Speaker 1: Everybody dies, don't they? Isn't that so you've tried to
Speaker 1: get into the long draw today, didn't you? You can?
Speaker 1: How do the they'd come back? They didn't You lost hearts?
Speaker 1: By m R James. It was, as far as I
Speaker 1: can ascertain, in September of the year eighteen eleven, that
Speaker 1: a post chairs drew up before the door of Aswellby Hall,
Speaker 1: in the heart of Lincolnshire. The little boy, who was
Speaker 1: the only passenger in the chaise, and who jumped out
Speaker 1: as soon as it had stopped, looked about him with
Speaker 1: the keenest curiosity. During the short interval that elapsed between
Speaker 1: the ringing of the bell and the opening of the
Speaker 1: hall door, he saw a tall, square, red brick house
Speaker 1: built in the rain of ann. A stone pillared porch
Speaker 1: had been added in the purer classical style of seventeen ninety.
Speaker 1: The window of the house were many, tall and narrow,
Speaker 1: with small panes and thick white woodwork. A pediment pierced
Speaker 1: with a round window, crowned the front. There were wings
Speaker 1: to right and left, connected by curious glazed galleries supported
Speaker 1: by colonnades with the central block. These wings plainly contained
Speaker 1: the stables and offices of the house. Each was surmounted
Speaker 1: by an ornamental cupola with a gilded vane. An evening
Speaker 1: light shone on the building, making the window panes glow
Speaker 1: like so many fires. Away from the hall in front
Speaker 1: stretched a flat park studded with oaks and fringed with firs,
Speaker 1: which stood out against the sky. The clock in the
Speaker 1: church tower buried in trees on the edge of the park,
Speaker 1: only its golden weather cock catching. The lights were striking six,
Speaker 1: and the sound came gently beating down the wind. It
Speaker 1: was altogether a pleasant impression, though tinged with a sort
Speaker 1: of melancholy appropriate to an evening in early autumn, that
Speaker 1: was conveyed to the mind of a boy who was
Speaker 1: standing in the porch waiting for the door to open
Speaker 1: to him. The post shares had brought him from Warwickshire,
Speaker 1: where some six months before he had been left an orphan. Now,
Speaker 1: owing to the generous offer of his elderly cousin, mister Abney,
Speaker 1: he'd come to live at Aswerby. The offer was unexpected,
Speaker 1: because all who knew anything of mister Abney looked upon
Speaker 1: him as a somewhat austere recluse into whose steady going household.
Speaker 1: The advent of a small boy would import a new
Speaker 1: and it seemed incongruous element. The truth is that very
Speaker 1: little was known of mister Abney's pursuits or temper. The
Speaker 1: professor of Greek at Cambridge had been hurt to say
Speaker 1: that no one knew more of the religious beliefs of
Speaker 1: the later Pagans than did the owner of Aswerby. Certainly,
Speaker 1: his library contained all the then available books bearing on
Speaker 1: the mysteries, the Orphic poems, the worship of Mithras, and
Speaker 1: the Neoplatonists. In the marble paved hall stood a fine
Speaker 1: group of Mithras slaying bull, which imported from the Levant's
Speaker 1: a great expense by the owner. He had contributed a
Speaker 1: description of it to the Gentleman's Magazine, and he had
Speaker 1: written a remarkable series of articles in the Critical Museum
Speaker 1: on the superstitions of the Romans of the Lower Empire.
Speaker 1: He was looked upon in Fine as a man wrapped
Speaker 1: up in his books, and it was a matter of
Speaker 1: great surprise among his neighbors that he should have even
Speaker 1: heard of his awtroan cousin, Stephen Elliott, much more that
Speaker 1: he should have volunteered to make him an inmate of
Speaker 1: aswellbe hall. Whatever may have been expected by his neighbors.
Speaker 1: It is certain that mister Abney, the tall, the thin,
Speaker 1: the austere, seemed inclined to give his young cousin a
Speaker 1: kindly reception. The moment the front door was opened, he
Speaker 1: darted out of his study, rubbing his hands with delight.
Speaker 1: How are you, my boy? How are you? How old
Speaker 1: are you? Said he? That is, you are not too
Speaker 1: much tired? I hope by your journey to eat your supper. No,
Speaker 1: thank you, sir, said Master Elliott. I'm pretty well. That's
Speaker 1: a good lad, said mister Abney. And how old are you,
Speaker 1: my boy? It seemed a little odd that he should
Speaker 1: have asked the question twice in the first two minutes
Speaker 1: of their acquaintance. I'm twelve years old, next birthday, sir,
Speaker 1: said Stephen. And when is your birthday, my dear boy,
Speaker 1: eleventh of September. That's well, that's very well, nearly a year, hence,
Speaker 1: isn't it? I like, ha ha, I like to get
Speaker 1: these things down in my book. Sure it's twelve, certain, yes,
Speaker 1: quite sure, sir. Well, Well take him to missus Bunch's room,
Speaker 1: Parks and let him have his tea supper, whatever it is, Yes, Sir,
Speaker 1: answered the stage mister Parks, and conducted Stephen to the
Speaker 1: lower regions. Missus Bunch was the most comfortable and human
Speaker 1: person whom Stephen had yet as met in as would be,
Speaker 1: she made him completely at home. They were great friends
Speaker 1: in a quarter of an hour, and great friends they remained.
Speaker 1: Missus Bunch had been born in the neighborhood some fifty
Speaker 1: five years before the date of Stephen's arrival, and her
Speaker 1: residence at the Hall was of twenty years stand. Consequently,
Speaker 1: if any one knew the ins and outs of the
Speaker 1: house in the district, Missus Bunch knew them, and she
Speaker 1: was by no means disinclined to communicate her information. Certainly,
Speaker 1: there were plenty of things about the Hall and the
Speaker 1: hall gardens which Stephen, who was of an adventurous and
Speaker 1: inquiring turn, was anxious to have explained. Him. Who built
Speaker 1: a temple at the end of the Laurel walk. Who
Speaker 1: was the old man whose picture hung on the staircase,
Speaker 1: sitting at the table with a skull under his hand?
Speaker 1: These and many similar points were cleared up by the
Speaker 1: resources of Missus Bunch's powerful intellect. There were others, however,
Speaker 1: of which explanations furnished were less satisfactory. One November evening,
Speaker 1: Stephen was sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room,
Speaker 1: reflecting on his surroundings. Is mister Abney a good man?
