"To Build a Fire" by Jack London / A HorrorBabble Production

[@nemesisofeden]

Another excellent narration! I've only ever experienced a few winters that dropped to -45 Celsius. But they are terrifyingly beautiful. The stillness, the oppressive lightness of the air, the bite on any exposed flesh. The kind of cold that freezes your eyes when you step outside. It will humble a person.

[@Mbongmaxhl]

That first breath always makes me cough.

[@darkdragonsoul99]

man a story about a guy freezing to death while I'm currently attempting to not drop from heat stroke is an odd combo

[@Jose-oq6kj]

Jacob Gellar's "Fear of the Cold" autoplayed earlier, I've seen it before so I came here to hear the full story. Thank you. Its damn cold where I am. No heating really has changed my perspective, dreading the next 2 months.

[@nemesisofeden]

Jacob Geller is also where I first heard of this story.

[@TheHornedOne81]

I remember reading this back in High School. Shook my head then at "The Man's" actions, and still do. The dog was smarter.

[@LakeHatchineha]

High school!?! We’re reading this in 7th grade!

[@yuhitstasha5284]

& 8th

[@05cherryy]

@@LakeHatchineha im reading this in 11th what

[@donaldmccleary9015]

Great story and narration! Before I listened to your narration, I never considered this a horror story. Now, it truly belongs in that genre! Well done!

[@LikeALeadZeppelin]

This was fantastic. I haven't read the story in years but always remember bits of it when I'm walking to work in the dead of winter. I never realized how well it worked as horror.

[@mobucks555]

I read lots of horror. SCPs, King, even Lovecraft. Nothing scared me more than this.

[@bittybitty8233]

Thank you so much !! This is absolutely, positively , one of my most favorite stories EVER !!! IF I had a buck for every time I've read this.....

[@oliversmith9200]

Wow indeed. I read this once in High School, and while remembering it, lost track of the author and title. I've just finished hearing it again... I never thought I'd be happy to find a frozen body, but, I am, eh? Oh look... He got his legs wet! Poor man.

[@bittybitty8233]

@@oliversmith9200 lol...

[@Soup-man]

@@bittybitty8233 Heh, buck. Was that a reference to Call of the Wild?

[@HorrorBabble]

"To Build a Fire" is a short story by American author Jack London. This is the 1908 version, an oft-cited example of the naturalist movement that portrays the conflict of man vs. nature. Chapters: 00:15 - Introduction 00:44 - To Build a Fire Bandcamp link: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com/album/to-build-a-fire Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble Music and production by Ian Gordon Support us on Bandcamp or Patreon: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com www.patreon.com/horrorbabble HorrorBabble MERCH: teespring.com/stores/horrorbabble-merch Search HORRORBABBLE to find us on: AUDIBLE / ITUNES / SPOTIFY Home: www.horrorbabble.com Rue Morgue: www.rue-morgue.com Social Media: facebook.com/HorrorBabble instagram.com/horrorbabble twitter.com/HorrorBabble

[@jamiecameron7615]

Wonderful, this is another new one for me. HorrorBabble has become my classic horror dealer!! Thank you very much!!

[@HorrorBabble]

Horror Dealer - perfect! Ha. Ian

[@theburnedmale]

My favorite short story on my favorite narrator KZbinr..... like woah

[@briangreen1781]

This is such an excellent story on so many different levels. And, admittedly, I was surprised (albeit pleasantly) that you choose to narrate this selection. Well done and many thanks!

[@Pooknottin]

Thanks for the Fright Night referrence.

[@jojoheartspaypay]

Narration that warms in this cautionary tale, and a cautionary one indeed!

[@tuberbgd1787]

As a family we'd go camping & I would read this at night to everyone, made the kids appreciate the inviting campfire & there warm sleeping bags great memories 🏕️

[@oliversmith9200]

Read this as a youth in school. NEVER forgot it! Great to hear Horror Babble do it.

