A forlorn story that generates great sympathy for Mr Crow. One wonders what urgent need impelled him to return, if even only for the one night. What mission was left undone? And even stranger to me, did he know Warren was dead? Thank you, Ian!
@@johannageisel5390 Speaking for myself, it was night and raining, so I would've used the nearest fire hydrant, or tree, or just whizzed the pant leg. I'm already dead, it's not likely I would suffer great consequences, or care what that cop in his rain slicker would've thought.
It could be a pseudonym used for another author in the volume it was published in. That was standard industry practice back then, if someone had two stories in the same issue, the second story went out under a pen name.
@@andreasfilis9001 I only learned about the practice when I started looking into pulp fiction. One of the blogs (James Reasoner's 'Rough Edges') has posts with the covers of various pulp fiction magazines and his commentaries clued me into the practice. Of course pseudonyms are rife in the industry, one case with a 'Weird Tales' connection was Frank Belknap Long's use of the pseudonyn 'Lyda Belknap Long' for a series of 8 gothic romances written between the late 60s and the mid 70s. The first of them published under that name, 'To The Dark Tower' is probably the best. Rather than the cliche 'Orphan inherits creepy house' plotline, the heroine of this one is running from something that sounds like it's straight out of Weird Tales.
I too found it strange and had to look this up. I think this might have been a mistake of mixing the author and the pseudonym, since Paul Ernst (his real name) was a rather prolific writer, and secondly, he had a couple of other stories in pulp magazines.
You can tell what it's going to be from the very beginning, but it's no less a great story for it. It reminds me of other amnesia stories I've heard, but for the life me I can't quite name any at the moment...
I had my suspicions but didn't understand why the top of his head inspired so much fear and that the police never once intervened where others ran in terror.
"It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see." Keep up the good work and, as always, stay safe!
@@earthcat Those are the opening lines of, The Cats of Ulther, probably my own favorite of all H.P. Lovecraft's stories along with all the others that equally are also my favorite. Pretty sure that Horrorbabble has already covered it, it's part of H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle. More to follow.
A somber and surreal experience. I enjoyed this story so much. It really speaks volumes when a weird story beats the gibberish shown nowadays on mainstream media. The plot is fresh and deeply dark. I considered myself lucky of having access to such great narrative. I sure don't take it for granted. Thank you, Ian!
This is my most favorite story in ages. Such excellent telling really brings it home. Its like a foot in the grave. Wish the author had more but this would surely be hard to top. Thanks Ian!
I don't watch your videos very often, but every time I hear that "Welcome to Horror Babble," it's like I'm sitting down with an old friend who's about to tell me a story
Great tale and a great narration! What a find! Well Ian and team, you don’t know how eerily coincidental this story is to me. After getting turned around-Hell lost, in the Chattahooche National Forest, I had quite the terrifying encounter in the middle of the night. Once I process objectively what happened, I’ll tell the tale. I will say…I’m no longer a skeptic…of Bigfoot.
@cak01vej Someone should have told the big guy that shook the ground when he walked, he shouldn’t be in the million acre Chattahoochee National Forest. It would have made my nine hours lost in the wilderness, a whole Hell of lot less torturous, and terrifying. So, while I’ve been icing my knees, feet, and shoulders, getting my pride back after running from the bogey man like a scared bitch in the dark, I read. In addition to the scolding and screaming by my lovely wife, I went read even more of the literature on the Appalachian Forests. (Side note: My daughter is demanding I go to our Bigfoot museum in the neighboring town and report what happened. She and her boyfriend found me thankfully, forty miles south of our home.) The Appalachian Forests are the oldest forests in the world. Having lived in several remote locations across the world, I’d agree. Never have I seen such ancient biodiversity and unexplored cave systems. In regards to the cryptids here…9 so far in the area. Again, who knew Georgia has a “Loch Ness” monster? On the subject of Sasquatch, Woodbooger, Wildman, Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, etc., I’m still trying to process everything I experienced. Anything that lumbered, stomped, and acted like this thing did, was unnerving. It was not at all scared of anything. There’s a ton of literature on Appalachian sightings-I know I was surprised, too. The most intriguing historical reports seem to range from the Appalachians. The Andrew Jackson tale was most chilling. With all this said, I was absolutely terrified and panicked when the realization hit me what was right in front of me. It’s a kind of numb disbelief then acceptance. The whole time processing what just happened, you are hauling ass away from the thing. Running another ten miles from gravel to a paved road, with still no phone service, and plenty of vast mountains and forest. And…thinking, I hope another of these things isn’t around.”