Speaker 1: And will he go to heaven? He suddenly asked, with
Speaker 1: the peculiar confidence which children possess in the ability of
Speaker 1: their elders to settle these questions, the decision of which
Speaker 1: is believed to be reserved for other tribunals. Good bless
Speaker 1: the child, said missus Bunch. Master's as kind a soul
Speaker 1: as I ever did see, didn't I never tell you
Speaker 1: of the little boy as he took in out of
Speaker 1: the street, as you may say this seven years back,
Speaker 1: and the little girl two years after I first came here. No,
Speaker 1: do tell me about them, missus Bunch, now this minute,
Speaker 1: well said missus Bunch. The little girl I don't seem
Speaker 1: to recollect so much about I know. Master brought her
Speaker 1: back with him from his walk one day and give
Speaker 1: orders to missus Ellis, who was housekeeper then, as she
Speaker 1: should be, took every care with And the poor child
Speaker 1: hadn't no one belonging to her. She told me so
Speaker 1: her own self, and here she lived with us a
Speaker 1: matter of three weeks, he might be, and then whether
Speaker 1: there was something of a gipsy in her blood or
Speaker 1: what not. But one morning she shot out of her
Speaker 1: bed before any of us had opened an eye, and
Speaker 1: neither track nor yet trace of her. Have I said
Speaker 1: ties on, since Master was wonderful put about and had
Speaker 1: all the ponds dragged. But it's my belief she was
Speaker 1: had away by them gypsies, for they were singing round
Speaker 1: the house for as much as an hour the night
Speaker 1: she went, And parks, he declared, as he heard them
Speaker 1: are calling in her woods all that afternoon, dear, dear,
Speaker 1: a hot child. She was so silent in the ways
Speaker 1: and all, but Ah, I was wonderful taking up with her,
Speaker 1: so domesticated she was surprising. And what about the little boy,
Speaker 1: said Stephen, Ah, that poor boy sighed missus bunch. He
Speaker 1: were a foreigner, Giovanni called herself. And he come a
Speaker 1: tweak in his irdy gurdy round about the drive one
Speaker 1: winter day, and Master had him in that minute. And
Speaker 1: that's all about where he come from, and how old
Speaker 1: he was, and how he made his way, and where
Speaker 1: was his relatives, and all as kind as heart could wish.
Speaker 1: But he went the same way with him. They're an
Speaker 1: unruly lot, them foreign nations, that do suppose. And he
Speaker 1: was off one fine morning, just the same as the girl.
Speaker 1: Why he went and what he'd done was our question
Speaker 1: for as much as a year after before he never
Speaker 1: took his herdy gurdy him there it lays on the shelf.
Speaker 1: The remainder of the evening was spent by Stephen in
Speaker 1: miscellaneous cross examination of Missus Bunch and efforts to extract
Speaker 1: a tune from the hurdy Gurdy. That night he had
Speaker 1: a curious dream. At the end of the passage at
Speaker 1: the top of the house in which his bedroom was situated,
Speaker 1: there was an old, disused bathroom. It was kept locked,
Speaker 1: but the upper half of the door was glazed, and
Speaker 1: since the muslin curtains which used to hang there had
Speaker 1: long been gone, you could look in and see the
Speaker 1: lead lined bath fixed to the wall on the right hand,
Speaker 1: with its head towards the window. On the night of
Speaker 1: which I'm speaking, the Stephen Elliott found himself, as he thought,
Speaker 1: looking through the glazed door. The moon was shining through
Speaker 1: the window, and he was gazing at a figure which
Speaker 1: lay in the b His description of what he saw
Speaker 1: reminds me of what I once beheld myself in the
Speaker 1: famous vaults of Saint Micahan's Church in Dublin, which possessed
Speaker 1: a horrid property of preserving corpses from decay for centuries.
Speaker 1: A figure inexpressibly thin and pathetic, of a dusty leaden color,
Speaker 1: enveloped in a shroudlike garment, the thin lips crooked into
Speaker 1: a faint and dreadful smile. The hands pressed tightly over
Speaker 1: the region of the heart. As he looked upon it,
Speaker 1: A distant, almost inaudible moan seemed to issue from its lips,
Speaker 1: and the arms began to stir. The terror of the
Speaker 1: sight forced Stephen backwards, and he awoke to the fact
Speaker 1: that he was indeed standing on the cold bordered floor
Speaker 1: of the passage in the full light of the moon.
Speaker 1: With a courage which I do not think can be
Speaker 1: common among boys of his age. He went to the
Speaker 1: door of the bathroom to ascertain if the figure of
Speaker 1: his dream were really there. It was not, and he
Speaker 1: went back to bed. Missus Bunch was much impressed next
Speaker 1: morning by his story, and went so far as to
Speaker 1: replace the muslin curtain over the glazed door of the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Mister Abney moreover, to whom he confided his experiences at breakfast,
Speaker 1: was greatly interested and made notes of the matter in
Speaker 1: what he called his book. The spring equinox was approaching,
Speaker 1: as mister Abney frequently reminded his cousin, adding that this
Speaker 1: had been always considered by the ancients to be a
Speaker 1: critical time for the young, that Stephen would do well
Speaker 1: to take care of himself and to shut his bedroom
Speaker 1: window at night, and that Censoriness had some valuable remarks
Speaker 1: on the subjects. Two incidents that occurred about this time
Speaker 1: made an impression upon Stephen's mind. The first was after
Speaker 1: an unusually uneasy and depressed night that he had passed,
Speaker 1: though he couldn't recall any particular dream that he'd had.
Speaker 1: The following evening, missus Bunch was occupying herself in mending
Speaker 1: his nightgown. Gracious me, Master Stephen, she broke forth, rather irritably,
Speaker 1: how do you manage to tell your night dress all
Speaker 1: to flinders this way? Look here, sir, what trouble do
Speaker 1: you give to poor servants and have to darn and
Speaker 1: mend after you? There was indeed a most destructive and
Speaker 1: apparently wanton series of slits or scorings in the garment,
Speaker 1: which would undoubtedly require a skillful needle to make good.
Speaker 1: They were confined to the left side of the chest,
Speaker 1: long parallel slits about six inches in length, some of
Speaker 1: them not quite piercing the texture of the linen. Stephen
Speaker 1: could only express his entire ignorance of their origin. He
Speaker 1: was sure they were not there the night before, but
Speaker 1: he said, Missus Bunch, they had just the same as
Speaker 1: the scratches on the outside of my bedroom door, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure I never had anything to do with making them.
