The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers BOOK REVIEW

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TIME STAMPS:
Intro to the book: 1:01
Sponsor: 4:53
Plot of the book: 6:49
Reading: 7:24
Inspiration and those Inspired: 10:21
A Type of Occult Book: 11:37
The Continuation of Myths and Lore: 12:19
A Synthesis of Gothic and Decadent Literature: 14:27
Themes of the book: 16:11
A Stain on the Psyche: 17:04
An Absurd Comedy: 18:29
A Metaphor for Disease: 19:21
"You Beastly Little Parasite!" Uncle Monty: 20:13
Psychological Illness as Literature: 23:48
The Sinister Truth of Human Curiosity: 24:25
Dark Found Documents are the Chaos of Nature Manifested: 26:19
The Sun is Yellow - and the Sun is a Dying Star: 27:14
Floofy Melodrama: 28:02
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[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

TIME STAMPS: Intro to the book: 1:01 Sponsor: 4:53 Plot of the book: 6:49 Reading: 7:24 Inspiration and those Inspired: 10:21 A Type of Occult Book: 11:37 The Continuation of Myths and Lore: 12:19 A Synthesis of Gothic and Decadent Literature: 14:27 Themes of the book: 16:11 A Stain on the Psyche: 17:04 An Absurd Comedy: 18:29 A Metaphor for Disease: 19:21 "You Beastly Little Parasite!" Uncle Monty: 20:13 Psychological Illness as Literature: 23:48 The Sinister Truth of Human Curiosity: 24:25 Dark Found Documents are the Chaos of Nature Manifested: 26:19 The Sun is Yellow - and the Sun is a Dying Star: 27:14 Floofy Melodrama: 28:02

[@Orneryforadollar]

I think this is the first time in my life where I read a book before Cliff. I never thought this day would come.

[@neo5kali]

"The Repairer of Reputations" within "The King in Yellow" is the GOAT!

[@zerpendium6051]

The yellow mythos was mentioned in Lovecraft’s The Whisperer of Darkness. It mentioned the king in yellow and all at the beginning of Lovecraft’s tale.

[@andrewbanks7472]

Thumbnail is unhinged. Get that coffee.

[@nikkivenable73]

Whoa, Cliff, I didn’t know that this was inspiration to Nic’s True Detective. It’s my favorite show by far, as well! This was super cool info!

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

The King in Yellow is like the literary epitome of "Had us in the first half." 😂

[@late_privktorian_era]

Seriously

[@CINEMARTYR]

True Detective Season 1 is just perfect.

[@flub1865]

somethin funny about this- A month ago i quit kratom, it's an... over-the-counter opioid of sorts. The withdrawals were horrifying, unlike anything ive ever experienced. My only comfort was my discovery of The King in Yellow. Coming off that stuff is a form of tunnel-boring-madness in your skull, and literature just fit. Today, I got a job I really wanted, my withdrawals subsided, all on a beautiful spring day. And here you come with a Yellow Sign.

[@ghoulish6125]

How long were you using and what dose, if you don’t mind me asking?

[@flub1865]

​@@ghoulish6125 brother i took that shit every day for 3 years. my usage peaked at 40-50 grams a day, and the stuff i was using was of decent quality. Thing about kratom is that you're not just withdrawing from the opioids Mitragynine, and 7-hydroxymitragynine. There are 58 other alkaloids, we don't know what they all do, but kratom also modulate dopamine and serotonin. comin off of that stuff you're left with *nothing* to make you feel good.

[@drackaryspt1572]

I think I'd love to see a horror series of yours just going over some of the classics in depth! Great Vid I've been waiting for this review since I noticed you hadn't done it yet.

[@Birmanncat]

More than anything else King in yellow is a gothic romanticism collection, very light on spooks, very eloquent and elegantly written.

[@nicholasmalyar7132]

Hello Cliff! First of all hope all is well. Great fan of your content. I wanted to ask if you’re planning on doing a book review on Club Dumas? Would love to hear your opinion on it. I thoroughly enjoyed that one. The Flanders Panel and Captain Alatriste are worth checking out as well if you haven’t. Thank you again for everything!