That's in the same region in north Georgia where Deliverance occurred. Did you hear banjo music too? LOL. I'm in western NC and I know all about these strange things.
@cak01vej Just one of the in-bred locals. I live in a county in western NC where moonshining, murder, and in-breeding are an important part of the culture. See Tom Dooley. I lived in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and no asked creature could survive the winters there, in spite of Lovecraft's stories.
@@tomcurran8470 It was quite the terrifying experience. I’ve worked all over the world-Africa, the Middle East, Asia, etc. I’ve spent a lot time in the swamps, jungles, and forests, and seen a lot of strange animals. Never seen anything like that creature in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Your vouce does justice to all horror stories Gordon. I first discovered you on Audiobooks. It sounds to me like the character in this story was already dead.
Bangkok and, yup, hot! Thunderheads massing, air still and although it’s only 9:30 in the morning there’s a look of twilight over the city. It’s gonna be a boomer! Horrorbabble weather! Enjoy the day wherever you are!
Excellent tale! Thank you for the great narration! Many a story I didn't even knew existed now are favorites of mine because of your wonderful channel.
This is an amazing story. Great narration. It is a shame this writer only had one story. The story is very well-written. I wish he would have written more stories. This reminds me of a certain story written by Mr. Lovecraft. Anything else would be a spoiler 😁. I would never have heard of this if you had not posted it. Thanks, Ian!
I say this with no limit of admiration for the writer, but Mr. Gordon this is your area of expertise. Not saying it couldn’t use more terror, but high strangeness with a healthy coating of terror, that’s alright.
Fantastic reading. And a fascinating story in terms of structure. There’s plenty weird tales that are a series of diary entries and the like but nothing so constant, from minute to minute. It practically makes it a story told entirely in first person present, which is a much more modern method in fiction. A real shame this author only wrote the one tale (That is, if it wasn’t an author we already know writing under a different name).
I just discovered this channel and it's fantastic. I've been bouncing around through four years of episodes and I A) have no idea who this Warren fellow is and why everybody is constantly talking about him, and 2) don't understand why people keep leaving comments with timestamps to sections of stories that seem entirely unremarkable to me.
Quality, as always - thanks. Ian, your mellifluous tones have spoiled me. I came across a Robert E. Howard story on another channel and couldn't make it through as the narrator lacked your presence, drama and intonation. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! (And if you wanted to record Howard's story "Graveyard Rats" that'd be wonderful)
There are some horrible narrations out there, but there also some excellent ones. And as far as dramatizations go, there was an excellent vinyl LP or two in the '70s which has made it to RUclips.
Yes, definitely some other great ones, too (and as I get it all for free, it's just idle kvetching - though I do support HorrorBabble on Patreon). I just hold HorrorBabble up as my personal standard by which other narrators are judged.
We, me and my wife have been listening to all the Conan stories, by Robert E. Howard, (not sure how I feel about the other authors who wrote stories about him but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it,) and whilst I agree that some of the readings aren't always that good, (a lot of irritating and unnecessary background, "mood," music and other various gimmicks to make them sound more dramatic,) we're enjoying them tremendously so it's worth taking the trouble to find a good, articulate and unpretentious reading of a full original text. Not overrated,
This is, I believe, a superior story to Lovecraft’s “The Outsider," which has a similar premise. Excellent work, as always, Ian. You are, without a doubt, the Baron of HorrorBabble.
