The Voice before the Void: Arcana, Story, Poetry

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 weaponry, abolishing war ought be our first political priority, before addressing even ecological existential threats; at this moment, the gun is still to our heads: we could, all of us, die today, in a war that would last fifteen minutes, and is prepared to launch right now. Allowing war to persist as a societal institution is insanity, the courting of humanity’s self-inflicted, sudden end. -The Voice before the Void “War as an Institution” from Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel Bertrand Russell

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 man adrift on a slim spar” Stephen Crane “War is Kind” Stephen Crane “In the desert” Stephen Crane

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 and Michael Heseltine edited by The Voice before the Void

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. pdjeliclark.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/hp-lovecrafts-madness/ A bit more: I was looking for something to record to release in commemoration of Lovecraft’s birthday (as I have done in previous years because I enjoy some of his stories, particularly for the ideals of cosmic horror), but something that addresses directly his racism. Lovecraft is prominently associated with racism. Consumption, but particularly dissemination, of the work ought to address the racism. I recently revisited Yog-Sothoth.com and found that it is hidden behind a sign-up wall. Ten years ago, it was not. To wit: “IMPORTANT: Please write a FULLY FORMED & COMPLETE English sentence (6+ words) about your Cthulhu/HPL/Tabletop gaming interests. Don’t fail on this step. This is a critical spam filter.” The intense tone aroused my suspiciousness; is that really about spam? I fell to wondering what else it could be about. I wondered: did that British gaming website get trolled by folks (those they would consider outsiders: non-Lovecraft fans) calling them racists? I have no basis and no conclusions. But anyway, I typed “racism” into Yog-Sothoth.com’s search box and found a forum post that included a link to your blogpost. I apologize for not being familiar with other of your work. I really like this blogpost. The quotations land with impact. (Were these pulls from Lovecraft’s correspondence taken from the volumes that Joshi put together?) This made me laugh out loud: “Or there’s the, ‘well we have to separate his personal life from his works’ defense. Yes, because as writers we slip out of skin, wipe our brains blank and pluck ideas from some non-personal non-reality based ether.” The tone of the post is keen and its message is direct and I like it. As I was reading your post, my mind flicked to when I first encountered, in Hughes, reference to the paradox that some of the greatest writers in history on the subject of human liberty also owned other human beings, and then you referenced the paradox. “Conflicting. Vexing. Dubois. Double-consciousness. All that.” It’s important to discuss all this. Thank you for your writing. I appreciate the links at the end of the post to posts by other writers on the same subject; all worthy reading. Thank you for your consideration, VbV “HP Lovecraft’s Madness” from The Disgruntled Haradrim, 2013 May 3 P. Djéli Clark Text © copyright 2013 by P. Djéli Clark.

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 one’s own culture. It is very difficult to reform one’s culture. Reform is accomplished not by denying the existence of unwanted elements, but by confronting and coming to terms with such elements.) All is futile. Let the sun die. -The Voice before the Void “Little Journeys to the Homes of Prominent Amateurs” from The United Amateur, 1915 September Andrew Francis Lockhart