Episode 100: The Price of Beauty is Horror: On the Films of John Carpenter

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2021

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Central to the tradition of cosmic horror is the suggestion that the ultimate truth about our universe is at once knowable and unthinkable, such that one learns it only at the cost of one's sanity and soul. John Carpenter is one of a handful of horror directors to have successfully ported this idea from literature to cinema. This episode is an attempt to unearth some of the eldritch symbols buried in a selection of Carpenter's apocalyptic works, including Escape from New York, The Thing, They Live,_ In the Mouth of Madness_, and the little known Cigarette Burns. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies Find us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies REFERENCES John Carpenter films discussed: The Thing Cigarette Burns In the Mouth of Madness Prince of Darkness Halloween They Live Escape from New York Escape from L.A. Big Trouble in Little China Other References: Pascal Laugier (dir.), Martyrs Srdjan Spasojevic (dir.), A Serbian Film Weird Studies, Episode 90 on The Owl in Daylight Roger Corman, American director Northrup Frye, Words with Power J. R. R. Tolkien, forward to The Fellowship of the Ring Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri, “Percept, Affect, and Concept” in What is Philosophy Weird Studies, Episode 72 on the Castrati Weird Studies, Episode 46, Thomas Ligotti’s Angel Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” China Mieville, British author Karlheinz Stockhausen, comments on 9/11 H. P. Lovecraft, Nyarlothotep H. P. Lovecraft, “The Haunter of the Dark” Nick Land, Fanged Noumena Zack Snyder, American director Haeccaity and Quiddity, philosophical concepts Samuel Delaney, Dahlgren Weird Studies, Episode 98 on Exotica Quentin Meillasoux, After Finitude Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectre Vision Radio
0:03.0	Hello, Weird Studies listeners.
0:07.0	Just a quick word of warning for today's episode.
0:10.0	This one contains graphic descriptions of an extremely violent scene from a film by John Carpenter.
0:16.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:31.7	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:37.1	For more episodes or to support the podcast, go to weirdstud. This is Phil.
1:04.3	J.F. and I started doing these introductions because in the early days, our conversations
1:09.0	often started in media res, and we would have to go back and provide the missing setup to whatever it was we were talking about.
1:16.8	But even as we've reformed some of our earlier bad habits, we still find the intros useful to give listeners an overview of the day's topic,
1:25.0	and I particularly like using them as an opportunity to bring
1:28.6	up my favorite bits that didn't make it into the conversation. Case in point, the glider
1:33.8	scene from the 1981 film Escape from New York. This week, J.F. and I are talking about the films
1:40.5	of John Carpenter, including Escape from New York. And for much of this discussion, we pay special attention to Carpenter's apocalyptic streak,
1:49.0	particularly in The Mouth of Madness and the little-known cigarette burns,
1:54.0	both of which imagine art as a weapon of mass destruction.
1:58.0	Towards the end, we talk a little about Escape from New York and the peculiar
2:02.9	apocalypse at pictures. A modern urban landscape turned into a darkened wilderness sparsely inhabited
2:09.4	by the mad and the damned, to whom death or ecstasy or both can befall at any time for any reason
2:17.3	or no reason at all.
2:19.9	In escape from New York, the city has become a vast prison, and after Air Force One has been
2:25.5	hijacked by someone who sounds like Patty Hurst in her Symbionese Liberation Army phase,
	...

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