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Episode 460 - From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet (Patreon)

Published:
2019-07-19 19:20:18
Edited:
2024-12-12 19:02:14
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

It's time to relearn the alphabet with the Mr. Rogers of science fiction, Harlan Ellison! Tune in as we cover From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet.

Special thanks to our reader, Erik Peabody - freelance audio producer! Check out his good and services at vikingguitar.com!

Next up: The Hour That Stretches

Comments

Rick Hound

I’d love it if you two looked into Junji Ito’s work (it doesn’t have to be a episode on it as it’s a format you don’t regularly have).

Mandy Reznor (She/It)

Oh, for GODS' SAKES. Quetzalcoatl was the God who HATED human sacrifice! He wanted voluntary, non-lethal sacrifices! The rest of the tale is great, but I can not STAND when people regurgitate half-baked, unresearched versions of what they *think* pre-hispanic Mesoamerica was.

H P Lovecraft's Cat

The title of this episode sounds more like the title of one of the comment shows than an actual wryd tale.” Dikh” might be a stab or a joke against Phillip K. Dick,eventually I hope you guys go over their feud.I remember reading Dick’s exegesis and seeing some things about Ellison.

MonsterTalk

At least with this week's story, there is less ambiguity. We know that the Cubans with chicken bayonets were Demeaning of the Story.

MonsterTalk

Also, on a more serious note, the Elevator People story in this collection is straight up out of The Shaver Mysteries - which Ellison despised to the point of cornering publisher Ray Palmer in an elevator to demand that he come clean and admit the stories were fake. I can't stop thinking of 5'3" Ellison towering over 4' Ray Palmer - both titans and Science Fiction pioneers (even though Ellison would crinkle at being labeled such). A historic battle in an elevator over whether or not there were secret caverns under some Elevators... It gets weird and recursive fast.

Darth Pseudonym

The first story, about the Atlanteans, identifies the location of their city as "in the Maracot Deep", which is not a real place, but rather the title of a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle about a Professor Maracot who finds Atlantis in "the deepest trench in the Atlantic".

Brandon Basil

Not sure if you guys were being sarcastic, but I loved “The elevator people” I often have elevator rides with those who refuse to make eye contact, a grin or even a head nod. Staring at their phone or just at the ground or walls. And I found it very striking and almost a critique of office culture where after visiting a certain floor they become husks that ride the shafts all day long mindlessly. Maybe I’m old fashioned with my idea of politeness.

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

Mama always said life was like a box of chocolate alphabets. You never know what you're gonna get et by.

Joe Webb

I collect silver coins, and if asked why, I joke it’s so I can melt them down in case of werewolf attack. That bit about modern coins having little silver had stuck with me, but I had forgotten it was from this Ellison collection. And now I know.

Sanjay Mathew

Well so now we know how to deal with the Deep Ones. Torpedos are for amateurs.

Ben Gilbert

The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore is another Ellison story with a similar structure.

Cacodaemoniacal

My Husband got all his Harlan Ellison books signed from A Change of Hobbit. He wasn't in the window, just signing books about 1977. By the time I knew it it was beginning to struggle and was going under.

Elisheba

As a body positive feminist, I believe no being should be required to wear muu muus no matter how many or few arms they have.

Allison Albright

I think my favorite story of this episode was S is for Solifidian the Sorcerer. I love it when the more grandiose and self-serious tropes are brought down to the level of the mundane and have their faces rubbed in the mud with the rest of us. The Venture Bros does a great job of this for example (what happens to child adventurers when they grow up and how do super villains afford the health insurance premiums on all their minions?) and Harlan Ellison also had a flair for it - it's a theme that comes up again and again in this collection. I think it's also my favorite thing about What We Do in the Shadows. In S is for Solifidian the Sorcerer the sorcerer spends his time performing miracles about menstrual cramps and baldness and he has to stop when his wife makes him get a real job. I also really liked the Elevator People. It reminded me of Stephen King's The Five O'Clock People. Working in high rise offices, and in city centers in general, sometimes there are whole groups of people you see that you can't believe are real humans. They're too businessy or too sales-persony and you just know that at the end of the day they take off their human disguises and hang them up in dank holes under the city somewhere to scuttle around on all their many pedipalps. But really, there's not a story in this collection that I don't like (other than the one about the baseball player. I'm so bored by baseball).

Ben Mund

Ten bucks says Jordan Peele turns "The Elevator People" into his next movie.

Murat Yazan

I can imagine creepy kid voices reading this set aloud.

G. Monaldo

Uh... people think this is good?

JD Starkman

Sweet Mother of Mercy! Please, God, stop the Merry-Go-Round! I wanna get off! What a pretentious pile; what a waste of talent! Harlan was over-rated & musta used an Nawful lotta drugs! If only I could buy back the time I just wasted listening to this Ellison garbage!!