"The Puppeteer of Prague" by Paul Draper
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- "The Puppeteer of Prague" is a short story by the British author, Paul Draper. The story appeared in Draper's 2020 collection, Black Gate Tales. In the author's own words: "On the eve of the Sudetenland annexation, a depressed Czech bureaucrat uncovers the rumour of a murderous mannequin dispatching traitors in the city."
Black Gate Tales: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999663012
00:00 - Introduction
00:52 - The Puppeteer of Prague
14:51 - Further Listening
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Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble
Music and production by Ian & Jennifer Gordon
Thumbnail by Paul Draper via MidJourney
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Horror babble is my favourite night time routine . Warren may be dead but his so entertaining. Thanks ian and jen doing the stories for us to enjoy.
Me too! I always listen to HorrorBabble right before bed.
Wait, what!?! Warren is dead? 😮
@@nookdiddy Yes, Warren was dead - to begin with.
"The fat man's body now sways in the cold currents of the Vlatava. It is raw and pale and the fish take a little more away each day."
Absolutely chilling. Outstanding.
This is a wonderful alternative to the retelling of Reddit stories written by people who slept through English class.
/r/nosleep was so good back in the day. 2014 I think was it's prime
@@goolom well played
@@goolom Too many are unconscious, but not asleep.
I just found this channel, and I'm in love.
Great story from Paul Draper and excellent narration from Ian.
Very unique and original plot. I really like it.
Jen and Ian, you put together such wonderful productions!
Thanks!
Thanks Donald, great to see you again. :)
Prague is as cold as the heart of winter, I agree. Well…the Arctic Circle might be a little colder.
The artwork will haunt me...i love it!
Many of these pictures are quite striking and memorable, Ian has a keen eye for a disquieting or an unsettling image.
It's AI generated. Do not love it.
Fascinating...excellent story, excellent reading. Thank you.
Amazing story - really enjoyed this one and the image is great, adds to the atmosphere : )
Your voice is perfection for horror
Very good! This is a new one to me.
Excellent!...both story & narration.
Least anyone forget, after Hitler came russia, so there's a double dread coming into the scene. Hitler, like Warren is dead, but russia keeps on ticking.
Another outstanding reading Ian! Thanks Horrorbabble for a wonderful production. ❤
I live for horror. Your channel is awesome.
So, thank you for reading me to sleep. 💤
Loved it! Thank you Jen and Ian.
What a great read! Loved this one
Good story, nicely done.
Yay! What an amazing Friday night treat 😍 thank you guys! ❤
Babe, new Horrorbabble just dropped! Warren's still dead too.
Hell yea I was just in your archives 😂😂😂😂😂
Thanks again Mr Gordon
Love it!!!
Thank you as always Ian!😎👍
Always grateful for distraction
Nice offering for a quiet afternoon!
What a yarn!
Thank you so much 🙏
Not bad at all.
Simple and chilling, the best kind of strange tale. On a separate note, does Mr. M.D. Vickers have any new work?
Thanks Oraphel. Amazing narration by Ian as ever.
U got me at the title.so glad horrerbabble open doors to superb literature. Thank u .
Thank you for your hard work
Second listen, and it's even stronger. The structure is a solid story of vengeance against corruption. But I found deeper waters, too.
There is a love here of place, not just time. A love for a place that made me think of Chesterton's Napoleon of Notting Hill, or Gaiman's Neverwhere London. But unlike London, Prague (arguably) is a shade of itself in our era. It grants a bittersweet flavour. And a touch of a Great Old One dreaming abyssal nightmares.
I'd love to get more tales of this universe. Are they in your collection?
@tamlandipper29 I'm honoured Tamlan, thank you! This was not long after a deeply affecting visit to the city, I was mesmerised by the atmosphere and architecture, particularly some of the features I mention in the story.
I'm pleased some of that love came through. The story is really split into two blocks, the first being the introduction of Lord Gustav (a little gimmicky, but puppets have always creeped me out a bit so this is part of Stephen King's "write towards your fears" approach). The second section that starts with a bit of Bohemian/Prague history is really about my feelings for the place, it's crooked rooftops and bridges, as well as linking Jiri with his eventual fate.
There are similar stories in the collection. As a military expert, you might find 'The Ravens of Villers-Bretonneaux' (about an Anzac platoon's encounter with early 'slab sided and brick-shaped' German tanks, the British Mk IVs get namechecked too) up your street. It's quite short. Also included is 'The Fourteenth Day', a Syrian child's experience as the hospital he is in is assaulted. I've tried to give both a similar dreamlike quality.
I'm in awe of your depth of detail. I usually try to pick one aspect as many of my stories are only 1k-2k words. For The Puppeteer of Prague, the starting point was the fascinating and impossible fate of Emil Hacha at the time of the fall of Czechoslovakia, a man ill-equipped to face up to Hitler. As you'll know he was castigated in some sectors for being a mere puppet, so this was a very roundabout way of helping his kind fight back in a way he just couldn't at the time in the face of monstrosity. My sympathies for all in this story are a bit muddied, but there's no doubt Lord Gustav (I tried to make him appear abstracted from his puppeteer controller to introduce a level of supernatural ambiguity - fog on Charles Bridge an example!) is also pretty psychotic.