[@TheFutura]

One of my favorite short stories of all time

[@yellowbelly7863]

Love this. Got to read along with you and it was throughly enjoyable. I highly recommend "The Open Boat," by Stephan Crane, to anyone who enjoys Naturalism as much as I do. Its a really intense story that takes this overwhelming idea of man v. nature to the high seas...

[@Ivanhoe52]

I remember the harsh winter when we ran out of firewood, and truck with supply of new dry ones was late for days. I tried to pick up and axe-chop a leftover stump, but it was frozen-"cemented" into the ground and hard like a concrete brick. Living on a hill with extra snow. So we burned leftover parts of our tree log house-stashed fortunately. And during last year winter, tips of my toes went purple, and that hurts like hell...

[@DeimosDread]

As always a... chilling narration! Quite a cool delivery, one could even call it algid. Ah hell it was straight up frigid! Wow I better cool down, one more cold pun and you can call me Mr. Freeze!

[@DeimosDread]

I immediately regret this.

[@HorrorBabble]

I'll never forgive you for putting that image of Schwarzenegger in my head...!

[@DeimosDread]

This is the true origin story of Mr. Freeze. If you ever remaster this I expect several blarghs in his style.

[@paulcateiii]

great tale - thanks Ian nicely done

[@stevenmiller2427]

The first time I read this story, as a very young man, thought this was the scariest thing I had ever read.

[@Evelyn-pl3we]

This made my stomach churn. The worst horrors are the ones that can occur in reality

[@riphopfer5816]

This has always been a favourite of mine. Great addition to yr library, Ian; love your reading. An uniquely horrifying survival tale.

[@colemarie9262]

Alone at that temperature, even thirty degrees warmer, you are one trip over a tree stump from death. I don't think people who haven't experienced real, true freezing COLD can understand it. It's scary.

[@SpicyTexan64]

It's only people like you.

[@marksmith1074]

This is one of my favorite stories growing up.

[@Blairpark]

For my money, the best short story ever.

[@JasonGreensides]

Absolutely brilliant story and wonderfully read

[@seanjustinkvalsvig1581]

I just keep finding gems Thanks Bonnie

[@tikkidaddy]

Hypothermia is an intoxicating dream compared to Hyperthermia. The true cold hand of death. This is why I have spent countless hours learning fireceaft

[@MyFakeIronTrees]

Thank you for this great narration of a classic story!

[@arturprejna5143]

That was amazing! You little... Thanks, I needed that belly laugh.

[@CommissarCain1]

This is one of the story's that truly scare me

[@tikkidaddy]

Ian, I helped a young man build his first primitive fire with a fire piston the other day! It was amazing to watch his reaction as we produced flame from a bit of tinder and air pressure. The whole time this reading was echoing in my head. Great inspiration🔥🔥🔥🔥😂

[@winterhaydn5640]

Wow, crazy timing. I just started getting into Jack London audiobooks. (I've read some of his books a long time ago). ...Truly a vivid and talented author. ….I was also about to ask you if you plan to get into other genres - mysteries (Agatha Christie, Arthur Canon Doyle, etc.), dark fantasy, thrillers, etc. ….it's good to see you change things up a little! …..Too bad his story The Assassination Bureau Ltd doesn't seem to be in the public domain. Very cool book.

[@HorrorBabble]

Still looking into the possibility of other sister channels... so watch this space!

[@Anthony-gh5yu]

Amazing channel love the content

[@patrickdrury1480]

Fantastic!

[@violetfemme411]

WOW...that was certainly beyond horrific...the subject matter, not ur reading Ian 😉 That was brilliant as usual. I'm not familiar with much of London's work...and this was quite a pleasant albeit grueling way to start. And it reinforced my belief that man can create far more horror for himself without the slightest hint of anything supernatural. Bravo! 👏 Personally I would love to hear more like this...tho I'm certain the graphic images here in my head will stay with me for some time...the testimony to the magic of a well told tale.

[@HorrorBabble]

Thanks VF - glad you enjoyed this one. There's no truer horror than that of waking life. Ian

[@7thangelad586]

I love your narration! I wonder if you’ve ever considered some of Stephen King’s short stories, especially those which have elements of both horror and fantasy.

