Advertise on podcast: Paper Cuts

From high in the air, there is a terror descending upon us. No, no, not like that, it's some kind of menace in the air lanes! Well, if we're getting out of the way of that, we should head to space proper! Need something really special? Why not head for someplace uncharted! Well, I've heard tell of a forgotten planet that'd have all sorts of neat stuff within. Ah, I see, I see, you don't have the stomach for space travel, well, there's quite the series of events going on down south, if you've still got the taste for adventure. It's really quite the tale, there's zombies, mesmerism, derring-do, the whole nine yards! Okay, alright, none of that sounds good, just stick at home and discover this fantastic tale of a wonderful new scientific discovery! None of that sound good? Give the episode a listen anyway, I only described some of the Astounding short stories on offer in this episode! Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29198 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/   Disclaimer:  TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!

Celebrating a huge milestone for the twitch audience, we dive into another issue of Astounding Stories! This time, in the July 1930 issue, we'll dive into many stories, not the least of which being one in which we learn of a world blocked from its final frontier. What lies beyond the heaviside layer? What noble heroes may operate the flyer managing to plumb the depths of this, our darkest sea? And most importantly, will the reporter make it back in time to get that front page byline? Of course, as usual, the easiest way to find out is listening to this episode of Paper Cuts! (Can you tell I've been listening to some Old Time Radio in place of podcasts lately?) Seriously though, I want to extend a hearty thanks to you all for finally getting us over the hill of affiliate-ship, twitch has a lot of really fun stuff you can do once that's underway, and I've been brewing up some loyalty redeems using those tools that'll be real neat! And hey, you can even subscribe to kick me a little money, if you'd like! Disclaimer, as noted in the episode: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!   Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29198 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Our time in the Crystal Age, brief as though it has been, made for quite the tale! Loads of twists and turns have lead us throughout this stunning little pastoral view of a future that did not come to pass. How they went for our main character? Well, you've heard two thirds of it already, so I'm sure you'll enjoy the remaining piece!  I know, I know, I say I enjoy every story we wind up reading on the show, but this one's really got some potential to an adaptation! Maybe it's just the huge isekai glut I've been getting, wtaching some anime here and there with my partner, but I really think this hits the beats of that fish-out-of-water, man-out-of-time tale really fantastically, and there's some really fun details to work with in the general worldbuilding, too! I mean, look at how they treat music, for example, and with what reverence they view the written word and the books in which they're bound, there's room for potentially even something beyond, say, a simple film! I think it'd be quite fascinating to see how a tabletop rpg campaign would look in what details we get here, perhaps something designed to travel from one somewhat isolated city to another and experience the differences between them!  Honestly that gives me an idea, these old "I was sent to the future!" public domain stories really have a specific vibe to them, I wonder if I could make a game Powered By The Apocalypse to address those genre conventions... Much to consider.  The disclaimer does come up in this episode! Here's the full text: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!   Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7401 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

As we continue the tale of our intrepid isekai protagonist, we find that he is, unlike the standard isekai lad, having trouble with the local language. That darn semantic shift, it really does come for us all! Luckily, we're not quite so impacted by this trouble, unless you're also digging up old and middle english texts (like I've been doing offscreen, considering giving a few a read for the show!).  However, like the isekai protagonists who do struggle with literacy, he's got a teacher, and one he seems to be developing quite the fondness for! How does that fondness develop? Well, that's a question you're going to have to listen to the episode to find out the answer to.  The disclaimer hasn't come up in this book quite yet, as I recall, but here's the full text anyway, as it's important to know what's up with these old books: TL;DR up front: Paper Cuts is almost all public domain stuff, and some of it hasn't aged well. I'll be doing my best to warn you, but I'm not changing any of it, I don't believe censorship is the path forward here. Paper Cuts, by necessity, has to be a majority books that are in the US public domain. That means it's almost exclusively going to be content produced in the 1920s, or earlier. These works may have aspects that have not aged well to a modern viewer/listener. Now, I'm never one for censorship, but I do believe we are entitled to being able to filter the leisure content we don't want to see. So, this results in the following policy: I'll do my level best to warn you, the viewer, at the beginning of the episode, what's likely to come up. A great example is something like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had some passages describing natives of various places in a fashion I'd charitably describe as unkindly. In cases where something sneaks up on me unwarned, I will be reading the content unedited, with my sincerest apologies for the lack of active warning. All that said, I'm gonna cover my bases with some common warnings that have come up often in books I've read before: Descriptions of "savage natives" Various racial slurs, unkind terms, and/or Descriptions of groups that have taken on a worse connotation General mistreatment and misrepresentation of cultures Generally speaking, if something I'm reading is on the page? Don't expect me to have opinions aligning with it. We're here to have fun, not disparage people!   Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7401 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