Speaker 1: Missus Bunch gazed at him, open mouthed, then snatched up
Speaker 1: a candle hearted hastily from the room, and was heard
Speaker 1: making her way upstairs. In a few minutes she came down. Well,
Speaker 1: she said, Master Stephen. It's a funny thing to me
Speaker 1: how their marks and scratches can have come there, too
Speaker 1: high up for any cat or dog to have made
Speaker 1: them much less a rat for all the world, like
Speaker 1: a chinaman's fingernails. As my uncle in the tea trade
Speaker 1: used to tell us of when we were girls together,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say nothing to Master, not if I was
Speaker 1: you Master, Stephen, my dear, and just turn the key
Speaker 1: of the door when you go to your bed. I
Speaker 1: always do, Missus Bunch, as soon as I've said my prayers. Ah,
Speaker 1: that's a good child. Always say your prayers and then
Speaker 1: no one can hurt you. Herewith Missus Bunch addressed herself
Speaker 1: to mending the injured night gown with intervals of meditation
Speaker 1: until bedtime. This it was on a Friday night in
Speaker 1: March eighteen twelve. On the following evening, the usual duet
Speaker 1: of Stephen and Missus Bunch was augmented by the sudden
Speaker 1: arrival of mister Parks. The butler, who was a rule,
Speaker 1: kept himself rather to himself in his own pantry. He
Speaker 1: didn't see that Stephen was there. He was moreover flustered
Speaker 1: and less slow speech than was his wont master may
Speaker 1: cut up his own wine if he likes of an evening,
Speaker 1: was his first remark. Either I do it in the
Speaker 1: daytime or not at all, Missus Bunch, I don't know
Speaker 1: what it may be very like its rats or the
Speaker 1: wind got into the cellars. But now I'm not as
Speaker 1: young as I was, and I can't go through with
Speaker 1: it as I have done. Well, mister Parks, you know
Speaker 1: it is a surprising place for rats. It's the hall.
Speaker 1: I'm not denying that, missus bunch. And to be sure,
Speaker 1: many a time I've heard the tale from the men
Speaker 1: in the shipyards about the rats that could speak. I
Speaker 1: never laid no confidence in that before. But to night,
Speaker 1: if i'd demean myself to lay my ear to the
Speaker 1: door of the further bin, I could pretty much have
Speaker 1: heard what they were saying. Oh there, mister Parks, have
Speaker 1: no patience with your fancies rats talking in the wine cellar. Indeed, well,
Speaker 1: missus bunch, I've no wish to argue with you. All
Speaker 1: I say is, if you choose to go to the
Speaker 1: farbin and lay your ear to the door, you may
Speaker 1: prove my words this minute. What nonsense you do talk,
Speaker 1: mister Parks, not fit for children to listen to. Why
Speaker 1: you'll be frightening Master Stephen. They're out of his wits.
Speaker 1: What Master Stephen said, Parks awaking to the consciousness of
Speaker 1: the boy's presence. Master Stephen knows well enough when I'm
Speaker 1: playing a joke with you, missus bunch. In fact, Master
Speaker 1: Stephen knew much too well to suppose that mister parks had,
Speaker 1: in the first instance intended a joke. He was interested,
Speaker 1: not altogether pleasantly in the situation, but all his questions
Speaker 1: were unsuccessful in inducing the butler to give any more
Speaker 1: detailed account of his experiences in the wine cellar. We
Speaker 1: have now arrived at March twenty fourth, eighteen twelve. It
Speaker 1: was a day of curious experiences for Stephen, a windy,
Speaker 1: noisy day which filled the house in the gardens with
Speaker 1: a restless impression. As Stephen stood by the fence of
Speaker 1: the grounds and looked out into the park, he felt
Speaker 1: as if an endless procession of unseen people were sweeping
Speaker 1: past him on the wind, borne on resistlessly and aimlessly,
Speaker 1: vainly striving to stop themselves, to catch at something that
Speaker 1: might arrest their flight and bring them once again into
Speaker 1: contact with the living world of which they had formed
Speaker 1: a part. After luncheon that day, mister Abney said, Stephen,
Speaker 1: my boy, do you think you could manage to come
Speaker 1: to me tonight as late as eleven o'clock in my study.
Speaker 1: I shall be busy until that time, and I wish
Speaker 1: to show you something connected with your future life, which
Speaker 1: it is most important that you should know. You are
Speaker 1: not to mention this matter to missus Bunch, or to
Speaker 1: anyone else in the house, and you had better go
Speaker 1: to your room at the usual time. Here was a
Speaker 1: new excitement added to life. Stephen eagerly grasped at the
Speaker 1: opportunity of sitting up till eleven o'clock. He looked in
Speaker 1: at the library door on his way upstairs that evening
Speaker 1: and saw brazier which he had often noticed in the
Speaker 1: corner of the room, moved out before the fire. An
Speaker 1: old silver gilt cup stood on the table filled with
Speaker 1: red wine, and some written sheets of paper lay near it.
Speaker 1: Mister Abney was sprinkling some incense on the brazier from
Speaker 1: a round silver box as Stephen passed, but did not
Speaker 1: seem to notice his step. The wind had fallen and
Speaker 1: there was a still night and a full moon. At
Speaker 1: about ten o'clock, Stephen was standing at the open window
Speaker 1: of his bedroom, looking out over the country. Still as
Speaker 1: the night was, the mysterious population of the distant moonlit
Speaker 1: woods was not yet lulled to rest. From time to time,
Speaker 1: strange cries, as of lost and despairing wanderers sounded from
Speaker 1: across the mere. They might be the notes of owls
Speaker 1: or water birds. Yet they did not quite resemble lither
Speaker 1: sound were they not coming nearer? Now they sounded from
Speaker 1: the nearer side of the water, and in a few
Speaker 1: moments they seemed to be floating about among the shrubberies.
Speaker 1: Then they ceased. But just as Stephen was thinking of
Speaker 1: shutting the window and resuming his reading of Robinson Crusoe,
Speaker 1: he caught sight of two figures standing on the gravel
Speaker 1: terrace that ran along the garden side of the hall,
Speaker 1: the figures of a boy and girl, as it seemed
Speaker 1: they stood side by side, looking up the windows. Something
Speaker 1: in the form of the girl recalled irresistibly his dream
Speaker 1: of the figure in the bath. The boy inspired him
Speaker 1: with more acute fear. Whilst the girl stood still, half smiling,
Speaker 1: with her hands clasped over her heart, the boy, a
Speaker 1: thin shape with black hair and ragged clothing, raised his
Speaker 1: arms in the air with an appearance of menace and
Speaker 1: of unappeasable hunger and longing. The moon shone upon his
Speaker 1: almost transparent hands, and Stephen saw that the nails were
Speaker 1: fearfully long, and that the light shone through them. As
Speaker 1: he stood with his arms thus raised, he disclosed a
Speaker 1: terrifying spectacle. On the left side of his chest there
Speaker 1: opened a black and gaping rent, and there fell upon
Speaker 1: Stephen's brain, rather than upon his ear, the impression of
Speaker 1: one of those hungry and desolate cries that he'd heard
Speaker 1: resounding over the woods of Aswerby all that evening. In
Speaker 1: another moment, this dreadful pair had moved swiftly and noiselessly
Speaker 1: over the dry gravel, and he saw them no more inexpressibly.
