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Study 090 - Love Me Tender (Patreon)

Published:
2024-05-09 14:00:09
Imported:
2024-05
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Monster May marches on with some swampy pulp action in Bob Shaw's buggy short story Love Me Tender!

Special thanks to readers Rachel and Chris Lackey of Rachel Watches Star Trek!

Next up: The Dark Eidolon by Clark Ashton Smith

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Comments

ESTY

Monsters? I think you mean mothers. May (so far) has been 2 excellent stories of misunderstood moms who are just trying to feed their kids. Also; it’s Mother’s Day on the 12th, don’t forget to call your moms.

Cole Caron

Have we had ovipositor horror since covering Bloodchild? Parasitic incubation is such an unpleasant and visceral part of nature.

Allison Albright

I'm from a very dry part of the US and whenever I've been to Florida it feels like that scene in the Abyss where they have to start breathing the oxygen liquid. I agree that making the guy a serial rapist lessens the horror of the story, but I think having that happen to a more sympathetic protagonist would change the tone of the story and make it much, much darker. Life as a human can be stressful, but I'm just very grateful that parasitic, flesh eating larvae isn't a concern for me.

Mandy Reznor (She/It)

I just had an odd experience. I was listening to this at work, and when it finished I decided to throw on a random old favorite, "Men Without Bones." And what does Chad reference in the first few minutes but Bride of Frankenstein? I gotta say, the man is consistent.

The Cheese and The Worms

I think there may be another layer to the title here as well- Joe is being treated in much the same way as calves being raised for veal. He’s already “well-larded,” and the mimic keeps him sedentary and fed, making sure he’s tender for the young about to hatch inside him.

REO Jackwagon

Gosh I love me a lady insectoid with a surprise ovipositor. This one one was decidedly nasty. Serious Octavia Butler call back?

REO Jackwagon

I lived in Florida (Tampa area, Suncoast) for 30 years. I've been away for a decade. Of the friends I left behind, one lives in a shack in his dad's ex wife's back yard, and the other is in prison for drug and family related crimes. 100% never crossing the Mississippi again.

ESTY

An alternative interpretation of the ending is that rather than a tale of revenge against a one dimensional evil rapist… maybe it’s a redemption arc? Ed was keeping the mother-monster as a prisoner: Joe frees her. Then she heals Joe, (who has been driven to evil by a broken home and the Florida penal system) first by numbing his pain and then by blessing him with fatherhood and a higher sense of purpose. She welcomes him, nurtures him and forgives his past. When he trails off, its possible that rather than impending horror, he feels a wave of paternal pride. He has been given an opportunity for a new beginning, and to be a part of a strange new family. The kids can eat Ed.

Steve

I've only read Shaw's science fiction but I was a big fan of his work. It usually is quite fun. This less so. Like Chad, I didn't care for the protagonist and that undermined the tale for me.

Steve

Smokey Bear the bear! We visited his grave at Capitan on our New Mexico tour. It was between the Museum of Space History at Alamogordo and Billy the Kid in Lincoln, followed by UFOs in Roswell. It's a wild place.

Cloudy Heart (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-10 00:00 I share the feeling that horror hits better for me when the protagonist is likeable or innocent... it's so hard to put myself in the shoes of a rapist or feel scared for him, and I don't get much satisfaction out of revenge. I liked the use of this kind of parasitic woman being loving and tender in Blood Child a bit more, but I think both are neat concepts!
2024-05-10 14:27

David Halstead

I often enjoy the unlikable protagonist in stories where it's about unpacking that psychologically, as in some noir, crime fiction, or something like A Clockwork Orange. Horror, though, works best when you put yourself in the shoes of the character confronting the horror. It's a very sympathetic genre in that way. The only example I can think of where that does work is Psycho, where a woman is on the run with money she's stolen before checking into the Bates Motel. That balances out that what happens to her is much worse than anything she did. There's the question as to whether or not Norman Bates is sympathetic. In the movie I think Anthony Perkins brings some of that to the character, but not in Robert Bloch's book, where he's truly loathsome.

Christine M

Speaking of weird fiction and cicadas, the rare overlap of Brood XII and XIX emerging has prompted lots of fun posts on my town's Reddit page, my favorite being "What outside is making that 1950’s UFO movie sound?" Every thread about it has someone asking about the sound, someone saying it's definitely NOT cicadas, then someone patiently explaining that these broods sound different from other broods we might be used to. It truly does sound like a 50's UFO is setting down one or two neighborhoods over!

Brittney Elmer

It took me an unacceptable amount of time to realize Chris was the first reader.

Jerome Arnold

Highly looking forward to the necromantic coverage of "The Dark Eidolon".

It's a Ghost.

Thanks guys for clarifying the meaning of the phrase "consult the head of the family," because I was definitely not familiar with the phrase, and as I read the story, I wondered who Ed was going outside to talk to. And then later when he was suddenly back, I was confused and wondered why it wasn't explained who exactly he was "consulting." But now that I know what it means, it reminds me of the similar phrase "hit the head," which apparently has a naval origin, where "the head" is simply the name for the bathroom on a ship. So I guess "the head of the family" would simply be a family’s bathroom.

It's a Ghost.

Ramsey Campbell claimed that the only joke is the title, but when Massick first arrived at the cabin, he thought to himself, "but unless Cromer had a swamp buggy parked out of sight nearby it might be best to wait until the partner arrived with transportation." And isn’t "the girl" a swamp buggy that is out of sight? (*cue groans*) Also, an alternate title for this story could be “Swamp Buggy”.

Our old pal Brendan Gardiner

Something Chris said toward the end of the discussion, “It Didn’t Work Out for Ed,” would have made for a wonderful title to this story, maybe with a parenthetical (Shrug) at the end

Drasferatu

I personally really like stories with deplorable protagonists. In the moment, you’re feeling what they are feeling. Then in retrospect, you’re like “oh yeah, fuck this guy”.

Ziggy Bartdust

Man, I REALLY hope he felt ALL of those Larva

Ziggy Bartdust

This title has the song Kiss Me Deadly stuck in my head

Jeremy Impson

Late last night I listened to this while driving from the Orlando Sanford regional airport to the Sun Coast, to visit my parents. A stretch of that route does in fact run through a swamp, albeit further north than the Everglades, and I was in a rented Kia Venue rather than a modified swamp Beetle, but otherwise my experience was exactly as described in the story.

Jim Cannon

So... how did Ed capture the bug lady? And why did he leave her alive, considering he must have plenty of insecticide to gather those butterflies? And why leave something that dangerous behind a wooden door bound by a simple wire? Crazy. I don't think Ed was all that right in the head, either. Maybe there wasn't even a partner.

Long time hater

Not sure what i think about this, but can't help thinking about the aesthetic applied in this story that wasn't present in the Bloodchild story. Is the aesthetic used in this a practical means of being able to impregnate the 'victim' without resistance, where as the pain experienced by the bloodchild being an essential aspect of the willing sacrifice? We presume both experience pain/body horror in the hatching/birthing stage, but the willingness to experience the pain and sacrifice in the Octavia Butler story really clung to me in a way the revenge story couldn't

Dan Pratt

Given the nature of parasitic reproduction, “tender” might also refer to the consistency of our main character’s internal organs during consumption by the larva. Ok, have to vomit now.

Anne Ominous

Just got my copy of 'New Terrors' from the bookstore - 44 year old paperback in way better condition than I am!

Anne Ominous

Also: big ups to Newaygo County aka the Everglades of Michigan! A swamp shack for every occasion real or perceived

Lars Backstrom

What happened to the poor girl in the trunk?