A cosmic horror poem, presented as a sequence of 36 sonnets. They were written for the most part in about a week around the new year 1929-1930, and published in bits and pieces across several magazines in the following years. Collected for the first time in the short story collection Beyond the Wall of Sleep, published in 1943, several years after Lovecraft's death.
It is written that the poem was inspired by Lovecraft's own dreams.
The sonnets can be read as stand alone poems, or taken to create a set of stories, much like scattered dreams that maintain a weird interconnectedness, when read in sequence. The mythos is strong with this one.
H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is famously known for creating the “Mythos” world of existential horror science fiction, sometimes called cosmic horror, home to the unfathomnable Great Old Ones like Cthulhu, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep and Hastur, with any humans who perceive bits of this reality losing their sanity since they cannot comprehend it.
No background music, by popular demand. Only my voice, croaks, wheezes, and all. Enjoy!
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Stories of Futures Past presents a vintage science fiction short story, narrated by myself, Tom Trussel. An actual, real living human being, warts and all.
Any and all voices and effects are produced live during reading with my actual voice. No obnoxious after effects, synthetic voices or filters used.
English is not my first language. There will be inaccurate accents and the occasional strange pronunciation. No mockery is ever intended.
These stories are also good for English learners / ESL. The full text is right there on the screen in a big and easy to read font. Read along with me. It's great practice!
Or, let me read you your bedtime story! If you need some ASMR sleep stories this channel is brimming with compilations, playlists, and podcast playlists.
A note about channel donations:
At this point in my life I do not need nor ask for your money. I do this for the love of the short story and to help promote the enjoyment of science fiction and fantasy literature.
However, if you enjoy my readings and would like to put your money where my mouth is, I would suggest instead to pay it forward to a good cause. Please consider donating to www.gutenberg.org/donate to help them keep up the good work. Project Gutenberg is an organization dedicated to promoting the free distribution of written works in electronic formats. I make no secret that I find the majority of the public domain stories I read here on their website gutenberg.org. There you will find a massive collection of ebooks that are free for anyone to read and download. Most of them are vintage with either lapsed or expired copyrights.
I am not affiliated with Project Gutenberg in any way other than that I use their website.
Now, if you still want to throw a dollar or two at your humble storyteller, feel free to use ko-fi.com/tomtrussel
After all, it’s not as if I’ll say no to money freely given. Any tips I receive will go towards better audio equipment for a cleaner sound in the future, and I will make sure to pay a portion forward to gutenberg.org myself.
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Copyright notice:
The written text of this story is in the public domain, as determined by the researchers and transcribers at Project Gutenberg, or it has passed the 95-years-since-publication mark. The story is and should be free for anyone to enjoy. Use of the audio is subject to license.
Boilerplate license wording off the Gutenberg website:
“This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.”
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If you would like to read some of my own paltry writings, they can be found at tomtrussel.com