Episode 161: Scene of the Crime: On Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's 'From Hell'

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2024

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Listener discretion advised: This episode delves into the disturbing details of the Whitechapel murders of 1888, and may not be suitable for all audiences. Serialized from 1989 to 1996, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's graphic novel From Hell was first released in a single volume in 1999, just as the world was groaning into the present century. This is an important detail, because according to the creators of this astounding work, the age then passing away could not be understood without reference to the gruesome murders, never solved, of five women in London's Whitechapel district, in the fall of 1888. In Alan Moore's occult imagination, the Ripper murders were more than another instance of human depravity: they constituted a magical operation intended to alter the course of history. The nature of this operation, and whether or not it was successful, is the focus of this episode, in which JF and Phil also explore the imaginal actuality of Victorian London and the strange nature of history and time. Support us on Patreon. Buy the Weird Studies sountrack, volumes 1 and 2, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia. Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! REFERENCES Daniel Silver, Terry Nichols Clark, and Clemente Jesus Navarro Yanez, “Scenes: Social Context in an Age of Contingency” Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, From Hell Floating World, Edo Japanese concept Phil Ford, Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture John Clellon Holmes recordings Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes Collection Yacht Rock, web series Stephen Knight, Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution Colin Wilson, Jack the Ripper: Summing Up and Verdict Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor Weird Studies, Episode 89 on “Mumbo Jumbo” Charles Howard Hinton, mathematician J. G. Ballard, Preface to Crash William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:02.0	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.0	For more episodes, or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdstudies.com. Hi, welcome to Weird Studies. This is Phil. It's been a long time. I shouldn't have left you without a strong rhyme to step to.
1:00.2	J.F. and I have been on a break from the show for more than a month. A much-needed break, as we were both pretty exhausted by the end of 2023.
1:08.9	But we're arrested, recharged, and ready to begin our seventh year of
1:12.9	podcasting, if you can believe that. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but time flies
1:18.0	when you're having fun. Anyway, last fall, I asked JF a question. If you had a time machine
1:24.3	capable of making only a single return trip, what historical scene would
1:29.2	you choose to visit? My question suggested another one, though. What exactly do we mean by a scene?
1:37.7	As so often happens, we hashed it out on Patreon, writing one of those dueling banjos essays
1:43.6	where each of us takes a turn thinking
1:45.7	through some idea or problem. I'll note in passing that if you like the ideas we develop
1:51.3	on the show, you really should think about becoming a Patreon supporter. The essays we write,
1:57.3	as well as the bonus episodes we record and the in-person events we hold, are seed beds
2:02.6	for the things we discuss in this, the flagship show, and they allow our listeners to follow the
2:08.2	progression of our notions, if that sounds like the sort of thing you'd like to do.
2:13.3	Case in point, this episode is about Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, a graphic novel
2:19.5	of the Whitechapel murders that was written in installments over about a decade, finally
2:24.6	being published in full in 1999. But this episode is also about scenes, in this case, Victorian
2:33.0	London in 1888, the year of Jack the Ripper, and that
2:37.8	dueling banjo's piece we did back in fall 23 is an attempt to sort out what we might mean by that
	...

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