#richard sharpe shaver

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: The Shaver Mystery

Richard Sharpe Shaver: Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this the tale of the underground monster people that can control us with mind rays Stephen King: wow, that sure sounds like an amazing story! Shaver: yes Shaver: yes it is

Shaver: did you know that there’s a secret cabal of underground monsters who kidnap people for sexual torture and cannibalism? Koontz: gosh! That’s not real tho right? Koontz: it’s just a story right? King: yes dean it’s just a story Shaver: don’t tell him that Shaver: this is real

King: c'mon richard you're just having a laugh, it's all just a story Shaver: this is real Shaver: there's a secret cabal of underground monsters who kidnap people for sexual torture and cannibalism Shaver: and that's not all Shaver: wait until you hear what they’re doing to the soil

Dan Simmons: a secret cabal of underground monsters who kidnap people for sexual torture and cannibalism? Shaver: that's right Simmons: damn you could base a whole political worldview on that! Simmons: Simmons: are they in league with the queers and the muslims? Shaver: I don’t know what that is but probably Simmons: I knew it!

Simmons: these underground cannibals sound p legit to me King: dan i don't think they're real Simmons: oh I see, so you think that when i say "underground cannibals" that's, like, code for greta thunberg and that when i say we must stop the underground cannibals that's a veiled threat calling for the murder of greta thunberg and the public desecration of her carcass as a warning to all blue haired millenial they/thems? King: King: well i do now Simmons: wow steve Simmons: i think that says a lot more about you than me

Simmons: you know what these underground cannibals who prey on white women are like? Simmons: they're like "urban" "thugs" wearing "hoodies" Lovecraft: Simmons: and "baggy pants" Lovecraft: Simmons: if you know what i mean Lovecraft:

Simmons: i'm sorry, are these dog whistles too subtle? Simmons: i mean Simmons: Simmons: italians Lovecraft: [immediately starts sweating]

Simmons: so the underground cannibals are in league with george soros Simmons: and that caravan of latin refugees Simmons: that we were all so scared of about 3 years ago Simmons: and then just forgot about when it strangely failed to materialize Simmons: I can’t believe AM radio got that one wrong!

[docgold13]

I randomly googled Shaver Mystery and after reading Richard Sharpe Shaver's wiki I just can't stop thinking about how people with schizophrenia might have had a huge impact on scifi. Like take telepathy. A person hears voices and logically assumes they are hearing other people's thoughts. Richard thought he was telepathically picking up torture sessions from evil subterranean people. Like any person is capable of radical creativity but there must be something to schizophrenic peoples who are trying to make sense of disordered thinking. Idk am I out of line in saying that? I don't mean it in a derogatory way. Maybe they believe their own fantastical stories maybe they don't. As a person who grew up in a mentally ill religious family I also liken it to weird lore in the Bible. There's an all powerful man in the sky who can hear your thoughts. Sometimes believing in God made my mental illness better sometimes it made it worse. I imagine writing scifi is similar. You could get deeper in your delusions or you could feel validated in your writing.

That’s not out of line at all.  The human mind is endlessly fascinating 

It appears rather evident that the esteemed Richard Shaver did indeed suffer from some sort of paranoid schizophrenia. According to his friends and colleagues, Shaver truly believed that his life was being controlled by unseen forces residing in deep, subterranean caverns.  The voices that emanated from this underground realm were sometimes kind and benevolent, other times cruel and vicious.  Both voices spoke to him regularly, constantly assailing with all manner of ideas, assumptions and commentary.  

Shaver coped with these intrusive verbal hallucinations by creating a rich and textured mythology around it all.  The benevolent voices came from the righteous Tero; whereas the malicious voices came from the villainous Dero.  These two races of beings lived in the center of the earth and were the descendants of extraterrestrial travelers.  

The stories that Shaver wrote about the Tero and the Dero were super vibrant and rich.  They were fantastical, often absurd, yet told in such an ernest, convincing and multifaceted fashion that readers were just whisked away.  Fans couldn’t get enough of these wild tales his contributions to ‘Amazing Stories’ made it a hugely successful pulp periodical.   