Love this channel man, I found you a long time ago because of your lovecraft readings. I'll admit I didn't listen to too many at the time as I preferred the antique audio book ones. However your channel is amazing, I recently rediscovered you like today and have been listening to all your recent stuff in a binging fashion. I am hoping to do something similar soon, however I Intend to begin with my own stories. I have been working on a personal take on lovecrafts universe and am creating a web of stories re imagined Involving many of his characters. I have outlined a new Herbert west story, that will overlap with an original character who is an investigator with a cat (cats will be very involved on the whole overall narrative including entire stories of just the cats and their plights) I'm putting the cart before the horse a tad here but when the time comes I'd Love to collaborate with you perhaps. Maybe if I can finish a short story and send it to you, if you like it, perhaps you could read it. I'm a ways from that atm though I'm a crazy perfectionist so I'm terrified to be finished with anything yet. 😅
SPOILER ALERT My first time hearing this story. I got the feeling early on that he was deceased. The story reminds me of 'The Outsider' from Lovecraft.
This story makes no sense. Why would he look so scary as a walking corpse that regular people run from him, but every police officer he encounters just gives him a funny look and doesn't bother him. i thought that was going to lead to something, like he's a powerful scary person who has the police in his pocket, like a mob boss, but it amounted to nothing.
@@magnuskallas It's explained in the story several times. He's writing on paper he got from the telegraph office. And as far as the story appearing not to make sense in spots: I think it was written with a bit of open interpretation in mind.
Only because it's been done so many times since. But back in 1935, this would have been a total surprise to most readers. And yes, the journey was fantastic, written by an expert wordsmith and told here by an expert reader.
@@HorrorBabble It saddens me that this story can be so under-appreciated. Thus far, it is among my absolute favorites of this channel. Yes it is slow-moving, but I think that aspect is vital to the mood and a window into how the protagonist is experiencing the story. I wouldn't have it any other way. Oh, and Ian reads it beautifully.
A forlorn story that generates great sympathy for Mr Crow. One wonders what urgent need impelled him to return, if even only for the one night. What mission was left undone? And even stranger to me, did he know Warren was dead? Thank you, Ian!
In line with my above comment: I think Mr. Crow needed to use the bathroom. The sound of rain triggered it.
@@johannageisel5390 Speaking for myself, it was night and raining, so I would've used the nearest fire hydrant, or tree, or just whizzed the pant leg. I'm already dead, it's not likely I would suffer great consequences, or care what that cop in his rain slicker would've thought.
It is strange that the writer published this work only. It seems a genuine talent.
It could be a pseudonym used for another author in the volume it was published in. That was standard industry practice back then, if someone had two stories in the same issue, the second story went out under a pen name.
@@Graham-ce2yk I didn't knew that.
@@andreasfilis9001 I only learned about the practice when I started looking into pulp fiction. One of the blogs (James Reasoner's 'Rough Edges') has posts with the covers of various pulp fiction magazines and his commentaries clued me into the practice. Of course pseudonyms are rife in the industry, one case with a 'Weird Tales' connection was Frank Belknap Long's use of the pseudonyn 'Lyda Belknap Long' for a series of 8 gothic romances written between the late 60s and the mid 70s. The first of them published under that name, 'To The Dark Tower' is probably the best. Rather than the cliche 'Orphan inherits creepy house' plotline, the heroine of this one is running from something that sounds like it's straight out of Weird Tales.
I too found it strange and had to look this up. I think this might have been a mistake of mixing the author and the pseudonym, since Paul Ernst (his real name) was a rather prolific writer, and secondly, he had a couple of other stories in pulp magazines.
You can tell what it's going to be from the very beginning, but it's no less a great story for it. It reminds me of other amnesia stories I've heard, but for the life me I can't quite name any at the moment...
Amnesia seems to be a frequently reoccurring theme in after death stories .
It seems heavily inspired by “the outsider” but Both are great stories about zombies with amnesia
I had my suspicions but didn't understand why the top of his head inspired so much fear and that the police never once intervened where others ran in terror.
"It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see."
Keep up the good work and, as always, stay safe!
I love that! What is it from?
@@earthcat
Those are the opening lines of, The Cats of Ulther, probably my own favorite of all H.P. Lovecraft's stories along with all the others that equally are also my favorite.
