It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.
Sunday, October 25th: Haunted Hollow: Tales by Washington Irving
Two stories from the author’s canon: The Spectre Bridegroom, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
When Irving published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, a collection of strange tales allegedly gathered by one “Geoffrey Crayon” (the nom de plume Irving used for the collection) whilst travelling through England, two of the tales quickly became favourites among readers – Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Given this, and the fact that the Headless Horseman is already abroad within the Haunted Hollow, the second of these two stories is a fitting choice for this session.
However, possibly the third most popular tale in the tome is The Spectre of the Bridegroom, given that – and like Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – it has been published as a story in its own right numerous times down the years. The source for Irving’s story lies in a 1774 German ballad called Lenore, by Gottfried Bürger (which actually gets a mention in Irving’s own tale. However, whilst Bürger’s ballad depicts a young woman whisked away from her home on horseback by an apparition that resembles her fiancé, believed lost in battle, Irving turns the story on its head to present something a little different…
Both tales presented live at Haunted Hollow, and broadcast on Radio Riel Main. An hour of music and dancing will follow. There will be a teleport from the main landing point
Monday, October 26th: Running from the Deity
Gyro Muggins reads the 10th (chronologically speaking) story of Alan Dean Foster’s Pip and Flinx series.
Continuing his pursuit of an alien weapons platform, the Krang, Flinx finds himself heading into the Blight. However, his ship, Teacher, announces it is in need of repairs and that while its autonomic systems can handle them, it will nevertheless need raw materials from a planet. Flinx therefore opts to land on the nearest world – the planet the “Arrawd”, place roughly equivalent in technology to Earth in 19th century – and therefore normally forbidden as a destination within the Humanx Commonwealth.
The planet has a lower gravity than more Humanx worlds, something that benefits Flinx physically – but things go awry when he injures himself and is forced into the care of a local couple, who find his abilities and technology – if the expression might be used – out of their world.
Despite his protestations, Flinx finds himself increasingly the centre of attention and the idea that he is some kind of deity – and while he finds himself drawn to the less complicated life on Arrawd and the fact it separates him from all the cares and worries he faces in the Commonwealth, he realises he must leave.
Unfortunately, by the time he arrives it this conclusion, three of the governments on the planet have decided to wage war in order to “earn” his blessings and claim him as their deity. And so, reluctantly, he has no other option but to both get involved in matters whilst simultaneously trying to escape the world view that he is some kind of god.
Tuesday, October 27th:
12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym, Live in the Glen
Music, poetry, and stories in a popular weekly session at Ceiluradh Glen.
19:00: The Princess Bride: Storming the Castle
With Caledonia Skytower at Ceiluradh Glen.
Wednesday, October 28th, 19:00: From The Dust Returned at the Haunted Hollow
They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois — and they are not like other midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hours, their children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands -and some of them sleep in beds with lids.
Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will bring the entire family, spread across the globe, back to their place of origin. But in the midst of eager anticipation, a sense of doom pervades. For the world is changing. And death, no stranger, will always shadow this most singular family: Father, arisen from the Earth; Mother, who never sleeps but dreams; A Thousand Times Great Grandmére; Grandfather, who keeps the wildness of youth between his ears.
And the boy who, more than anyone, carries the burden of time on his shoulders: Timothy, the sad and different foundling son who must share it all, remember, and tell – and who, alone out of all of them, must one day age and wither and die.
Thursday, October 29th, 19:00 The Walker in the Cemetery
Shandon Loring reader British author Ian Watson’s short story The Walker in the Cemetery, a H.P. Lovecraft inspired tale in which Cthulhu self-divides out into human-size fractals and traps survivors in an Italian cemetery. Also in Kitely – take the teleport from the main Seanchai World grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld