Soodapod is extruded into this universe from a dimension of purest fear. It's beautiful

in its own alien way. But what's to come will unsettle you.

Soodapod Episode 771 for August 20th, 2021. The Human Chair by Edagoa Rampo translated

by Alan Jung. I'm Alex, co-editor of Soodapod. That's just kidding. It's Kat. Alex is under

the weather, so I'm helping out with this episode. So it's Kat, assistant editor. It's

Soodapod. I'm your host this week. As we continue, our celebration of 15 years of Soodapod,

we wanted to bring you something particularly special. For the past couple of years, we've

been celebrating stories entering the public domain. The Human Chair was originally published

in Ningen, Issuk, October 1925. As this story is in the public domain, in its original

Japanese, we thought a new translation would be a fascinating project that extends Soodapod's

1925 showcase from January of this year. Our author is Taro Hirai, better known by the

pseudonym, Edagoa Rampo. He was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the

development of Japanese mystery fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero,

Kogoro Akaji, who in later books was the leader of a group known as the Boy Detectives Club.

Rampo was an admirer of Western mystery writers and especially of Edgett Allen Poe. His pen name,

as you might be able to hear, is a rendering of Poe's name. Other authors who were special

influences on him were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom he attempted to translate into Japanese

during his days as a student at Wasedi University. And the Japanese mystery writer,

Kareko Karewa. In honor of his work on Doyle, who has appeared here on Soodapod, back in episode

200, we present a new translation from the original Japanese of one of his most popular works.

Our translator is Alan Chong. Alan is an electrical engineering student at Georgia Tech,

who enjoys reading fiction from around the world. He appreciates a variety of genres from

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