crime and punishment. Like, spoiler alert,
Unknown:he gets, I'm shocked at the end, and so he's in jail, or, like,
Unknown:he's in prison at a work camp. And it just kind of like
Unknown:explores how he's been, like, spiritually reborn inside of the
Unknown:work camp. And it's like, this is what people used to think
Unknown:prison did. I mean, I think the entire concept of this is going
Unknown:off out into left field, but I'm pretty sure, I feel like the
Unknown:entire concept of incarceration is forcing a narrative on
Unknown:someone, you know, it's like this Christian, you know,
Unknown:Western Christian concept of like, we're going to force you
Unknown:into redemption, and we're going to force you into sort of like,
Unknown:a narrative arc where you're going to pay and then be reborn,
Unknown:and it's just like, No, it's just torture,
Unknown:yeah, and that's literally, like, what the root of the
Unknown:message of this book becomes, whereas, like, we we have this
Unknown:like, evil character who's going to fix everyone, and really, he
Unknown:just ends up, like, torturing all of them to death.
Unknown:Oh yeah. I mean, it's so deeply rooted in American Gothic
Unknown:literature that I didn't quite realize again, like the first
Unknown:time that I read it, and I was a very bad student, so I didn't
Unknown:read anything that was assigned to me. And so to just sort of
Unknown:like, go back now with the education that I'm forcing on
Unknown:myself while I do this podcast, and just to realize how deeply
Unknown:seated it is. You know, Grady Hendrix, his work is actually
Unknown:in, like, historical gothic literature, like is, it's
Unknown:actually very surprising.
Unknown:What were you do? You have any like examples in particular that
Unknown:you saw, I think my immediate recollection is actually Edgar
Unknown:Allan Poe's mask of the Red Death.
Unknown:Good old Poe,
Unknown:the fuck boy in the prison scenario here, like, was
Unknown:Foucault, though, because I heard someone told me like he
Unknown:was a pedophile. And I was like, really? And I looked it up, and
Unknown:apparently, in France, there was some kind of Harper's letter
Unknown:that a bunch of authors did, including Simone de Beauvoir and
Unknown:John Paul Sartre signed it as well, and it was about how
Unknown:having sex with minors is a
Unknown:liberative process for both parties. Yeah, yeah, no, I knew
Unknown:that about them, and that's one of the reasons why I don't
Unknown:really. I always smile and nod when people suggested you
Unknown:Simone, I'm just like, I don't want to touch that right now.
Unknown:No,
Unknown:thank you. I mean, yeah, something to be said for Edgar
Unknown:Allan Poe, who also married a girl who was 13. Oh, yeah, did
Unknown:you? Did you look into that whole thing? Because I heard
Unknown:about it on a different podcast. Like, way more details about it.
Unknown:I didn't go into massive, massive detail. I mean, like,
Unknown:his biography is just basically his wife, who was barely 13 and
Unknown:also consumptive, and he had a massive drinking problem. So put
Unknown:that all in a cocktail shaker and you get just like massive,
Unknown:massive abuse. Also, he was massive.
Unknown:Never particularly well off, and incredibly resentful of his well
Unknown:off adopted parents who cut him off. It's just like every single
Unknown:soap opera detail that you could throw into someone's life in
Unknown:order to make them just like miserable.
Unknown:I think that he was, I can't remember. It was on a on a
Unknown:podcast called it's by women, women suspense authors,
Unknown:unlikable female characters, is the name of it. And, yeah, and
Unknown:so they were talking about how, like, he knew her when she was a
Unknown:baby,
Unknown:and basically, like, bought her from they were technically
Unknown:impoverished, yeah, yeah. They were, like, removed cousins. Oh
Unknown:yeah, okay. Cool guy, yeah. I'm just so glad we have a, you
Unknown:know, funny wife guy writing the horror novels now, seriously,
Unknown:yeah, that's much better. So like, they're going into Grady
Unknown:Hendrix, because he's also very active on Twitter. And so, like,
Unknown:we have to remember, you know, that he didn't exactly have a
Unknown:normal childhood, if you want to remember that creepy ass story
Unknown:he told on Twitter a couple months ago.
Unknown:Do tell. Do tell. Oh, my God. So he, this is how, like, I
Unknown:realized he was on Twitter because he's not, like, one of
Unknown:my most favorite authors. So I wasn't like, I need to follow
Unknown:him. And then, you know, I saw the Twitter feed going around,
Unknown:and I was like, Oh, I know that name, this explains everything.
Unknown:And so like, he and his family grew up in like, a relatively,
Unknown:like new build house, and one day he went down stairs to go
Unknown:sneak something from the refrigerator when he was a
Unknown:little kid, and he saw a person eating out of the refrigerator
Unknown:when he, like, in the middle of the night, and he was like, What
Unknown:the shit? Because when you're a little kid, like, how else do
Unknown:you react? Like, that's the scariest thing as an adult. I'm
Unknown:35 years old, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard
Unknown:of in my life. And so he told his parents,
Unknown:and they were like, No, that's not real. You must have just
Unknown:been thinking it up. Guess what? Parents don't ever say that to a
Unknown:little kid. Don't ever say that to a little kid. It's a fucking
Unknown:horror trope.
