Presentations of Poems, Stories, and Arcana – Poetry is the most important thing in life; weird fiction is the most fun thing in life; esoterica is the most exciting thing in life. Divine the darkness.
The Voice before the Void: Presenter of Poems, Stories, and Arcana
A 2021 October 29th Halloween expedition to the world-famous hellgate in Tagus, North Dakota. A Friday afternoon drive. We arrive at twilight to encounter screams of the damned, a hellhound, and a ghost train.“It looks like farming, but truly it … Continue reading →
That dreamers and singers, ever apart from the world, are yet the ever-renewing creators of the world.-The Voice before the Void “Ode” Arthur O'Shaughnessy
Hanging out in the kitchen in North Dakota. “To Everest” from Conundrum Jan Morris
Armistice Day: “At 10 that night without food, we lay down in a pouring rain to sleep. Troops of all kinds passed us in the night – a shadowy stream, over a half-million men.” The first day of the Battle … Continue reading →
“We've always known that if you put the Bill of Rights up for a popular vote, it would probably lose.” -David Boaz, as quoted in The Washington Post, “Public Is Unyielding In War Against Terror,” 2001 September 29 What is … Continue reading →
U.S. Election Day “Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket” Vachel Lindsay
It is November. “No! (November)” Thomas Hood
Halloween: A cultish horror tale. (Explicit, but only for my own vulgarity.) “Sticks” Karl Edward Wagner
Halloween: Also known as America's Stonehenge, in Salem, New Hampshire. “Mystery Hill” from Ancient Mysteries Rupert Furneaux
First week of August Prologue from Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt
“I just now read Cummings' 1932 introduction to The Enormous Room and it precisely speaks as you spoke last night to individual expression as a means of becoming.” Introduction from The Enormous Room E.E. Cummings
Some discussion on optimization of experience into individual expression of personhood. Explicit. “To be a person among people.” Casting our Thoughts as Stars in this Sky
“What would the biological shortcomings of your sensed self be? What is the cognitive drive of alien experience? On what plane does nature relate to consciousness and vice versa? “Also, it's 80 degrees, eaves and corners are crowded with day-drunk … Continue reading →
Summer Vacation: A hunk of humor. “The Two-Wheeled ATV” Patrick F. McManus
“The Unicorn in the Garden” James Thurber
Seeking a particular object. “In the Collection of Ancient Erotica in Rome” from The Repentance of Lorraine Andrei Codrescu
Walpurgisnacht: Prepare to be scared right out of your boots. Right out of them. “Dagon” H.P. Lovecraft
Walpurgisnacht: Purportedly from the histories of the Spanish Conquest of America, lore of “a quaint race” of people near the fabled land of Chicora. “Fish-Men of Inzignanin” from Ghost Lights and Other Encounters with the Unknown E. Randall Floyd
Walpurgisnacht: “Refrain from reading this book. You have been warned.” “The Presence of Death” from The Blind Owl Sadegh Hedayat translated from the Persian by D.P. Costello “The presence of death annihilates all superstitions. We are the children of death … Continue reading →
Walpurgisnacht: A short masterpiece of a nightmare. “What the Moon Brings” H.P. Lovecraft
Columbine High School Shooting The book is available at Amazon. Preface from The Strangeness of Columbine: An Interpretation Lear's Shadow
Encountering the uncanny. -The Voice before the Void Works and creators mentioned: Lear's Shadow – website The Strangeness of Columbine: An Interpretation – non-fiction book Calvin and Hobbes – comic strip Stephen King The Shining – novel Stanley Kubrick The … Continue reading →
And how it shall end. Also: the underworld, and the doorways to it that lie in the mountains. -The Voice before the Void “How the World was Made” from Myths of the Cherokee James Mooney Extract from the Nineteenth Annual … Continue reading →
“A Happy Love” Wisława Szymborska translated from the Polish by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire
Explicit. “Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Sort of Have to Think (Re John Updike's Toward the End of Time)” from Consider the Lobster and Other Essays David Foster Wallace John Updike works mentioned: Rabbit at Rest … Continue reading →
A poetic expression of choice-supportive bias. -The Voice before the Void “Looking Back” John Hartley
To encounter the uncanny is to encounter the universe. -The Voice before the Void “The Painted Wall” from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio Pu Songling translated from the Chinese by Herbert Giles
Forgive us. “We Lived Happily During the War” Ilya Kaminsky
Practically a Public Service Announcement. Explicit. Read more by Seanbaby at: Seanbaby.com “5 Things I Learned When I Made A Video Game” Seanbaby
Celebrate life, for death. -The Voice before the Void “The Cowboy” John Antrobus
Armistice Day “A Very Short Story” Ernest Hemingway Fair use of copyrighted material is claimed under United States copyright law for not-for-profit purposes of education and commentary.
