"The Recurring Doom" by S. T. Joshi / Cthulhu Mythos

[@HorrorBabble]

*** This is a licensed recording -- the story is NOT in the public domain *** "The Recurring Doom" is a Cthulhu Mythos story by the Indian American author and critic, S. T. Joshi. First published in the the magazine Lovecraftian Ramblings in 1980, the story tells of an unspeakable threat to mankind, narrowly avoided... Joshi's Website: stjoshi.org The Recurring Doom (book): www.amazon.com/Recurring-Doom-Tales-Mystery-Horror-ebook/dp/B07NXZ2KLD 0:00:00 - Introduction 0:01:18 - The Recurring Doom 1:02:25 - Further Listening Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble Music and production by Ian & Jennifer Gordon Artwork by Vishnu Prasad: instagram.com/artgeek09

[@williestreiff9314]

Thank you Horror Babble, and I thought you Said 1918 was the original date it was written, I was scratching my head, I'm glad I read this , 1980 makes sense, I'm silly 😂

[@JustBeeCuzzz]

It was pretty good... not quite Lovecraft quality, but quite listenable.

[@williestreiff9314]

@@JustBeeCuzzz even though, in my opinion knowing of course LOVECRAFT is the Father of Cosmic Horror and I'm s fan and find it fascinating, a lot of other writers and many of the more modern authors I find to be be creepier an many respects, either way it's cool it was invented, like I said that's just my thoughts 😁

[@JustBeeCuzzz]

@@williestreiff9314 yeah, I believe author was trying to keep the story short, it seems just sort of an outline. Something a little false about final combat, needed more skimpily-clad girls, fill out the descriptions. What would it be like to attack 20 people with only one companion and shooting them in the attack? I would be terrified. Nice effort, but needs to be edited and expanded with detail.

[@williestreiff9314]

@@JustBeeCuzzz I get what your saying about this particular story, I wasn't referencing this in particular or didn't mean to come across that way, I've certainly have read and heard better cosmic horror, but definitely not the worst

[@Boogie_the_cat]

Licensing a recording through cooperation with the author. Very classy of you, HB. Good stuff. This is my first experience of Joshi, and i like the cut of his jib.

[@SnakeGodThossk]

"Absurdly minor enigma," just became my new favorite turn of phrase.

[@RogertheGS]

I quite like "criminous" which doesn't seem to appear even in the compendious vocabulary of Clark Ashton Smith.

[@dwellerofthedark]

The preeminent Lovecraftian expert and writer- S.T. Joshi-read by the Bard of Horror Ian Gordon! Outstanding collaboration.

[@williamfawkes8379]

Within the envelope of a HorrorBabble production, nearly every story can be bolstered into feeling magnificent. Great delivery aside, this tale has managed to capture, completely intentionally, the essence of Lovecrafts work. I'll never tire of scholarly disdain, strange geometry, or objects that are better left hidden in the dirt. Many thanks to you, from the land of sky blue waters.

[@999minimal]

What a wonderful addition to the Horrorbabble library. Joshi might be the foremost academic Lovecraftian, but he certainly knows all the tropes that make up a first-class Mythos. And it was also deliberately hilarious.

[@gerry5134]

Warren left me his bicycle clips !

[@stevecausey545]

Thanks you two. I'll listen tonight.

[@donaldmccleary9015]

Fantastic story and narration! I really like it, and it is a great addition to your library. I really like Joshi. This tale weaves information from other mythos stories (like other authors of mythos stories do/did) and gives us a new story and adventure. A good amount of my Lovecraft/Mythos compilations have forwards, afterwards, prologues, etc. written by Joshi. They are always good. He has an excellent grasp of "everything Lovecraft". The artwork is amazing, too. I zoomed in and saw all the cultists standing around. Excellent!! I know this guy (Ian) who writes about Sentinel Hill and Bristo/Brista/Bristol as well. Such good things happen around there. Great job, my friend. Thanks to you and Mr. Joshi for this gem!

[@jdljr1]

Only Joshi could do such an excellent job of tying his original story so well to so many of Lovecraft's real and fictional locations and other tales. And Joshi is well served by your excellent presentation and reading.