Shaver’s ability to seize his psychological difficulty and use it for the benefit of his craft is similar to the mathematician John Nash, author Zelda Fitzgerald, jazz musician Buddy Bolden and painter Vincent Van Gogh.  This is not to suggest that genius is derived through psychological malady but rather there can be instances were extreme adversity can contributed to the brining about of something unexpectedly awesome.   

[roskirambles]

Horror Movie of the Day: Marebito (2004)

"They didn't see something that terrified them. They saw something because they were terrified. I want to feel that fear, to see what they did."

Takuyoshi Masuoka is a freelance cameraman who never goes out without a camera. He records everything, and has become obsessed with fear after witnessing ||the suicide of an old man|| in the train station. Descending into the labrynth of tunnels beneath the city, he finds what look to be people, maybe ghosts, who are deeply afraid and walk like animals. And after being warned about the Deros(named after the writings of Richard Sharpe Shaver) by one homeless man, he sees what looks to definitely be a ghost guide him to a cave, where a naked woman lies. One who eats blood, and after being rescued the girl(now referred as "F") needs food which Masuoka will provide.

Directed by Takashi Shimizu and co-written by Chiaki Konaka, if you’re familiar with the later’s work (Serial Experiments Lain, Digimon Tamers, Texhnolyze) you know you’re in for a trip. And you’re still not prepared: the movie is a relentless bombardment of mind-screwing elements involving conspiracy theories, violent murders and mentally disturbed people, all packaged in the obsession of one man who is glued to a camera yet mostly shot with verisimilitude until you don’t know if the man is just crazy or he’s really digging himself deep both literally and metaphorically into a metaphysical rabbithole.

Whatever the case may be, you're just stuck with either someone who is potentially abusive in his madness or that has somehow uncovered a dark reality of how the world actually works which unsurprisingly is not a placid feeling at all. It's obsession with cameras and surveillelance, with trying to make sense out of things through a lens that isn't our own eyes is still resounding, but it's such a deliberately confusing and revolting watch you're decidedly going out with more questions than answers.

[brookston]

Holidays 10.7

Holidays

Agriculture Day (Tajikistan)

Air Force Day (India)

Alvin C. York Day

American Touch Tag Day

Arbor Day (Guam; Namibia)

Back to Basics Day

Battle of Angamos Day (Peru)

Children’s Day (Iran)

Cold Dew (Chinese Farmer’s Calendar)

Colorism Awareness Day

Commonwealth Culture Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Cosmopolite's Day

Day of the Heroic Guerrilla (Cuba)

Discoverer’s Day (Hawaii)

Father’s Day (Sweden)

International Birth Registration Day

International Earth Cache Day

International Lesbian Day

International Octopus Day

International Off-Road Day

International Percy Jackson Day

International Podiatry Day

Lawyer Day (Ukraine)

Lovable Lawyers Day

National Arab American Voter Day

National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding

National Day of the Cowboy Boot

National Education Day (Kiribati)

National Harbormaster Appreciation Day

National Hero Day

National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day

National Justin Day

National Lance Day

National Mall Walking Day

National Read to a Child Day

National Shea Day

National Traveller Mental Health Day (Ireland)

Navy Day (Peru)

Nude Beach Party Day (Baker Beach, California)

Pumpkin Day (French Republic)

Rory Gilmore Day (Gilmore Girls)

San Ernesto Day

Semana Morazánica (Honduras)

Tacksägelsdagen (Thanksgiving; Sweden)

Tafea Day (Vanuatu)

Tank Crewman’s Day )Armenia)

Tube Top Day

Virgin Islands/Puerto Rico Friendship Day

World Circular Textiles Day

World Dyslexia Day

World MCT8-AHDS Day

World Octopus Day

World Sight Day

World Teachers’ Day (Kiribati)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Birthday of the Microbrewery

