The SFFaudio Podcast #164 – READALONG: The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #164 – Jesse, Wayne June and Mirko Stauch talk about The House On the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.

Talked about on today’s show:
Wayne undersold the novel, it’s shockingly interesting, you can really see the influence on Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror In Literature by H.P. Lovecraft, blasphemous hybrid anomalies, “a classic of the first water”, the framing sequence, The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, description of sense experience, the best you can expect from the universe is indifference, cosmic horror, Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, Last And First Men, reading in translation, Chad Pfifer, the readalong concept, getting into the book, Under The Knife by H.G. Wells, the swine beasts, the sister – “she knows he’s fucking nuts”, there’s a lot of going to bed in this book, a very relatable character, Arthur C. Clarke, one of the finest works of Science Fiction ever written, marking the transition from Gothic horror to cosmic horror, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the cover art, the Corben comic book cover, the town (or street) that can’t be found, it’s a kind of haunted house story, compression of time, Einsteinian relativity, Pepper is dead and dust, Brian Stableford, Camille Flammarion, The Night Lands by William Hope Hodgson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Percival Lowell, S.T. Joshi, parallel development, authors write cosmic horror in cosmic horror time, astronomy,

“In the future, when the end of things will arrive on this earth, the event will then pass completely unperceived in the universe. The stars will continue to shine after the extinction of our sun, as they already shone before our existence.”

Enlightenment thinking and the decline of religion – tying your own shoes for eternity, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, you can’t love anything in this universe, the jade house in the arena, mythological creatures, Kalpas (is Sanskrit for aeons), it’s meta, before this book we’re living in a world run by God and after this book were living in a post God world, deep time, the recluse, are the swine people are the villagers, what book is the recluse reading?, two incommensurable realities, Messrs Tonnison and Berreggnog, haunting, Clarke’s third law, Poltergeist, the door inward, the start as poets but they don’t end that way, the unnamed lover (let’s call her Lenore), The Crawling Chaos (SFFaudio Podcast #138), The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe, The House Of Usher, Roger Caillois: “The fantastic is always a break in the acknowledged order, an irruption of the inadmissible within the changeless everyday legality” (from Au Coeur Du Fantastique), reading old literature, C.S. Lewis, a passion for commas, a gripping book (while the character’s mind wanders), a pregnant book.

Ed Emshwiller painting for The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Vertigo Richard Corben -The House On The Borderland

William Hope Hodgson's The House On The Borderland

The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson - illustration by Ian Miller

Freeway Press - The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson - dustjacket

The House On The Borderland - illustration by Peter Manesis

PANTHER - The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Posted by Jesse Willis

PBS: WonderWorks: Ray Bradbury’s All Summer In A Day (1982)

SFFaudio News

All Summer In A Day by Ray Bradbury

From the PBS series WonderWorks – All Summer In A Day was first broadcast in 1982 – the uploader of the torrent version (available HERE) says: “I don’t think it’s ever been released on DVD.” I think he or she is right. This is a low budget adaptation and it’s pretty terrific.

On the planet Venus, it rains almost constantly. A classroom full of young children are excited to hear that the rain will stop today, for just one hour. But they are also resentful of a new classmate from Earth, who remembers what it’s like to see the sun.

[Thanks to Mike Konczewski for the summary]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Radio Drama Revival: Bradbury 13: The Veldt

SFFaudio Online Audio

Radio Drama RevivalOf all the adaptations of Ray Bradbury stories, my favourites are the Bradbury 13, a series of thirteen radio dramatizations currently available through Blackstone Audio. They make for an absolutely wonderful experience. I’m not the only one who feels that way. When Fred Greenhalgh of Radio Drama Revival, and Final Rune Productions, heard of Ray Bradbury’s death – he contacted Mike McDonough – the producer of the famous Bradbury 13 and got permission to podcast another episode – he got it, and so we got it!

Bradbury 13Bradbury 13 – The Veldt
Adapted from the story by Ray Bradbury; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 47 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Radio Drama Revival
Podcast: June 8, 2012
A wealthy couple builds the ultimate virtual playroom for their spoiled children, complete with an African savanna and man-eating lions. It is so real, you can even smell the lions’ last meal. First broadcast on NPR in 1984. Short story first published in The Saturday Evening Post, September 23, 1950, under the title The World The Children Made.

Podcast feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/RadioDramaRevival

Here is Al Parker’s illustration from The Saturday Evening Post:

The World The Children Made - from The Saturday Evening Post, September 23, 1950 - illustration by Al Parker

[With thanks to BradburyMedia]

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: Ray Bradbury interview (1992 with Eleanor Wachtel)

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC - Writers & CompanyHere’s a Ray Bradbury interview from May 3, 1992. Recorded with Eleanor Wachtel from CBC’s Writers & Company. It’s a pretty terrific interview, in large part because of how different it is from the Vicki Gabereau interview that I posted yesterday.

Wachtel seems to rub Ray Bradbury the wrong way. When she challenges him about his bold claims about the place of SF in literature and the world Bradbury goes on the offensive (as offensive as Bradbury can get) – making some awesome arguments. Bradbury sees the then present, of 1992, as a place that’s absolutely wonderful – arguing that for just a few dollars you can form your own film society by renting all the world’s best films (something I myself did – except I bought them used from those video stores). But when Wachtel mentions the environmental problems (specifically a hole in the ozone layer) Bradbury takes her to task on the existence or non-existence of same – arguing that he’ll not be dragged into the role of doomsayer. It’s terrific! Have a listen:

Posted by Jesse Willis