This post, over on The Weekly Ansible, is, apparently, China Miéville’s list of 50 SFF “Works Every Socialist Should Read.”*
We’ve talked about four of the books and short stories on the list and done five shows on them.
I think each of them is pretty terrific, so I’ve added links to where you can download them:
#1 – The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892) SFFaudio Podcast #178 (AUDIOBOOK/READALONG) – |MP3| “Towering work by this radical thinker. Terrifying short story showing how savage gender oppression can inhere in “caring” relationships just as easily as in more obviously abusive ones.”
#2 – Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726) SFFaudio Podcast #094 (READALONG) – |MP3| “Savage attack on hypocrisy and cant that never dilutes its fantasy with its satire: the two elements feed off each other perfectly.”
#3 – The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G. Wells (1896) SFFaudio Podcast #140 (AUDIOBOOK) |MP3| “Like a lot of Wells’s work, this is an uneasy mixture of progressive and reactionary notions. It makes for one of the great horror stories of all time.”
#4 – The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G. Wells (1896) SFFaudio Podcast #140 (READALONG) – |MP3| “Like a lot of Wells’s work, this is an uneasy mixture of progressive and reactionary notions. It makes for one of the great horror stories of all time.”
#5 – We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1924) SFFaudio Podcast #192 (READALONG) – |MP3| “A Bolshevik, who earned semi-official unease in the USSR even in the early 1920s, with this unsettling dystopian view of absolute totalitarianism. These days often retrospectively, ahistorically, and misleadingly judged to be a critique of Stalinism.”
Just in, this very interesting anthology, edited by Stefan Rudnicki! I couldn’t find a Table of Contents on this package or on the Audible site, so I included it below. Why don’t audio publishers find the Table of Contents important when it comes to anthologies and collections? Because… THEY ARE.
After seeing the contents, I’m eager to dive into this. Oliver Onions, Guy de Maupassant, Harlan Ellison, John Crowley… Harlan Ellison reading John Crowley… this is terrific!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION Lofty Ambitions by Harlan Ellison, read by Harlan Ellison
PART 1: THE MYTHS WE LIVE BY A Youth In Apparel That Glittered by Stephen Crane, read by Stefan Rudnicki (poem) After the Myths Went Home by Robert Silverberg, read by Stefan Rudnicki Novelty by John Crowley, read by Harlan Ellison Pan And The Firebird by Sam M. Steward, read by Stefan Rudnicki Murderer, The Hope Of All Women by Oskar Kokoschka, performed by cast The Touch Of Pan by Algernon Blackwood, read by Stefan Rudnicki The Lost Thyrsis by Oliver Onions, read by Roz Landor The Bacchae (excerpt) by Eurpides, performed by cast
PART 2: MYTHS THAT BITE A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman, read by Stefan Rudnicki Mystery Train by Lewis Shiner, read by John Rubenstein Continued On The Next Rock by R.A. Lafferty, read by Stefan Rudnicki Diary Of A God by Barry Pain, read by Enn Reitel The Repairer of Reputations (excerpt) by Robert W. Chambers, read by Stefan Rudnicki The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers, read by Stefan Rudnicki An Inhabitant Of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce, read by Danny Campbell The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, read by Arte Johnson
PART 3: SHOCKING FUTURES Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by Stefan Rudnicki (poem) City Come A’Walkin (excerpt) by John Shirley, read by Don Leslie A Pail Of Air by Fritz Leiber, read by Stefan Rudnicki The Machine Stops (excerpt) by E.M. Forster, read by Roz Landor Looking Backward and Equality (excerpts) by Edward Bellamy, read by David Birney Gulliver’s Travels (excerpt) by Jonathan Swift read by Scott Brick Utopia (excerpt) by Sir Thomas More, read byChristopher Cazanove Monument To Amun by Queen Hatshepsut, read by Judy Young
PART 4: TRAVELING FOOLS La Bateau Ivre by Arthur Rimbaud, read by Stefan Rudnicki Inspiration by Ben Bova, read by Stefan Rudnicki The Bones Do Lie by Anne McCaffrey, read by Stefan Rudnicki A Princess Of Mars (excerpt) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, read by John Rubinstein The Great Stone Of Sardis (excerpt) by Frank R. Stockton, read by David Birney Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (excerpt) by Lewis Carroll, read by Michael York Diary Of A Madman (excerpt) by Nicolai Gogol, read by Stefan Rudnicki The Inferno (excerpt) by Dante, read by Stefan Rudnicki The Odyssey of Homer (excerpt), read by David Birney
PART 5: TRANSFORMERS The Stolen Child by William B. Yeats, read by Stefan Rudnicki The Porcelain Salamander by Orson Scott Card, read by Gabrielle de Cuir Let’s Get Together by Isaac Asimov, read by Arte Johnson Dracula (excerpt) by Bram Stoker, read by Simon Vance Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (excerpt) by Robert Louis Stevenson, read by John Lee Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, read by Gabrielle de Cuir Frankenstein (excerpt) by Mary Shelley, read by Stefan Rudnicki0\ * The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh (Traditional English Fairy Tale), read by Judy Young A Midsummer Night’s Dream (excerpt) by William Shakespeare, performed by cast The Ballad of Tam Lin (Celtic ballad), read by Stefan Rudnicki Metamorphosis (excerpt) by Ovid, read by Cassandra Campbell