Pretty sure that Horrorbabble has already covered it, it's part of H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.
More to follow.
LOLOL
Excellent as always. The poor man...Thank you!
A somber and surreal experience. I enjoyed this story so much. It really speaks volumes when a weird story beats the gibberish shown nowadays on mainstream media. The plot is fresh and deeply dark. I considered myself lucky of having access to such great narrative. I sure don't take it for granted. Thank you, Ian!
What a wonderfully hypnotic tale!
This is my most favorite story in ages. Such excellent telling really brings it home. Its like a foot in the grave. Wish the author had more but this would surely be hard to top. Thanks Ian!
Thanks Herr Gordon🤩
This author certainly had potential and I wish
he had given us more.
It's a hot day here in Tennessee...95°F and I have my pipe and cool drink with Horrorbabble playing. 💀
Also in tn. Working in the garden, getting ready to take a swim
Hot here in Alabama, too. Iced tea, cheese sandwich, and this story!!! Great!
Enjoying a nice 56 degrees up in Alaska, just about to put a new line on a reel.
@@cynthiapate9138 Summertime in the south. Nothing like air that you can wear. Lol
28°C in Athens, nice evening, cold coffee and Horrorbabble.
HorrorBabble is top tier of narration.
Very well narrated
I don't watch your videos very often, but every time I hear that "Welcome to Horror Babble," it's like I'm sitting down with an old friend who's about to tell me a story
Beautiful rainy day here in South Texas, makes for a horrorbabble binge!!!
Great tale and a great narration! What a find!
Well Ian and team, you don’t know how eerily coincidental this story is to me. After getting turned around-Hell lost, in the Chattahooche National Forest, I had quite the terrifying encounter in the middle of the night. Once I process objectively what happened, I’ll tell the tale.
I will say…I’m no longer a skeptic…of Bigfoot.
Blimey!
@cak01vej Someone should have told the big guy that shook the ground when he walked, he shouldn’t be in the million acre Chattahoochee National Forest. It would have made my nine hours lost in the wilderness, a whole Hell of lot less torturous, and terrifying.
So, while I’ve been icing my knees, feet, and shoulders, getting my pride back after running from the bogey man like a scared bitch in the dark, I read. In addition to the scolding and screaming by my lovely wife, I went read even more of the literature on the Appalachian Forests. (Side note: My daughter is demanding I go to our Bigfoot museum in the neighboring town and report what happened. She and her boyfriend found me thankfully, forty miles south of our home.)
The Appalachian Forests are the oldest forests in the world. Having lived in several remote locations across the world, I’d agree. Never have I seen such ancient biodiversity and unexplored cave systems. In regards to the cryptids here…9 so far in the area. Again, who knew Georgia has a “Loch Ness” monster?
On the subject of Sasquatch, Woodbooger, Wildman, Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, etc., I’m still trying to process everything I experienced. Anything that lumbered, stomped, and acted like this thing did, was unnerving. It was not at all scared of anything.
There’s a ton of literature on Appalachian sightings-I know I was surprised, too. The most intriguing historical reports seem to range from the Appalachians. The Andrew Jackson tale was most chilling.
With all this said, I was absolutely terrified and panicked when the realization hit me what was right in front of me. It’s a kind of numb disbelief then acceptance. The whole time processing what just happened, you are hauling ass away from the thing. Running another ten miles from gravel to a paved road, with still no phone service, and plenty of vast mountains and forest. And…thinking, I hope another of these things isn’t around.”
That's in the same region in north Georgia where Deliverance occurred. Did you hear banjo music too? LOL. I'm in western NC and I know all about these strange things.
@cak01vej Just one of the in-bred locals. I live in a county in western NC where moonshining, murder, and in-breeding are an important part of the culture. See Tom Dooley.
I lived in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and no asked creature could survive the winters there, in spite of Lovecraft's stories.