Unknown:Okay, it is okay. So now that you say it's a horror trope, I
Unknown:am going to assume that this is a real story, because I am just
Unknown:like, could have been made up. I don't know. I'm gonna assume.
Unknown:Ah, see, I'm, see, this is the fun part about doing this over
Unknown:zoom, because I normally don't do it with video, and I can see
Unknown:your faces now. And I'm just
Unknown:like, I don't know it happened. So like, like, the story
Unknown:continuing. It was just like, he is positive that there's a
Unknown:person, like, living in his house and his parents don't
Unknown:believe him. And then one day, he's saying, there's a funk
Unknown:coming from his air conditioning deck. And this is the grossest
Unknown:thing, and everybody can extrapolate where this is going,
Unknown:but that's okay. And so he's saying, like, there's a funk
Unknown:coming from the air conditioning unit. Like, what's going on? All
Unknown:of a sudden there are maggots falling out of his air
Unknown:conditioning duct, I know. And then he's just like, clearly,
Unknown:something is wrong here. Fingers crossed. It's just a raccoon.
Unknown:Mom and Dad go up there, like, go and check it out. And then it
Unknown:turns out that the guy who was living in his house died in the
Unknown:air conditioning unit. And like, that was the funk that, like,
Unknown:was emanating throughout the house. PS, he had also seen eyes
Unknown:watching him through the air conditioning duct for many
Unknown:months leading up to this
Unknown:terrible storytelling skills. But still, that was great. Also,
Unknown:no, you hear about that kind of stuff all the time and like, it
Unknown:always ends with and then they the police went up in the attic,
Unknown:and there was a there was a sleeping bag in the bag of shit,
Unknown:no, no, or, like a lot, there's a secret crawl space underneath
Unknown:my bedroom. Like, no, no, yeah, yeah. There's a reason. There's
Unknown:a shitload of boxes on the door to the crawl space in my closet.
Unknown:Oh,
Unknown:my Yeah. So I'm just like, okay, no wonder you're a horror
Unknown:writer. That makes sense. Yeah? One thing leads to another.
Unknown:Yeah, yeah. As as the Italians say, uh, say, No, a Baro e
Unknown:buenovado.
Unknown:If it's not true, it's still a good story.
Unknown:I never heard I said it wrong. That's wonderful. Yeah,
Unknown:I love Twitter. I love Twitter's horror stories so much. That's
Unknown:something Corrine and I like to send each other when we find
Unknown:that that is true, that is true. Corinne was obsessed with Dear
Unknown:David for a long time. Really.
Unknown:That is, what is that? Oh, oh, well,
Unknown:I'm trying to remember, I put a link in the in the doc. I was
Unknown:gonna say, thank you for doing that, because it's been long as
Unknown:long time since I I think that you are especially scared of it
Unknown:because the cat, the cat factor like, oh, yeah, that's true.
Unknown:There's a lot of cat action. There is a lot of cat action.
Unknown:And I remember, at the time I lived alone too, and that also
Unknown:did not go, yeah, sit well with me. So see, I grew up, I feel, I
Unknown:tell everybody I grew up in a haunted house, like my house had
Unknown:legit ghosts. So yeah, you know, I'm an absolute weirdo. I
Unknown:totally believe in ghosts, like I but same I will take ghosts
Unknown:over corporeal, actual, creepy humans, like any day of the
Unknown:week. Yeah, same, those can't hurt you. They can't do
Unknown:anything. Well, they can make you hurt yourself. But that
Unknown:doesn't
Unknown:that's neither here nor there.
Unknown:My ghosts never came after me, like they were just really
Unknown:interested in the computer, and they would, like, lurk behind me
Unknown:while I was, like, writing papers and stuff, and my mom and
Unknown:I see them. You can feel them, you know when you can feel
Unknown:someone looking at you, yeah.
Unknown:Did you ever see anything like my house was laid out in a very
Unknown:funny way, because it was like a 1920s like, farmhouse,
Unknown:yeah.
Unknown:So actually, like, two houses that I lived in when I was a kid
Unknown:were haunted. The house that I lived in most of the time was in
Unknown:Connecticut, and that one, when you walked into the back door,
Unknown:you could see out of the corner of your eye like the living
Unknown:room, and you would always see someone walk through the living
Unknown:room, like every time you walked into the house, you would just
Unknown:see movement into the living room, and then, like when I
Unknown:walked up the stairs, I could always see an orb move into my
Unknown:brother's room. Whoa. I don't think I could cope. I don't
Unknown:think I could cope with that. You're like, scared of horror
Unknown:movies, and I love them, and then I've never seen a ghost,
Unknown:but you're like, whatever. It's just the orb, the floating orb
Unknown:that looks in my watch out room, just another day with the orb.