Speaker 1: Frightened as he was, he determined to take his candle
Speaker 1: and go down to mister Abney's study, for the hour
Speaker 1: appointed for their meeting was near at hand. The study
Speaker 1: or library opened out of the front hall on one side,
Speaker 1: and Stephen, urged on by his terrors, did not take
Speaker 1: long in getting there. To effect an entrance was not
Speaker 1: so easy. The door was not locked, he felt sure,
Speaker 1: for the key was on the outside of it. As usual,
Speaker 1: He's repeated not produced no answer. Mister Abney was engaged,
Speaker 1: he was speaking. What Why did he try to cry out?
Speaker 1: And why was the cry choked in his throat? Had
Speaker 1: he too seen the mysterious children? But now everything was quiet,
Speaker 1: and the door yielded to Stephen's terrified and frantic pushing
Speaker 1: on the table. In mister Abney's study, certain papers were
Speaker 1: found which explained the situation to Stephen Elliott when he
Speaker 1: was of an age to understand them. The most important
Speaker 1: sentences were as follows. It was a belief very strongly
Speaker 1: and generally held by the ancients, of whose wisdom in
Speaker 1: these matters. I have had such experience as induces me
Speaker 1: to place confidence in our assertions that by enacting certain
Speaker 1: processes which to us moderns have something of a barbaric complexion,
Speaker 1: a very remarkable enlightenment of the spiritual faculties in man
Speaker 1: may be attained, that, for example, by absorbing the personalities
Speaker 1: of a certain number of his fellow creatures, an individual
Speaker 1: may gain a complete ascendancy over those orders of spiritual
Speaker 1: beings which control the elemental forces of our universe. It
Speaker 1: is recorded of Simon Magus that he was able to
Speaker 1: fly in the air, to become invisible, or to assume
Speaker 1: any form he pleased, by the agency of the soul
Speaker 1: of a boy whom, to use the libelous phrase employed
Speaker 1: by the author of the Clementine recognitions, he had murdered.
Speaker 1: I find it set down moreover, with considerable detail in
Speaker 1: the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, that similar happi reessis may
Speaker 1: be produced by the absorption of the hearts of not
Speaker 1: less than three human beings below the age of twenty
Speaker 1: one years. To the testing the truth of the receipt,
Speaker 1: I have devoted the greater part of the last twenty years,
Speaker 1: selecting as the corporeavilia of my experiment such persons as
Speaker 1: could conveniently be removed without occasioning a sensible gap in society.
Speaker 1: The first step I affected by the removal of one
Speaker 1: Phoebe Stanley, a girl of gipsy extraction, on March twenty fourth,
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety two. The second by the removal of a
Speaker 1: wandering Italian lad named Giovanni Pauli, on the night of
Speaker 1: March the twenty third, eighteen o five. The final victim
Speaker 1: to employ a word repugnant in the highest degree to
Speaker 1: my feelings must be my cousin Stephen Elliot. His day
Speaker 1: must be this March twenty fourth, eighteen twelve. The best
Speaker 1: means of affecting the required absorption is to remove the
Speaker 1: heart from a living subject, to reduce it to ashes,
Speaker 1: and to mingle them with about a pint of some
Speaker 1: red wine, preferably port the remains of the first two subjects.
Speaker 1: At least it will be well to conceal them. A
Speaker 1: disused bathroom or a wine cellar will be found convenient
Speaker 1: for such a purpose. Some annoyance may be experienced from
Speaker 1: the psychic portion of the subjects, which popular language dignifies
Speaker 1: with the name of ghosts. But the man of philosophic temperament,
Speaker 1: to whom alone the experiment is appropriate, will be a
Speaker 1: little prone to attach importance to the feep efforts of
Speaker 1: these beings to wreak their vengeance on him. I contemplate
Speaker 1: with the liveliest satisfaction, the enlarged and emancipated existence which
Speaker 1: the experiment, if successful, will confer on me, not only
Speaker 1: placing me beyond the reach of human justice, so called
Speaker 1: by eliminating to a great extent the prospect of death itself.
Speaker 1: Mister Abney was found in his chair, his head thrown back,
Speaker 1: his face stamped with an expression of rage, fright, and
Speaker 1: mortal pain. In his left side was a terrible lacerated wound,
Speaker 1: exposing the heart. There was no blood on his hands,
Speaker 1: and the long knife that lay on the table was
Speaker 1: perfectly clean. A savage wildcat might have inflicted the injuries.
Speaker 1: The window of the study was open, and it was
Speaker 1: the opinion of the coroner that mister Abney had met
Speaker 1: his death by the agency of some wild creature. But
Speaker 1: Stephen Elliot's study of the papers I have quoted led
Speaker 1: him to a very different conclusion. Everybody dies. So that
Speaker 1: was lost hearts by m R James. Now, actually some
Speaker 1: people reckon that's their favorite Mr James story. I'm going
Speaker 1: to talk a bit about the story. Obviously, I'm going
Speaker 1: to say a tiny bit about Mr James. We know
Speaker 1: Montague Roads pretty well by now, and but for those
Speaker 1: of you who don't know him, he is the probably
Speaker 1: considered the master of the classic ghost story. His brother
Speaker 1: Henry James. That's a joke, Henry James, turn of the
Speaker 1: screw he gets in the I mean, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people I rate, you know, but Mr James
Speaker 1: is generally probably considered the best one. So he was
Speaker 1: born in eighteen sixty two in good and Stone in Kent,
Speaker 1: and his father was a clergyman. He spent much of
Speaker 1: his life in Suffolk and that part of East Anglia.
Speaker 1: Suffolk Norfolk, Cambridgeshire. This one's in Lincoln is that's his patch. Really.
Speaker 1: He went to King's College, Cambridge and he was a
Speaker 1: brilliant scholar and it became provost at Kings in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh five. He went to school at Eton, which is
Speaker 1: in oh, come on Tony Berkshire. Imagine me not knowing
Speaker 1: that to the western London on the Thames anyway, and
Speaker 1: it's at Eton, it's at Windsor and the pre eminent
Speaker 1: British public school. And he went there and he later
Speaker 1: worked there and died there when he was provost there
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen. So his life, what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: say is and that isn't East Anglia, but his life
Speaker 1: was spent between those two places. Really. He lived a
Speaker 1: very conservative life probably in every sense. He traveled a bit,
Speaker 1: mainly in pursuit of finding old churches and old manuscripts,
Speaker 1: and of course that comes through in his story, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's classic, the classic Mr James protagonist is someone
Speaker 1: a bit like him. I think he was a very
Speaker 1: intelligent man. I think he had a lot of wit,
Speaker 1: and so you know, he was perhaps poking fun of
Speaker 1: himself as well when he wrote these stories, and they
Speaker 1: have these antiquarians who were driven by this lust four
Speaker 1: old things manuscripts or ruins or treasure sometimes, but it's
Speaker 1: all to do with all this palaeontological stuff. Paleographer, he
Speaker 1: was a paleographer, not a paleontologist. That's about dinosaur, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Paleo old There you go anyway, So he was seventy
Speaker 1: three when he died, and I've talked about him at length.