[@MothmanBePraised]

I love how much Joshi loves HP. It's beautiful

[@RolandWieffering1]

Listened to it, definitely belongs to the Cthulhu Mythos. Hope you have more like this for us in the future. And as always read superbly. 👍🏻 Thumbs up from Holland.

[@lilmisstarabear]

I love how it ties into so many other stories. This is amazing

[@RobertLRead]

Joshi has done us a scholarly service, and this is a good homage. I can't say it quite has the terror of original Lovecraft (not that I could do better.) I wish I could put my finger on what is missing.

[@soulreaver1983]

Absolutely brilliant as always thanks Ian!😎👍👍

[@AcornElectron]

“Nothing has been distorted or concealed, and if anything remains vague, it is only because of the dark cloud which has come over my mind-that cloud and the nebulous nature of the horrors which brought it upon me…….” Keep up the good work and, as always, stay safe!

[@MachineSpirit101]

that was marvellous👌

[@Vlekistan]

This was great! What I call High Lovecraftian Classicism. Definitely save-worthy for rehearing.

[@RolandWieffering1]

A wonderful story, I am gonna look if I can find more stories by S. T. Joshi..

[@TheMrCougarful]

A moment of silence for Warren, please.

[@williestreiff9314]

To Warren 😢😢😢😢😢

[@randallbesch2424]

Warren Harper undying and never dies.

[@MusicEnjoyerSLS]

I didn't even know he was sick!

[@williestreiff9314]

You fool, warren is dead 😲😲

[@RolandWieffering1]

Great something new to listen to. Awesome.

[@peterbugg3943]

Fantastic story and reading, thank you! More of S T Joshi please!

[@anthonybarnwell767]

Looking forward to this one 🎉🎉

[@blurryface9597]

What a great story! Thank you for such a tale, and for your excellent narration as always.

[@NoWheyHombre]

Wow, the reference toward the end dont feel clunky or shoehorned in like a marvel cameo. This is great

[@walrusaurelius4801]

Not sure how I feel about this one. Feels like a mishmash of Lovecraft's works, relies a lot more on referencing every bit of his writing it possibly can than telling its own story. The reading was, as ever, excellent.

[@The.plugindrug5718]

Yup, I think you’re completely right & I felt the exact same way. It’s not a story. It’s a fan service cake with reference sprinkles on top.

[@notme9816]

So it wasn’t only me then!

[@matweb8195]

A most enjoyable reading.

[@Eris123451]

That was a great tale. A lot, too many of the modern Cthulu Mythos tales are a bit lame but this was an exception and one of the best that I've heard in quite a while.

[@epsomsalts592]

Excellent narration of an excellent story, thank you.

[@mediamogul6643]

Fabulous stuff, really priceless, and delivered impeccably, as ever ❤

[@teslastellar]

Amazing story and narration 👍 Thank you Ian 🙂❤️

[@robbabcock_]

Thanks for another wonderful tale!

[@danielmeredith4222]

Hello Ian Gordon how are you doing i hope allswell in your world. I just joined your channel as ive thoroughly enjoyed all the content you've shared with us all. Im a fan of the shadow over innsmouth story. I also really love how my last name is in this story. The recurring doom is great im half way in now xo

[@Bobo411]

love the artwork, great story and narration as always 👍

[@tomtom86004]

Love this channel

[@paladin56]

A great read, as always Ian. I really like how the author tied in this story with Lovecraft's tales that you have previously recorded.

[@jeffashley5512]

Great to hear S.T. Joshi here on Horrorbabble. I saw him on the academic side in documentary about Lovecraft. That documentary had Joshi, Gaiman, del Toro and John Carpenter. Great watch although not an in depth look but a telling of Lovecraft's influence on literature and the authors in the documentary. Great as always Ian. 💀

[@Austrian_blood]

Love it.

[@colemarie9262]

Amazing art, author and reading! Thank you horror babble!

[@friedrichjunzt]

I love the irony, that my famous book "Unausprechliche Kulte" is, indeed, unaussprechlich for most people not native to the harsh German language 😂😁

[@riphopfer5816]

You misspelled your book’s title. It’s understandable, given how ancient you are, and just how long ago you compiled this tome. ‘Unaussprechlichen Kulten’.