Unknown:Don't walk upstairs too fast. You might hit the orb. Well, the
Unknown:second house that I grew up, that I lived in when I was kid,
Unknown:that was a haunted actually, the ghost used to steal things. Oh,
Unknown:that's that. Isn't that like Poltergeist, yeah. And
Unknown:especially because they used to steal knives. Oh, wow, that's
Unknown:worrying, yeah. And then you just go, guys, like, I need
Unknown:that. Like, I'm doing something here. And you turn around and
Unknown:turn back, and it would be back where you left it. Oh, wow. So
Unknown:they were just kind of like, it was
Unknown:like living with Puck, you know what I mean, like,
Unknown:trickster gods,
Unknown:lots of tiptoeing, yeah, exactly.
Unknown:Yeah. One of my best friends who lived in California near, like,
Unknown:Yosemite, she swears that she also grew up in a super haunted
Unknown:house. And, like, it was the kind of thing where it was, like
Unknown:malicious haunting, where it was like things would fly off the
Unknown:shelves and like, cupboards would slam and like, really,
Unknown:like, the shit you see in the movies and stuff like that, so,
Unknown:and I completely believe her, but yeah, it's just really, it's
Unknown:not, yeah, that happened to my mom. She was living in an
Unknown:apartment on Long Island, yeah, and like, she was having a
Unknown:dinner party, and, like, the bowl of salad just lifted up off
Unknown:the counter, moved over two feet and smashed to the ground. And
Unknown:she was like, Okay. Like,
Unknown:holy guys. Like, immediately move. She stayed there for
Unknown:years. Oh, wow, good for her. Yeah, I guess it's like,
Unknown:whenever I see those movies and that, you know, you're always
Unknown:like, Get out of there, go move somewhere else. I'm like, Yeah,
Unknown:that's expenses,
Unknown:security, deposit. What are you going to tell people?
Unknown:Break your leaves that couch can't leave. It's too big for
Unknown:the doorway. What are you going to do? You
Unknown:just reason with them?
Unknown:Can you just be nice? Exactly? Yeah, but you can't. Can't
Unknown:always send them back. Like, you can't teach a ghost your job?
Unknown:Yeah, that's true. Oh my gosh, yeah. Oh man, it's so funny,
Unknown:because, like, I am just not into horror as a genre at all.
Unknown:Like, I believe in ghosts. I totally understand, like,
Unknown:witchcraft and like wanting to be close, you know, commune with
Unknown:nature and stuff like that. I just can't do the scary. I just
Unknown:can't do scary.
Unknown:Yeah, I don't know what it is, because I was, I was a huge
Unknown:scaredy cat as a kid, like, scared of everything, and I grew
Unknown:up, and then suddenly I just couldn't get enough of it. Yeah,
Unknown:and I've heard that happening to other people before, so there's
Unknown:got to be some psychological reason for it. I feel like I was
Unknown:the same way. And I think a lot of the reason that horror movies
Unknown:appeal to me also is because I was raised Catholic. So I'm
Unknown:like, even though I'm also terrified, of, like, I've seen
Unknown:the exorcist once, I am never watching it again. Like I
Unknown:thought when I was 20 and I had to sleep the light on for like,
Unknown:a month.
Unknown:So I'm not putting myself through that again. But like,
Unknown:anything that is about demon possession or about the devil,
Unknown:even though I'm not Catholic anymore, it's just like, it's
Unknown:too much and I can't handle it. But like all the other shit, I'm
Unknown:like, that's fine, zombies, serial killers, yes, yes, yes.
Unknown:Like, give me more. That's fine. But I was raised Catholic too,
Unknown:and I feel like one of the reasons why, like, I like, weird
Unknown:stuff is because Catholic, Catholicism is a deeply creepy
Unknown:religion, oh yeah, so weird. And so it's like, it's witchy as all
Unknown:get out. And so, like, I'm more comfortable with talking about,
Unknown:like, Oh yeah, you know that guy's head got chopped off, and
Unknown:then he walked around with it for a little while. Like, did
Unknown:that. There was a whole bunch of them. I just did a whole like,
Unknown:Patreon thing on it today, and I was just like, No, conveniently,
Unknown:it was thinking about people who walked around carrying their own
Unknown:separate heads just in time. But like you do, miraculously weird
Unknown:religion and so, like, and it's all witchy is all get out so,
Unknown:like, I am okay with weird. But for some reason, if there's
Unknown:like, like, I watched the descent once, and like, no, no,
Unknown:no, that was that scary, scariest thing I've ever seen in
Unknown:my life. Like I was never going to ever go spelunking, ever.
Unknown:It's not a good movie for a not horror movie person. That's
Unknown:like, that is when I tell you to steer clear.