Speaker 1: Lots of people talk about I just let me talk
Speaker 1: about this story, this story Lost Hearts. So it was
Speaker 1: first published in eighteen ninety five in the pal Mall
Speaker 1: Gazette magazine rather and was collected the following year in
Speaker 1: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, published by Edward Arnold in
Speaker 1: nineteen oh four, which is doesn't make sense. The collection's
Speaker 1: publication date is sometimes given as nineteen oh foe and
Speaker 1: sometimes as nineteen oh five. It still makes no sense
Speaker 1: if it says the first is eighteen ninety five and
Speaker 1: then the next year. Anyway, that's about when it came out,
Speaker 1: sort of end of the nineteenth beginning of the twentieth century.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing lost Hearts. There's lots of references to
Speaker 1: hearts isn't there in it. It just drops the word
Speaker 1: heart in which is literally artist. But I quite liked it,
Speaker 1: you know, So it's teasing, it's playing with the audience.
Speaker 1: I think he considered it one of his least satisfactory stories,
Speaker 1: and that tells you something about James himself. So the
Speaker 1: classic Gemesian method of writing a story that unnerves you
Speaker 1: is to put the horror off stage when it comes
Speaker 1: on stage. We'll talk about that in a minute, but
Speaker 1: it's hinted. It's the thing down the corridor you don't
Speaker 1: go towards. It's the thing in the library that you
Speaker 1: barely see, you know. Sometimes it comes on stage. To
Speaker 1: be fair, I mean it does come on stage, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know it's hinto that it's not explained, and
Speaker 1: I suppose yeah, that's his strength, really, and he was
Speaker 1: explicit about that. He didn't want to explain it because
Speaker 1: we all know the things you can once you I've
Speaker 1: said this many times about horror and ghost stories and things.
Speaker 1: The reason that vampires generally having a little fear for
Speaker 1: us now is that we know all about them. We
Speaker 1: know about were wolves, we know about vampires, we know
Speaker 1: about Frankenstein's I like saying that because I know it's
Speaker 1: gonna that's not isn't it. I know it's gonna accept
Speaker 1: some people. It's gonna be coffee thrown at the walls.
Speaker 1: Frankenstein was the doctor. It's franken Stein's monster and you
Speaker 1: can't just call them Frankenstein's and hurling coffee at the
Speaker 1: wolves of course, sudden he said to me, what you
Speaker 1: need is have the eggshell paint. So if you're in
Speaker 1: the habit of getting very upset, why I'm saying through
Speaker 1: hurling your coffee at the walls. I mean, hurling is
Speaker 1: better than spitting. That's fair. I mean in terms of damage,
Speaker 1: hurling is more dangerous and does more damage. But spitting
Speaker 1: is just a bit vulgar, isn't it. I mean, is
Speaker 1: it's totally vulgar. It's horrific. So you know I'm repulsed
Speaker 1: by it anyway, So yeah, eggshell pain is what you want.
Speaker 1: So Frankenstein's yeah, we know all about them, don't we,
Speaker 1: And so they're not frightening anymore. So the thing is is,
Speaker 1: James knew you just this. I've talked before about the
Speaker 1: Zigana contention, which I think is she was a Bulgarian psychologist.
Speaker 1: I can't remember her first name. Now I'm having a
Speaker 1: morning of it blowing a hurly here. You know, dogs
Speaker 1: didn't want to go out. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: could hear the rain in the recording. I mean, I
Speaker 1: have a little choice of when I can record sometimes,
Speaker 1: and it can be quite noisy in the background. But
Speaker 1: there we are. It's just how it is, mate, anyway,
Speaker 1: so rare in the background, mind all over the place,
Speaker 1: going to struggle on with it never mind nevertheless. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not like his normal thing, is it. James is
Speaker 1: also the master of the weird. Very often some of
Speaker 1: his stuff is very weird, like the thing on the bed.
Speaker 1: I keep coming back to a whistle, the weird contorted
Speaker 1: shape in the mets of tint In, mister Humphries and
Speaker 1: his inheritance, the thing in the black ink. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's lovecrafting and its weirdness, because if you remember, the
Speaker 1: definition of weird fiction is that the juxtaposes things should
Speaker 1: not be together and gives us a shock because that
Speaker 1: shouldn't be there. That's not right, it's wrong. You know,
Speaker 1: that's a much overused word in horror pros. It was wrong.
Speaker 1: That's like you've actually you've got no you can't be
Speaker 1: bothered explaining anymore about it. You just say that and oh,
Speaker 1: hope it works. It doesn't work anymore. We've heard it
Speaker 1: too many times. But anyway, so that's his normal thing.
Speaker 1: He uses a lot of weird stuff. He didn't think
Speaker 1: much of Lovecraft. Lovecraft thought he was great. But nevertheless,
Speaker 1: I think James does use weird fiction techniques, probably without
Speaker 1: either acknowledging it or knowing it was related, because I mean,
Speaker 1: he work, he lived in the different I'm going to
Speaker 1: say something about else about James. You know, this is
Speaker 1: a guy. He's the son of an Anglican clergyman. He
Speaker 1: lives a very narrow bounded life in respectability in what
Speaker 1: you do. And yet and we could, if we were minded,
Speaker 1: talk about shadows. You know, there's something in him that
Speaker 1: wants to get out and comes out in his stories.
Speaker 1: And that's fine, that's fine, But this is not weird fiction.
Speaker 1: This is almost like looking forward to mid twentieth century
Speaker 1: gore horror. So you know, as you remember those what's his
Speaker 1: name vantale horror books, pan horror books that used to
Speaker 1: sit and read when you're a kid, I did, and
Speaker 1: they were like gruesome skulls and rats in your skull
Speaker 1: and horrific slugs, horrific, And I think, yeah, there's all
Speaker 1: sorts of categories of what scares us. I've said about
Speaker 1: the weird, and then there's a earie. We won't go
Speaker 1: into that. Then there's the unheimly, the uncanny. We've talked
Speaker 1: about those at length. Elsewhere, there is the there's a dismemberment,
Speaker 1: because you know, we are a species, we are an animal,
Speaker 1: and we look and see dismembered things we think, ooh,
Speaker 1: predator scared. Simple it's a simple thing. I mean, the
Speaker 1: whole idea about the weird is related to that. It's
Speaker 1: like we cannot trap it in our net of conceptions.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is we can't zero in on it
Speaker 1: and go, yeah, I know what that is. I'm in control,
Speaker 1: I know what I'm going to do. That's it. The
Speaker 1: weird works because it's like, WHOA, what's going on? This
Speaker 1: isn't out of my control. I need to control it.