@@tomcurran8470 It was quite the terrifying experience. I’ve worked all over the world-Africa, the Middle East, Asia, etc. I’ve spent a lot time in the swamps, jungles, and forests, and seen a lot of strange animals. Never seen anything like that creature in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Your vouce does justice to all horror stories Gordon. I first discovered you on Audiobooks. It sounds to me like the character in this story was already dead.
Excellent building of suspense. Poor creature
Bangkok and, yup, hot! Thunderheads massing, air still and although it’s only 9:30 in the morning there’s a look of twilight over the city. It’s gonna be a boomer! Horrorbabble weather! Enjoy the day wherever you are!
Fun listening on a hot, summer night! Great choice and worthy take on the outsider.
Thank you for a wonderful story read so eloquently!!
Excellent tale! Thank you for the great narration! Many a story I didn't even knew existed now are favorites of mine because of your wonderful channel.
More than one anthology movie and television show have mined this for inspiration.
Excellent presentation as always.
Outstanding as always many thanks Ian!!!🙂👍
winner! - thank you kind Sir!
your reading was full of suspense and much emotional empathy. some spirits just don’t want to leave. good story. thanks much 🌿🎋
This is an amazing story. Great narration. It is a shame this writer only had one story. The story is very well-written. I wish he would have written more stories.
This reminds me of a certain story written by Mr. Lovecraft. Anything else would be a spoiler 😁.
I would never have heard of this if you had not posted it. Thanks, Ian!
Listening from the ukwales❤️
I say this with no limit of admiration for the writer, but Mr. Gordon this is your area of expertise. Not saying it couldn’t use more terror, but high strangeness with a healthy coating of terror, that’s alright.
I knew the secret of this story almost at the beginning. And yet the story was not diminished even one bit, it is quite exceptional.
I love these sorts of “who am I?” stories.
This was a great read.
Fantastic reading. And a fascinating story in terms of structure. There’s plenty weird tales that are a series of diary entries and the like but nothing so constant, from minute to minute. It practically makes it a story told entirely in first person present, which is a much more modern method in fiction. A real shame this author only wrote the one tale (That is, if it wasn’t an author we already know writing under a different name).
I just discovered this channel and it's fantastic. I've been bouncing around through four years of episodes and I A) have no idea who this Warren fellow is and why everybody is constantly talking about him, and 2) don't understand why people keep leaving comments with timestamps to sections of stories that seem entirely unremarkable to me.
Warren is a Joke I believe.
That entire Warren quote is lifted directly from one of HorrorBabble's story readings, though I cannot remember which one.
I really liked that the circumstance remains unexplained. I was hoping for this.
An interesting tale🧟♂️ I rather enjoyed it,Thank you😊
Now THIS is a horror story! My nightmares are made of such 😱
Quality, as always - thanks. Ian, your mellifluous tones have spoiled me. I came across a Robert E. Howard story on another channel and couldn't make it through as the narrator lacked your presence, drama and intonation. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! (And if you wanted to record Howard's story "Graveyard Rats" that'd be wonderful)
Thanks for listening, Nathan!
There are some horrible narrations out there, but there also some excellent ones. And as far as dramatizations go, there was an excellent vinyl LP or two in the '70s which has made it to RUclips.
Yes, definitely some other great ones, too (and as I get it all for free, it's just idle kvetching - though I do support HorrorBabble on Patreon). I just hold HorrorBabble up as my personal standard by which other narrators are judged.
We, me and my wife have been listening to all the Conan stories, by Robert E. Howard, (not sure how I feel about the other authors who wrote stories about him but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it,) and whilst I agree that some of the readings aren't always that good, (a lot of irritating and unnecessary background, "mood," music and other various gimmicks to make them sound more dramatic,) we're enjoying them tremendously so it's worth taking the trouble to find a good, articulate and unpretentious reading of a full original text.
Not overrated,
@@nathanharper5670 That's become a pretty high bar.
Anybody else getting "Lovecraft's: The Outsider" vibes?
Cause I'm here for it👍👍
super grim. I like this one.
I saw this in my mind's eye as an EC horror comic.
This is, I believe, a superior story to Lovecraft’s “The Outsider," which has a similar premise. Excellent work, as always, Ian. You are, without a doubt, the Baron of HorrorBabble.