PART 6: REST IN PIECES
Hearse Song The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Stefan Rudnicki The New Testament: Revelations (excerpt), read by Stefan Rudnicki The Colloquy of Monos & Una by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir From the Crypts of Memory by Clark Ashton Smith, read by Danny Campbell The Comet by W.E.B. DuBois, read by Mirron Willis Sand (excerpt) by Stefan Rudnicki, performed by cast Transience by Arthur C. Clarke, read by Bahni Turpin The Illusionist by Gareth Owen, read by Stefan Rudnicki Unchosen Love by Ursula K. LeGuin, read by Stefan Rudnicki In Lonely Lands by Harlan Ellison, read by Harlan Ellison News from Nowhere (excerpt) by William Morris, read by Stefan Rudnicki
PART 7: COMMENTARIES The Special And General Joys of Science Fiction by Ben Bova, read by Stefan Rudnicki Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849 by Elliott Engel, read by Gabrielle de Cuir Adolescence And Adulthood In Science Fiction by Orson Scott Card, read by Stefan Rudnicki
The SFFaudio Podcast #181 – The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions, read by Julie Davis (of Forgotten Classics and A Good Story Is Hard To Find). This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novella (2 Hours 40 Minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Scott, Jesse, and Julie Davis!
Talked about on today’s show: Yay!, Scott has another busy year, The Odyssey, Beowulf, length vs. content, is The Beckoning Fair One too long for it’s material?, modern colloquial terms (for 1910), Stephen King, The Forbidden Books Group Presents, Necronomipod: The Lair Of The Bookish Worm did a podcast discussion of The Beckoning Fair One, The Shining, writer protagonists, Bag Of Bones, The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James, surprise endings, ambiguity, a writer’s point of view, Julie’s sister can see ghosts, now is the time in the podcast for a personal ghost story, the ghosts of Logan, Utah, troubled or troublesome nuns, are ghostly experiences possible during the daylight?, doppelgänger, an urban phenomena, a haunted hotel room, a vivid vision of a drowning, a disappearing maid, nightmares, a premonition, Christine, why are there no haunted beach?, haunted cars, gremlins, hiking, a haunted hiking trail, machete vs. axe, ‘there’s something wrong with that bedroom’, there’s something wrong with that, the ontological argument, House, M.D., between the ultraviolet and the infrared, a great title, the dripping of a faucet, The Sarah Bennett Quintet, suicide, Oleron is unconscious of the things that he’s conscious of, who’s sleeping in my bed?, a ghostly brushing, “he wakes up to himself”, a harp cover, Oléron is an island in France, and Romilly is a city in France, is the house playing him like a harp?, the final chapter, Jesse’s not super swift, a shut in, vegetable refuse, wig-stands, a large lumpy pudding, the recurring “triangle”, it has esoteric meaning to Freemasons, how did Elsie end up in the closet?, “you get to decide”, an alternative suspect, the tramp in the basement, the Hobo marks, “don’t push the religious angle”, firemarks (fire insurance marks), starving artists, why men have to get married, a Jonathan Swift shout-out, Elsie had a Brobdingnagian complexion, “I need you and I want you to marry me.”, sticking with the spooky, maybe Julie’s in an insane asylum?, Community, Red Dwarf is an excellent Science Fiction show, The Booth At The End, H.P. Lovecraft, Dagon, The Colour Out Of Space, The Statement Of Randolph Carter, The Dunwich Horror, amorphous horror, a gelatinous voice, Gregg Margarite, The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe, this podcast is making me hurry for rosewater pudding, The Sixth Sense, Signs, Joaquin Phoenix, The Master, Baron Münchhausen, The Takeaway Movie Date, The Big Book Of Ghost Stories edited by Otto Penzler, Donald E. Westlake, the ghost of the paperback, Jesse has a guardian angel?, Parker, Jason Statham is a modern action movie star like they had in the 1980s, The Bank Job, Anarchaos by Curt Clark (aka Donald E. Westlake), Smoke, Humans, Firebird by Jack McDevitt, Will Duquette, Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde.
The SFFaudio Podcast #178 – An unabridged reading of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (32 minutes, read for LibriVox by Michelle Sullivan) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Tamahome, Jenny Colvin, and Julie Hoverson.
Talked about on today’s show:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman vs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson, wall-paper vs. wallpaper, a seminal work of feminist fiction, a ghost story, a psychological horror story, the Wikipedia entry for The Yellow Wallpaper, Alan Ryan, “quite apart from its origins [it] is one of the finest, and strongest, tales of horror ever written. It may be a ghost story. Worse yet, it may not.” postpartum depression, “the rest cure”, phosphates vs. phosphites, condescending husbands, infantilization of women, superstitions, is she dangerous?, is she only pretending to go insane or is she actually mad?, will reading The Yellow Wallpaper drive you to insanity?, an androcentric society, Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare, Life by Emily Dickinson
MUCH madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—you ’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.