Armistice Day: War is over, if we want it. As European civilization is committing suicide in 1916, Russell proffers gleaming insight into why war happens and delineates clearly how international war can be abolished. In this continuing age of nuclear … Continue reading →
Stephen Crane's Birthday: Seven excellent pieces. “Fast rode the knight” Stephen Crane “There was a man with tongue of wood” Stephen Crane “‘Think as I think,' said a man” Stephen Crane “A man said to the universe” Stephen Crane “A … Continue reading →
Halloween: Super pulp horror. Pulptastic. -The Voice before the Void “The Nameless Offspring” Clark Ashton Smith
Halloween: Deluded, tempted, without home and doomed: are not we all? -The Voice before the Void “The Lost Room” Fitz James O'Brien
Halloween: Horror to be felt. -The Voice before the Void “The End of the World: A Dream” Ivan Turgenev translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett
Halloween: All's a matter of perspective. -The Voice before the Void “A Conversation” Ivan Turgenev translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett
Halloween: Speak, speak of immortality. -The Voice before the Void “The Skulls” Ivan Turgenev translated from the Russian by Constance Garnett
Halloween: Tales told at dinner, long ago, yet to give you the creeps tonight. Enjoy your walk home in the dark. -The Voice before the Void “Witches and a Werewolf” from Satyricon Petronius translated from the Latin by W.C. Firebaugh … Continue reading →
1966 August Minot UFO Incident Anniversary: Things to see on a summer night. -The Voice before the Void “Minot Launch Control Center ‘Saucer' Cited As One Indication Of Outer Space Visitors” from The Minot Daily News, 1966 December 6
H.P. Lovecraft's Birthday: Explicit. Message sent to P. Djéli Clark, 2019 August 14: The skinny: Hello. May I record this excellent blogpost for my podcast? A handful of listeners. Non-monetized. The phonorecord copyright would be designated to you and myself. … Continue reading →
H.P. Lovecraft's Birthday: A fateful piece. Explicit. “Lovecraft's racism & The World Fantasy Award statuette, with comments from China Miéville” from Nnedi's Wahala Zone Blog, 2011 December 14 Nnedi Okorafor Text © copyright 2011 by Nnedi Okorafor.
H.P. Lovecraft's Birthday: Lovecraft was just a yankee racist. (It is easier to demonize an individual as racist, than to accept that an entire culture is racist. It is easy to reject an individual, but it is impossible to reject … Continue reading →
Explicit. Read more by Seanbaby at: Seanbaby.com “Microwave Cooking for One” from “4 Uniquely Insane Books That Were Written More Than Once” Seanbaby
Summer Vacation: Paying attention to life. -The Voice before the Void “A Day's Pleasure” Hamlin Garland
Summer Vacation: A great poem. -The Voice before the Void “The Broncho that Would Not Be Broken” Vachel Lindsay
First week of August: One of the finest, and greatest, openings to a book that I've ever read. -The Voice before the Void Prologue from Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt Fair use of text is claimed under U.S. copyright law for … Continue reading →
From our human heritage, a dramatic, surreal, macabre story of men at dangerous work, not likely to recur. -The Voice before the Void “In a Cave with a Whale” from The Cruise of the Cachalot: Round the World After Sperm … Continue reading →
Roswell UFO Incident Anniversary: The beginnings of a myth. Given the later conclusion that the materials recovered in Roswell were of a secret Project Mogul balloon for monitoring Soviet nuclear tests, the citizenry of the day showed notable astuteness in … Continue reading →
U.S. Independence Day: A brutal piece of literature about life in the USA. -The Voice before the Void “Clothe the Naked” Dorothy Parker Fair use of copyrighted material is claimed under United States copyright law for not-for-profit purposes of commentary … Continue reading →
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