Unknown:See, but I thought the Exorcist was hilarious, really? Yeah, I
Unknown:think it's been washy, is it? Maybe, if I wash it again now, I
Unknown:handle it. I think you it might, it might close some loops for
Unknown:Yeah, because I'm further away from, like, my Catholicism now
Unknown:than I was, yeah, it's like, and also, just like, being totally
Unknown:spoiled as, like a modern movie consumer, like, the effects are
Unknown:just laughable, like, you know, just, yeah, same thing kind of
Unknown:with the shining, but the shining is slightly different,
Unknown:because that's a little more human, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Unknown:especially the book, yes. Lee, yeah, yeah. Um, did you read The
Unknown:Exorcist? No, I haven't read the exorcist book, but I read the
Unknown:shine. It was one of my favorites when I was younger. I
Unknown:read it around the same time I watched the movie. I was like,
Unknown:oh, there's a book of this too. I'm gonna read the book.
Unknown:And
Unknown:I don't know it was very similar, but it was a lot more
Unknown:like it was, you know, the he was, he was a priest, yeah?
Unknown:Like, he believed everything he was writing, yeah, yeah, right,
Unknown:yeah, it was really important to him, so lots of detail, pretty
Unknown:scary, yeah. And I gotta tell you my reading The Exorcist
Unknown:story, yeah, that I always tell is like I was reading it during
Unknown:Christmas break, and I fell asleep in my mom's bed. One
Unknown:more, yeah, I know, right. And, and there was, I woke up to the
Unknown:bed shaking. Oh, that's right, he told me. And I like, I just,
Unknown:you know, I guess that was when I came out of my scaredy cat
Unknown:phase. Because all I thought was, Are you fucking kidding me
Unknown:right now?
Unknown:And my mom, because I'm from California, and my mom, comes to
Unknown:the door, and she goes earthquake, like, get out of
Unknown:fucking bed. I was
Unknown:like, Oh no.
Unknown:Oh good.
Unknown:I'm not being targeted. Natural phenomenon for
Unknown:reading this book. Demons aren't mad at me for it. Well, I was
Unknown:listening to that podcast you sent me with Grady Hendricks on
Unknown:it, the wired one earlier, and he was saying how, like, The
Unknown:Exorcist is scary, because, yeah, like, he believes in all
Unknown:those things. Like he believes in God, he believes in the
Unknown:devil, he believes that there are, like, demons that possess
Unknown:you. And that's like, why it's so scary. And it's just like,
Unknown:who wrote it? Not Grady Hendrix, yeah, William, sorry, William, I
Unknown:was gonna find that one a little bit difficult. Yeah. No, no, no
Unknown:Hendricks card carrying.
Unknown:But he was also saying, like, that's why so many of the modern
Unknown:exorcism movies are way less scary. Is because you can tell
Unknown:the people making them are like, Oh, well, this is bullshit. I
Unknown:don't believe in that's a really good point, you know? Yeah. So,
Unknown:yeah, yeah. So, anyway, I just thought that was interesting. He
Unknown:was also talking on that panel, or whatever it was,
Unknown:group, group discussion. Yeah. Paul Trembley, who is a really
Unknown:good horror author, who is one of my favorites. I don't know if
Unknown:you've read either of his books. Emily, nope. Sorry. They're
Unknown:scary and they're good horror writing, which is not always the
Unknown:easiest thing to know, it's really hard. And that's actually
Unknown:something that I was realizing, like, Oh, I was reading stamping
Unknown:Stephen King for the first time. Because
Unknown:everybody, you know, after I did my episode on the shining
Unknown:everybody was like, did you read this one? Did you read this one?
Unknown:And I was like, No, I have not. But also, like, Stephen King is
Unknown:hit or miss, because, like, it's really hard to write. And I
Unknown:would say that, like, a lot of the ones that people were
Unknown:telling me to read were actually more like fantasy novels or like
Unknown:mystery suspense with like, a slight sci fi or horror twinge
Unknown:to it, and not necessarily, like straight up, what I would define
Unknown:as, like straight up horror. Yeah,
Unknown:it's a Yeah.
Unknown:It's, it's hard to differentiate. And that's one of
Unknown:those ongoing arguments with fans, is, like, is it horror, or
Unknown:is it suspense? Oh, you're just calling it suspense for clout.
Unknown:Or, like, that's not really horror, that's a thriller. Like,
Unknown:how dare you it's just this very like hairpin argument. It's
Unknown:really annoying. Speaking of two people who do a podcast about
Unknown:publishing, that is the hardest part about pitching your goddamn
Unknown:book. Oh, especially you with the mystery like that must not.
Unknown:It's a cozy No, like it's just mystery.
Unknown:Oh, in that case, no, I simplified it for myself. I'm
Unknown:not that smart,
Unknown:smart enough to know not to do that? Yeah, exactly
Unknown:No. It's just a straight up detective novel. It is a cozy
Unknown:mystery. I like a ring what's the what's the gimmick? She's a
Unknown:1950s girl, detective. Oh,
Unknown:my mom was I'm always scared when I say something about my
Unknown:mom, because, like, she sends me letters
Unknown:but I grew up with her reading like, cozy after cozy after cozy
Unknown:after cozy. And
Unknown:I would often like, we'd get home from the library and I'd
Unknown:like look through her stack and hold one up and be like, you
Unknown:read this already.