Jenny is the husband’s sister (or mistress?), “gymnasium or prison, she doesn’t know she’s living in a short story”, does the family think she’s crazy a the story’s start?, biting the bed is a bit suspicious, barred windows, suicide, has she forgotten that she’s the wrecked the wallpaper to begin with, a haunted house vs. a haunted woman, is the supernatural only within minds?, Julie goes crazy without something to read, first time motherhood can be a struggle, duplicity, crazy people are known to make unreasonable requests, “why is the cork on the fork?”, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, what’s the rope for?, “all persons need work”, counting the holes, are women moral by default?, Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, utopia, “everything is both beautiful and practical”, the eighteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution (prohibition), the husband faints (and so she wins?), creeping vs. crawling, the creepiest ending, smooch vs. smudge, neurasthenia, William James (brother of Henry James), “Americanitis”, the fashion of being sick, hypochondria as a fad, the “fresh air” movement, Kellogg’s cereal 9and other patented medicines), a yogurt colonic, mental illness is shameful in Asia, mental illness vs. oppression, an absolutely unreliable narrator, Stockholm syndrome style thinking, “You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well under way in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you.” worrying a tooth, tooth loss as an adult is horrific, as a kid it’s fun, why are we rewarded by the tooth-fairy?, is the tooth-fairy universal?, was chronic fatigue syndrome a fad?, fame is popular, Münchausen’s syndrome (the disease of faking a disease), take up a hobby!, distinguishing genuine from real, syndrome (symptoms that occur together) vs. disease (dis-ease), “which is worse…”, how to look at doctors, Tam’s doctor is nicer than House, M.D., witch doctors, non-invasive cures, gallium, Vitamin C, The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean, Julie Hoverson’s reading of The Yellow Wallpaper, the unnamed narrator (let’s call her Julie), “what’s with the plantain leaf?”, a modern version of The Yellow Wallpaper would be set at fat camp (is that The Biggest Loser), starts off, Flowers In The Attic by V.C. Andrews, arsenic doughnuts (are not Münchausen syndrome by proxy), The Awakening by Kate Chopin, civilizing influence, bathing!, “men know what side their sex is buttered on”, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl, Changeling (screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski), what is your Yellow Wallpaper?, fiction is Jesse’s wallpaper, ‘tv, videogames, comics … none of these make you crazy’, heroin chic, Julie has many yellow papers, Tam’s yellow wallpaper is the bookstore, Sebastian Junger vs. J.G. Ballard, 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, posing gowns, identical wigs, Jenny’s yellow wallpaper is dreams, The Evil Clergyman (aka The Wicked Clergyman) by H.P. Lovecraft, nice wallpaper, authorial self-interpretations, Eric S. Rabkin, re-reading as an adult something you read as a kid, The Prince Of Morning Bells by Nancy Kress, The Portrait Of A Lady by Henry James, The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, old time radio comedies, should you read fiction from the beginning? Start with Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer?, Hyperion by Dan Simmons, Jonathan Swift, Peter F. Hamilton, E.E. ‘doc’ Smith, Mastermind Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Never Bet The Devil Your Head was written by Edgar Allan Poe to mock his critics. It’s wit is as sharp as Voltaire’s Candide and it’s smirk is as wide as Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, but it’s just the size of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.
Never Bet The Devil Your Head is the tale of Toby Dammit, a man of vice, who comes to a bad end.
Here’s a choice snippet:
“At five months of age he used to get into such passions that he was unable to articulate. At six months, I caught him gnawing a pack of cards. At seven months he was in the constant habit of catching and kissing the female babies. At eight months he peremptorily refused to put his signature to the Temperance pledge. Thus he went on increasing in iniquity, month after month, until, at the close of the first year, he not only insisted upon wearing mustaches, but had contracted a propensity for cursing and swearing, and for backing his assertions by bets.”
I highly recommended it.
Here’s an unabridged reading:
Never Bet The Devil Your Head
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Dawn Keenan
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voices In The Dark
Published: 2005
First published in Graham’s Magazine, September 1841.
And here’s a pointed, yet spritely, audio dramatization adaptation with the legendary Daws Butler playing Dammit:
CBS Radio Workshop – Never Bet The Devil Your Head
Adapted from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: July 28, 1957
Provider: archive.org
Cast:
John Dehner … Mr. Poe
Daws Butler … Toby Dammit
Howard McNear … the Devil
A Beautiful Young Nymph Going To Bed is a satiric poem by Jonathan Swift. It was first published in 1731. One Wikipedia editor describes it like this: It features Corinna, “a young woman preparing for bed by deconstructing.” It’s awful, deeply sad, hilarious, and absolutely wonderful. Listen to Tom O’Bedlam’s narration:
#1 – The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
CBS Radio Workshop – Never Bet The Devil Your Head