"The White People" by Arthur Machen / A HorrorBabble Production
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ค. 2024
- "The White People" is a horror short story by Welsh author Arthur Machen. The tale centres around a young girl's initiation into a supernatural cult.
Chapters:
00:00:00 - Prologue
00:19:45 - The Green Book
01:31:40 - Epilogue
Bandcamp link: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com/alb...
Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble
Music and production by Ian Gordon
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This is an ORIGINAL HorrorBabble Production. - บันเทิง
One thing I like about this story - successive readings over the last forty years have revealed deeper levels of weird in this tale.
Can you elaborate?
Your amazing narration have opened up a whole area of horror that I couldn't previously get into. These days, if you haven't already read a writer's work, a bad narration can put you off even trying to buy a book and read it yourself. You have showed me that these writers are brilliant and well worth adding to my 'physical' library.
Agreed and books is good for the brain.
Machen had a vivid imagination; like an opioid dream....
This is one of those stories that you can lay down, close your eyes and get absorbed completely.
It is probably Machen's best story. Less Dyson stumbling into the plot and more primordial horrors and unearthly beauties.
One of his best stories... thanks for sharing.
one of my favorites, I love old pagan horror stories
No anymore?
I've had similar conversations to the one at the start of the story, except that the characters in the story aren't periodically saying "Oh my God, I am so high". The self-satisfaction is the same though.
Meee tooo
I stumbled upon Mr. Machen's work a few years back and realized where most of my favorite authors got their inspiration and, in my opinion, created the modern horror story..I can read his work repeatedly and ALWAYS find something new and strange.. seems like people are discovering him and realizing just how relevant he still is..
He was a great author, although some of his work seems confusingly esoteric ("The Great God Pan", in particular).
That one (The Great God Pan) is Mr. Stephen King's personal favorite horror story. Hes been quoted as calling it the greatest, most terrifying in its genre of all time @@PhlashRockinmann
She went somewhere beyond the moon. . . 🌜✨
Truly one of Machen's most beautiful. But does anyone else appreciate the irony of a man who describes his own faith as being "persecuted" go on, with no irony of his own, to describe the tale of two terrified young Wiccans as an example of 'Evil'and 'Sin'?
Only through the goggles we are given today to look at all religions as a matter of preference. When machen wrote this, and in every century before that, the divide separating the God of christianity and of Judaism from the one from whom witches receive their power was great, and across such.a chasm no reconciliation or debate can be had
Thank you for this. I find myself listening to this a lot especially when I cannot sleep as It helps me relax and let go of my reality.
So wonderful, as usual, to hear the great HorrorBabble cover a classic of my favorite genre. Also, I love the echo that’s going on, intentionally done or not, it’s a very gratifying small detail that adds to the experience. Cheers!
Thank you, sir! I think the narration reverb is a touch more noticeable on this reading, as the character dialogue is dry. Quite effective though. :) Ian
I find it weird that they usually make occultists and pagans seem evil so often in old stories.
I grew up under polytheistic grandparents and we just danced and made fires in honor ov trees. Good times.
All love and compassion. No evil.
I think it is a common christian fear that there's something older and alien half forgotten everywhere. Something completely out of place to their understanding of the world.
And when you are in the European woods or vaguely see the open fields covered with the thickest mists, or stumble upon old sites from long forgotten people's... you can understand it a little.
My parents farm occassionally turn up ancient stone arrowheads from time to time, but they are so common that we get to keep them. Got a few overgrown burial mounds as well, it is forbidden to disturb them.
Machen's stories take on a different colour when you find out he was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. So was Yeats. And Blackwood.
Excellent story and narration.
Was thinking that same thing ;)
These are the principles by which man should break.
I still get a good chuckle at the wild factoid that one of them apparently Sparta-kicked Alister Crowly down the stairs when he showed up dressed/& acting like a maniac.
Yeats was the guy who won a magic duel with Aleister Crowley by kicking him down a flight of stairs right?
Very enjoyable, thank you very much for the story and your work to bring it to us!
Okay, now it is terrifying.