Unknown:That's okay. They're great.
Unknown:She likes the
Unknown:erlene Fowler, who did the quilts once was I met her, and
Unknown:she wears purple cowboy boots. Oh, cool.
Unknown:I bet Grady Hendrix wears purple cowboy boots. Probably does real
Unknown:smart looking. Yep, I do have to say, though, like you, I feel
Unknown:like you have to be from certain parts of the country to write
Unknown:really convincing horror, and South Carolina is one of them.
Unknown:Yes, for sure, yeah, yeah. I think I feel like the South in
Unknown:particular is like a hotbed for this stuff, and it breathes, it
Unknown:just like comes from its pores, you know, like, yeah, I have a
Unknown:friend from Alabama, and he and I were talking about it, and I
Unknown:was like, I love Southern Gothic, like I am a Yankee,
Unknown:through and through. And Southern Gothic is one of my
Unknown:favorite genres of literature, because there's so much guilt in
Unknown:the south, and it's a different kind of guilt that you get from
Unknown:Yankees, and it's just the way that Southern writers write
Unknown:about their because Gothic, Gothic literature isn't scary.
Unknown:It's about feelings. It's about the oppressive feelings that you
Unknown:have about whatever's happening. And usually in the south, it's
Unknown:about slavery. And it's just this really brilliant way that
Unknown:they genre of literature that they have to tackling their
Unknown:history and the things that the country puts on them. And that's
Unknown:one of the reasons why I actually love Poe so much, is
Unknown:because, like, he does have that north south divide really well.
Unknown:Because, like, he's from Baltimore, which, like, when
Unknown:you're a Yankee, you totally consider the south. And then,
Unknown:like, he had spent so much time in Boston, where he must have
Unknown:been treated like absolute crap, because Yankees are like that.
Unknown:We totally are. And so like to watch Poe in his very short sort
Unknown:of career that he had grapple with the money, the
Unknown:southernness, the northernness, the brokeness, the, you know,
Unknown:his alcoholism and stuff like that. He's just this really,
Unknown:truly dynamic writer that I think, like encompasses America
Unknown:more than a lot of other writers that we actually have.
Unknown:Oh, wow, yeah, interesting. Then all of the all of the ugly
Unknown:parts. Oh yeah, no, it yeah,
Unknown:all the ugliest parts, like wrapped up into one. Oh, is
Unknown:Dirksen, like one of those hashtag problematic faves, like
Unknown:not a good person, but you know, he died early enough that
Unknown:hopefully he didn't do too much damage to people. Yeah,
Unknown:something thought, Well, I mean, not until his wife died. She
Unknown:died at like 25 so she spent like over half her life married
Unknown:to him. Whoa, if you can find that episode of of unlike, well,
Unknown:female characters, they read a poem she wrote, and it is fucked
Unknown:up.
Unknown:I should have looked it up. But, like, it's, it's really cool.
Unknown:It's like, whoa. She's talking about dying.
Unknown:So
Unknown:creepy. I mean, like, if you read Annabelle Lee, like knowing
Unknown:what you know about him, and you're just like, Oh, wow. You
Unknown:all really needed some major post 1970s therapy, and you just
Unknown:were never going to get it. It's heartbreaking, really. Yeah, and
Unknown:meds, honestly, oh yeah, no lie, and
Unknown:someone to keep him away from alcohol. Because, like,
Unknown:apparently he was like, a really fun dude when he wasn't
Unknown:drinking. Except, yeah, oh yeah, apparently he was super kind
Unknown:like and really normal. But the second he had like one drink in
Unknown:him, like everybody wrote that he just, like, turned into an
Unknown:absolute raping monster. That's.
Unknown:Heartbreaking. Yeah, that's really sad. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown:Somebody, I heard someone else talking about how he died, like,
Unknown:he died face down in a gutter. But like, there was some,
Unknown:there was some practice where they they would, like, take
Unknown:people off the street during elections and, like, force them
Unknown:to, like, go and vote and re vote. And it was like a voter
Unknown:fraud thing. And someone theorized that that was what
Unknown:happened to him.
Unknown:He got, just got, like, the shit beat out of him, and these
Unknown:people making him vote repeatedly. Yeah, I heard
Unknown:recently someone like, was, like, positing that it was a mob
Unknown:hit. Oh, yeah. So yeah, it's a weird death. It's a totally
Unknown:creepy death. Like, it's a totally weird death. And like,
Unknown:he died, did he die in Boston or Baltimore? I don't remember.
Unknown:I don't it's like, I have computers sitting in front of
Unknown:me. I can tell you. I mean, you could look it up, I guess.
