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| Art by my friend Alex |
Here, at last, are gathered the episodes of the podcast I created in college and produced for several years. I realized sometime early in young adulthood that I loved to read things aloud; I tried to turn this love into a radio show, but the campus radio station had no open air time for me to read (until my fourth year of school, when I began reading live on the air at WHPK, and it was a lot of fun!) and out of this frustrated desire was born a podcast.
Some of the material I originally recorded, it turns out, was not in the public domain. I have taken down this material from the Internet, as it is probably illegal for me to distribute. The body of work in the public domain, however, is vast, and I have a number of recordings of small subsections of it. (Note: if I can find the full text of something online, I assume it is probably at least in some sense in the public domain, especially if the author is dead. I mean, c'mon.)
The episodes of my podcast with that material are below; click on the title of the episode and you'll be directed to a page where you can listen to it. All of this material can be downloaded; just right click on the player, and hit "Download Document." Also, links to a text version of the story can be found on the page of each episode if you want to read along or check out the story for yourself; just click on the title of the story on the podcast page.
(Note: unfortunately, not all of these episodes are actually that good. I've included commentary on each, to give you a sense of their place in my personal history, but also just to provide some interest for episodes that, in themselves, might not be that interesting. If don't want to start at the beginning and listen all the way through, here's my guide to the episodes that are actually worth listening to.)
1. The Library of Babel, by Jorge Luis Borges
This story is the one my blog is named after. It's about a really, really strange and terrifying library.
2. Is He Living or Is He Dead? by Mark Twain
This episode is a short story from the greatest American satirical writer, Mark Twain. If you have ever been or are planning on being a starving artist, this story will speak to you.
3. The Celestial Omnibus, by E.M. Forster
In this story, a boy takes a bus to (humanist) Heaven. I first read this story in high school, and I've been oddly fascinated with it ever since.
4. I, Cthulhu, by Neil Gaiman
This story is Neil Gaiman's lighthearted take on H.P. Lovecraft's work surrounding the now-dead-but-soon-to-rise-again anti-deity Cthulhu. In it, Cthulhu dictates his memoirs.
5. —All You Zombies—, by Robert Heinlein
This story is from Robert Heinlein, celebrated science fiction author of the twentieth century. “—All You Zombies—” concerns not the undead but rather time travel, especially time paradoxes. It can take two or three readings to fully understand, like any great time travel narrative (see, for example, the excellent, and wildly confusing, independent movie Primer), so if you end up listening to the story and not getting it at all, feel free to read it yourself.
6. The Cask of Amontillado, by Edgar Allan Poe
This is the Library of Babel special Halloween episode. The Cask of Amontillado is my favorite Poe tale. The story is well-paced, with just the right blend of dread and suspense building throughout till the climax.
7. Fables, traditional, (re)told by various authors
The Appointment in Samarra, told by W. Somerset Maugham
The Camel and His Friends, from the Panchatantra, told by Arundhati Khanwalkar
The Snow Man, by Hans Christian Andersen
Godfather Death, from Grimm's Fairy Tales
8. A Dream of Armageddon, by H.G. Wells
As part of my fascination with ways for the world to end, and what people do about it, I present this excellent work by H.G. Wells, prolific science fiction author and prophetic genius. This work is shot through with problems of illusion, dream, and reality.
9. Sredni Vashtar, by Saki
This is a brief story by British author Saki. Saki was a brilliant satirist, and this piece is particularly fun; it reminds me of Roald Dahl, mixed with some of the Screwtape Letters' sense of British life and attitudes.
10. Hearts and Hands, by O. Henry
This short, fun piece is by the old master of the short form, O. Henry.
11. Tobermory, by Saki
This one is also by Saki, who wrote "Sredni Vashtar;" the tone on this one is similarly biting and funny. It concerns a cat who is taught to speak, and then proceeds to embarrass his owner and her friends.
12. The Other Side of the Hedge, by E.M. Forster
E.M. Forster's classic allegory of modern progress.
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