Speaker 1: I'm anxious. Whereas the if you like, the gore, horror
Speaker 1: is right there in your face. Actually it's not just
Speaker 1: a shadow that might be a predator. Look what it's done.
Speaker 1: It's a predator, so that's a bit more immediate. But
Speaker 1: you know, James doesn't only do this but except I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what those images of the heart being removed,
Speaker 1: it's very graphic, you know. And then at the end
Speaker 1: when he says, Oh, you're gonna you've got to get
Speaker 1: the heart and you've gotta have it with a bit
Speaker 1: of port preferably port. Any red wine would do, but
Speaker 1: port fortified a bit sweeter. Actually proper port isn't that
Speaker 1: sweet as it isn't as sweet from a portal in
Speaker 1: Portugal or ports So yeah, he goes into that thing
Speaker 1: and it's sort of like if you get to Clive Barker.
Speaker 1: I just bought Clive backer book the other day, Weave World,
Speaker 1: which is one of his fantasy things, and I had
Speaker 1: it in the nineteen eighties and I read it, but
Speaker 1: I can't know much about it. And I was in
Speaker 1: a Settle in Yorkshire. We had a lovely day last
Speaker 1: week with my daughters. We went down to Settle on
Speaker 1: the train for my birthday. It was absolutely beautiful day
Speaker 1: and I went in a bookshop there called Limestone Books,
Speaker 1: and it was a delightful man in charge of it,
Speaker 1: and so if you're ever in Settle, and I would
Speaker 1: recommend you go if you're within you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of hundred miles at least, and get yourselves. They're preferably
Speaker 1: on a good day. It's a love little place. Limestone Books,
Speaker 1: great books. He's talking about he's going to get the
Speaker 1: heat on our digression now at Limestone Books. He has
Speaker 1: small print houses, so he features he has shelves of
Speaker 1: small publishers, which I think is fantastic, you know. And
Speaker 1: he had another one. He was saying, he's going to
Speaker 1: get rid of whatever he had on that shelf, and
Speaker 1: he's got this American Horror house publishing house. They're like,
Speaker 1: especially it has to do American horror, and he's going
Speaker 1: to have that. And I said, I'll come back for that.
Speaker 1: So that was that I got there. Really Now horror
Speaker 1: types of horror we were talking about. Yeah, we've talked
Speaker 1: about I've got can of rehearsed that, haven't I yes,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Clive Barker with Clive Barker is very famous
Speaker 1: for the graphic descriptions of his horror, really in your
Speaker 1: face graphics. And of course then we had a whole
Speaker 1: slew of films that really went into the really grossness
Speaker 1: of dismemberment. We could talk about the abject, but again
Speaker 1: probably we won't. I've talked about that as well before,
Speaker 1: Julia christ Dave or the abject, you know, one of
Speaker 1: these days, I mean, I'm kind of interested in the
Speaker 1: idea of actually not doing an episode that isn't about
Speaker 1: a story. But we talk about these things in depth.
Speaker 1: So we talk about you know, Julie Christave is the object,
Speaker 1: or we can talk abo about freuds, Hencanny or what's
Speaker 1: his name, Tiered or tier dot Ov he had a
Speaker 1: and we can talk about monster theory and all these
Speaker 1: kind of things. They're a little bit perhaps not what
Speaker 1: people I mean. You know, the podcast has a number
Speaker 1: of different types of listener. Some people simply want to
Speaker 1: consume the stories and fall asleep, and I do these
Speaker 1: long compilations. I've got the the online radio that's always on.
Speaker 1: If you go to www dot Gravenheim g R A
Speaker 1: V E N H E I M dot com, you
Speaker 1: will find a twenty four to seven radio station that
Speaker 1: just broadcast stories. I tried to cut out the commentaries
Speaker 1: where I can. Some of the old ones the commentaries
Speaker 1: are still there, but all the new ones I'm putting
Speaker 1: up have no commentaries on, so you don't have to
Speaker 1: listen to me, because I know what people say is,
Speaker 1: you know, the story has a certain cadence, and then
Speaker 1: I start talking in my accent changes and I talk
Speaker 1: a lot faster, and I repeat myself and I say
Speaker 1: and it's different, and it wakes people up, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I've tried to avoid that on the live radio.
Speaker 1: But perhaps it's not complete. It's not perfect anyway. So yeah,
Speaker 1: he didn't. So yeah, it's what it is to say
Speaker 1: about the story. He didn't like it. I think it's
Speaker 1: all right. I think it is not his normal style.
Speaker 1: But even so, what the things are normal about it
Speaker 1: are the country house, and we have the academic. The
Speaker 1: weird academic in this case is not the protagonist, is
Speaker 1: the villain. But he's the same ilk, isn't he. He's
Speaker 1: the same sort of dude in the track mid off,
Speaker 1: the bloke who does the Who's Horrible, and he's into
Speaker 1: black magic and stuff as well, and he does his will,
Speaker 1: doesn't he. Obviously that's a spoiler in case you haven't
Speaker 1: heard it, not much of a spoiler. I don't think
Speaker 1: you get the story from what I just said then,
Speaker 1: I thought that the two, the two, the two victims,
Speaker 1: the previous victims. I thought Steven Elliott, the current victim,
Speaker 1: isn't really there. You know, he's not really described much
Speaker 1: at all. He's just an eleven year old boy. That's it.
Speaker 1: He reminds me of Oliver Twist more, sir, you know
Speaker 1: that he's just he's just a camera ends. Really. The
Speaker 1: two other characters, the gypsy girl what you call Phoebe,
Speaker 1: and the Italian herdy gurdy boy, they seem massively more
Speaker 1: interesting and colorful characters actually probably not colorful because they're
Speaker 1: all gray. And of course BBC did a version of this,
Speaker 1: didn't they, And I think they did it quite well
Speaker 1: with the two. Those two. It was a little bit
Speaker 1: gothic and a bit of makeup. That was It was
Speaker 1: the eighties, seventies or eighties, so it was the good
Speaker 1: old days. I mean, there's a you could say a
Speaker 1: lot more about it. I'm I'm always in I'm going
Speaker 1: to go onto my final point, really, which which maybe extended,
Speaker 1: is about James and the occult, because he has a
Speaker 1: number of his characters and they they are a cult,
Speaker 1: not even a cultage, isn't there wizards or these academic
Speaker 1: occultists who dabble in old manuscripts and summon forth spirits.