I must admit, when I got around to editing this episode, I genuinely didn't remember much about the opening of this book. It definitely leans into that old problem that these public domain books have, where at the time, the opening would have been quite thrilling, but something's changed in the intervening years, and it takes its sweet time getting your attention. Maybe I'm just jaded by the absolute glut of isekai lately, where the protagonist dies (or nearly does so), only to find themselves in a world entirely unfamiliar. Sure, after the initial setup, this story really takes a turn for the interesting, and boy does it turn sharply, given the way this place long removed not only from money, but most material concerns altogether, has its effects on this englishman out of his london-shaped water, but you're really going to have to bear with me for the opening scenes. All that said, the coming episodes are really going to make for some incredible listening, we dig farther into the semantic drift hinted at here, along with some of the wilder implications of the changes that this world holds in comparison to the era our hero is used to.  Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7401 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Fall is a great time to dive into tales of the supernatural, and what's more supernatural than your local fair folk, hm? Well, don't get me wrong here, fall's just the best time, I can enjoy a wild tale of a man who's on a journey to see and hear things far beyond what he ought to be experiencing any time! That makes this particular story a great fit for the moment both you, me, and past-me who recorded it, at least, if you ask me. I gotta admit, I'm curious about M.R. James' other work after how much I really enjoyed this one. There's a fantastic story being woven here, one of a man dragged through a whole set of worlds with which he's thoroughly unfamililar. Sure, sure, we've been hammering home that theme a lot with the recent episodes, but this one does it in a way that's fascinatingly different, done more in a fashion akin to modern tales of fantasy "isekai" rather than the more straightforward science fiction planet-hopper. Want to read along with us? Find the book here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24089 Have opinions you want to share, or want to suggest books? Discord's great for that! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to listen live? Drop by Fridays, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

We travel farther into the wild world of the red planet, led on and on and on by our dear protagonist, John Carter, who definitely is NOT a Mary Sue and you SHOULDN'T flame Borroughs on AO3 about it, no way. I goof, but seriously, this is a fantastic example of how a wildly overpowered main character simply needs to be written carefully to make for engaging storytelling. I mean, the guy teaches himself TELEPATHY and I'm still interested in just how things will shake out despite how buckwild that is, that has to tell you something about either how solid this story is, or just how awful my taste has become over the years trawling through the public domain. Oh also, there are 10 whole books in this series, let alone the small handful of short stories after it, so if you're interested in hearing more tales of Barsoom, make your voice heard!   Want to read along with us? Check out the book from the internet's second favorite library here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62 Have things to say, or want to suggest new books? Check out the discord! http://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, want to attend a live version of this? Check out the streams on Friday nights, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/

