Hoi and Jeff discuss multiple timelines, necromantic reincarnation, and sanity checks in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” with special guest David Baity.
Hoi and Jeff discuss multiple timelines, necromantic reincarnation, and sanity checks in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” with special guest David Baity.
First off, I recommend also (1) joining the Patreon and (2) listening to the accompanying Patron Book Club for this episode. The two complement each other nicely.
This is the first Lovecraft I have read in a LONG time, and it was my first time reading this particular story. In short, I loved it. I think Lovecraft can be frustratingly vague (he loves to say things are too horrible to describe, for instance), but I think it works very well in this story, with its hearsay nature. The Patron Book Club in particular criticizes the walking tour of Providence at the beginning, and I have to admit that I struggled through the longer letter in the last part of the novel. But I loved so much of this.
The podcast does a nice job of connecting this to gaming, not only Call of Cthulhu (I can’t decide if this is more of an influence on CoC, or if The Lurker on the Threshold is – both have clear CoC PCs in them), but also Dungeons and Dragons, where the influence, I think, is less immediately apparent.
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