Its well written, but personally I wouldnt go so far as better than The Outsider. Its slower paced and less descriptive.
I think it's safe to say we've all had nights like this...
I love the author's style and the narration was excellent! Thanks!
This feels extremely inspired by “The outsider”
Awesome story!
Peer pressure about hats was really stressful apparently.
I like the past , however, structure requires strict hat protocol .
best story of all !!
Love this channel man, I found you a long time ago because of your lovecraft readings. I'll admit I didn't listen to too many at the time as I preferred the antique audio book ones. However your channel is amazing, I recently rediscovered you like today and have been listening to all your recent stuff in a binging fashion. I am hoping to do something similar soon, however I Intend to begin with my own stories. I have been working on a personal take on lovecrafts universe and am creating a web of stories re imagined Involving many of his characters. I have outlined a new Herbert west story, that will overlap with an original character who is an investigator with a cat (cats will be very involved on the whole overall narrative including entire stories of just the cats and their plights) I'm putting the cart before the horse a tad here but when the time comes I'd Love to collaborate with you perhaps. Maybe if I can finish a short story and send it to you, if you like it, perhaps you could read it. I'm a ways from that atm though I'm a crazy perfectionist so I'm terrified to be finished with anything yet. 😅
Delightful!
So far it's reminding me of The Outsider, but I'm only a third of the way in. I need to know what the rain is trying to say!
Definitely a somber story...very good work!
Nice work Mr Gordon ☺️
Good stuff
Very good
SPOILER ALERT
My first time hearing this story. I got the feeling early on that he was deceased. The story reminds me of 'The Outsider' from Lovecraft.
I showed my husband the "weather thread" when he got home and he said ." They seem like good people to me" 😘
I believe lightning and the freshness of the body revived him
"Sleep, those little slices of death" - EAP
The reason bells were installed in new graves.
As always, a haunting and beautiful photo to set the stage... Where do you find them all?!
This story makes no sense. Why would he look so scary as a walking corpse that regular people run from him, but every police officer he encounters just gives him a funny look and doesn't bother him. i thought that was going to lead to something, like he's a powerful scary person who has the police in his pocket, like a mob boss, but it amounted to nothing.
I wonder where he got the notebook to scribble his feelings? Haven't heard people get buried with one.
@@magnuskallas It's explained in the story several times. He's writing on paper he got from the telegraph office.
And as far as the story appearing not to make sense in spots: I think it was written with a bit of open interpretation in mind.
Yeah, I also hate it when I wake up from my death at night. Mostly it's because I have to pee.
Poor Warren
F in the chat for Warren
RAY BRADBURY STORY
The Outsider
I KNEW IT
Err my gerrr! I think the protagonist commented on how drowsy they were about 6,000 times. 😪
Good reading as always, but dang was the twist blindingly obvious from the very start.
Absolutely. The 'journey' made it worth it.
Only because it's been done so many times since. But back in 1935, this would have been a total surprise to most readers.
And yes, the journey was fantastic, written by an expert wordsmith and told here by an expert reader.
👍👍
1000%
2.5/5 dragged on a bit but established the mood well
#72-✅👍🏻
Great narration, as usual, but lately, the stories seem dragged out. I'm not as riveted as I've been with past ones.
In this case, because we've all seen The 6th Sense, we could see the twist coming from miles away. From then on it dragged a little.
Thanks, Cindy. We tend not to overthink our selections. We have some exciting projects in store though -- perhaps these'll rekindle the flame.
@@HorrorBabble It saddens me that this story can be so under-appreciated. Thus far, it is among my absolute favorites of this channel. Yes it is slow-moving, but I think that aspect is vital to the mood and a window into how the protagonist is experiencing the story. I wouldn't have it any other way. Oh, and Ian reads it beautifully.
56* with a fresh 24mph breeze. Looks like the next climate change is coming from the SW 😂
.
Fairly predictable.
Peer pressure about hats was really stressful apparently.
I like the past , however, structure requires strict hat protocol .