I’m going to have a discussion with Elias as to what we can do to address the issue. I know he’ll just give me the old “record and study, not interfere or contain” speech again, but I at least need to make him aware of it.
again, we see jon pushing back against elias’ judgement and, for as much as he presents himself as a skeptic and hard-nosed, jon actively wants to do something about things he knows are a threat
Get comfortable because I have a lot of thoughts about this one (In fact I’m gonna put this behind a cut for length.) I wouldn’t say that this one is my favorite of the episodes that I’ve heard overall, but it definitely has some moments that will rank in my favorites. This was the first episode that I listened to and then immediately restarted and listened again. I was tempted to listen a third time, too. I’m going to try to go through it in order, as best I can remember.
The introduction was delightful. I have heard and read many people pontificate about the timelessness of the written word and the importance of language as a means of sharing ideas and whatnot but the subtle way that words were compared to a virus here was beautiful. The idea of infecting another person with your thoughts as opposed to just sharing them seems... so relevant right now and certainly not just as it relates to this story. Books as endless contamination points...
Listen, I want to make it clear that I love books and am certainly against censorship and all that, but it’s a notion that I find both fascinating and worthy of consideration.
Moving on.
My immediate thought when I started an episode that was about books and a library was that we were going to encounter another Jurgen Leitner book but the initial description of The Bone Turner’s Tale had me thinking that I was mistaken. The descriptions of the books in Page Turner and the background information about Jurgen commissioning special copies of books had me thinking that all of his books would look very fancy and probably leather-bound and whatnot. I was not expecting a battered paperback. It makes me think of Jumanji and how the game will disguise itself as whatever it takes to get you to pick it up....
My father’s name is Michael and, as previously mentioned, I’ve seen a number of drawings of a character from TMA named Michael so, like Johns, I may be a little more prone to perk my ears up when I hear the name. I am fairly certain, though I may be mistaken, that Michael Crew was the name of the kid who got struck by lightning in Page Turner. Now he is the one who seemingly snuck the book into the library. The lightning incident did not seem to have anything to do with the actual book in Page Turner other than the ... crap, what’s it called.... the Lichtenberg Figure (thank you smarty-pants Husband) but now the name has, I think, been mentioned in two episodes about Leitner books. Interesting.
My ears also perked up when I heard the name Jerad but this does not seem to be related to Jerad Key (who I have since been informed is actually named Gerard Keay so what do I know XD)
So the rat. What struck me as very odd about the rat incident is that the person who gave the account mentioned that the rat’s head may have been at an odd angle but that his memory of the ‘incidents’ ran together. Now other than the rat the only incidents he mentioned were Jared and Jared’s mother and it seems very odd to me that he would mix up any details about a rat with either of those. It makes me wonder if he had other encounters that he didn’t mention? Why wouldn’t he? Very odd.
The little interjection with Jon and Elias!! I believe that this is the first time we’ve had any interjection mid-recording and, other than Alone, this was the first time it really felt like a radio play rather than just a read out story. It was a simple interaction but I felt like it deeply added to the whole of the podcast and I look forward to more interactions like it in the future.
It also really emphasized to me again that Jon is clearly doing voices when he reads the reports. The startled change from character voice to his normal speaking voice when Elias walked in made it clear that that’s not just a narration choice for the podcast but a recording choice by the character of Jon. He does voices, he interjects a feeling of emotion, stress where appropriate, etc. This is not the action of someone trying to create an impartial recording. If this isn’t explained by the end of the podcast I am going to be very disappointed.
(My working theory, and mind you this is very rough, is that Jon was given the role of Archivist specifically because he has some sort of empathic abilities and that he may not even realize himself that he’s doing it.)
Maybe it’s just a result of working under too many bosses who were less interested in the employee welfare and more interested in pleasing the investors, but Elias gave me bad vibes. He didn’t even say much but I just kind of went, “Oh, I know you and I don’t like you very much.” That felt very deliberate and when I’m given such a seemingly deliberate first impression about a character I always eye it with suspicion.
I found it interesting that Elias mentioned Martin. It seemed off-hand but a writer wouldn’t throw that in for no reason. My ‘something is going on with Martin’ suspicions have been further ticked.
I felt that the bleeding books didn’t really fit with the rest of the story. There are certain times when listening to the podcast that there will be specific details that don’t mesh with the rest of the tale and almost seem as if they were put in just to add a bit more of a spooky factor or something. I previously mentioned the apple in Burned Out. I can’t think of any others off the top of my head, but the bleeding books struck me like that. It seems to me that these evil books want to be picked up and read in order to spread their power. The one from Page Turner (I’m not gonna try to remember and spell the Latin name lol) seemed to attract the gaze and he couldn’t stop flipping through. The Bone Turner’s Tale almost seemed to entrance Jared. Why on earth would you want to make yourself look suspicious and evil by making other books bleed??
Anyway.
The description of the thing that used to be Jerad was delightfully spooky by itself. It reminded me of something but damned if I can figure out what. But the idea of it being able to move its bones at will and of stealing bones from other people to expand itself. Yeah, I loved that.
The Post-Statement told me a lot more about The Magnus Institute than I had previously known. I suppose I had conceptualized the Institute as a sort of... A mix of the Men in Black (from the movies) and Ghostbusters lol! It was in my mind that the people came to them not just to have their experiences recorded but also to seek out help for what they were experiencing. Jon mentioning Elias’s policy of ‘record and study, not interfere and contain’ was a surprise. I wonder if that has always been the policy of the Institute and if it is, I wonder again why there does not seem to be more evidence of investigation being done on these accounts prior to them being sent to the Archives.
Final thought is that I wonder how long it is between when Jon picks up a file and when he makes his recording? He mentions that he had Martin try to look into the person who gave the account but Martin was sick when Jon made the recording. Probably a very minor detail but something to think about regardless.
This all makes me wonder if I should read more horror. I’ve never been able to watch horror movies because I can’t stand all the blood and whatnot and I have absolutely no interest in slasher anything but the monster concepts in this podcast are so fascinating to me. Anyone have any recommendations for good books that don’t involve a ton of mindless killings for shock factor? If it helps, I adore ghost stories.
One final note! Thank you to the lovely people of my Discord server for helping me with the spelling of a few names. I mentioned it there and I’ll mention again here that after I’ve noticed a name crop up a few times, I will ask for a spelling. Please do not volunteer spellings to me because just your telling me that I’m spelling something wrong gives me a clue that it’s probably an important character and I’d rather discover that as I go. Thank you! And if you’d like to join the server and discuss TMA and my reactions (behind my back, I don’t go into the spoiler channels), you’d be very welcome! The link is HERE
ARCHIVIST
Not really, I’m sort of in the middle of something.
So at this point the listener knows Elias is the head of the institute and Jon’s superior so the way Jon speaks with him in this conversation is actually quite casual and dismissive; its almost the same way he speaks to everyone else.
Because I started listening later in the show, it was an open secret that Elias was an antagonist and its such a shame that I already knew because this introduction to him is such a good deceit. He comes across as this boring manager who is more concerned with keeping investors happy than anything else and after he leaves, you practically forget about him.
Well, this makes me… deeply unhappy. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the archives, and have already uncovered evidence of two separate surviving books from Jurgen Leitner’s library.
give it a season or two and you’ll uncover the man himself
