The Age of Enfrightenment

On Earth, our past and present are equally bizarre, grotesque, and surprising. This inescapable fact is precisely why The Age of Enfrightenment was founded. Throughout the ongoing Interlude series within the AoE catalog, each of your hosts have introduced eerie vignettes to one another as well as you, the listener. On this particular 3 part episode, the stories come from our distant past, recent past, and events that are unfolding as you are hearing about them now. Within these tales expect to find fire, haunting encounters, and murder, with a sometimes surprising or fascinating cast of characters; be they musicians, tech entrepreneurs, or Commanders in Chief.

On the previous episode of AoE, your hosts explored the brilliant mind and melancholy life of Cosmic Horror maestro Howard Phillips Lovecraft. In Part II, Theo, Dave, and Nick will each retell one of their favorite Lovecraft stories, what it means to them, and the significance of those stories within the greater universe of the writer's expansive lore. You will also learn about some of the greatest, though not always discussed, influences that Lovecraft has had and continues to have on modern creators of strange and terrifying books and film. Please enjoy your second stroll into the maddening cosmic unknown with one of the world's weirdest storytellers.
 

These words could easily serve as an introductory statement encapsulating the thesis of this entire podcast. So it is not by mistake that the man who wrote them in his 1927 essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature", has been referenced in a majority of AoE episodes. Howard Phillips Lovecraft was no stranger to fear and anxiety, especially when confronted with the unknown, both in his corporeal real-world experience, and in the more conceptual realms of time and space.

In this first half of our multi-episode exploration of the weird worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, we look at the man himself three-dimensionally, without smoothing over any of the jagged edges that plague his legacy. He was a myth-maker, a struggling artist, a tortured soul, a virulent bigot, and has left an unmatched impression on over a century of strange and terrifying fiction. He left this world without ever knowing the immensity that his cosmic horror genre would reach. Join us for a trip to where rational thought meets crippling madness in this very special AoE first: an in-depth profile of a true maestro of fear, Lovecraft.
 

In past episodes, The Age of Enfrightenment has explored the fascinating yet unproven accounts of so many monsters throughout history. Gruesome accounts of mutilation and mayhem draw us in with their horrific nature, but often with the safety net of skepticism and rationalization. From the monsters within this episode though, there is no such safe place to hide from the reality of what they do. We have not only confirmed kills, evidence, and convictions, but also first hand accounts in writing, on tape, and on camera: serial killers explaining in their own calm words their motivations and the brutal details of their crimes.

We as a society have shown over a century of highly publicized serial killings that we are not only able to listen to these accounts, but we are enthralled by them though they make us shudder. Join your hosts and two special guests for an entertaining and eerie discussion about this particular kind of real-life monster, recorded around a single microphone in a remote cabin in the woods.

"When man meets a force he can't destroy, he destroys himself instead. What a plague you are." This line is spoken with the deepest contempt and disgust by the leader of a supernatural gang of predators to one of their victims in the film 30 Days of Night. The story accounts the misfortune of a small Alaskan town when its annual month-long darkness attracts a horde of monsters. They are, of course, vampires.

Vampires are in many ways a perfect totem of human fears. They remove us from our cozy throne atop the global food chain, give us a reason to fear the setting sun, and perhaps most intriguing, they shine a light on the fears we harbor for one another. Vampires, unlike their equally popular mythic cousins, zombies and werewolves, are of completely sound mind. They are as intelligent, if not more so, than any of us and are unbound by the limitations of age or social contracts. And so, as expressed in the quote above, we know they are wise to the pain they cause their victims, have no remorse, and enjoy it.

Their prominence in the early cultures of every continent proves an equally powerful fascination with their bloodlust and terror at the prospect of their existence. In this episode, your personal AoE Dr. Van Helsings will examine the universal power of the vampire myth on Earth and what it might reveal about humans, their simultaneous victims and creators.

For all of our immense achievements of progress throughout history, it seems as though humanity must pay an equally immense price. Every breakthrough in mass communication is twisted by dangerous and false propaganda. Every miracle of humanitarian aid arrives parallel to a new weapon of unimaginable destruction. It isn't the stuff of our common nightmares that reveal this paradox: spiders, zombies, the bogeyman. It is instead the likely most universal and unfortunate of mankind's traditions: war. Those of us who have never experienced it cannot really wrap our minds around it, and those who have are permanently scarred by its bleak brutality. Join the AoE boys on their first and surely not last examination of the most fascinating and real horror shows on Earth.

How do you know that something is real? If you listen to this podcast, it's likely that you are a discerning skeptic like us, and as such you may answer that question by saying "I'll believe it when I see it with my own two eyes." But is that even good enough? Consider all of the things those trusty eyes of yours can't do. They can't look in more than one direction simultaneously. They cannot perceive your surroundings in more than 3 dimensions. There are literally countless shades and hues of light that they are incapable of detecting. Hardwire these severely handicapped bulbs to the fleshy computer in your skull, and now there is another level of corruption to the raw data around you. Human brains, remarkable as they are, lie to us all of the time about what we think we are seeing. It's a slightly terrifying thought, but as all things examined by the AoE, it's terrifically fascinating.

Today there are few packages a story can come in that are more reserved for the realm of children than fairy tales. They are small, simple stories; often cautionary and perilous but ultimately toothless and appropriate for retelling before bed. But in the truth we can mine from history, they are so much more. These are the old tales. The characters and morals that write themselves into the DNA handed down from one society to the next. On this first episode of the new year, each of your AoE hosts will tell you the real versions of well-known and lesser-known tales, shining a light on the gory details that time edited out, and discussing what these stories say about the people who whispered them down the lane of generations. 

It is probably safe to say that all people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Whether it is as harmless as brand loyalty to your favorite tech company or as dangerous as giving all of your life savings to a shady organization offering the promise of fulfillment, each of us has exhibited some cult-like behavior in our lives. What is it that makes the lure of history's worst self-proclaimed messiahs so attractive? The possible answers are many, but we ought to begin by studying the most peculiar and chilling cases and considering how rational people such as ourselves, sometimes by the hundreds or more, have been ensnared in the traps of deadly cults. 

For time immemorial, humans have looked to the heavens and wondered, "Are we alone in the Universe?" Perhaps though, many are right to have more local concerns. These are the people who ask "Are we alone... on Earth?" Ranging in size, distinction from or likeness to us, and most importantly degree of ill intent, there are too many names for our unseen neighbors to capture them all in one episode. What the AoE boys do present for curious ears is a deeply rooted belief in a clandestine world of both wonder and terror. Join your hosts, a trio once again with the return of Dave from Ireland, as they go looking for those beings it would be unwise to offend, and so we respectfully call... the Fair Folk.