The Good Friends of Jackson Elias is an irregular podcast devoted to the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, horror movies and horror gaming in general. It is hosted by Paul Fricker, Matthew Sanderson and Scott Dorward, three freelance writers who have worked on the new edition of Call of Cthulhu and other horror roleplaying games. Episodes are usually built around a particular theme, always centred on our shared love of all things dark and horrifying.
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The Last Feast of Harlequin
We’re back and we’re touching up our greasepaint, frolicking with wild abandon and preparing for our unspeakable transformation. This episode is our look at Thomas Ligotti’s weird tale The Last Feast of Harlequin. While Ligotti may arguably have written stronger stories, this established his reputation as one of the finest modern writers of weird fiction. More importantly for the interests of the podcast, it is one of the few explicitly Lovecraftian tales he has written.
Main Topic
Ligotti described The Last Feast of Harlequin as the first of his stories that he didn’t want to throw away, an understatement that should qualify Ligotti as an honorary Briton. While his work has become weirder and more idiosyncratic since this story, The Last Feast of Harlequin is an iconic tale, mixing elements of Lovecraft’s The Festival and The Shadow Over Innsmouth into something original and utterly nightmarish. It is a fine introduction to his writing and to his nihilistic world-view. The latter aspect makes The Last Feast of Harlequin especially rich inspiration for Call of Cthulhu. We dissect it enthusiastically in search of juicy morsels we can steal for our games.
In our discussion, we mention a few useful resources for those interested in learning more about Ligotti and his work.
* Thomas Ligotti Online
* The Thomas Ligotti Reader
* Born to Fear
* A discussion of The Last Feast of Harlequin at Tor.com
News
Scott is continuing to run The Two-Headed Serpent for the How We Roll podcast. There is no fixed date for the release yet, but we shall let you know here and on social media when it happens.
As you have undoubtedly noticed, we have a new website design. During the overhaul, we decided to add a new MailChimp mailing list. Its main goal is to let listeners know when we release episodes, but we shall also include updates on new publications, personal appearances, conventions and so on. If you would like to subscribe, please visit our Follow Us page for more details.
Speaking of conventions, all three of us will be at the Continuum 2018 convention in Leicester this summer. We plan to run lots of games, record a live episode and get disgracefully drunk at the bar. If you fancy joining us for any of these activities, we would love to see you there.
Other Stuff