National Fluffernutter Day

National Pierogi Day

National Salmon Day

Independence & Related Days

Croatia (from Yugoslavia, 1991)

Stardom of Bimba (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

2nd Tuesday in October

Ada Lovelace Day [2nd Tuesday]

Arbor Day (Guam) [2nd Tuesday]

Headspace Day (Australia) [2nd Tuesday]

International Face Your Fears Day [2nd Tuesday]

National Peyronie’s Disease Awareness Day [2nd Tuesday]

Own Business Day [2nd Tuesday]

Table Tennis Tuesday [2nd Tuesday of Each Month]

Taco Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Target Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tater Tot Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tomato Tuesday [2nd Tuesday of Each Month]

Trivia Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Two For Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

World Child Development Day [2nd Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 8 (1st Full Week of October)

Cephalopod Awareness Days (thru 10.12)

Festivals Beginning October 8, 2024

Bradford Pumpkin Show - Bradford, Ohio) [thru 10.12]

Floresville Peanut Festival (Floresville, Texas) [thru 10.12

Screamfest Horror Film Festival (Los Angeles, California) [thru 10.17]

Feast Days

Aequinoctium Autumnale IV (Pagan)

Albertus Magnus (Positivist; Saint)

Bearing of Green Branches (Ancient Athens)

Bridget of Sweden (Christian; Saint)

Cornelis Troost (Artology)

Demetrius (Christian; Saint)

Evodus (a.k.a. Yves; (Christian; Saint)

Faith Ringgold (Artology)

Festival of High Places (a.k.a. Chung Yeung Day; China; Everyday Wicca)

Frank Herbert (Writerism)

Grandpa Mullally (Muppetism)

Hans Heysen (Artology)

John D. Batten (Artology)

Kari Korhonen (Artology)

Keyne (Celtic; Christian; Saint)

Leaf Lore Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Max Slevogt (Artology)

Ozias Leduc (Artology)

Palatias and Laurentia (Christian; Saint)

Pelagia the Penitant (Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches)

Reparata (Christian; Saint)

Richard Sharpe Shaver (Artology)

San Ernesto, Che Guevara as a folk saint (Bolivian campesinos)

Sawney Beane Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Simeon (Gospel of Luke; Christian; Saint)

Tell Massive Lies Day (Pastafarian)

Thaïs (Christian; Saint)

William Dwight Porter Bliss and Richard T. Ely (Episcopal Church)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 281 [60 of 72]

Tomobiki (��引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (Radio Series; 1944)

Badmotorfinger, by Soundgarden (Album; 1991)

The Big Dipper, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S3, Eps. 7 & 8; 1966)

Claus and Effect or Yule Be Sorry (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 220; 1963)

The Color of Money (Film; 1986)

Demolition Man (Film; 1993)

Ed (TV Series; 2000)

Flying Tigers (Film; 1942)

Friday Night Lights (Film; 2004)

Great Balls of Fire, recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis (Song; 1957)

Hopalong Casualty (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

I Know What You Did Last Summer, by Lois Duncan (Novel; 1973)

Imagine, by John Lennon (Song; 1971)

It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Film; 2010)

Les Misérables (Musical Play in English; 1985)

Life for Sale, by Yukio Mishima (Novel; 1968)

Little Pancho Vanilla (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

Muppet’s Haunted Mansion (Film; 2021)

A Murder of Quality, by John le Carré (Novel; 1962)

My Favorite Year (Film; 1982)

No Time to Die (US Film; 2021) [James Bond #27]

Nowhere Boy (Film; 2010)

Nursery Crimes (Phantasies Cartoon; 1943)

Playful Pelican (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1948)

The Princess Bride, by William Goldman (Novel; 1973)

Remain in Light, by Talking Heads (Album; 1980)

Romeo and Juliet (Film; 1968)

Rumble Fish (Film; 1983)

The Second Hundred Years (Short Film; 1927) [1st Laurel & Hardy Film]

Secretariat (Film; 2010)