[@HorrorBabble]

Thank you! Unfortunately Mr King's works aren't in the public domain - we're a little bit restricted in that sense. Ian

[@DrChaunceyBlevins]

It would be nice to hear a rendition of 'The Moving Finger' 😱

[@docloop6240]

Great opening! very clever!

[@Haerleif]

Love this story! Great read

[@raidersoutlawstruckingmini1922]

Welcome to...lol. Great story and great reading. 👍

[@raymartinez5788]

👏👏👏 Great story. 💯

[@wikikomoto]

hmm. i think it was cold

[@preuspevatel]

Thanks from Russia.

[@faithcastillo9597]

Once again I'm reminded of how much I love Jack London's writing.

[@rickyhurtt8692]

Well I figured the whole way thru atleast after the dummy died the dog would eat good and he ran off instead

[@wewearmaskshere2577]

This has always been a favorite. It never gets old.

[@rexthibs4312]

The unabridged version is even better

[@JanMike9]

Outstanding! How about 'The Price of the Head' by John Russell? For some reason my brain always puts these two short stories together; probably read them both around the same time in elementary school.

[@HorrorBabble]

Hmm...!

[@michaelwalter3399]

No idea Jack London wrote stories like this.

[@sauldominguez7943]

Thank you, I was too lazy to read this for English class

[@idestroy_gamer0522]

Section 1 Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o'clock. There was no sun nor hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun. This fact did not worry the man. He was used to the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the sky-line and dip immediately from view. The man flung a look back along the way he had come. The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice-jams of the freeze-up had formed. North and south, as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white, save for a dark hair-line that curved and twisted from around the spruce-covered island to the south, and that curved and twisted away into the north, where it disappeared behind another spruce-covered island. This dark hair-line was the trail-the main trail-that led south five hundred miles to the Chilcoot Pass, Dyea, and salt water; and that led north seventy miles to Dawson, and still on to the north a thousand miles to Nulato, and finally to St. Michael on Bering Sea, a thousand miles and half a thousand more

[@Footy-Ai-1]

Thx for video help for homework :)

[@sartaj6636]

Woah

[@highgoat6474]

Jack London wrote such great cautionary tales. Great reading of this story. Thank you!

[@gspendlove]

Reminds me of the song "The Frozen Logger."

[@auroramariealmeara8622]

Colorado

[@ennm130]

😢😢😢😢😢

[@Lubey8]

wtf am i watching

[@bobbymarcum772]

Lol heh roffle roffle

[@dickp9486]

Abridged. I’m highly disappointed!

[@HorrorBabble]

Actually, there are 2 versions of this story, each with a plot of its own. An 'abridged' version doesn't exist. This is a reading of the 1908 version (as stated in the video description).

[@TheWaterdog6]

I don't really see how this is a horror. It is more of a dumb guy not taking advice and getting what was coming to him. Half the fear you experience is from wanting the character to survive. I really didn't care and his obvious fate was no surprise. It is not my place to tell you what to do, but I would stick to your supernatural horror tradition.

[@HorrorBabble]

We've always tackled social and real-life horror. The fate of the protagonist in this tale is truly horrific, and relatable in a way supernatural horror rarely is. I believe it's always better to keep the door open to a wide range of sub-genres - you never know when you'll find horror lurking in the shadows. Either way, thanks for listening. Ian

[@DrChaunceyBlevins]

A consistent avenue of horror is that of facing down death. Survival of or submission to it is hardly the point. Here we have isolation, regret, frostbite, mortality... It may be subtle, but absolutely horrible, nonetheless.

[@JanMike9]

@@DrChaunceyBlevins Man vs Nature includes some of the most real-life horror in existence. The attitude of those who feel they would do better just shows the folly of Man.

[@JanMike9]

I just wanted the dog to survive, actually.

[@johnbryant8603]

Jibbrish. After the Canadian, Moat, London is a boy.

[@sirandrelefaedelinoge]

Speaking of GIBBERISH have you read your own comment...?

[@anitacigarette]

That was a sad one. :( Thanks!