[@friedrichjunzt]

@@riphopfer5816I discreetly attempted to formulate the title grammatically correct. 😁

[@andromalius9595]

I really enjoyed that. What a ride

[@AAron-gr3jk]

Imagine casually reading Al-Hazred and Von Juntz

[@prowsy102]

Yep yep yep👍 thank you much

[@The.plugindrug5718]

Awesome narration as always Ian! Thank you so much for everything you do! As far as the Joshi story… Man, I was just board. I felt like it was unnecessary long, with far too much suspenseless foreshadowing. This was my first taste of Joshi, and it didn’t feel like a story, it felt like fan service. It’s hard to hear people comparing his writing abilities to Lovecraft.

[@andreasfilis9001]

Well, this is a story ! It was awesome

[@rneustel388]

Very good!!

[@adamscrivner30]

Hugely enjoyable.

[@Shacthulhu]

Poor Warren. His end was a fool’s errand.

[@williestreiff9314]

He gets whacked more than Kenny

[@notme9816]

😂

[@aaronweaver9751]

Obscure places conceal banes and dooms waiting for the unwary to stumble across them. The guy just picked up an artifact and placed it on his desk and things could've gone south. Imagine some future person excavating a bullet train tunnel and he/she finds the crystal. Or what if a robot finds the crystal. What would it do? Kudos to the narrator and author 🎉🎉🎉

[@edrozenrozen9600]

I keep hearing about this Warren guy....

[@genevievebertolet2909]

I'm not sure if it was sincere or just emulating the style, but Joshi absolutely nails the inexcusable racism of a Lovecraftian protagonist.

[@Ponkan45]

Inexcusable racism lol

[@johnbutler370]

All of history needs to be current dayed huh.....

[@kevinfogle7929]

More mythos!

[@Luckragol]

such a good story ^.^

[@williestreiff9314]

My apologies Horror Babble i confused you with another channel on the fresh Meat comment

[@EricDaMAJ]

In distant China a ragged man stumbles across a flinty plain and zig zags up a massive sand dune. In the distance he hears the drone of a Chinese helicopter. A Harbin Z-20 by the sound of it. Cresting the dune he surfs and rolls down the other side. Only to see wave after wave of dunes. He drinks of his dwindling water supply and plods on, somewhat confident he’s out of the helicopter’s sight. As the sun sets a breeze starts to blow with gradual intensity. Suddenly he’s hit by a wave of sand that scratches his bare skin. He wraps his face in a scarf and staggers on mostly blind. After an hour he bounces off a large wire fur creature that jingles somewhat and groans loudly. A camel - one of a line of them receding into the sandy haze - all connected by a rope. The line halts and a camel kneels to allow a robe wrapped figure to dismount. Over the wind he hears guttural Arabic. The figure inspects him briefly, ties a rope around the man’s waist, and urges him to stand. Once the man is raised to his feet, the figure remounts his camel and continues on. The man follows. Near midnight the sandstorm subsides and the caravan halts. The camels are hobbled and the riders gather to eat. They are generous with the man, giving him some food and water. Setting watch they lay down to rest. The next day the caravan continues East. Listening to their chatter, the man leverages his limited Arabic. Their Arabic is almost primitive and little like what he learned in school. He hears snatches about a Great War in the West between the Persians and the Rum. A war that finally ended in mutual exhaustion. By ending it opened the trade routes to the great empire of the Qing. They gossiped about a new religious leader in their homeland - a trader like themselves. One rider claimed this leader a heretical Christian; another argued vehemently he isn’t. That he’s somehow new. The man finally ventured to speak himself. He gave his name, Warren, and asked of them. The leader laughed coldly and replied in barely intelligible Arabic, _“You fool! Warren is dead! We ride in the Taklamakan desert, which in the local tongue means ‘you go in and you don’t come out.’”_

[@joz6683]

1st comment. (Insert clever statement about Warren here) Great story and thanks to everyone involved.

[@RogertheGS]

At 27:51 - is the pronunciation of Sade a hat-tip to David Fincher's Seven?