Snowbank Squirrel or Bullwinkle Gets the Drift (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 219; 1963)

Song of the South (Animated Disney Film; 1980)

Spartacus (Film; 1960)

Stage Door (Film; 1937)

Too Many Girls (Film; 1940)

Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchet (Novel; 2009) [Discworld #37]

The Waves, by Virginia Woolf (Novel; 1931)

World End’s Harem (Anime Series; 2021)

Today’s Name Days

Simeon (Austria)

Demetrije, Hugo, Pelagija, Šimun, Zvonimir (Croatia)

Věra (Czech Republic)

Ingeborg (Denmark)

Hilja, Hilje, Hilju (Estonia)

Hilja (Finland)

Pélagie, Thaïs (France)

Gerda, Günther, Hannah, Laura (Germany)

Pelagia (Greece)

Koppány (Hungary)

Pelagia (Italy)

Aina, Anastasija, Aneta, Anita (Latvia)

Brigita, Daugas, Demetra, Gaivilė (Lithuania)

Benedikte, Bente (Norway)

Artemon, Bryda, Brygida, Demetriusz, Laurencja, Marcin, Pelagia, Pelagiusz, Symeon, Wojsława (Poland)

Brigita (Slovakia)

Hugo, Thais (Spain)

Nils (Sweden)

Demetria, Demetrio, Demetrius, Demi, Dimitri, Stewart, Stuart (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 282 of 2024; 84 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of Week 41 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 10 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 6 (Yi-Si)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 6 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 4 Rabi II 1446

J Cal: 12 Orange; Fryday [12 of 30]

Julian: 25 September 2024

Moon: 29%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 2 Descartes (11th Month) [Raymund Lully / Roger Bacon]

Runic Half Month: Gyfu (Gift) [Day 2 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 17 of 90)

Week: 1st Full Week of October

Zodiac: Libra (Day 16 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 10.8

Holidays

Agriculture Day (Tajikistan)

Air Force Day (India)

Alvin C. York Day

American Touch Tag Day

Arbor Day (Guam; Namibia)

Back to Basics Day

Battle of Angamos Day (Peru)

Children’s Day (Iran)

Cold Dew (Chinese Farmer’s Calendar)

Colorism Awareness Day

Commonwealth Culture Day (Northern Mariana Islands)

Cosmopolite's Day

Day of the Heroic Guerrilla (Cuba)

Discoverer’s Day (Hawaii)

Father’s Day (Sweden)

International Birth Registration Day

International Earth Cache Day

International Lesbian Day

International Octopus Day

International Off-Road Day

International Percy Jackson Day

International Podiatry Day

Lawyer Day (Ukraine)

Lovable Lawyers Day

National Arab American Voter Day

National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding

National Day of the Cowboy Boot

National Education Day (Kiribati)

National Harbormaster Appreciation Day

National Hero Day

National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day

National Justin Day

National Lance Day

National Mall Walking Day

National Read to a Child Day

National Shea Day

National Traveller Mental Health Day (Ireland)

Navy Day (Peru)

Nude Beach Party Day (Baker Beach, California)

Pumpkin Day (French Republic)

Rory Gilmore Day (Gilmore Girls)

San Ernesto Day

Semana Morazánica (Honduras)

Tacksägelsdagen (Thanksgiving; Sweden)

Tafea Day (Vanuatu)

Tank Crewman’s Day )Armenia)

Tube Top Day

Virgin Islands/Puerto Rico Friendship Day

World Circular Textiles Day

World Dyslexia Day

World MCT8-AHDS Day

World Octopus Day

World Sight Day

World Teachers’ Day (Kiribati)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Birthday of the Microbrewery

National Fluffernutter Day

National Pierogi Day

National Salmon Day

Independence & Related Days

Croatia (from Yugoslavia, 1991)

Stardom of Bimba (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

2nd Tuesday in October

Ada Lovelace Day [2nd Tuesday]

Arbor Day (Guam) [2nd Tuesday]