Unknown:Yeah. But like, I know in Boston because I lived there for a
Unknown:little while, there's a big Oh, he died in Baltimore, but he was
Unknown:born in Boston, um, oh, and so, like, um, there's a big plaque,
Unknown:actually, like, on the building where he lived and was born. And
Unknown:it's like, a girl and Poe was here, and it was right by my
Unknown:college.
Unknown:Just like, hey every time,
Unknown:sorry about your face, exactly, go with it. Poor Edgar,
Unknown:oh, man. I also feel like the kind of the the base of horror
Unknown:that is, like, built on by everyone else. I am, like,
Unknown:making up this theory right on the spot, but all of the fun
Unknown:horror authors that I know of now, you know, like great
Unknown:Hendrix, Paul Trembley, like who are generally, like cool people,
Unknown:their work is derivative of all these other people. And so when
Unknown:we look back in history at like, po and Mary Shelley and fucking
Unknown:HP lovers, oh god, I've got so much the other day for talking
Unknown:about terrible writer, terrible writer, terrible person, but I
Unknown:mean, came up with these crazy ideas. And so there's all of
Unknown:these people who, like, were extremely tortured, who came up
Unknown:with the stuff, and now everyone else is like, yay. We're having
Unknown:fun with your stuff.
Unknown:Sorry about your brain. Yeah, I have such an easier time with
Unknown:people being like, listen, Edgar Allan Poe was, like, afflicted
Unknown:by demons of varying kinds. But like, HB Lovecraft was a
Unknown:conscious racist. You know what I mean? Like, and he embarrassed
Unknown:people
Unknown:continuously. You know, I feel very like Hannah Gadsby, of like
Unknown:that was a decision.
Unknown:He chose to believe and write those things. Edgar, Allan Poe,
Unknown:mental illness, addiction issues, all sorts of abandonment
Unknown:issues. Totally get it. None of that. He chose
Unknown:HP, Lovecraft. He chose that. I'm sorry. He went like he lost
Unknown:his mind because he was so racist, like he was so scared of
Unknown:not white people, that he lost his mind.
Unknown:IRL,
Unknown:okay, it seems familiar now. Like,
Unknown:Well, that's true, but oh my god, he could have just been
Unknown:scared of not white people, like, yeah, and it's not even a
Unknown:Oh. He was a product of his time, because, like, other
Unknown:people in literary circles were like, yeah, he's really crazy.
Unknown:Yeah, when people in like, the late 1800s think you're racist,
Unknown:you're real goddamn racist, yeah, yeah, that's pretty bad.
Unknown:Yeah. And I know that I don't know if you read, sorry, go
Unknown:ahead, I was gonna say I don't know if you read urban fantasy,
Unknown:but NK Jemisin, new book is the city we became, yeah, has, like,
Unknown:has all the Lovecraftian monsters, and they're all
Unknown:racist.
Unknown:All of the Lovecraft characters and monsters are white
Unknown:supremacy. Do that. I don't know why you would pull from him. You
Unknown:know what I mean Exactly? That's my own personal feelings, and I
Unknown:know I'm not part of like, the horror community. So everybody's
Unknown:always like, you can't critique it if you're not part of the
Unknown:community. And I'm just like, Wait, people got people got mad
Unknown:at you for saying, God,
Unknown:oh my god. So what's the angriest like, or the angriest
Unknown:comments you've gotten like from which episode that you've done?
Unknown:David Foster Wallace, oh yeah, that makes sense. That was gonna
Unknown:be my guess. Yeah. Also weirdly Franny and Zoe by Jay zelinger,
Unknown:oh yeah. I mean, is that weird?
Unknown:Wait, did you not get it for Holden Caulfield, either? I
Unknown:mean, I can.
Unknown:Little bit for Holden Caulfield, but I'm actually, like, it's
Unknown:actually because my episode on Holden Caulfield is actually
Unknown:incredibly sympathetic towards him, and people do not like
Unknown:that, yeah, because, like, if you you can read it, that Holden
Unknown:was a victim of sexual abuse, and so, like, there's bread, oh,
Unknown:yeah, you can't get there's bread crumbs there. And so,
Unknown:like, you know, and also, it's written in the 1950s so he's
Unknown:never going to come out and say, like, you know, tech Julie, that
Unknown:this is what happened, but there's breadcrumbs there. And
Unknown:so that's how my friend and I read it and we discussed it, and
Unknown:people get very mad that you want to give him any compassion,
Unknown:but weirdly, framing and Zoe gets a lot of hate mail because
Unknown:my friend and I, who discussed it, he's a huge JD Salinger fan.
Unknown:We're both atheists. And so everybody was like, this is such
Unknown:a an incredibly religious book. How can you even remotely
Unknown:understand it or like, like it if you're an atheist, and I'm
Unknown:just like, okay, it is yeah, sorry,
Unknown:yeah, people can like things, yeah, it's okay, yeah.
Unknown:I mean, I might judge people for it, but that's their business.
Unknown:If you want to have a constructive conversation about
Unknown:something, I'm more than happy to have that conversation with
Unknown:you. It's just like. You can't just be like, but like,
Unknown:the disc, screen grab the YouTube comments and actually
Unknown:keep them in a folder on my
Unknown:on my desk is the folder called discourse.
