The SFFaudio Podcast #154 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

Podcast
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge
By Ambrose Bierce
The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #154 – Scott, Jesse, Tamahome, Mirko and David Stifel talk about An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (read by Bob Neufeld for LibriVox).

Talked about on today’s show:
The Devil’s Dictionary, comic irony, an American classic, German drama, Famous Monsters Of Filmland, Sleep No More, Nelson Almstead, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond, civil war stories, quantum mechanics, The Damned Thing, the genres: horror, ghost, “weird”, “weird war”, “dream”, or SUSPENSE, alternate reality, why is An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge so popular with high-school English teachers?, time perception, not-SF, “the man who was engaged in being hanged”, passivity, “go for it hands”, “a dream story”, David used to have out of body dreams, “stream of consciousness”, subjectivity, Henry James, the radio drama adaptations (Escape, Suspense, CBS Radio Mystery Theater),

“Each year thousands of short stories roll out from a multitude of typewriter, march across the pages of our magazines toward well deserved oblivion. Few are memorable, fewer still are classics. They pass the time and are forgotten even before the paper on which they are written is reduced to black ash. But occasionally a story is written that is a true classic, an unforgettable tale.”

astral projection, H.P. Lovecraft, Accessory Before The Fact by Algernon Blackwood, near death experience, Bierce’s headwound, Sigmund Freud, A Dream Play by August Strindberg, The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, the driftwood, the slowdown of time, it’s a mystery story, a million blades of grass, infinite detail and infinite depth, Isaac Asimov, The Turn Of The Screw, The Twilight Zone version (which was a French short film), what’s with the corporal?, of the body, a hidden pun or joke, it was a setup, a great suspicion of death or dying, the kicking legs = running, unconscious insight result in surprise and relief, the tongue, wish fulfillment, the suspicion begins, naturalistic interpretation, Igor (Son Of Frankenstein), the history of hangings, botched hangings, popping heads, Hang ‘Em High, Braveheart, can it be truly spoiled?, war,

“Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him. In the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference.”

constitutional rights, the Alfred Hitchcock Presents adaptation, The Twilight Zone short film version, HuffDuffer, CBS Radio Mystery Theater adaptation, “it’s best read”, an audio drama adaptation, impressionism, mapping back, additional scenes, a water moccasin, narration, is it a miracle that the rope breaks, a heavenly Eden like land, gates, Sergei Bondarchuk’s War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy, altered state, (The Crawling Chaos), sex choking, speculative fiction, life passing before you, the telescoping of time, remembering the classics, 100,000 high school teachers, one of the most podcast short stories, O. Henry stories are cute, an existential story, “trapped in a world he never made”, an exegesis.

From Eerie Magazine #23

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge - Illustration from Smith's Weekly, March 12, 1938

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Flayed Hand by Guy de Maupassant

SFFaudio Online Audio

Guy de Maupassant’s short story, La Main Écorchée (which translates to The Flayed Hand), is a creepy supernatural tale of horror. The title delivers exactly what you might suspect – a gruesome story that doesn’t end at all well for one of the characters. More surprising to me, as compared to W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw, are the characters.

They were not what I expected at all. The story played itself out like a black comedy. Then, in researching the story I learned that in his teens Maupassant was shown, by the poet Algernon Swinburne, a mummified hand!

The Flayed Hand by Guy de MaupassantThe Flayed Hand
By Guy de Maupassant; Read by Alan Winterrowd
1 |MP3| – Approx. [UNABRIDGED]
Published: Boomcoach’s Audiobooks
Published: 2009
|ETEXT|
Published under the pseudonym Joseph Prunier, this was Guy de Maupassant’s first short story. It appeared in L’Almanach Lorrai in 1875.

The Weird CircleWeird Circle – The Hand
Based on The Flayed Hand by Guy de Maupassant; Perfomed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: MBS, NBC, ABC
Broadcast: October 14, 1943 or December 19, 1943
A severed hand in a trophy room gets its revenge on the one who cut it off.

CBS Radio Mystery TheaterCBS Radio Mystery Theater – #0080 – The Hand
Based on the short story The Flayed Hand by Guy de Maupassant; Adapted by Ian Martin; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3|- Approx. [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: April 24, 1974
Source: CBSRMT.com
A postal surprise in the form of a human hand leaves a man convinced of its apocalyptic portents.
Cast:
Mildred Clinton
Ian Martin
Alexander Scourby
Guy Sorel

Here is the splash page from the Classics Illustrated comics adaptation:

Classics Illustrated - The Flayed Hand by Guy de Maupassant

Incidentally, one of my favourite Michael Caine movies, the schlocky 1981 film, The Hand, was probably indirectly inspired by The Flayed Hand:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Favorite Story – Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace RADIO DRAMA

Aural Noir: Online Audio

Archive.org hosts 78 episodes of Favorite Story, a wonderfully inspired radio program that asked a celebrity to name his or her favourite story. The story was then adapted as a radio drama. Host Ronald Colman often played a character. In October of 1947 Greer Garson‘s favourite story was Guy de Maupassant’s classic of short fiction The Necklace.

In Colman’s introduction he claims that Maupassant’s tale of a Parisian housewife with dreams of social mobility is perhaps “The greatest short story ever written.” In my view it’s certainly worthy of approaching that level.

I’m also pleased to report this episode of Favorite Story is a truly fabulous adaptation! It keeps every important story element, doesn’t fiddle with the setting or the character names, the acting is restrained and the plot’s length is perfect in the format (Favorite Story also attempted to adapt novels into the half-hour format).