Speaker 1: So it always strikes me what was the connection of
Speaker 1: James with the late Victorian early arn Edwardian a cult
Speaker 1: movement in Britain. So let me talk about this. So
Speaker 1: I just did some notes on this. So in the
Speaker 1: late nineteenth century was, among other things, a period of
Speaker 1: systematic occult entrepreneurship. Francis Barrett's The Megas eighteen oh one,
Speaker 1: obviously early eighteenth century, had assembled a grippa angelic hierarchies,
Speaker 1: talismanic practice, and ceremonial techniques into a single English language
Speaker 1: handbook available to anyone who could find a copy. So
Speaker 1: let's unpack that a little bit. So the previous So
Speaker 1: the idea of the occultists, if you listen to people,
Speaker 1: are there any now. But I think I don't even
Speaker 1: know what chaos magic is doing. Chaos magic was a
Speaker 1: later iteration of the Westerner cult scene. There may be
Speaker 1: other kinds of stuff now that I'm just not okay with.
Speaker 1: And that actually began in Whitby in Yorkshire in the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, and that was a reaction to and basically
Speaker 1: that says what it's about, the power of belief. It's
Speaker 1: a very post modern magic. You know, it's not you
Speaker 1: don't rely on the grand narrative of your utensils, you know,
Speaker 1: your atheme and your chalice and your pentangle and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Or about the specific words, and
Speaker 1: he said pacific words, the specific words and rituals and gestures.
Speaker 1: You know, they say, oh that's all monkey, monkey nuts.
Speaker 1: What you need is simply the belief. So if you
Speaker 1: call upon Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse can be a spirit
Speaker 1: to work for you, or you call it great in
Speaker 1: full ironic knowledge that no such creature ever really existed,
Speaker 1: you can still make it work. This is chaos magic. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go back a little bit. That was a reaction
Speaker 1: to the grand narrative of Victorian ceremonial magic, particularly through
Speaker 1: the Golden Dawn. And it's many split offs and variants,
Speaker 1: and you know, we have a down fortune is that
Speaker 1: the society in a light And I'm talking off the cuffee.
Speaker 1: I haven't researched this, but but you know, I'm working
Speaker 1: back through time, so we get the Victorians. They were
Speaker 1: very much about the words and everything had to be precisely.
Speaker 1: So they were very They just bunched everything together. So
Speaker 1: they were syncretic. I think they say syncretic syncretism. Anyway,
Speaker 1: you put it all together, and you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so they had a bit of Egyptian, bit of Hebrew,
Speaker 1: bit of classical, bit of you know this, that and
Speaker 1: the other, whack it all together, a bit of Enochian
Speaker 1: leads me to the point. So they claim that this
Speaker 1: is an unbroken thread that goes right back to before
Speaker 1: the Pyramids and back to ancient Egypt and potentially before
Speaker 1: that may or may not be true. It probably isn't
Speaker 1: true that they have this idea that the flame of
Speaker 1: occult knowledge was always kept burning in secret and it
Speaker 1: flowered or bloomed or whatever you want to say. So,
Speaker 1: but before the I think I'm correct in saying before
Speaker 1: the Golden Down and late Victorian the previous great flowering
Speaker 1: of a cult, practice and knowledge was in the Renaissance.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about sixteenth century, seventeenth century stuff. So
Speaker 1: let's get back to the eighteen oh one. Francis Barrett's
Speaker 1: The Megas eighteen oh one, and he he punches it,
Speaker 1: he punchs it all together. Using a lot of Renaissance things.
Speaker 1: There were certain characters like a gripper and oh there's
Speaker 1: loads of them, you know, and of course John d
Speaker 1: and people like that, and so he puts it all together.
Speaker 1: That's eighteen oh one. Then we have the French magas
Speaker 1: Alif as Levi, who fuses in Hebrew Kabbala, Christian mysticism
Speaker 1: and the Tarot. That's something that looks like philosophy. So
Speaker 1: he's mid century. I haven't got his date to hand.
Speaker 1: And then we have eighteen eighty eight. The Hermetic Order
Speaker 1: of the Golden Dawn was offering grade initiations. If they
Speaker 1: are again one of these dust bin beliefs, you know,
Speaker 1: it may all be. I know. What their idea was
Speaker 1: that there was a secret truth. So behind all the
Speaker 1: masks there was one secret truth, and that truth was
Speaker 1: the occult knowledge of and they relied heavily on as
Speaker 1: their core the Kabbala, the Hebrew Kabbala really and of course, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we've got to also in addition to the
Speaker 1: Western Christian occult tradition, there is the Jewish speculation going
Speaker 1: on that's isn't heretical because they don't have the same
Speaker 1: structure of the church killing everybody who believes wrong. And
Speaker 1: then of course there's you know, some esoteric sufism in
Speaker 1: Islam as well, but there we go. Okay, so this
Speaker 1: is all going on. And then, as saying the Golden Dawn,
Speaker 1: you have eighteen eighty eight, then you have w eight,
Speaker 1: you have McGregor Mathers, and you have Aleister Crowley of course,
Speaker 1: and then we have the Theosophical Society with Madame Blavatsky,
Speaker 1: and she's bringing in a lot of Eastern stuff. So
Speaker 1: they were very interested in and they they kind of
Speaker 1: took Christiana Murti under his wing, and he was going
Speaker 1: to be I don't know if he was going to
Speaker 1: be was he gonna be the new Buddha, the new
Speaker 1: Christ is going to be one of those. And he
Speaker 1: rejected that he didn't want to be their, their protege,
Speaker 1: but they brought him from India. But you know, the
Speaker 1: Theosophical Society, in addition to everything else, everybody was stuffing
Speaker 1: in Egyptians and Hebrews and classical and wof it all.
Speaker 1: And you know later on we've got like heathen all
Speaker 1: stuff thrown in and Celtic stuff thrown in. Basically just
Speaker 1: can have what you want into a soup. And then
Speaker 1: the chaos magicians said, well, it doesn't really matter anyway.
Speaker 1: None of it's true as such, but it all may
Speaker 1: work anyway, So hang on. That was jaspernance test because
Speaker 1: Sheila's just come in. So he did this, Oh like
Speaker 1: an I rob you, Raggie. He's a Scooby Doo impression anyway,
Speaker 1: So I just want to kind of go on and
Speaker 1: say something, how James m R James fits into this?
Speaker 1: Is he a member of the gold Non? No, he's
Speaker 1: not not at all. But yes, he writes about things
Speaker 1: like this and these occultists and stuff like that. And
Speaker 1: I think casting the Runes may be actually based on
Speaker 1: somebody like Alistair Crowley. But you know, when he was
Speaker 1: sixteen at Eton, he'd already compiled a complete list of
Speaker 1: apocryphal books belonging to both Testaments lost and extant. He
Speaker 1: loved cataloging things. By the time the Golden Dome was
Speaker 1: consecrating its first temple in London, he was at King's College, Cambridge,
Speaker 1: catalog in medieval manuscripts and reading the Testament of Solomon
Speaker 1: in Cony Beer's eighteen ninety eight Greek translation. And this
Speaker 1: is parallel and predates the Grimoire tradition that McGregor Mathers.