Thank you very much. I read the story, then listened its audio and now this. Not so horrible witching fantasy is, but what fell into my mind long ago is the discussion about the nature of Sin. Machen made a very deep and original analysis of it and very convincing. I also recall some great-dictator reformers who did not kill or torture a single human themselves, yet used all their crazy will power to "make people free and happy", to "improve" the human nature, in reality creating some "hells on Earth" built upon millions of human skeletons. Good intentions - they believed those were good - paved the road to those hells. And they really saw themselves as "saints" and "saviors", praised as such by millions of simple people. Just like Anti-Christ who is predicted to please and charm the mankind. Initially. Form a different angle - French philosopher and mathematician of the 17th century Blaiz Pascal said: "The world is full of sinners who believe they are saints and saints who believe they are sinners". And I like the saying: "Hell starts emerging when foam appears on angels' lips".
Nice quotes.
Simply brilliant, this will be the perfect evening treat. Thank you very much for such a flawlessly presented tale of terror!!
I've been looking forward to this reading since you first announced it (and The Inmost Light) a while back, and I was certainly not disappointed! Machen is one of a handful of "weird" writers I consider the absolute masters of their art (with Poe, Lovecraft, de la Mare, Chambers, M.R. James). I'm always especially thrilled to hear another HorrorBabble reading of Machen's work, partly because I feel he's too often overlooked on TH-cam and I want to see his tales endure. (For example, there's only one narration of The Inmost Light on TH-cam and it's a text-to-speech rendition, which would ruin it for me.) I know I can count on HorrorBabble for outstanding readings of the masters, and to introduce me to lesser-known authors from time to time. Many thanks for bringing us "The White People". Another tale at the top of my wish-list is de la Mare's "Out of the Deep", which calls out for Ian's special touch and is not to be found on TH-cam (copyright 1923 by Walter de la Mare). Oh, and "The Hell of Mirrors", as long as I'm wishing! *Thanks once again to HorrorBabble!*
Sorry, "Out of the Deep" is back in print, that's great but I wanted to hear Ian read it. Also, I'll confine my wish list to your contact page...
Thanks as always David. I am going to tackle The Inmost Light eventually (I believe we discussed this a while ago actually). We've had a few Machen requests recently, which is great - I'm glad to hear people are as enthusiastic about his works as I am. Ian
I think that has to do with how most of the modern interest in him seems to be limited to him as a horror writer. Only a small portion of his fiction could be classified as horror. So, people who are going into Machen for horror only end up ignoring or bouncing off some of his (in my opinion) best stories.
@@HorrorBabble ...YESSSSSS.....CAN NOT WAIT 💯
I agree with everything you just wrote ..lol...
I love this , and you read it beautifully as always.
You are a really good reader.
Thank you Ian for your incredible work. This is one of my absolute favorites. Your voice makes the subtle feeling of... wrongness of the text ever more deliciously dreadful. Great job!
I was listening to this same story, done by Chilly Tales for Dark Nights, which came up in my recommendations list. I knew that the author was great, so I gave it a try. I had to click over to your version midstory because I could no longer stand it, lol. Every word with "th" came out "d". Da woods, da valley, dis door, etc. At first, I thought, maybe it's written this way; the author is trying to convey a foreign accent, so I looked up the actual book. Nope. And no other indications of an accent either. After a while, "the" being such a common word in the English language, it was like nails down a chalkboard and I was so distracted by wondering why he was doing it, I couldn't focus on the story! Maybe the poor guy has a speech impediment, I don't know; but I just couldn't take it.
But thankfully, you have recorded it so I can now relisten to it! With "the, this, these" actually enunciated. Thank you!
"The White People" is a horror short story by Welsh author Arthur Machen. The tale centres around a young girl's initiation into a supernatural cult.
Chapters:
00:00:11 - Prologue
00:19:45 - The Green Book
01:31:40 - Epilogue
Bandcamp link: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com/album/the-white-people
Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble
Music and production by Ian Gordon
Support us on Bandcamp or Patreon:
horrorbabble.bandcamp.com
www.patreon.com/horrorbabble
HorrorBabble MERCH:
teespring.com/stores/horrorbabble-merch
Search HORRORBABBLE to find us on:
AUDIBLE / ITUNES / SPOTIFY
Home: www.horrorbabble.com
Rue Morgue: www.rue-morgue.com
Social Media:
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The best version on utube 🥳.
