8 episodes

Fictional stories in the public domain that speak to our present and near future, some with alarming prescience.

Of Now And Then Realm

    • Fiction
    • 5.0 • 4 Ratings

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Fictional stories in the public domain that speak to our present and near future, some with alarming prescience.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    The Machine Stops (Part 3)

    The Machine Stops (Part 3)

    By E.M. Forster, 1909
    After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review, the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.
    The Machine Stops describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.
    MUSIC:

    "Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

    "Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity

    "But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton" by Chris Zabriskie

    "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" by Chris Zabriskie

    "Oxygen Garden" by Chris Zabriskie

    "Algorithms" by Chad Crouch

    "I Don't See the Branches, I See the Leaves" by Chris Zabriskie


    Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 29 min
    The Machine Stops (Part 2)

    The Machine Stops (Part 2)

    By E.M. Forster, 1909
    After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review, the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.
    The Machine Stops describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.
    MUSIC:

    Candlepower (Chris Zabriskie)

    Tomie's Bubbles (Candlegravity)


    Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 32 min
    The Machine Stops (Part 1)

    The Machine Stops (Part 1)

    By E.M. Forster, 1909
    After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review, the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.
    The Machine Stops describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.
    MUSIC:

    "Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie)

    "Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity)


    Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 34 min
    The War Prayer

    The War Prayer

    By Mark Twain, 1904
    Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel."
    "The War Prayer", a short story or prose poem by Mark Twain, is a scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war.
    MUSIC:

    "Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

    "Patriotic songs of America" by New York Military Band and the American Quartet

    "Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity


    Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 13 min
    The Colour Out Of Space

    The Colour Out Of Space

    By H.P. Lovecraft, 1927
    Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth“, both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor, Lovecraft saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively straitened circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time he died at the age of 46.
    "The Colour Out of Space" is a science fiction/horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. An unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the hills west of the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts.
    Special thanks to our good friends BattleBards for their amazing sound effects!
    MUSIC:

    "Cylinder Two" by Chris Zabriskie

    "Gagool" by Kevin MacLeod

    "Dark Elf City" by Mike Bridge

    "Moorland" by Kevin MacLeod

    "Unlight" by Kevin MacLeod

    "The Tale of the Spine Breaker" by Stephane Lorello

    "This House" by Kevin MacLeod

    "Trance of Cluster" by Ars Sonor

    "Bellow" by Ben Carey

    "Oneiri" by Kai Engel

    "Oppressive Gloom" by Kevin MacLeod

    "Away" by Twilight Tipi

    "Touch the Darkness" by Kai Engel

    "Somnolence" by Kai Engel

    "Dancing on the Edge" by Kai Engel

    "Universe in Hands" by Kai Engel

    "Tomie’s Bubbles" by Candlegravity

    "Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie


    Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 1 hr 30 min
    2BR02B

    2BR02B

    By Kurt Vonnegut, 1962
    Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, Vonnegut published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).
    Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. The novel was reviewed positively, but was not commercially successful. In the nearly 20 years that followed, Vonnegut published several novels that were only marginally successful, such as Cat's Cradle (1963) and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1964). Vonnegut's magnum opus, however, was his immediately successful sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.
    The book's antiwar sentiment resonated with its readers amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, and its reviews were generally positive. After its release, Slaughterhouse-Five went to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, thrusting Vonnegut into fame. He was invited to give speeches, lectures, and commencement addresses around the country and received many awards and honors.
    "2BR02B" is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and references the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the story, the title refers to the telephone number that one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination.
    Special thanks to our good friends BattleBards for their amazing sound effects.
    MUSIC

    "Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

    "Readers! Do You Read?" by Chris Zabriskie

    "Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod

    "Somewhere Else" by Candlegravity

    "Cylinder Six" by Chris Zabriskie

    "The Star Spangled Banner" by The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

    "Frozen Star" by Kevin MacLeod

    "Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity


    Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 21 min

Customer Reviews

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4 Ratings

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