Headspace Day (Australia) [2nd Tuesday]

International Face Your Fears Day [2nd Tuesday]

National Peyronie’s Disease Awareness Day [2nd Tuesday]

Own Business Day [2nd Tuesday]

Table Tennis Tuesday [2nd Tuesday of Each Month]

Taco Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Target Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tater Tot Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tomato Tuesday [2nd Tuesday of Each Month]

Trivia Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Two For Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

World Child Development Day [2nd Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 8 (1st Full Week of October)

Cephalopod Awareness Days (thru 10.12)

Festivals Beginning October 8, 2024

Bradford Pumpkin Show - Bradford, Ohio) [thru 10.12]

Floresville Peanut Festival (Floresville, Texas) [thru 10.12

Screamfest Horror Film Festival (Los Angeles, California) [thru 10.17]

Feast Days

Aequinoctium Autumnale IV (Pagan)

Albertus Magnus (Positivist; Saint)

Bearing of Green Branches (Ancient Athens)

Bridget of Sweden (Christian; Saint)

Cornelis Troost (Artology)

Demetrius (Christian; Saint)

Evodus (a.k.a. Yves; (Christian; Saint)

Faith Ringgold (Artology)

Festival of High Places (a.k.a. Chung Yeung Day; China; Everyday Wicca)

Frank Herbert (Writerism)

Grandpa Mullally (Muppetism)

Hans Heysen (Artology)

John D. Batten (Artology)

Kari Korhonen (Artology)

Keyne (Celtic; Christian; Saint)

Leaf Lore Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Max Slevogt (Artology)

Ozias Leduc (Artology)

Palatias and Laurentia (Christian; Saint)

Pelagia the Penitant (Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches)

Reparata (Christian; Saint)

Richard Sharpe Shaver (Artology)

San Ernesto, Che Guevara as a folk saint (Bolivian campesinos)

Sawney Beane Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Simeon (Gospel of Luke; Christian; Saint)

Tell Massive Lies Day (Pastafarian)

Thaïs (Christian; Saint)

William Dwight Porter Bliss and Richard T. Ely (Episcopal Church)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 281 [60 of 72]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (Radio Series; 1944)

Badmotorfinger, by Soundgarden (Album; 1991)

The Big Dipper, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S3, Eps. 7 & 8; 1966)

Claus and Effect or Yule Be Sorry (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 220; 1963)

The Color of Money (Film; 1986)

Demolition Man (Film; 1993)

Ed (TV Series; 2000)

Flying Tigers (Film; 1942)

Friday Night Lights (Film; 2004)

Great Balls of Fire, recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis (Song; 1957)

Hopalong Casualty (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

I Know What You Did Last Summer, by Lois Duncan (Novel; 1973)

Imagine, by John Lennon (Song; 1971)

It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Film; 2010)

Les Misérables (Musical Play in English; 1985)

Life for Sale, by Yukio Mishima (Novel; 1968)

Little Pancho Vanilla (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

Muppet’s Haunted Mansion (Film; 2021)

A Murder of Quality, by John le Carré (Novel; 1962)

My Favorite Year (Film; 1982)

No Time to Die (US Film; 2021) [James Bond #27]

Nowhere Boy (Film; 2010)

Nursery Crimes (Phantasies Cartoon; 1943)

Playful Pelican (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1948)

The Princess Bride, by William Goldman (Novel; 1973)

Remain in Light, by Talking Heads (Album; 1980)

Romeo and Juliet (Film; 1968)

Rumble Fish (Film; 1983)

The Second Hundred Years (Short Film; 1927) [1st Laurel & Hardy Film]

Secretariat (Film; 2010)

Snowbank Squirrel or Bullwinkle Gets the Drift (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S5, Ep. 219; 1963)

Song of the South (Animated Disney Film; 1980)

Spartacus (Film; 1960)

Stage Door (Film; 1937)

Too Many Girls (Film; 1940)

Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchet (Novel; 2009) [Discworld #37]