TUVM for your excellent reading 🥃🥃
(I got into the mood for hearing it again once I started reading THE CEREMONIES 😉)
Quite, quite excellent Sir! A thousand thank-yous!
This story opens up a new world for me again and again.
Just brilliant ❤.....i love this author...yr narration is as soothing as always ....
cheers mate
Might this be the greatest weird tale ever? I think so!
Great narration. The Green Book is hypnotizing...
you'd be perfect for the man whom the trees loved by Algernon blackwood
Thanks Jesse - I'm going to record that one eventually. Ian
HorrorBabble oh wow, thank you soooooo very much. I think the listeners would greatly enjoy such an awesome and unique story; it was a beautiful and at the same time unsettling story that stayed with me for quite sometime after reading it, it's one of those gems that become apart of you and your perceptions. I thank you so much and greatly appreciate that; god bless and keep you Ian😁
I never thought about that one as a horror story, especially in the context of Blackwood's personal beliefs.
@@HorrorBabble yes, please, do that one! It's been long since I read that, but it never left me. I'd love to hear you narrate it!
The title of this book cracks me up so bad! 😂😂😂
Magical Narration
This one goes deep. I had to read up about Machen after this. My kinda thing. I keep hearing "stairway to heaven "....lol
I have been listening to Joseph Campbell’s, Hero with a Thousand Faces. With respect, to the first ten minutes,
Of this pice, The White People, which is an extremely open minded dialogue; Campbell quotes Heraclitus: “to god, all things are fair and good and right”. This book, The White People, is a classic, in the eyes of an seeker. Wow. Thanks. 🙏🏽🌙🎩 Good sho ‘Ol Boy ❤️🌹 (Ch1, pt 7, 4:42, IBooks)
Than koy for the reading. Anybody who likes Machen might like 1984's novel The Ceremonies by T.E.D. Klien. I read as a teenager in the late '80's. It was what led me to Machen, Lovecraft and others.
This man is a literary genius! Thank you so much Ian, I've downloaded this audiobook but audio coverage was nowhere near as good as yours!
After this, I got out my copy of Frasier's Golden Bough to compare rituals
One of my favorites. Best reading on youtube as well. You should consider doing the great god pan.
Thanks Cameron - we recorded The Great God Pan back in 2016: th-cam.com/video/MIaXZGdA-CA/w-d-xo.html Ian
This is my favourite horror story of all time.
Just did a second listen today, your voice acting is superb in this one. Any possibility of more Machen?
Thank you! Absolutely... in due course!
Listened to this, my favorite Machen story, just last night. Guess I'll listen again.
I have listened to many of your performances, and this is one of the very best. Not least as listening brought out much about the story that reading (very many years ago) didn't. By the way- have you ever thought about reading "Vaila" by MP Shiel?
That was quite the linguistic tour de force!
Wholeness and balanced vibrations thanks for the upload
The child was a changeling then?
I wonder if the Ambrose character was a reference to Bierce.
Again with the time, basically 138! We are 138! & Best narration ever 🌟 !!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful book! And the secret book, how perfectly beautiful. I've had these... and want more...🌌🌌🌌☁☁🌜⭐☁☁
Thanks gigi! It's a very powerful story - stays with you! Ian
HorrorBabble I keep listening to it again and again..lol, but that's all I do is listen to u all day and night, as I sleep like shit...I get more sleep if u are reading to me... thank you so much for all of your time!
That's always nice to hear - thanks gigi! Though I do hope your sleep patterns improve soon. I suffer from a similar affliction. Ian
Question ian... Do you have pet birds?
I keep hearing background noise that sounds just like my grandmother's old cockatiel
Hi Steven! The recording features a background ambience track and a music track - the birds are part of the background ambience. Listening with headphones is recommended.
a pretty good discussion of evil [where my gloves...i must go out]...the merely carnal man can no more be a great sinner than...a great saint
❤️🔥
I wonder if I'm like a psychic, "sensitive", mystically-inclined, occult-intuned type! Because I live in Idaho and I see white people ALL THE TIME!