Unknown:Like I keep threatening to do a dramatic reading of all my
Unknown:hateful YouTube comments. You can do that. Some of them are
Unknown:really good. Do that for your Patreon.
Unknown:Do we're the top tier of your Patreon 20 years, but it's gonna
Unknown:be really fun.
Unknown:We did that. We did acting last time with the
Unknown:with the Shakespeare thing with, Oh, he did make Trump.
Unknown:Yeah, I'm gonna put you on mute for just a second, because I
Unknown:totally swallowed my water, wrong? Oh, no, guys, hold on.
Unknown:Oh, man, Corinne, did you find the Dear David stuff? Oh, I did,
Unknown:yes. Do you want me to read that? Sorry, I kind of do. Emily
Unknown:doesn't know about it. We're gonna bless your timeline, yeah.
Unknown:Do you want me to read all the tweets? Or, like, just read the
Unknown:article. What do you think? Well, just use it to, like,
Unknown:remind yourself, okay, like, just tell us the story of the
Unknown:scary, scary. Yeah. Well, Emily, you're gonna have to, you're
Unknown:gonna have to help me, because I know it was, like, a couple
Unknown:years ago, so I for sure don't remember everything. So it's
Unknown:just like, this guy who was
Unknown:a an illustrator, Adam Ellis, yeah, I don't know. Is he in is
Unknown:he in San Francisco? I thought he was in New York. It's
Unknown:probably New York. Everybody thinks so. Yeah.
Unknown:So he had this dream about Dear David, which, I don't know why
Unknown:he called it that, but that's fine. Where, like, if you have a
Unknown:nightmare and you he had like a little girl in his dream come up
Unknown:to him, be like, he's gonna come in and talk to you. And you can
Unknown:ask him two questions, but if you ask him a third question,
Unknown:you die.
Unknown:And so he asked him three questions, and so the rest of
Unknown:the Twitter thread is basically like, here are my cats standing
Unknown:at the door, staring at the door. They do this at midnight
Unknown:every night. And he had video, yeah, yeah. And he had, like,
Unknown:he had like, one thing where a chair was moving, and then he
Unknown:had, like, at the end, he has pictures of it, basically, I'll
Unknown:send it to you. It's so scary,
Unknown:yeah, they'll post it. Yeah, it's great, but lots of good cat
Unknown:content, yeah, that's true. That feels very bothered like I
Unknown:don't, yeah, yeah. I think image I loved, by the way, talk about
Unknown:scary movie that I freaking word The Babadook. That's the
Unknown:Babadook here. So are there any other scary movies that you
Unknown:adored, just that one, just that one, probably, off the top of my
Unknown:head, that's an adorable ending
Unknown:than it is, like the scary creature that's living, you
Unknown:know, and like the horrors of being a single mom and like, you
Unknown:know, dealing with the fact that You have these terrible emotions
Unknown:towards your kid, and, you know, it's a lot more complicated than
Unknown:just like critter lurking in your your basement, right? Oh,
Unknown:I mean, hereditary is about grief too. Yeah,
Unknown:nope,
Unknown:yeah,
Unknown:yeah. We were kind of, when I was doing looking around stuff
Unknown:about Grady Hendrix. I He was part of, I believe, the American
Unknown:Institute of Psychical Research. I don't know if you know about
Unknown:those
Unknown:they, I believe they started in English with the spiritual or in
Unknown:England with the spiritualist. That's cool. And so.
Unknown:He was a librarian for them, and he just knows everything about
Unknown:demons. So we current and I watched, we virtual watch
Unknown:Satanic Panic together.
Unknown:It was great. Yeah, it was, but it has couple demons in it. And
Unknown:then, like, I found this article, and he's just talking
Unknown:about, oh, he's like, Oh, Paymon is like, really cool, this and
Unknown:this, and then he's like, as a sale is awesome, and
Unknown:naming all of these demons. And I'm like, he's so cool.