Favorite Story Favorite Story – The Necklace
Adapted from the story by Guy de Maupassant; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: KFI
Broadcast: October 7, 1947
Mathilde is a beautiful bride of a mid-level Parisian bureaucrat. Her natural elegance and grace seem somewhat out of place with her husband’s junior position. This is the story of a beautiful woman who works hard and gets everything she wants. First published in the February 17, 1884 issue of Le Gaulois (a French daily newspaper).

Cast:
Heather Angel … Mathilde Loisel
Hans Conried … Pierre Loisel

There’s a terrific series overview HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBCR4 + RA.cc: A Night With A Vampire – David Tennat reads stories by Calmet, Tolstoy, Maupassant, Freeman, Gautier

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4RadioArchive.ccLast year The Book At Bedtime, BBC Radio 4’s evening book reading program, also had a collection of five short stories called A Night With A Vampire (you may have noticed I just posted about the sequel).

The first story in this collection of five vampire tales was written by a Benedictine Monk. It purports to be non-fiction (the author having surveyed Europe for real life eighteenth century stories in his book The Phantom World). The second story, by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (a Soviet SF writer with an asteroid named after him) may be the best of the bunch – it’s romantic and creepy. The third story, by Guy de Maupassant, well we did a whole show on that one, is extremely abridged with only about a quarter of the original text still present. Numbers four and five didn’t do much for me, but maybe you’ll find them more engaging than I did.

From November 22nd to 26th, 2010 (BBC R4 22:45-23:00) David Tennant narrated five 14 minute (abridged) short stories. The complete set is available as a |TORRENT| from RadioArchive.cc.

1. Dead Persons In Hungary by Antoine Augustin Calmet – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]
Antoine Augustin Calmet published an apparently serious anthropological history of the Vampire throughout Europe in the early 19 century called “The Phantom World.” All the people he spoke to were adamant about what they had witnessed. His account therefore appears all the more disturbing and became the basis for the flights of Vampiric fancy that took off in the Victorian age.

2. The Family Of The Vourdalak by Alexis Tolstoy – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]
Leo Tolstoy’s lesser known brother has written this compelling story about a patriarch who sets off on a mysterious mission but fears he may come back a Vampire. If he should return to their village after 10 days – he begs his family to deny him access and plunge a stake through his heart.

3. The Horla by Guy de Maupassant – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]
After an unusual Brazilian ship enters the harbour – our hero suddenly begins to feel unwell, and starts to have feverish and disturbing visions. Only too late does he discover the demonic nature of the South American ship’s cargo.

4. Luella Miller by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]
Luella Miller seems incapable of surviving on her own – so she calls on friends, relatives and lovers to help her. And they all die – one by one – until there is no one left to lift a finger to assist this most demanding of women. An unusual tale – set in small town America.

5. Clarimonde by Theophile Gautier – Read by David Tennant [ABRIDGED]
As a young man approaches his first moments as a priest his eyes glance to heaven – and sees leaning over the sanctuary railing – a young woman of extraordinary beauty. And so begins a sensational struggle for his soul…

Producer: Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hypnobobs: What Was It? by Fitz James O’Brien

SFFaudio Online Audio

Mr. Jim Moon, a recent guest on SFFaudio Podcast #126, has recorded another story you just have to hear! It’s an old one, it’s wonderful, it’s obscure and it’s been recorded with an amateur’s enthusiasm and a professional’s sound. Mr. Moon, who I’m coming to realize is something of an expert in weird fiction, tracked down the complete text – apparently nearly all modern editions have used a slightly condensed version – cleanly narrated it (without any added sound effects or annoying bed music), then complimented the reading with what I can only describe as a very thoughtful commentary of an impassioned researcher.

Honestly, how could anyone ask for more than that?

My figurative hat is off to you Mr. Jim Moon. You are what makes the internet a wonderful place to visit.

What Was It? by Fritz James O'BrienWhat Was It?
By Fitz James O’Brien; Read by Jim Moon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Hypnobobs
Podcast: September 18, 2011
One of the earliest known examples of invisibility in fiction is What Was It? by Fitz James O’Brien – He’s been called “the most important figure after Poe and before Lovecraft” and this story serves as a kind of a bridge between the supernatural and the scientific, between the likes of de Maupassant’s The Horla and Wells’ The Invisible Man.

Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Hypnobobs

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBS Radio Mystery Theater: The Horla adapted from the story by Guy de Maupassant

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a very cool find, the most modern radio dramatization adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s The Horla yet! This 19th century classic of Science Fiction and Horror is made grand as a radio drama! The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre’s version is more than 40 minutes long, which gives the plot enough time to truly develop the story.

As with so many authors who become famous, this adaptation blurs the distinction between the unnamed protagonist of the original short story and the author himself. The afflicted man, thus, is Guy de Maupassant himself! The adaptation take quite a few other liberties with the story, adding a few telephone conversations, moving scenes around and changing the focus slightly. There is major fire, but unlike the original short story the fire is not of the protagonist’s home. As with all CBS Radio Mystery Theater productions there is a narrator, but as with all the ones I’ve heard, it isn’t a crutch for the storytelling. I heartily recommend this production.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a direct link to an MP3 file anywhere online but it is available on Archive.org as a part of a fifty |Zipped File| collection. Actually, all 1,399 episodes of the terrific series (!) are available THERE too. And for more information on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater check out this site (it has a very handy searchable database).

CBS Radio Mystery TheaterCBS Radio Mystery Theater – The Horla
Based on the story by Guy de Maupassant; Adapted by Sam Dann; Performed by a full cast
Zipped MP3 File (with many others) – Approx. 43 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: February 22, 1974
A man becomes obsessed with a ship in the harbor he is convinced harbors a terrible evil that is the doom of mankind.

Cast:
Paul Hecht
Bryna Raeburn
Robert Dryden
Dan Ocko

[Thanks Bill!]

Posted by Jesse Willis