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Study 054 - Black Man with a Horn - Part 2 (Patreon)

Published:
2023-08-17 12:59:01
Edited:
2023-10-06 09:04:32
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

Join us as we continue our read of T.E.D. Klein's mythos novella Black Man with a Horn!

Special thanks to reader Erik Peabody of Viking Guitar Productions. You can hear Erik perform a FULL READING of T.E.D. Klein's amazing story The Events at Poroth Farm on the Horror Hill podcast! Listen on YouTube here!

Here are links to our previous episodes on Poroth Farm if you'd like to revisit:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Next up: MORE HORNS!

Comments

The Spider Incident

Part of me hates multi-part episodes (I just want to know how it ends!) but another part really enjoys feeling like I'm exploring the story with you guys. My first thought about the child was in line with what Chad was saying, but Chris made some compelling arguments.

Ethan Cordray

The Tcho-Tcho "hate all that is good in the world?" Even ice cream??

Alan Ricks

Burma is modern day Myanmar.

Steve

William Seabrook had an exciting life. He was a friend of Crowley's and pretty much started the Zombie craze; He was into sexual fetishism, and wrote about being committed to an asylum in the 30s.

It's a Ghost.

For the non-Jazz aficionado, I'd recommend checking out Coltrane's album "Naima" or the compilation album "Ballads." "A Love Supreme" is great in a *jazz* way. Like when you listen to it, you definitely *know* you're listening to jazz. While on the other hand "Naima" and "Ballads" are a bit more low key, and I think probably more accessible to more people. And yes, liking Coltrane is one of the things that helps me to stand out and feel unique :)

Sanjay Mathew

Re Malay/Malayan/Malaysian Malay is an ethnolinguistic group, they're the majority population in Malaysia, Brunei and parts of Sumatra. The linguae franca in Malaysia and Indonesia are based on the literary form of the Malay language with slightly differing vocabularies. Malayan is a bit archaic, it refers to things of or from the Malay Peninsula especially from the colonial period of British Malaya. Malaysian is much broader and refers to things of or from Malaysia. You can be Malaysian without being Malay (and vice versa).

Whippoorwill Rampage

Reminds me of this wonderful quote from an article where the author has just had his skin microbiology sampled and sequenced: "Several species I’ve got, such as Marimonas, have only been found in the ocean before. I am particularly baffled that I carry a species called Georgenia. Before me, scientists had only found it living in the soil. In Japan. When I learned this, I emailed Dunn to let him know I’ve never been to Japan. “It has apparently been to you,” he replied." (From: https://carlzimmer.com/discovering-my-microbiome-you-my-friend-are-a-wonderland/)

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

The Tcho-Tcho characterization seems to follow the usual othering pattern of being small, weak, conniving, and pathetic while simultaneously omnipresent, powerful, blatantly evil, and menacing. We see this everywhere in conspiracy theories and, of course, many an HPL tale.

Elisheba

As a person of short stature who likes strange fiction, the trope of short people hating all that is good is just true. I am pure evil. If I had just a few more inches maybe I would be less evil, but here we are.

Adequately Excellent Entertainment

OK, so when you kept saying that Bram Stoker was writing Dracula when you saw him in Florida… I didn’t think you meant the whole book… I just thought you meant that he was writing “Dracula” over and over again.

Bryce Perry

It took me the better part of the previous episode to understand you were talking about the Tcho-Tcho instead of the ch-chow. I've only ever heard and read Tcho to rhyme with Joe.

Jim Cannon

I have never had a problem with Orcs or Goblins or other fantasy "races" being "all evil"; I am instead usually frustrated that most people assume nonhumans would have human psychology, morality, and motivations just because they are tool using bipeds. But I first encountered the Tch-Tcho in Cthulhu D20 - I know, I'm terrible - and my immediate impression was that this was the most racist effing garbage I had seen in an RPG product outside of all the Roma pastiches that infest game worlds (looking at the World of Darkness in particular). I guess tying the "all evil" humanoids to real world geography and ethnicities punched my white privilage in the face. I could not, however, recall if Klein was the originator or not, so I said nothing last week, and am grateful for the clarification in this episode. I am fascinated by the push-pull technique Klein is using here, taking advantage of the racist tropes while also commenting on them. I expect he sticks the landing, and am looking forward to the conclusion.

Ben A

I absolutely love that you guys are covering this Kline classic. Having read it a few times, it (no pun intended) grows on you. As you have noted, it is very metatextual, much more than Poroth Farm. Curiously I never attributed the narrator to have been a real member of the Lovecraftian circle, but you’re right that the narrator feels like Long, someone who knew him well when he lived in NYC. I strongly recommend to everyone that they should read this one for themselves. It’s a quick story, and never drags. There are two truly creepy scenes. The scene when the narrator finds the robe and eventually gets to inspect it up close sets the tone for something menacing and otherworldly coming into the tale (foreshadowed by the Coltrane album). Up to that point it could fall into the witchcraft/cannibal natives deep in the forest trope. But the second and more unsettling scene is coming up, when the narrator reads the transcript from the documentary. The reveal from a child’s drawing is always a weird and disturbing touch, and the responses from a the child to the interviewer add a sense of peril. I look forward to hearing what you all think of that scene. (And its subtextual commentary on colonialism, which is at the heart of this story.) On an unrelated note, I’d swear that the writers from the X-Files must have read this tale, because there are a few episodes that have similar tone and plot beats. (For example: Arcadia, Our Town, Teso Dos Bichos.) Definitely read the other tales in Dark Gods if you get a chance. I think Black Man with a Horn is the best of the lot, but the others are solid and equally well-written tales. Kline is a master.

nils hedglin

Never buy 2 of these chocolate bars. www.tcho.com

nils hedglin

Also make sure to fully pronounce the second syllable of "Horror Hill" when mentioning the reading;)

Matthew Alderman

I was going to make that Tcho joke, having noticed them some time ago. Kudos to Nils for mentioning them. They’re available here at the local health store and I wonder if they have molasses flavor.

MonsterTalk

I feel after listening and reading to folks railing on about the nuances of all this stuff, that I'm through the tunnel and am fully Tcho-Tcho trained.

Jeremy Impson

Dang it Chris, it I ate every part of a person, then it's perfectly reasonable for me to say that I ate a person, even if it happened over a period of time. I'm not uncivilized; I have a perfectly good freezer.

Rob Valentine

My reading of events is that the creature is in the hat box on the plane, and the Malaysian passenger is singing to it to help it grow, then later it's still not at its full size when it's seen by the maid in his hotel room. Whether this is connected to whatever the Tcho-Tcho grew inside the missionary's guide, I'm not sure; it might have gestated inside him as an embryo, or perhaps this could have been something else growing inside him entirely. What this other incident made me think of is the orchid-like plant in 'The Seed from the Sepulchre' by Clark Ashton Smith, which grows inside a man's skull (and it might even be a reference to it for all I know).

Drix

Chad, if your recliner is really making those moaning sounds, you need to be careful. I've heard some reporting on a growing problem with chairs like that. Lots of people buy them at second hand stores or even off the street, bring them home, and wake up the next day with all their belongings taken! That's right, thieves are hollowing them out and waiting until night to rob you blind! Luckily(??) t sounds like yours has a voyeur in it instead, which is rare, but I actually heard a report about it here: https://www.strangestudies.com/episodes/episode-1-the-monsters-are-due-on-maple-street-5park-4rnc9-bgfky?rq=chair