I have been looking for a story you guys did about a man that tries to move his pinky toe using a muscle in his foot. I can’t find it.
I believe Mike Mignola did a Hellboy story based on this story.
I don't know that HB story, do you know the title? I wrote a story a while back based on the Hellboy story "The Corpse" (which in turn is a version of an old traditional folk story), but not this one.
The main influence for this story is the ventriloquist dummy section in the 1945 British portmanteau film "Dead of Night". I just find them creepy!
@@BlackGateMedia55 The Vampire of Prague and it's in Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Others.
@@thomasswafford250 Thanks I'll check it out! Prague is so gothically atmospheric I'm not surprised Mike Mignola used it for a setting.
❤️🔥
The thumbnail illustration reminds me very much of an unrelated character, the wood cutter, from _Over The Garden Wall_ ... anyone remember and see what I mean?
Yes! I love that series, I wish they'd do another one. The pumpkin king was my favourite episode.
CZcams is blocking notifications from HorrorBabble saying it's "made for kids". Wth?
I 💌 PRAGUE🩸❣️
Me too! Beautiful city.
Warren ain’t dead.
*SPOILERS!* I don't understand this story. At the beginning the narrator bemoans the impending fall of their country to the Nazis. Why then would his job alone place him among the guilty? Did I miss something? It makes no sense.
The Czech government decided to give in to Hitler's demands that they allow their country to be annexed by Germany. They did this without trying to fight or defend themselves. As a government worker, this made the narrator a target for the puppet's vengeance.
Just because he bemoaned it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t ready to profit by it. He might have seen the way the wind was blowing and decided that he’d rather be a live traitor than an un-alive hero. He may not have wanted to betray his country at all; which would be a tragedy- he may have betrayed out of fear for his life and in doing so put himself on the puppeteer’s list…
Great answers EndOf and Stephen. Basically the Interior Ministry was his just his job. The political situation affecting his work was the reason he was depressed and drinking in the first place. At the beginning we see he has no love for the "black shirted goons" in the square, who were the real Czech fascist zealots helping Hitler. He was just a jobsworth who had to keep his job but could see the writing on the wall with the impending invasion.
Lord Gustav was killing anyone suspected of complicity, especially targeting those working in the Interior Ministry (even if they hated their work they were considered the 'enemy within' by the resistance). Once Jiri confesses that's where he works to Vaclav, he accidentally sees the "black case with clasps" (containing Lord Gustav) behind the bar, and even though very drunk he realises he's placed himself in danger and flees, but gets lost. Then he sees a small figure up ahead...
I still don't get it. He was not helping the Nazis. He was not a fascist. If he had worked at the local bakery, Lord Gustav would not have gone for him. There had to be plenty of pencil pushers, etc., at the Ministry who had nothing to do with high-ups in the Ministry conniving with Germany. He could have been a janitor. A cafeteria worker. A member of the typing pool. Many thousands of people probably worked there, and surely the majority were not culpable. There's nothing at the beginning (I went back and checked) suggesting he knew anything about the underhanded activities at the ministry. The mention of "Harker" (hardly a Czech name!) is at best a red herring, not connecting the narrator with any plot against his own country. (Possibly Harker and certainly Marie are extraneous, doing nothing to either enhance or further the story.) Lord Gustav must have killed thousands of innocent people.
@@DalokiMauvais The "Harker" is Emil Hácha, who was the president of Czechoslovakia from November 1938 to March 1939 (the story is set in March 1939 as mentioned at the beginning, the moment of Czech surrender - quite a lot of research went into the historical accuracy). He was considered by many Czechs as a traitor as he was put in the impossible position of signing away Czech sovereignty to Hitler in that spring. Hope that helps - if you do listen again it'll help set historical context.
As for Lord Gustav's victims, he was targeting those working at the civil service department perceived by most in the resistance as being the biggest 'traitors'. Think about Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star in the film Star Wars - you can bet that the space station contained not just Darth Vader and stormtroopers, but also contractors, maintenance personnel, cafeteria staff etc. This happens in a war situation, people who may not be 'evil' or direct subscribers to an enemy ideology become victims due to their circumstances. Don't forget that this is a puppeteer with a murderous marionette doing the terrorising and killing - they're not going to be the most rational of people, able to gently distinguish or research who is innocent and who is not. If you work at the interior ministry, you are fair game to Gustav. It may not be fair, but that's war. Gustav will have killed innocent people, he's an out of control monster in this story.
Marie is Jiri's wife. She represents a home life that he doesn't feel able to confront that evening due to the depressed state he's in. It's just a bit of background info for the Jiri, the narrator.
* By the way, it's fine if the story's not for you! Just explaining your queries on the points above. :)
I see Warren is still the same.
mwah!!!!!
politics
delicious
War, really. The phase once politics has failed.
Look, I don't know who this Warren character is and I don't care that he's dead. What does concern me is this fool you mentioned. Am I to understand that "I" am this fool and am I to also understand that "you" are the one saying this? Have at you man. I am no one's fool
A sad and hopeless story British authors seem so pessimistic This one is more of a style exercise than any thing else Your talent deserves better material than this
Lol, have you not read anything by Poe or Lovecraft? You should check out the sort of stories Horrorbabble mainly does. Hardly optimistic! 😆
I think there are Peppa Pig or Sesame Street channels out there if you want something a bit more uplifting.