Ha!
I love em
Lol
MOs def
How does Mr. Jump decide who to tear into? Because it seems like he would normally eat this person alive.
When I first saw the title of this Horror Story I thought it was the script for a new Jordan Peele movie.
haha
The title of Jordan’s script is “Wipipo”.
I'm sure, he'll turn out some more CRT propaganda, er, I mean "films", soon, since it's an election year.
Jordan Peele is a good director and a low to mid writer. He should not be writing. His obsession with race should also be called out if we're going to be treating everyone equally
Get Out is a good film but it is not a masterpiece. Everything else he's made is mid
Hi Ian, I'm reading THE TWISTED ONES by T.Kingfisher. Check it out... This one's got a "green book" and a Welsh connection also... Thanks so much for your work, it's really helping me get through this awful time. I look forward to listening "THE WHITE PEOPLE"-
The first 9.5 minutes, are credibly brilliant. Will take a week to chew on that one....
honesti mores valentien holocaustum tribus proiecit rumpatur ! Is artfully and cryptically crafted.
💙🌙🎩💖 a very sweet and sad circle, at once. Thank you for this introduction to Arthur Machen. Interesting and accomplished . Thank you so much.
I am going to loathe this story for a long long time.
I can tell how this influenced Lovecraft.
Yeah for sure. The entire journey into secret places and the world-building has the same feeling as Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.
Just the title is enough to give me chills
I am both proud and sad that there are no jokes about the title in this comment section.
Perfectly put. I couldn't think of a classy way to acknowledge that fact without turning into that guy lol.
This story varies in quality but I quite like it. And is this how christians see the world? Every stranger could be a secret witch to induct your innocent child into a cult?
Rumor has it, Amazon banned this book because of its title.
@El Senor Vikingo ... or, you know, it's a business. And businesses only care about their bottom line $$$.
@@glowingunknown5625 Please explain all these companies that go woke then hemorrhage money and yet then double down , loosing even more.
Nothing political just curious.
No way 😂😂😂😂...makes you miss the 80s..."free speech"😂😂😂
They dropped Confederate flag merchandise after that Marxist scumbag murdered a bunch of people, just cos he had a rrbel flag in or on his car, yet they'll sell "blue lives murder" merchandise. Scamazon is owned by filthy, Hamas loving leftists
@@deborahschell5722 If we’re talking about Amazon…. None of the textbook, business practices need to be applied. They could ban The NY Times №︎ 1-10 every week, and their profit margins wouldn’t notice.
Interesting. Very hard to follow. I'm losing concentration constantly, drifting off into other thoughts. I wonder if I have the attention span to stay on for the whole ride😄
Is there a more terrifying title in horror?
Black people
19c welsh heavens gate cult
Wait a minute... Am *I* evil?
i mean no...no one is evil.
No, but you are a very naughty boy!
7:14
Fear my self reliance.
A Spike Lee joint.
Ah yes, the most terrifying thing on planet Earth.
*Us*
*sees a horror story called "The White People"*
I didn't know Get Out had alternate titles.
An interesting discussion of the nature of evil from the POV of a prominent Victorian author.
By their definitions
Transhumanism is the essence of their evil. In many ways it shows what a gap has opened up.
loved the first story. psychotic killers are in a way like animals - they can’t stop themselves. so then really is someone who does something wrong knowingly, even by omission, the real sinner?
(i don’t particularly like the good/bad thing as everything is really a continuum of grey shades. but it is an interesting question worthy of discussion. so great story :)
B
Machen was one of the best writers of weird fiction. This is one of his best. I wonder if some young "woke" screener noticed the title and doubled checked this story. Lol.
Take your "woke" crap somewhere else trump... this is about literature, not your undefined politics..who else do you hate?
