By E.M. Forster, 1909

After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review, the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

The Machine Stops describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.

MUSIC:

"Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

"Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity

"But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton" by Chris Zabriskie

"God Be With You Till We Meet Again" by Chris Zabriskie

"Oxygen Garden" by Chris Zabriskie

"Algorithms" by Chad Crouch

"I Don't See the Branches, I See the Leaves" by Chris Zabriskie

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By E.M. Forster, 1909

After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review, the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

The Machine Stops describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.

MUSIC:

Candlepower (Chris Zabriskie)

Tomie's Bubbles (Candlegravity)

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By E.M. Forster, 1909

After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review, the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

The Machine Stops describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.

MUSIC:

"Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie)

"Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity)

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By Mark Twain, 1904

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel."

"The War Prayer", a short story or prose poem by Mark Twain, is a scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war.

MUSIC:

"Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

"Patriotic songs of America" by New York Military Band and the American Quartet

"Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By H.P. Lovecraft, 1927

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. Virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth“, both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor, Lovecraft saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively straitened circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time he died at the age of 46.

"The Colour Out of Space" is a science fiction/horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. An unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the hills west of the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts.

Special thanks to our good friends BattleBards for their amazing sound effects!

MUSIC:

"Cylinder Two" by Chris Zabriskie

"Gagool" by Kevin MacLeod

"Dark Elf City" by Mike Bridge

"Moorland" by Kevin MacLeod

"Unlight" by Kevin MacLeod

"The Tale of the Spine Breaker" by Stephane Lorello

"This House" by Kevin MacLeod

"Trance of Cluster" by Ars Sonor

"Bellow" by Ben Carey

"Oneiri" by Kai Engel

"Oppressive Gloom" by Kevin MacLeod

"Away" by Twilight Tipi

"Touch the Darkness" by Kai Engel

"Somnolence" by Kai Engel

"Dancing on the Edge" by Kai Engel

"Universe in Hands" by Kai Engel

"Tomie’s Bubbles" by Candlegravity

"Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By Kurt Vonnegut, 1962

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, Vonnegut published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).

Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. The novel was reviewed positively, but was not commercially successful. In the nearly 20 years that followed, Vonnegut published several novels that were only marginally successful, such as Cat's Cradle (1963) and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1964). Vonnegut's magnum opus, however, was his immediately successful sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.

The book's antiwar sentiment resonated with its readers amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, and its reviews were generally positive. After its release, Slaughterhouse-Five went to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, thrusting Vonnegut into fame. He was invited to give speeches, lectures, and commencement addresses around the country and received many awards and honors.

"2BR02B" is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B" and references the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the story, the title refers to the telephone number that one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination.

Special thanks to our good friends BattleBards for their amazing sound effects.

MUSIC

"Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

"Readers! Do You Read?" by Chris Zabriskie

"Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod

"Somewhere Else" by Candlegravity

"Cylinder Six" by Chris Zabriskie

"The Star Spangled Banner" by The United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

"Frozen Star" by Kevin MacLeod

"Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By H.G. Wells, 1897

Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946)—known as H. G. Wells—was a prolific English writer in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, social commentary, and textbooks and rules for war games. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is called a "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine(1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.

Special thanks to our good friends BattleBards for their amazing sound effects!

MUSIC:

"Cylinder Two" by Chris Zabriskie

"Cylinder Three" by Chris Zabriskie

"Cylinder Five" by Chris Zabriskie

"Cylinder Seven" by Chris Zabriskie

"Cylinder Eight" by Chris Zabriskie

"Original Rags" by Scott Joplin

"hydroscope" by Gallery Six

"Digya" by Kevin MacLeod

"Devastation and Revenge" by Kevin MacLeod

"Low Horizon" by Kai Engel

"Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity

"Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By Lyman Frank Baum, 1901

Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919), better known by his pen name L. Frank Baum, was an American author chiefly known for his children’s books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total, plus four “lost works“, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen.

Special thanks to our good friends BattleBards for their amazing sound effects.

MUSIC:

Candlepower (Chris Zabriskie)

Teller of the Tales (Kevin MacLeod)

Thaxted (Kevin MacLeod)

Wagner Bridal Chorus (Kevin MacLeod)

Cambodian Odyssey (Kevin MacLeod)

Tomie’s Bubbles (Candlegravity)

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A short story by E.M. Forster

A short story by Mark Twain