Showing results by narrator "Adriel Brandt" in All Categories

If there is one tactile gesture that has immense metaphorical value in the bible, it is the kiss. The most famous kiss was one of betrayal, but others would be for good. Bonar further interprets the kiss Oprah gives her mother-in-law in great detail and shows how truly complex this symbol can be.

One of the first biblical stories we are told as children is the one of David and Goliath. We learn about the small, weak man slaying the giant with nothing but a rock. In this, Bonar compares the carnal weapons, Goliath being great of stature and physically superior, to the spiritual cloak David wears by being on the side of God.

Scottish reformer John Knox taught that Mass was an idolatrous practice. In 1550, the Roman Catholic church brought a charge against him for this controversial position. He defended this belief in front of the council of the North, stating, “I do affirm the Mass to be, and at all times to have been, idolatry and abomination before God.” His thorough, scriptural argument was so convincing that he was allowed to continue his preaching unhindered.

In this speech, a young Theodore Roosevelt describes what he believes are the key principles to good citizenship. In addition to emphasizing ethical behavior, Roosevelt takes a firm stance on the necessity of engaging in politics and voting. He states unflinchingly, “The people who say that they have not time to attend to politics are simply saying that they are unfit to live in a free community.” To be “a good American citizen”, Roosevelt says one must boldly engage with the issues our nation faces today, and in doing so, shape its future.

Thomas Jefferson beat out Aaron Burr in the 1800 presidential election after Alexander Hamilton cast the tie-breaking vote. Jefferson gave this address to a packed Senate chamber on March 4, 1801. He emphasized the US as a single nation working together and avoided mentioning party politics. In this way, he departed from the speeches of his two predecessors and established a new formula for inaugural addresses that was used by many presidents who came after him.

President Andrew Jackson bid farewell to the nation at the inauguration of Martin Van Buren, his friend and former vice president. Jackson talked of the nation’s successes in the past several years and warned against sectionalism that threatened the nation’s unity.

Unlike many of Lovecraft’s stories, this story takes place in Greece, and more importantly, on a mountain that was supposedly watched over by Pan. Kalos and Musides, two friends, live here, and when Kalos falls ill and dies, Musides decides to use his sculpting powers to use. He erects a great monument to Kalos over his tomb, but an oak tree decides to overtake it, shaping into what looks like a deformed and monstrous human figure. Musides’ fears about the tree sapping the vital force from his friend’s grave are finally struck down by lightning - and with it the whole monument.

Do you know anyone who has died of puerperal fever? Probably not, thanks to this groundbreaking essay published by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1843. With great passion and intelligence, Holmes sets forth his revolutionary argument on the prevention of an illness which had claimed the lives of new mothers in epidemic proportions. Though his findings were not accepted until years later, Holmes’ seminal work can serve as a model for the presentation of life-changing medical research.

In this sermon, English preacher Charles Spurgeon uses candles to illustrate spiritual concepts. He delves into the history and use of lanterns to draw memorable parallels between candles and the Christian life. “Many people use their Bibles as lights to be hung up at a Chinese feast of lanterns,” he says, “for amusement, or for show.” The word of God should not be a prop, however, but rather the light that guides us through life.

"Reanimator" follows Herbert West on his mission to fulfill his theory - that the human body can be restarted after death. The series follows through many close misses, zombies, and demon summonings as West tries unsuccessfully to reanimate bodies.

A lot happens in this very short story by H.P. Lovecraft, but it begins as the title might lend itself to imagine - with a terrible old man. As three thieves find out about this old man’s treasures, they decide to visit with the man with the intent to steal his riches. Their plan goes horribly wrong when one of the three hears screaming from the getaway car. When he enters the house, he finds the hideous, yellow-eyed man staring evilly at him, waiting to usher in his doom.

Though The Street tries to remain in the realm of horror and the supernatural, what it really amounts to is one of the earliest written documents of Lovecraft’s political stance and stance on other races. In this story, the street is the protagonist. Lovecraft documents its growth from quaint and colonial New England town to downtrodden and dirty as immigrants move in after the first world war. When a “vast group of terrorists” living in the neighborhood plot to overthrow the federal government on July 4th, the street decides to take matters into its own (metaphorical) hands.

When the narrator accompanies a withered old Yankee back to his house, he is intrigued by the many old curiosities he finds around it - including precolonial furniture. One of these curiosities, an engraving, brings the old man on a terrifying reminisce about eating things that he was not allowed to have, and the narrator realizes that he could next on the plate. As blood drips from the ceiling onto the book, the narrator narrowly escapes when a bolt of lightning strikes the house, finally ending his streak of immortality.

Nyarlathotep: descendent of ancient Egyptian pharaohs and bringer of bad dreams. When the story’s namesake begins his travels to showcase his once dormant supernatural powers, he runs into a particularly tough crowd. When Nyarlathotep becomes angry, he sends the crowd in different directions - which brings a seeming horror about the city. By the end of it, the maddened crowd is the least of the world’s worries. Doom, it would seem, was here to stay with Nyarlathotep.

The tomb is the story of Jervas, a little boy whose whole life begins to revolve around the tomb of the Hyde family. A childhood spent sneaking out to sleep beside the tomb eventually turns into a young adulthood of sleeping in a tomb with his name on it. After a stormy night and after heading for the tomb, he turns back and sees the Hyde mansion, which had been burnt down in previous years, aglow with splendor. Once Jervas went inside, the spectral mansion sets ablaze, and his vision is broken by his father. Jervas comes to find out he had never been inside the tomb at all.

Much like Celephaïs, the unnamed narrator recalls his dreams of drifting on a dreamy ship toward the west and exploring the mystical and ethereal land of the west. The narrator recalls that he always ended at an ivy wall with a gate in it. After years of unrelenting depression in the real world, the narrator decides that he will try and go through the gate of his dreams, wherein he swallows “the drug”. After opening the door, he realizes quickly (and to his delight) that his expectations of what lay beyond were completely wrong.

Cthulhu lovers take note, this early story of the sea god Dagon is considered to be part of the Cthulhu mythos. In Dagon, the protagonist is lost at sea for days, wading through dead fish and other foulness, until he comes to an island with a monolith on a rocky hillside. After reading the pictographs, his eyes land on the terrible image of a monster rising from the sea. When he wakes up in a San Francisco hospital he thinks the ordeal is over - that is, until the sea god comes to haunt his waking and sleeping life.

In this story by H.P. Lovecraft, the line between man and beast is blurred. The Beast in the Cave follows the story of a man who gets separated from his group of tourists. They’ve all come to see the mammoth cave, but the man fears that it might be the last wonder he sees as he continues to wander further from his group. Eventually, his torch runs out of fuel and he is left with no other choice but to fend off approaching inhuman footsteps with the toss of a rock.

Kuranes, an English Nobleman ill-content with his real life, once dreamed of the city of Celephaïs. Many years later, at the height of his discontent, he manages to slip away permanently into his dreams. After a guided recollection of his childhood, he comes upon Celephaïs. While his psyche happily remains guard over the city, his body is found back in the real world, washed ashore on the banks of his family’s land.

Revenge, death, and destruction abound in this early short story by H.P. Lovecraft. The story follows Antoine, a count who is last in line to die at the age of 32 due to a curse put on his family hundreds of years prior. His ancestor, being responsible for the death, brought about the curse, and Antoine was left to watch all his family, including his manservant, die an early death. But when his time comes and he is exploring the castle in wait, he manages to successfully end the curse by deflecting the fatal blow of Charles - the son of the man who was killed so many years ago.