The Waves, by Virginia Woolf (Novel; 1931)

World End’s Harem (Anime Series; 2021)

Today’s Name Days

Simeon (Austria)

Demetrije, Hugo, Pelagija, Šimun, Zvonimir (Croatia)

Věra (Czech Republic)

Ingeborg (Denmark)

Hilja, Hilje, Hilju (Estonia)

Hilja (Finland)

Pélagie, Thaïs (France)

Gerda, Günther, Hannah, Laura (Germany)

Pelagia (Greece)

Koppány (Hungary)

Pelagia (Italy)

Aina, Anastasija, Aneta, Anita (Latvia)

Brigita, Daugas, Demetra, Gaivilė (Lithuania)

Benedikte, Bente (Norway)

Artemon, Bryda, Brygida, Demetriusz, Laurencja, Marcin, Pelagia, Pelagiusz, Symeon, Wojsława (Poland)

Brigita (Slovakia)

Hugo, Thais (Spain)

Nils (Sweden)

Demetria, Demetrio, Demetrius, Demi, Dimitri, Stewart, Stuart (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 282 of 2024; 84 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of Week 41 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 10 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 6 (Yi-Si)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 6 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 4 Rabi II 1446

J Cal: 12 Orange; Fryday [12 of 30]

Julian: 25 September 2024

Moon: 29%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 2 Descartes (11th Month) [Raymund Lully / Roger Bacon]

Runic Half Month: Gyfu (Gift) [Day 2 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 17 of 90)

Week: 1st Full Week of October

Zodiac: Libra (Day 16 of 30)

[thedurvin]

Restarted reading “I Remember Lemuria” by Richard Sharpe Shaver (1948), the main book of the Shaver Mystery, after realizing the digital copy I had been reading was missing some sections, and MAN. This guy (both the author and the character, since these are supposed to be ancestral memories or a past life or something) is SO horny for weird ladies. There’s a 30ft woman with six arms that says “poor little thing, are you here because nobody loves you?”, there’s a huge snake woman beside him on the street that he imagines coiling her tail around him, and his love interest is a sparkly purple pony woman med student and he keeps bringing up how hot her tail is. He goes on and on about how hot they are and how he can’t concentrate on the plot and his mentor’s infodumps because of it

His work is so foundational to mid-century nerd culture, which is itself foundational to modern nerd culture, I genuinely can’t tell if this is a case of “nerds have just always been like this and he was one of the first to admit it” or if his personal tastes influenced everyone after him

[tiorx]

i have got to go to richard sharpe shaver's old house

[orderjackalope]

Amazing Stories sold the heck out of the Shaver Mystery with some gorgeous covers. Here are some of the best. (Though I think the Bible would like to have a word about what constitutes "The Most Sensational True Story Ever Told.")

(Also, love that the lady in "Gods from Venus" is wearing a purple satin outfit with a plunging neckline, poofy sleeves and granny panties, and accessorizing with a jaunty hat and a leather dance belt.)

Here's a second batch of Shaver Mystery covers featuring sexy (and frequently gigantic) ladies. And also, for some reason, Judy Garland about to be assaulted with a branding iron.

Monster-themed Shaver Mystery covers, featuring devils, tentacles, and the sexiest snake lady ever. Well, at least until the Japanese discovered snake ladies and made them all weird.

(Also, pretty sure that first devil is actually William Powell.)

And finally, not a Shaver Mystery cover, but definitely a classic of the sci-fi-women-in-peril genre. Oh, that incorrigble, handsy astrogar!

[garethschweitzer]

Richard Sharpe Shaver

[jareckiworld]

Richard Sharpe Shaver (1907-1975)  —  After the Big Flood   (pastel, felt pen, and ink on paper, c.1961)

[red-red-spout]

So, I just learned about Richard Sharpe Shaver, and now I’m thinking that DnD’s derro are... almost certainly inspired by his writings. Not just because of the name, but also because of the. Part where Richard Sharpe Shayver’s dero are, also an evil species that lives underground and captures people to torture them, with access to advanced technology.

