Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Novel of the White Powder





What is in that white powder my brother is taking? 

Tonight, Junie Ginsburg tells a tale that HP Lovecraft said "approaches the absolute culmination of loathsome fright.” The White Powder by Arthur Machen is what we are listening to tonight on Tales from New Babbage! Gather around the hearth at The Gangplank in Clockhaven, or tune into Radio Riel Main or Steampunk to listen where ever you are, but you might not want to listen to this one alone.


download now at https://archive.org/details/TheNovelOfTheWhitePowder



Mr. Machen was born in Wales and became enamored with mysticism and the occult at an early age. The Novel of the White Powder was part of The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the indecency scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works until later in his career. Publisher John Lane, wary of the atmosphere, asked Machen to censor his manuscript. Barring the omission of one word, Machen refused to comply.

First publication:1895
 Reader: Miss Junie Ginsburg
Intro: Mr Announcer & MacKnight Culdesac
Outro: Miss Penny Dreadful
Music: Earth Prelude, Decline, Ghostcalypse 3, Martian Cowboy, The Dread, Bent and Broken, and Arcane, by  Kevin Macleod 
Production: Mosseveno Tenk runtime: 47:55