[@foramejora]

Never clicked a video so fast in my life

[@MelancoliaI]

One interesting thing is the whole 'future' aspect of Repairer of Reputations is called into question based on clues in one of the other stories, Yellow Sign I think

[@rishabhaniket1952]

No Cliff! You don't need time stamps 😅. Your videos are like dramatic episodes/ performances (in a good way!) and meant to be viewed in their entirety. I wouldn't want to skip any of it!!

[@TeatroGrotesco]

I never caught the name of the Carpenter movie with Reddus and Udo Kiere

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

My bad - Cigarette Burns

[@jasmin5246]

Great review as always! Looking forward to the series on horror literature!

[@jamiewalkerdine3705]

my favourite story was the demoiselle dys (pls forgive if i misspelt)

[@s.a.dzindzia]

for those interested, the John Carpenter short film with Reedus and Kier is from the anthology series Masters of Horror and is called Cigarette Burns - fantastic little thing and maybe more personal favorite of that series/season.

[@reaganwiles_art]

A month ago Phil Ford and J.F. Martel of Weird Studies dropped a pod about this book. I'd never heard of it. Sounded pretty mysterious, intriguing

[@johncope7920]

Really hope you'll consider reviewing the new unabridged edition of Donoso's Obscene Bird of Night.

[@MelancoliaI]

I always saw Carcosa as being a city on another planet situated among the Hyades star cluster, as per Chambers' clues. It's a place where the impossible is possible. There are twin suns that evidently sink INTO the mysterious lake of Hali. The city has massive skyscrapers/towers, and the planet's moon somehow is seen IN FRONT of these at what passes for night sky on that planet. And one wonders what color that night sky is if black stars are visible. In addition, the thoughts of the city's inhabitants are hinted to have a kind of physical form, enough to cast shadows at any rate. It's similar to Lovecraft's city of R'lyeh in the sense of its impossibility. In Call of Cthulhu, merely looking at R'lyeh crashes the viewer's brain with its non-Euclidean dimensions. All interesting stuff.

[@JasonCaringella]

I was able to download a file where an original copy of the book was scanned page by page from the Internet Archive like 10 years ago, so cool. Still one of my favourites. Glad to hear your thoughts on it

[@christianrokicki]

Machen is the best I think when it comes to dark pagan horror and the long (sometimes slightly tedious) set-up for cross-indexed telescopic creepiness…

[@shinakuma1779]

You should review Voyage Around My Room by Xavier de Maistre. It is a mock travelogue he wrote after he was caught dueling and sentenced to house arrest as well as being ordered to write an essay 😂.

[@charlesgrey5607]

Read this a long time ago because Lovecraft praised him. Also read “Maker of Moons” which was weird as shit.

[@MsLoila]

Looking good cliff!

[@igorrenfield6588]

Stephen King I heard in a lecture by him on YT is actually quite dismissive of Lovecraft which surprised me.

[@lionstandingII]

"It's obsessed with its gut. It's like a bloody rugby ball now, it will die, it will die!"

[@danielkibira4064]

🤔⚙️Hmmmm⁉️🤓🤏💡 I never quite looked at it thus. Necronomicon finds it's tributary from the King in Yellow, in retrospective and the tradition continues with The Infinite Jest. 🤨Yeah, Things are really Connected 😵‍💫

[@filmlover123]

I just read this book a couple weeks ago. Your edition leaves out quite a few of the stories, several of which are among the best. They don't directly mention the King in Yellow, but the characters echo or link back to the other stories and the themes are connected. The writing is BEAUTIFUL. I highly recommend getting the complete collection.

[@BigItalian7]

Which is your edition?

[@Mark-nh2hs]

The edition I've got has got the king in yellow then the second half has quite a few non horror stories even a love story 😂

[@filmlover123]

@@BigItalian7 Poisoned Pen press

[@santiagodiaz3358]

Of all the later stories I thought The Damoiselle D'Ys and The Prophets's Paradise were the best. As for the rest of them, The Street of the Four Winds I thought was good, and the rest were just okay in my opinion

[@thisheatherlynn]

History of literary horror - yes please!

[@TeatroGrotesco]

19:19 I really thought the equivalent was going to be seeing a bookshelf of only Stefanie Meyer, but same difference.

[@anveshvashi-sc7pw]

Please read and review The Rivethead by Ben Hamper.

[@dallasfawson5332]

I read the Library of America's 800 page early American horror anthology ("From Poe to the Pulps") and "The Repairer of Reputations" was maybe my favorite of the bunch. I love the ambiguity of it and the insanely unreliable narrator.

[@ACMMMachado]

Have you read the book Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez?

[@MagnumInnominandum]

Yes

[@pitdog75]

Ok who is stronger. The King in Yellow or the Crimson King.

[@Liisa3139]

I have had an interesting experience of a meeting with a being from the unknown, a being that was somewhat human but totally alien at the same time. No substances involved. This is what happened. I saw a performance of Indian Kathakali dance where the one of the prformers has a green face and a very elaborate costume. Eyeballs are also colored. The character does not talk, but communicates with very energetic dance of the whole body, eyes included. When I saw this on stage I realized this is what it would be like to meet a real alien. You would have no clue what to make of it, how to interpret it, how to act. It would be the most fascinating and frightening encounter of your life. Fear would tell you to flight immediately, but fascination would mesmerize you to stay and watch - forever. It is otherwordly, you belong to the alien from then on. You just got possessed. Man, that was cool! One of the true miracles in my life.

[@darnes12]

great breakdown! my book has 9 chapters is is not written by Robert W Chambers?

[@Nocountryforcults]

Fellas,Where do I start with r chambers??

[@KyleMaxwell]

Would definitely love to hear more history of the horror novel, as somebody with a deep interest in cosmic horror and the Gothic.

[@BloopyBloop-gs1to]

Cliff, I love your insight, Write a book, please.

[@igorrenfield6588]

Clifford, the John Carpenter movie you’re thinking of is called Cigarette Burns.

[@miskatonic6576]

Yes please do a history of horror titles

[@jackiew6598]

The cat always has the upper hand.

[@bobcabot]

ja plz do! and expand to movies - maybe start with Fitzcarraldo...

[@crimsondesolation]

the amazon link for this book is wrong!

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Whoops hey thanks for catching that

[@soapjuice354]

"These places of epic beauty mentioned in the book remind me of Switzerland" 😭😭😭

[@modernoverman]

Why is horror so damned good?

[@iamscoder]

Wow didn't know Arthur Shelby also did book reviews😅

[@ghoulish6125]

Not that is apparent from a glance and I doubt too many games are in your wheelhouse, but Signalis has a King in Yellow reference and one of the better Lovecraft inspirations I’ve come across. While I enjoy games with that design and art style, if one would like there are a few great analysis videos that get the story across, some better than others. But yeah, Signalis, The King in Yellow, good stuff.

[@antherthalmhersser7239]

R.L. Stein ripped this off

[@filmlover123]

Also...why can't I find a man like you. Sigh.

[@bookofdust]

Oh good, it’s an olde timey author and not that the Preppy Murder had started to write books.

[@drkndlght019]

you are of darkness

[@VideoGameSlang]

That edition of the book you have is bad. It’s missing a few stories.

[@filmlover123]

Stephen King does not hold Lovecraft in high esteem, though he did as a child. He has stated that he loved Lovecraft until he learned to shave, and that "the man can't write a scene."

[@painbow6528]

Thumbnails are getting very click baity.

[@sweetviolents29]

Oh this is surreal. The version I read had way more than four stories! I believe these four were later collected in response to the popularity of weird fiction/Lovecraft. What a different context that puts them in! The Mask is my favorite. It feels like something that could have been written today. God bless Robert Chambers for not falling too far down the Dunsany rabbit hole! I wish he'd written more in the weird vein he found.