[zundernell]

[spaceintruderdetector]

Amazing Stories 6/1947

Featuring: Formula from the Underworld, Zigor Mephisto's Collection of Mentalia, Witch's Daughter, and The Red Legion; all by Richard Sharpe Shaver.  

https://archive.org/details/AmazingStoriesVolume21Number06_692

[mhuntington7]

THE GRAVE OF RICHARD SHARPE SHAVER, FATHER OF ALIEN MYSTERIES - Yellville, Arkansas. Layton Cemetery. Richard Sharpe Shaver (1907-1975) was an American science fiction writer, artist, cultural influencer, paranormal/UFO personality and “alien contactee” (and likely schizophrenic). Oh, and a historical “rock whisperer.” Shaver’s 40s-era “Shaver Mystery” stories in popular pulp-mag “Amazing Stories” - with tales of receiving messages from advanced civilized beings from hidden realms, the Deros - set the the sci-fi/alien visitor template for the culture in the years leading up to the Flying Saucer Age. Shaver, later in life, then focused on finding secret ancient alien visual narrative clues hidden in our Earth rocks - he shared his astonishing interpretations/finding in his famous “rock books.” Devoted fans sometimes travel to this area from afar seeking such Shaver rocks. Photo by Michael Huntington - April, 2022. @Huntington_Strange_Travels #StrangeTravels #MichaelHuntington #HuntingtonFamily #HuntingtonAdventures #ParanormalTravel #UFOs #InnerEarth #ShaverMystery #ShaverMysteryClub #RichardSharpeShaver #Deros #AmazingStories #RayPalmer #Subgenius #LaytonCemetery #YellvilleArkansas (at Yellville, Arkansas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CdbgzyNl38s/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sarkos]

As crazy as Cooper could often appear, in almost every lecture I've ever seen he would often pause to say something along these lines: "Don't believe me. Do your own research. Look at my sources and tell me I'm wrong!" He once dedicated an entire hour-long episode of his shortwave radio show, "Hour of the Time," to reviewing the lengthy list of books he had read in order to produce his epic, 43-part series entitled "Mystery Babylon," an in-depth analysis of how hermetic philosophies had impacted world history. You could disagree with Cooper's eccentric conclusions, but you really had to respect someone with the temerity to broadcast an hour-long bibliography over the radio. Even more surprisingly, his listeners hung on every word. If Cooper's listeners decided to follow his advice to fact check his numerous claims, they would have to read such lengthy and difficult tomes as "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" by Manly P. Hall and "Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry" by Albert Pike — and that's just scratching the surface. The supposed links between devil worship among the "elites" and secret societies like the Illuminati can be traced back at least as far as the 1870s, when French journalist Léo Taxil published "Les mystères de la Franc-Maçonnerie," a volume that purported to reveal the eyewitness accounts of a woman named Diana Vaughan. After converting to Catholicism, Vaughan confessed to having engaged in numerous satanic rituals with Freemasons. During one of these rituals, she saw a demon shape-shift into a crocodile and play the piano. The book was a huge success among Roman Catholics, many of whom were eager to lap up the most insane claims as long as they made the Masons look bad. Then, on April 25, 1897, the French newspaper Le Frondeur published Taxil's confession that Vaughan was wholly fictitious. Taxil boasted that his book was "the most fantastic hoax of our times." But even after his confession, people continued to believe in his 12-year prank. Indeed, fundamentalists of all varieties insist on quoting Taxil to this day. Jack T. Chick, the wildly successful cartoonist who founded Chick Publications (a California-based Christian publishing company designated as an "active hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center) used Taxil as a source in his most popular anti-Masonic tract, "The Curse of Baphomet." Rick and Gene's wild tales about "underground wars" between "white hats" and "black cats" — discussed in the first installment of this series — appear to have a more recent source: the Lovecraft-inflected 1940s horror stories of Richard Sharpe Shaver. In 1943, at the age of 36, Shaver became infamous among American science fiction fans for a series of allegedly true accounts he began publishing in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. Shaver claimed he had discovered a race of prehistoric extraterrestrials known as the Titans. Most of the Titans had abandoned Earth long ago, but a few remnants of their society had been left behind. There were two types of Titans still living on Earth, although they were hidden deep underground: the angelic Teros ("white hats" who sometimes intervened positively in human affairs) and the demonic Deros ("black hats," whose entire existence revolved around kidnapping, torturing and eating human beings).

