AN ARABIAN TALE, From an Unpublished Manuscript, or, The History of the Caliph Vathek, with Notes Critical & Explanatory, by the Rt. Rev. Samuel Henley-- by William Beckford, published 1786 (in French), 1787 in English. Let's hear from Joe Landsdale: "VATHEK is white-hot crazy... [a] dream that feels like an episode from the ARABIAN NIGHTS with a Gothic nightmare inside of it... The hero... one Caliph Vathek... denounces Islam and... sets out to obtain great supernatural powers and everlasting life. All this, of course, involves a Satanic pact, as well as a travelogue of dark exploration, culminating in what might be described as an examination of the lower regions of Hell... ...[T]his novel... allows us to tour places most of us wouldn't want to go, but don't mind seeing through a kind of literary glass, like visiting an aquarium and observing a shark enjoy chunks of bleeding meat at mealtime. [Vathek]... is humorous for awhile, then less so, and finally so strange it nears running off the rails and tumbling into an abyss... Even its failures are grand and stimulating, like watching a boxer who is knocked down repeatedly, continue to rise from the mat and keep on swinging." Today, a French-criticism inspired, insufferable elite, denounce this book and others for being about a foreign culture yet from a different culture. Such tropes and ideological rigidities will not concern us, so beware! We'll read this book at every show's beginning until it's done. NOTE: I was quite wrong about the date of my own oncoming online show, which is somehow both on Zoom and Twitch. Perhaps on Zoom through Twitch? It's not this coming Sunday-- it's NEXT Sunday, on March 19th! 6:00 PM out here on the Coast; we're starting an hour earlier to appease complaints from our East Coast listeners.