Speaker 1: McGregor Mathers came out with the Lesser Key of Solomon
Speaker 1: and the Great Key of Solomon. Grimoires, they were all
Speaker 1: into Grimwire. Grimwire is like a magical textbook, you know,
Speaker 1: like teach yourself car repair. It's like that, but just
Speaker 1: for summoning demons and probably your car repairs a healthier
Speaker 1: thing to concentrate on, although you can't repair them these days.
Speaker 1: The two computerized, So maybe we have to think of
Speaker 1: something ice cream making, you know, you could make ice
Speaker 1: cream instead anyway, So, yes, it's a parallel. What my
Speaker 1: whole point about this is that I looked into it
Speaker 1: because I thought, you know, was he what did he
Speaker 1: hang around with him? Did he not? No, he didn't
Speaker 1: do it is a completely different current than his knowledge
Speaker 1: of these things did not come out of the command
Speaker 1: of a fascination with your cult. It came out now
Speaker 1: because he loved old manuscripts and he was a smart dude,
Speaker 1: you know, and he could read them in a Hebrew
Speaker 1: and read them in Greek and things like that, you know.
Speaker 1: And so the Testament of Solomon, which he read, presents
Speaker 1: Solomon as capturing all the demons, compelling them, and I
Speaker 1: think they uses a magical ring, and he gets their
Speaker 1: names in the formula that bind them. And you know,
Speaker 1: it is a working demonology, complete with demonic hierarchies, physical descriptions,
Speaker 1: and the incantatory means of dismissal. And he wrote about
Speaker 1: it in eighteen ninety nine for the Guardian Church and newspaper.
Speaker 1: Woow that went Down reviewed McCown's critical edition in the
Speaker 1: Journal of Theological Studies in eighteen twenty three, so and
Speaker 1: recycled its demonological furniture named spirits constrained by written and
Speaker 1: ritual means the sense of a text as a physical
Speaker 1: locus of demonic presence into Canon Alberick scrap book, without
Speaker 1: apparently feeling any need to acknowledge the connection. He must
Speaker 1: have been aware, maybe he wasn't even aware of these
Speaker 1: magician dudes. McGregor Mather's a weight, all these people wandering
Speaker 1: around London doing something similar, like in a practical way.
Speaker 1: You know. I think they clearly thought that if they
Speaker 1: did these things they could get some kind of power.
Speaker 1: They were like, if you think these days, if you
Speaker 1: ever go on medium, I don't know if you ever
Speaker 1: do the writing scene. There's all sorts of loads of
Speaker 1: articles on them how to use AI to basically make
Speaker 1: yourself rich, and there's all these hacks, and everybody's got
Speaker 1: a hack, and everybody's got a system, and everybody's discovered
Speaker 1: a secret at two am, which is going to make
Speaker 1: you and everybody kind of recycles. We're looking for power
Speaker 1: and these guys are doing the same thing in late
Speaker 1: Victorian terms, except they're not using AI. They're using demons.
Speaker 1: If the two aren't the same thing, you should read
Speaker 1: my Dark World series for that, not just a little
Speaker 1: bit of plug there, Tomy Walker, Dark World's London, Dark
Speaker 1: World's Paris. I think you can still buy them if
Speaker 1: you'd google them. I don't know where, but there we are.
Speaker 1: And I basically make that I actually have AI as
Speaker 1: the great Old Ones of Lovecraft. So yes, So that
Speaker 1: is all to say that this is an archivist who
Speaker 1: uses old manuscripts to inform his stories. He's not an occultist.
Speaker 1: He's just the That was Sheila shouting hello, hello, and
Speaker 1: I interrupted, God im reconing in a in a in
Speaker 1: a way that was a bit petulant, and I hope
Speaker 1: not too grumpy, and I've said all I want to
Speaker 1: say really about Emma. James is a fascinating guy, and
Speaker 1: I was just curious about his links to the occult
Speaker 1: and he and he wasn't. He was an academic rather
Speaker 1: than a wizard. You're a wizard, Harry, Apparently you're a
Speaker 1: wizard Monty. No, he's not anyway. So that's that's what
Speaker 1: I was going to say. So just yeah, I so
Speaker 1: we've what we've had is the rain, the wind. We
Speaker 1: often have this grat man. We have dogs barking, we
Speaker 1: have birds on Somebody said, though, do you put those
Speaker 1: sound effects in of the birds on the roof? No,
Speaker 1: I don't. The birds put themselves in, and the dogs
Speaker 1: will run upstairs and do Scooby Doo noises, and Sheila
Speaker 1: comes in and shouts up to me, Hello, Hello, do
Speaker 1: you want that soup? And so the point about this
Speaker 1: is should I get a studio? But if I had
Speaker 1: a studio, who would look after the dogs? Because I'm
Speaker 1: able to work from home and combine with that and
Speaker 1: so I can walk out the dogs when it stops renin.
Speaker 1: It stopped renning, now probably going to take them out.
Speaker 1: They don't like the wren and you know, so a
Speaker 1: studio probably ain't gonna work. I quite fancy the idea
Speaker 1: of it. Oh yeah, I'm going to my studio, darling. Yes, love,
Speaker 1: I have my studio. Yes, I hire it. It's all soundproofed,
Speaker 1: I have wonderful microphone's most amazing. You'll get nicked, basically,
Speaker 1: somebody break in and steal everything and sell it down
Speaker 1: the pub for a bag of brand. I don't think
Speaker 1: they do. They call it that these days, anyway, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. I think it's all I don't know what
Speaker 1: the bashes it or beak. I'm not really unfair with
Speaker 1: the current drugs world, not like when I worked in
Speaker 1: mental health because like most of my patients were involved
Speaker 1: in that, so I used to pick up stuff useful
Speaker 1: information about the drug world. But I'm away from that
Speaker 1: now anyway, So I probably not going to get a studio.
Speaker 1: And that means you just kind of have to put
Speaker 1: up with the noises. I think most of you don't
Speaker 1: mind that, and I think the people who do mind
Speaker 1: it will self select a way to something else. Go
Speaker 1: and listen to a nice ah Ai channel, and remember
Speaker 1: it's a demon. Everybody dies, doesn't that? So you tried
Speaker 1: to get into the long drum today, didn't you you?
Speaker 1: How do they come back? Didn't you? What's the secrets
Speaker 1: of like