Ok, Ok, enough short stories for now. Let's dive into a book that was SUPER popular for its time, and one that honestly, I'm shocked had its popularity killed by the botched disney adaptation. I mean, for context, Edgar Rice Borroughs' other major work, Tarzan, is EASILY recognizable and often parodied (I mean, look at how often the stereotypical "Yell while swinging on a vine" trope is used!), and yet, I was genuinely surprised by most of the twists and turns in this one! Sure, there's some stuff in here that I'd recognize as a trope, but only because I'm a huge sucker for sword and planet type fiction that inhabits the same genre! Just bonkers. Anyway, I've been all out of sorts on scheduling lately, and for that, I apologize! Introducing some short form video to the pipeline has me all bent out of shape, and I'm only just now picking up the slack. Hey, at least I remembered to get the episodes out, though!  Want to read along with us? Check out the book from the internet's second favorite library here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62 Have things to say, or want to suggest new books? Check out the discord! http://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/  Last but not least, want to attend a live version of this? Check out the streams on Friday nights, over on twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/  

Definitely didn't forget to click publish, nuh uh, no way!   This batch of stories gets kinda wild in its concepts, very much a creeping horror in its science fiction! Not only do we discover the almost religious terror that can be inspired by the unknown, but we also discover that you REALLY should handle your household products with care, it's not only mustard gas you could be making by accident! Also, we get WHAMMIED by a punch I thought Vonnegut was going to pull. In retrospect, I'm shocked I thought he'd not FULLY send it, honestly. Oh, also, a little touch on multiverse theory, be happy I didn't go off on a tangent about that! Want to read along? Grab the stories here: The Water Eater: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31841 Micro Man: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32579  2 B R 0 2 B: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21279 The Doorway: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29138 Want to chime in about what to read next? Check out the discord! https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn   Last but not least, if you wanna catch episodes live, they're Friday nights, over on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester 

Guess who forgot to click publish on this? it's me! I did that! This week, we dive into another couple of short stories, this time hitting up two huge Halloween favorites you may have read in English class, Fall of the House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum! I'm a known enjoyer of Poe's general creeping horror, and also a HUGE sucker for weird old science fiction premises, so The Lost Kazoofalum also really appeals to my interests. Can you tell me focusing on the short stories is equal parts me going for stories I enjoy and giving everyone easy episodes to drop in on? Want to read along? You can grab the stories below! Fall of the House of Usher: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/932  The Lost Kafoozalum (misspelled in the title,oops): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30427 The Pit and the Pendulum: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2148   Want to chime in about what to read next? Check out the discord! https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn   Last but not least, if you wanna catch episodes live, they're Friday nights, over on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester 

Another batch of short stories in this episode, gang! Some personal favorites of mine this time (I know, I know, I say a lot of the books on here are my favorites, but I genuinely DO love the creeping horror of Amontillado, and Ring Once for Death inverts a trope that I think sorely needs inverting, anyway!) alongside one that, I must admit, I really didn't care for on my first english class reading, and was really begging to be removed from that stuffy, academic context. Well, that, or I just wasn't hungry enough while reading it! What absolutely lavish descriptions of food, this and high fantasy will be what I'm reaching for if I find I'm not in a mood to eat when I have to!  Books this time (To read along with):  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31840 (Ring Once for Death) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41 (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1063 (The Cask of Amontillado)  Have things to say? Books to recommend? Need a way to get reminded things are happening? check out Discord! https://discord.gg/PBZNsjn/ Want to catch live episodes? Drop by, Friday nights, where we read on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/ 

Wierdly enough, I remember as a kid reading Through the Looking Glass much more often than the original tale. There was always something about the way it went, I just preferred it. Or maybe it was just easier to find in the collection of children's stories my grandma left on my bedside table when I slept up there? Who knows, either way this one is one of my favorites, even if I don't bother with any of its adaptations. I will say, I'm very glad I finished this one in one episode, it's always really clean and satisfying to pull that off!   Want to read this one along with me? Go download the book!  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12 (Man, that's a small number, gutenberg must have started with the easy confirmations)   Have opinions on the books we read, or maybe you just want to yell at me about how I mispronounced something? come join us on Discord! https://www.discord.gg/PBZNsjn/   Last but not least, you want to drop by live? come say hi on twitch, it's friday nights! https://www.twitch.tv/glacier_nester/