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Study 110 - The Emissary (Patreon)

Published:
2024-10-24 16:37:53
Edited:
2024-10-24 16:40:27
Imported:
2024-10
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Why explore the October country when a dog can bring it right to your doorstep? We'll find out as we study Ray Bradbury's The Emissary!

Special thanks to our extraordinary reader, Andrew Leman! Click here to see what's cookin' at The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society!

Check out this article on the story from The Library of America.

Next up: a Halloween episode on Creepypasta. Until then, stay ghoul!!

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Comments

Erik Jordan Phillips

Totally thought this was a Rachel Watches Star Trek Episode until I saw which show was covering it. The Enterprise, This is Not!

Rick Hound

Like Chad, I fear as a super fan of being the harbinger of an aged science fiction writer’s undoing. So to avoid it, I shall avoid any graves with Michael Moorcock’s name on it.

Exanimus

Suppose Martin has died, like Chris said? He was sick. He didn't understand the world until Dog brought it home to him. He couldn't understand death until the world faded away and Dog brought death home. Bradbury worked in metaphors. They were his... Bread and butter, if you will. Too obvious?

Kip Barnes

Did they accidentally bury Miss Haight at the old Micmac burial ground?

Sanjay Mathew

Such a reaction to the news about The Temple merely proves that Chris lacks any iron Prussian discipline. Only to be expected from a grovelling Swabian layabout.

It's a Ghost.

I totally thought I saw the ending coming a mile away and totally expected for it to be this nice happy but sad ending where it's revealed that the dog and teacher are both ghosts now and that the boy can now see and hear them because he is now dead and a ghost too. And instead I was like, "Oh, this is dark!" It of course also reminded me of the horror of when the wife in I Am Legend returns home a zombie after having dug herself out of her grave.

Ed Sizemore

Who cares if Chris celebrates Halloween? The important question is does he celebrate Bonfire Night and what effigies he burns?

Matt Shank

I'm going with the most wholesome interpretation for this one. No reason other than it's what I felt when I read it. As mentioned during the discussion, the sick boy doesn't have the same concept of death as the mother or other adults. There is no reason to think he would be scared or horrified by a reanimated Miss Haight. In my mind, the boy is the wizard and the dog is something like a familiar. A partner through which he is able to work his magic. The boy raising Miss Haight is some truly dark magic, alluded to by the wrong smells the dog returns with after accomplishing its task, but the intent of that dark magic is pure. I like to imagine the parents returning to find the reanimated Miss Haight sitting in the boy's bedroom, reading and talking as though it were the most natural thing to be doing. A true scene of horror to "normal" people, but a welcome visit from a dear friend and the triumphant return of Dog to the boy.

Mark Saunders

I actually just picked up a copy of a recent reprint of Dark Carnival. I have only read the October Country version of this story, so I’m looking forward to reading the original as soon as Amazon decides to deliver it. Edit: I have the book now and, for anyone wondering the original is essentially the same, with a little more straightforward writing (there’s a little less of that Bradburyness in it). The dog is named Torry and we get Martin’s last name of Christie. This version is a little longer and there’s an offhand reference that it is set during the war, but mostly the plot is unchanged. So far as I can tell, the major edits in The October Country are stylistic, but it is still very interesting to compare them. I also wonder to what extent August Derleth’s editing is a factor in this.

Steve

Typical Bradbury, does all the schmalz and then misses out all the difficult parts of the story.

Dennis Newsome

Is Mrs. Haight the actual emissary? 🤔 Is she the representative of Death? Just wondering.

Aaron La Vene

Wow at not realizing my name had never been called until this episode. I could have sworn it was and I just assumed and had a false memory of it having been said years ago at that. Talk about a spooky Halloween episode. Am I who I once was? Am I the unreliable narrator we always hear about on this show? Whose name was spoken that I thought was mine? Am I a new version of myself now that I have been named? Or is it simply that I raised my pay level several months ago and got put back in the line because of that. I FOUND THE NAME HACK. You just have to pay them more and they say your name again. Well Worth it. And I suggest all listeners take advantage of this name hack as well! Thanks for all you do gents

Anne Ominous

Bradbury really nails the description of the season for me. October as poetry

Our old pal Brendan Gardiner

I don’t know if the dog is dead or whether the boy is a wizard or if the dog is dead, which I believe I mentioned already. My take is that it’s Halloween and the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is thin to the point of being permeable, and this story gives us a spooky good time by playing on that fact. Now get out there and have fun and wear reflective clothing and pace yourself with the candy.

Apollo Sitting Up

Wonderful! I was walking the Wissahickon in Philadelphia on this fine Autumn morn. Ray Bradury was perfect! I think I’ll watch Something Wicked This Way Comes when I get home. Come to think of it I think the main characters were named Chris Halloway and Chad Nightshade so there you go. Thanks for the great show!

Jim Cannon

I read October Country a few years ago. And I discovered while reading it that Bradbury really doesn't work for me. I recognize the craft and the artistry and the beauty of the language and all that, but I just bounce off the content pretty hard. I recognize this as my failing and not his - kind of have a similar feeling with Aickman. Like all the stuff they leave out that everyone else finds brilliantly ambiguous and mysterious is all the stuff that would make a good story for me. "The Emissary" is more of a prose poem than a short story. Its all about the emotion and the language. When some plot actually happens the whole thing peaces out. Just not what I enjoy, I guess. Fun episode, though! Always love having Andrew reading, and much love to his good dogs. And I always like listening to you guys try to puzzle out what may or may not have happened in the story. The dog was a wizard: that honestly never occurred to me.

Allison Albright

What a good dog. I think this actually was a happy ending. I bet the teacher will have a lot of interesting new things to talk about. Bradbury is sentimental, but sometimes the sentiment is like the sweet outer layer of some candy, and on the inside is something darker. I think it's part of what makes him so good. I was really glad you guys included the backstory of his aunt as well. Bradbury is an October staple and this story was a great pick.

Erick W Mertz

Last weekend, I was up on the McKenzie River in Oregon, leading the Ghost Story Weekend writer's retreat for a local organization. On the first night, I was sitting around with the other writers, talking about favorite spooky stories that subverted expectation and The Emissary came up. Then later, BAM, this podcast hit my feed and the next day we all listened to it over breakfast while a deluge of autumn rain hit us. What an interesting, unexpected little tale. Thanks for talking about it and inspiring a room full of spooks!

CarcharodonMegs

My 8YO and I listened to The Halloween Tree for the first time this year. I love Bradbury. Also, the comment of the dog not being a zombie but being a wizard made me laugh hysterically while listening to this episode in my car. Thanks for that!

Moonflight Dancer

First Chad sends him to the grave prematurely, then Chris disses his characterization of useless parents?! I wouldn’t be surprised if Bradbury returns from the graveyard himself to just to set you two straight...

Pagurus

Is there maybe an implication that it was actually Martin who died? He was bedridden with sickness. Suddenly, people just stop visiting and he has the impression that seasons do not change anymore. He does not understand death - his own death?

Ryan Thomas

Who's to say that Dog dug up and brought over Miss Haight? Could the Visitor be yet another random stranger, albeit a slow-moving, musty one, that will become a new friend.