Unknown:Be his friend. Imagine being a librarian,
Unknown:awesome Institute. I love that demons are consistent
Unknown:characters. Like, they're, they're, there's like, a set
Unknown:number of them, and they're just like, Yep, it's that particular
Unknown:demon in this story. They never like, yeah. They're like
Unknown:elements, like, you know, it's just like, hydrogen, zazel, you
Unknown:know, it's just, right, right? Well, and then sometimes they
Unknown:call them archangels, you know, yeah, yeah. So it's it, I don't
Unknown:know. I want to learn more. It's fascinating. Yeah, well, in my
Unknown:best friend's exorcism, the demon that possesses one of the
Unknown:friends is named Andres, I think, and there's, like, this
Unknown:whole backstory about him, and, like, what his place in hell
Unknown:was. And, you know, it's all this, like, very, it's funny,
Unknown:because it's such, like, biblical language, of like, it's
Unknown:just so, like,
Unknown:extravagant and ridiculous, and just like you were the, oh, God,
Unknown:I wish I could find that. I'm gonna put you guys, speak, talk
Unknown:to yourselves. I'm gonna find the passage because it was
Unknown:really funny. Is the perfect way to describe it? It is you have
Unknown:to build this world that, if you're an atheist like me, you
Unknown:don't think exists, and yeah, much canon that you have to
Unknown:build into it. And it's just like, that's an incredible
Unknown:amount of work in order to do that,
Unknown:yeah? And just like, cultural knowledge, broader cultural
Unknown:knowledge, to, like, learn anything about, you know,
Unknown:ceremonial magic or something, you have to learn all about
Unknown:Cabal, yeah? And it's like, Okay, let me just go do that
Unknown:real quick. Yeah, I mean, like, I noticed when I was going back
Unknown:and reading po for this too. It's just like, his scary
Unknown:stories are super short. They're like, there's not, like, a whole
Unknown:lot there, you know, they're just sketches by modern you
Unknown:know, definition of like, there's not really a huge plot
Unknown:arc, and like, there's not usually a whole lot of character
Unknown:change. It's just like a very brief scene of something spooky
Unknown:and like, you know, I don't think people get, you can't get
Unknown:away with that anymore. Like, I mean, you can with short film.
Unknown:That's true.
Unknown:Actually, I would, I would, I would push back a little bit on
Unknown:that and say that that is one of the ideal forms of horror. Is,
Unknown:like extremely short form horror, because it leaves so
Unknown:much to your imagination.
Unknown:Um, there's this one that I'm thinking of, and this is the
Unknown:perfect example, because they would take a short horror film
Unknown:that people, you know, enter into
Unknown:competitions, and then people will try to extend them into
Unknown:movies, and they're terrible. Usually, there was the lights
Unknown:out. Was one where they basically somebody standing in a
Unknown:hallway, and every time they turn the light back on, the
Unknown:thing is, like, closer to my husband, try to make a whole
Unknown:movie. Yeah, then they made a whole movie, and it's like, you
Unknown:don't need to make a whole movie because it's scary.
Unknown:So yeah, and I would say one of the best places to find really
Unknown:scary stuff is Reddit that now, like, yeah, and those are all
Unknown:pretty short. I mean, a lot of them, yeah, come into these
Unknown:multi, multi series stuff. But we, yeah, one of our episodes,
Unknown:our Halloween episodes, was, like, about creepypasta,
Unknown:yeah. People just love the short form, yeah, like, when they have
Unknown:those Reddit threads of, like, creepy shit my kid has said, and
Unknown:I'm always just like, Oh, those are nope,
Unknown:no, can't do it.
Unknown:But also, like, Hollywood is passionately remaking, like
Unknown:other cultures, horror movies, which I find fascinating.
Unknown:I mean, yeah, I remember, like, the Japanese like J horror was
Unknown:really big, like 20, yeah.
Unknown:But now they're doing, like, a lot of, like, Mexican horror
Unknown:movies and like that is super cool to me. Not gonna watch
Unknown:them. Love the concept.
Unknown:I don't know about this. So I'm, uh, clearly, like, I have a
Unknown:shutter subscription, I would know, but I should know better.
Unknown:So,
Unknown:okay, I found, I found to Andres, this thing here. Okay,
Unknown:so Andres is the 63rd entity in the lesser Key of Solomon, a
Unknown:Grand Marquis of hell and commander of 30 legions of
Unknown:demons known as the sower of discord and bringer of ruin. Is
Unknown:that amazing? Anyway, I put that on a diamonds in the lesser Key
Unknown:of Solomon too. Yeah,
Unknown:sower of discord, so we're of discord and ruin. Just imagine
Unknown:like scattering bird seed. Yeah?
Unknown:Yeah,
Unknown:yeah. Well, I mean, it's been an hour, yeah.
Unknown:Should we wrap it totally Emily, do you want to, do you want to,
Unknown:like, plug things? Oh, sure, yeah. I'm Emily Edwards. I'm the
Unknown:host of fuck boys elite. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram
Unknown:and most major platforms. At fuck boys of lit, that's B, O, i
Unknown:s, or@fuckboysoflit.com
Unknown:if you want to find my personal musings and ridiculousness, it's
Unknown:ms, Emily Edwards. So Ms, Emily Edwards and I lurk on Twitter
Unknown:basically all day. So it's almost like texting me if you
Unknown:reply, maybe I'm always there.
Unknown:Emily and Corinne. How can we keep in contact with you and
Unknown:your work?
Unknown:You can find us online, hybrid pubscout.com,
Unknown:Facebook, hybrid pub Scout, Twitter at hybrid pub scout and
Unknown:Instagram at hybrid pub Scout, pod and yeah on all podcast
Unknown:platforms as well.
Unknown:Thank you, Emily, yeah, thank you. This was so much fun,
Unknown:and thanks for giving a rip about books. You.
Unknown:You.