Ancient Astronauts and The Old Ones At the Mountains of Madness & Prometheus | Podcast

Nothing says the Easter Spirit like cosmic horrors beyond human understanding

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna (a god in human guise) grants Arjuna a vision of his true form, and it's overwhelming and terrifying in its complexity and scale. Interesting that this existential awe and dread has been with us since the ancient times. But as I recall (been a while since I read it for school) Arjuna gets past it and starts moving on with his life. I find Lovecraft really interesting in being a writer who comes across as fairly "un-examined" (by himself). He seems to be trying to flesh out what really freaks him out, as opposed to finding some refuge, meaning, or a way through. The most disturbing thing about his stories to me is the mental place it suggests he spent his days in. I appreciate how his work has been processed through other popular culture, like King's stuff. If we're in a cold indifferent universe, at least we have Hellboy and the Ghostbusters on our side. Or even if those are just fantasies in the end, like the Loser's Club we're in it together, and nothing out there can take that away from us. Seems like Lovecraft didn't live long enough to find that solace and grow past this place of fear. Now his books come across like a kind of monument to a terrible mind state we're vulnerable to; something we have to grow around and through.

Such a good read. I love that it's written in a style similar to a lab report. I think it adds a lot to the atmosphere and it becomes more impactful later when the characters are losing their minds because they start to break from professionalism. It can get a bit tiring to read that style though lol.

I wish I lived in the universe where Guillermo Del Toro got the opportunity to make At the Mountains of Madness into a movie.

Quinn is really blessing us in 2026 so much analysis to enjoy getting perspective on! So many books recommended!

I think the elder things and spawn of Cthulhu were probably most definitely fighting over the all spark.

Everyone likes to talk about Lovecraft's flaws without recognizing the growth he displayed in his work. As you said, his fear was of the unknown. As he learned more about the things he feared you can see this reflected in his writing. He goes from a self loathing man who is terrified of everything to someone who accepts himself and others. Even in The Mountains of Madness he says quite frankly that the aliens weren't evil but just different and that they were kindred spirits and scientists rather than savage monsters. Shoggoth, however; are terrifying examples of artificial life that its creators used as a slave race until they rebelled and destroyed them.

There is a line or two in ATMOM to the effect that to travel between star systems the elder things would ingest certain chemicals that put them into a hibernation state, needing no air, water, or food for the journey - that suggests that they may have only needed to get enough speed to leave their home system's gravity and then just... drifted towards their target. The story establishes that they can hibernate on Earth or millions of years and revive in a matter of days with no ill effects, and they are effectively immortal wrt aging, so a 'slow boat' approach wouldn't hold the devastating drawbacks for them it does for humans.

One recommendation, add in that spooky background music you normally have with your videos. It contrasts perfectly with your voice and thoughts.

Chaosium published a sequel to "At the Mountains of Madness" under the title "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" for their "Call of Cthulhu" RPG in 1999. There you play the members of the Starkweather-Moore Expedition of 1933, which tries to continue where the disastrous Miskatonic University Expedition of 1930 left off.