[@williestreiff9314]

Azathothory has been lingering for decades

[@stuff6218]

Great

[@dirkbruere]

Cosmic Horror is my favourite genre

[@thehillz726]

One of the first for once !!

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

Recursive Curse - a curse that keeps on cursing.

[@bigsarge2085]

❤️‍🔥

[@jeffgustafson4552]

Oh Warren

[@rangda_prime]

He may be a good Lovecraft scholar, but hot damn, his writing is truly abysmal.

[@johnwhelan9663]

He is over-rated even as a Lovecraft scholar. His primary mission was to generate new copyright in public domain works, due to the sheer number of his "corrections". But, in all fairness, he did occasionally catch an actual error.

[@rangda_prime]

@@johnwhelan9663 Yeah, agree with you on all points!

[@7F0X7]

One of those rare stories that rewards the reader the more he or she is familiar with the Lovecraft-verse and its stories. I'm so glad I listened to this story only *after* listening to most of Lovecraft's works. I understood nearly all the references with Nyarlethotep's weapon/fire being my favorite! The subtle implication that he was behind Cthulu's original imprisonment since only his "fire" could free Cthulu *AND* that small, but profound hint that Cthulu was only imprisoned by a "grand jest" seems right up Nyarlethotep's alley. Truly the best archetype of the 'Joker' ever which not even DC Comics own infamous character could ever measure up to.

[@kristinacable]

❤❤

[@emanuelandersson8510]

Cthulhu Mythos 🖤

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

S.T. ("Sexually Transmitted") Joshi is a master of the Lovecraftian genre. Add the narration of HorrorBabble and the result is... perfection. Are we 100% sure one or other of them didn't dig up HPL's corpse and wring one last story out of it?

[@The.plugindrug5718]

We’re sure. Beware the jangle of the keys…

[@MattKremer]

You fool, Coler is dead.

[@williestreiff9314]

They killed coler ,,you bastards

[@ledarbyromeo9667]

Three minutes in, and i think we can agree a crisis was averted. But please, do state that in as many ways possible within the first paragraph

[@durere]

I know the suspension of disbelief would be an odd thing to complain about in a Cthulhu Mythos story, but come on, how come all those journalists writing for those papers haven't made the connection? In fact, we are led to believe that a single paper published 2 separate articles talking about people getting shredded and covered in fish slime in 2 different places, the same day, and not only were the incidents not linked together by their authors, but were tucked away in a filler corner? (Maybe I'm just wrongly thinking of the sensationalist approach of newspapers these days, but I bet even back then, this would have caused some commotion.) Also on suspension of disbelief, how can 2 people with a single gun outfight a group of crazed cultists, considering the latter allegedly had their whole reason for being on the line? And how come they didn't torch the man's house after he ran with the crystal? All that being said, I did enjoy the story, and I'll look more into this author. Thank you Ian for your wonderful work!

[@williestreiff9314]

Okay, I can't take it anymore may you Horror Babble or someone out there please tell me who Warren is snd how he came to his demize

[@BigBennKlingon]

This reads like it's contemporary to the Lovecraft circle era. If you told this was written in the 40s id totally believe it. Im not referring to the time the story is set in, but rather the way it is written. Most often you can identify period pieces because the dialogue and idioms are if not overtly anachronistic, then at least not quite right. Not this one.

[@leviackerman8593]

❤😂🎉

[@BeautifulEarthJa]

"...an old man at 42" 😐😑

[@williestreiff9314]

I'm 55😢

[@nycheeseburger1011]

I think he was saying the events had aged him beyond his years.

[@MrDozerdee]

Fell asleep

[@Bbergster]

Just hurry & grab the books, you fools, they will be worth a fortune in the future! “Dolphin uprising…” 🙀

[@GodOfPlague]

They come for our fishes 🐟! The Fiends!

[@williestreiff9314]

Where Fresh Meat????

[@9digitNo]

Was this written by a 10 year old? This was truly horrible.

[@Sigma10-c1k]

The massively OVER RATED TS Joshi

[@brograb898]

I like Joshi and the story is good-but he uses so much passive voice. The tone is anemic.

[@The_Sisyphean]

Great!