I picked up your sig, about the shining pyramid. I listened to this ‘Sherlock Holmes’, like piece & didn’e approve. Lo, the theme is a classic one, but better left to the Master, who is Lovecraft. I look fwd, to your upcoming Lovecraft book, with Spanish. Thanks for the news & only the blues, for Jen 💙🌙🎩🇲🇽 I would like to acknowledge, that your efforts & passions for this venue have not gone unnoticed. Your new page, here, is dyno baby. 🙏🏽🎩🌹
Thanks as always John! Sorry to hear The Shining Pyramid didn't grab you - hopefully you'll give our recording of it a chance though! Ian
HorrorBabble , of course of course. Haps a familiar dialogue will clear things up. Thanks
I once knew a man similar to Machen. He was murdered by a white man in 2009.
I found this one as dull as dishwater.
Can I tell you a secret?.....
To be honest, when I saw the title I was hoping for some African or Native American horror about european colonization, but with some supernatural twist. This is pretty cool too, though.
I think that we are beaten over the head with that enough
@@joeymediauk Maybe you're right. It would be kinda similar to a lot of alien invasion plots. Still, the milieu would be totally different.
@Andrew Bailey If the history of invasion and imperialism were magically reversed IRL, then sure.
@@fredranzalot4849 What stops you from writing the work you hope for, yourself?
@@ZephaniahL I'd have to do a bunch of research to do the african or native american cultures justice, and I don't know where to begin.
How many black folks came here thinking it was something about while people? C'mon, don't lie.
Is this story woke?
Not for me, I guess. Not at all scary or horrifying or even what I would call eery. If you are already a fan of this author or even the voicework of the narrator, Ian Gordon-quite well spoken, by the way-enjoy, BUT if you are not familiar with this author or this story, do NOT take the wiki page as accurate and do not expect many shivers of terror. Perhaps a few uncomfortable fidgets as you await the horror that never arrives in your 97+ minute wait.
There is no "mounting atmosphere of suspense", per wikipedia. This story is overlong for such a paltry payout and "climax", such as it is. Quite frankly it's boring. The first 19-20 minutes are devoted to a dry, bewilderingly off-putting and somewhat tedious diatribe by the author about the nature of evil, sin, morality and his own eccentric notions about spirituality, masquerading as a "discussion" between two gentlemen, the only purpose of which is to act as the framing device and introduction to the main story. It doesn't really help illuminate the main story and I'd say it's too long by half.
The rest, well over an hour and ten minutes, is EXPOSITION and a more perfect example of why the phrase "Show, don't tell." is a thing, I can't easily recall. This story goes to great pains to tell you about peripheral things in excruciating and completely trivial detail, sacrificing narrative flow, excitement, suspense or any sense of the macabre. Or a mounting atmosphere of suspense. Nothing much seems to happen, as far as we the listeners know, at any time but the author is more than happy to describe frightening rocks and the sensual texture of water(?) but as to the supernatural, well that happened, sure, but enough of that, let him tell you about the many colours of some such thing or how uncannily a hill is unlike other hills but still a hill instead of any of that messy action nonsense.
Regarding the demise of the girl, she is said to have later been found dead near a seemingly pagan statue in the woods. An afterthought. Fairly anti-climactic. That actually works in this exposition-heavy tale as the star of the story is dismissed. Found later on. As if the central character and her fate were less important than descriptions of the Secret Wood, that is too secret for us to be shown why it is so secret but please allow the author to describe the rather mundane circumstances around the girl's discovery of it as opposed to anything that would make us see WHY the Secret Wood is so bloody important.
In the Epilogue, "processes", (Which apparently include nymphs within their scope but really, what's more fun, silly talk about nymphs or manly discussions of PROCESSES?), are evident. And the narrator COULD provide you proofs of these presumably supernatural processes but no, we must remain unconvinced. Although we are regaled with some twaddle about locked medicine cabinets, so there's that. I mean really, either you don't know and we're all left to ponder the awful mysteries of the universe or you do know and you pull back the veil so we see the awful mysteries of the universe. Not some B***S*** about how you know but we must remain unconvinced.
I'm sorry, I like HorrorBabble, this narrator and even a few things by Mr. Machen, "The Great God Pan" and "The Hill of Dreams" but this is weak sauce. "Antidote to insomnia".
The freakiest part is some of them keep following Trump no matter what.... I didn't listen to this audiobook yet