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Episode 407 - The Vegetable Man (Patreon)

Published:
2018-06-15 23:28:27
Edited:
2025-05-18 02:57:29
Imported:
2026-06
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Mimicry Month continues as we tackle The Vegetable Man by Luigi Ugolini!

Special thanks to our reader, sweet whisperer Anthony Tedesco!

Check out The Weird: A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories!

Next Up: The Street That Wasn't There by Clifford D. Simak and Carl Jacobi

Comments

Austin Tero

Drink every time chad says " I'm just reading this from Wikipedia right now"

Joshua

I’m glad to hear you both have stumbled over The Weird anthology with these past two episodes. The show’s focus on older authors (not by any means a complaint) often leaves me uncertain how much of current/modern weird writing the two of you keep track of; for example, you’ve (to my memory) never mentioned Thomas Ligotti, arguably the most significant inheritor of Lovecraft’s work in the modern era (though admittedly his work was primarily produced throughout the 1990s). The Weird anthology (not a new work, of course, but a newish release) could be the basis for a whole podcast in itself & while I think it’s an excellent addendum to the sources that you’ve drawn from so far Vandermeer’s noted ambivalence towards Lovecraft pushes it towards the outliers to draw from, at least philosophically for the show. But, you know, setting aside Weird Fiction’s increasing ambivalence towards Vandermeer as an author I would honestly encourage drawing from The Weird a bit more. There’s a ton of great work in the book & I like when you bring in authors that expand how most people think of weird fiction. With all that said, Michel Bernanos’ story The Other Side of The Mountain (featured in The Weird) would make a great episode or two. It has the kind of unfettered wildness & inescapable doom that marks the best of weird fiction.

William Rieder

Your ruminations near the end reminded me of "The Sound Machine" by Roald Dahl, in which a scientist creates a machine to hear beyond the range of the human ear, revealing the sounds of the plants around him as they are clipped or pruned. The secret life of plants may not be as pastoral a journey as you believe.

Daniel Onions

So are we calling it 'Illujune' or what?

CoolToad

While I will admit that I have a predilection for almost anything plant-related - especially the sadly under-utilized sub-genre of plant-based horror - I really enjoyed this episode. Chad, remember that Dr. Houseplant never sleeps. Also - that last sentence is how all stories should end.

Steven Moore

All I kept thinking about was the Christopher Walken googly eye Gardner skit from SNL.

Rafe Ball

Interesting discussion there about the Indian running off in terror and what might make you do the same - that’s literally ‘abject horror’ in the Kristevan sense. Julia Kristeva, in her book Powers of Horror", defined abjection as (and I’m just reading this from Wikipedia right now), “subjective horror... the feeling when an individual experiences, or is confronted by (both mentally and as a body), what Kristeva terms one's "corporeal reality", or a breakdown in the distinction between what is self and what is Other.” Common sources of abjection are things that we recognise as being like ourselves or originating from ourselves, but that we cast out or separate ourselves from, and which commonly cause extreme disgust, revulsion and horror. You actually mentioned a couple of them in the episode - corpses (death, the other, infecting life - zombies in particular reversing that relationship) and excrement are prime sources of abjection. Olivares undergoing his transformation is a good example of abject horror - the other, the plant, infecting the self, the human body, and destroying the boundary between the two by its corrupting/transformational power. I wonder if there’s enough gas in a ‘Vegetarian Horror’ month - that is, not the horror that you’ve accidentally eaten a tofu sausage, but rather weird tales focussing on plants? I quite like HG Wells’ “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” <a href="https://personal.uwaterloo.ca/jerry/orchids/wells.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://personal.uwaterloo.ca/jerry/orchids/wells.html</a>

Rafe Ball

Interesting discussion there about the Amazonian running off in terror and what might make you do the same - that’s very much ‘abject horror’ in the Kristevan sense. Julia Kristeva, in her book “Powers of Horror", defined abjection as (and I’m just reading this from Wikipedia right now), “subjective horror... the feeling when an individual experiences, or is confronted by (both mentally and as a body), what Kristeva terms one's "corporeal reality", or a breakdown in the distinction between what is self and what is Other.” Common sources of abjection are things that we recognise as being like ourselves or originating from ourselves, but that we cast out or separate ourselves from, and which commonly cause extreme disgust, revulsion and horror. You actually mentioned a couple of them in the episode - corpses (death, the other, infecting life - zombies in particular reversing that relationship) and excrement are prime sources of abjection. Olivares undergoing his transformation is a good example of abject horror - the other, the plant, infecting the self, the human body, and destroying the boundary between the two by its corrupting/transformational power. I wonder if there’s enough gas in a ‘Vegetarian Horror’ month - that is, not the horror that you’ve accidentally eaten a tofu sausage, but rather weird tales focussing on plants? I quite like HG Wells’ “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” <a href="https://personal.uwaterloo.ca/jerry/orchids/wells.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://personal.uwaterloo.ca/jerry/orchids/wells.html</a>

Bret Kramer

I’m just proud neither host mentioned Moss Man, the He-Man character. Clark Ashton Smith has a lot of plant-monster horror, of course.

Nickthulhu

There's actually a three volume anthology series of these man-eating tree/plant stories on amazon, probably can easily be found elsewhere too. They are named: 1) Flora Curiosa: Cryptobotany, Mysterious Fungi, Sentient Trees, and Deadly Plants in Classic Science Fiction and Fantasy 2) Arboris Mysterius: Stories of the Uncanny and Undescribed from the Botanical Kingdom 3) Botanica Delira: More Stories of Strange, Undiscovered, and Murderous Vegetation I've only read the first book, but the series definitely includes show favorites like Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Doyle and H. G. Wells. I have to say, however, I liked the story "The Balloon Tree" the most, from an author I've never heard of, Edward Mitchell, on account of how ridiculous and absurd the tale was. It left me asking, "Could this be the true origin story of the superhero Groot?"

James Dunn

It finally took me 8 months of binging but I finally caught up to all of the episodes of the HP Lovecraft Literary podcast.

Jon Hancock

Enjoyed this one, a story and author I knew nothing about. There's certainly a surprisingly strong tradition of weird stories and scientific romances exploring the relationship between plants and people: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844); William Hope Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night" and "The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig'" (both 1907); and the rather less serious "Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant" by Howard R. Garis (1905) to name only a few. I'll definitely take a look at that anthology trilogy, Nicholas Moore.

Grymn

Can't recommend the Dollar Whisper Club enough! 5/5 stars. Was suffering from chronic constipation due to taking a tolerance break from caffeine. Anthony somehow managed to sneak behind me while I was waiting in line in Kroger, and whispered, "Tablespoons..." in my ear, which promptly scared the shit out of me. Constipation solved. The only unfortunate part of this was as I was cleaning the mess up. I turned around to scan for a trash can and a handsome man in spectacles saw what was in my hands and promptly ran away screaming. I wanted to explain the situation, but he was long gone.

Jon Maness

I can't help but hear Old Greg's voice for the Vegetable Man.

Cacodaemoniacal

This reminds me of the "Green Disease" particular to the Victorian era; Hypochromic anemia. Lara Flynn Boyle had it in the movie "The Road To Wellville"

Scott McCrate

My take-away was thinking that a dentist for zombies has it pretty easy, they can access the molars through the shredded hole in their cheeks. But how can you tell what's gum disease or simply rotten? Hmm...

Macabre Mittens

This episode was particularly creepy for me. I have long had a fear of anything related to plants (or fungi) invading humans or animals. It is a mechanism that is used a lot in video games and film and it always creeps me out. Particular examples that stick out are "The Flood" from the Halo game series and Stephen King's gruesome transformation in Creep Show; and, of course, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the invasive space-spores. Yuck.

Michael-Paul Schallmo

I'm glad you've finally covered the truly cosmic horror of Plants vs. Zombies. If I get one more friend invitation I think I'll start gibbering.

The Call of Cassandra

The narrator said he has a degree in natural sciences. Does that mean that there are degrees in unnatural sciences? And where can I get one?