The deep, twisted roots of QAnon: From 1940s sci-fi to 19th-century anti-Masonic agitprop | Salon.com

[steamedtangerine]

So, I finally saw Peele’s “US”...

(have not seen? proceed no further for some SPOILERS are here!)

Even if the movie seemed far-fetched, many had to find themselves admiring it’s imaginative approach as we would with something like Cabin in the Woods.

There is a lot to unpack and so many references to other films I could note (like twins flipping about like Pris from Blade Runner or an under-dwelling of impressionable bodies from an abandoned experiment like one episode of Venture Bros.)...but I am surprised with what is not being addressed online with theories abound.

Regarding the “experiment”: anyone recall how the Nazis were fascinated with scientific research into twins (not to mention their odd predilection for the occult-so “soul” as a metaphysical field of interest was not off the table for them)?

If not Nazis, was this about the subterranean DEROS (of Richard Sharpe Shaver phenomenal mythology). The Church of Subgenius regular mentions DEROS (and their inhuman experiments) and twins known as Nental Ives.

As one church pamphlet put it-- NENTAL IVES: clones of us in the spirit world whose duplicate lusts influence our behavior on this material plane.  Yes - JEHOVAH 1 smote us in primeval days with BAD BRAKES by which we cannot stop our devil twin from overcoming our 'better nature' and by which, furthermore, we cannot even begin to tell the difference between the two!  Brakes keep us from committing ANYTHING WE MIGHT IMAGINE IN OUR MOST DANGEROUS FLEETING FANTASIES, such as chopping off noisy children's heads and giving... well, all of us, even non-SubGeniuslike whimps of the second and third waters, are Jekyll/Hyde monsters of two conflicting Noggin Polarities in our personalities; the SHAFT OF SUPPRESSION rears its ugly Head in response to this utter psychosis which squirms for most of our lives only in the dim, unseen reaches of our behavior-pumps; we act completely normal most of the time, but who is to say at any given moment which side, the 'good' or the 'bad,' is currently in control of The Animal? Thank "God" we are usually never aware of the subconscious Armageddon which expresses itself, physically, in our paranoias, human Work Instincts and universanal compulsions, and, spiritually, in our unruly but subtle psychic powers - which result not so much from any 'inner aura' but rather from a somewhat mindless 'ghost' standing invisibly at our sides:  it is the half of our intelligence which is currently not controlling The Animal, it is the NENTAL IFE, and it erupts from its usual idiot blithering into weird, occult pheno-manifestations only when our turbulent mental background reaches such peaks of simultaneous crisis and repression as the stormy glandular rampages of adolescence!

On a personal note (and all for whimsical speculative purposes): where are some other places (other than a funhouse in Santa Cruz) that would harbor entrances to subterranean experiments like these? As far as SE Michigan is concerned, it could be anything from an abandoned factory in a neglected part of Detroit to some place Downriver (maybe Zug Island?). Could it be the tunnels of the abandoned asylums in Northville and Westland (Eloise)? For me, I tend to think that it has something to do with the Fairlane Towncenter. Many folks used to say that the Fairlane Towncenter was haunted (especially in the back interconnecting corridors and tunnels running through the place), and during a very stressful time in my life, I did witness some poltergeist activity....but that’s a different matter altogether (hey-maybe there were even other ways to get to what is now the defunct Hyatt than what used to be the monorail...Hmmmm?).

I’m beside myself with speculation......