Author Archives: William the Bloody

About William the Bloody

Cat lover. 18C scholar on the dialogue and novel. Co-convenor OGOM Project

Images of Witches

Posted on 22nd May 2017 by William the Bloody

Some excellent articles on witches today. First, Chloe Buckley, in ‘Hag, temptress or feminist icon? The witch in popular culture‘, looks at images of witches in popular culture, both positive and disparaging. She notes the contemporary feminist rehabilitation of the … Continue reading →

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Fairy Tales and Medieval Latin Literature

Posted on 17th May 2017 by William the Bloody

There’s a new book from the University of Michigan Press by Jan M. Ziolkowski, Fairy Tales from Before Fairy Tales: The Medieval Latin Past of Wonderful Lies which traces the connections between the classic tales of Grimm, Andersen, and so on, and … Continue reading →

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Art project: Martin O’Brien: For The Dead Travel Fast

Posted on 17th May 2017 by William the Bloody

A great opportunity here for artists who have Undead affinities with Martin O’Brien and the For The Dead Travel Fast project, with funded workshops and visits to Dracula-related sites in Whitby and Transylvania. This project will take 5 artists on … Continue reading →

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The Postmillennial Vampire

Posted on 16th May 2017 by William the Bloody

Congratulations to Dr Sue Chaplin of Leeds Beckett University on her new book, The Postmillennial Vampire: Power, Sacrifice and Simulation in True Blood, Twilight and Other Contemporary Narratives, out now from Palgrave Macmillan. This book explores the contemporary figure of … Continue reading →

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Fairy Tale Pathology

Posted on 13th May 2017 by William the Bloody

To my mind, this advice by Sandhya Raghavan on ‘6 famous fairy tales you should never let your child read‘ seems like parody; these readings, if serious, are reductive, mechanistic, and unimaginative. Yet the alleged harmful effects of fairy tales … Continue reading →

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Edward Gorey

Posted on 13th May 2017 by William the Bloody

A very interesting essay by Gabrielle Bellot on Edward Gorey, artist and narrator of dark Gothic humour.

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Ursula Le Guinn, The Left Hand of Darkness

Posted on 13th May 2017 by William the Bloody

One of the most important science fiction novels, Ursula Le Guinn’s  The Left Hand of Darkness is to be televised. The novel is a profound and moving exploration of the fluidity of gender; it’s also beautifully written, which is rare … Continue reading →

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The Obscure Cities

Posted on 11th May 2017 by William the Bloody

These illustrations from François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters’s series of graphic novels, Les Cités Obscures depict a marvellous steampunk-ish parallel world that I hope you find delightful. Thanks to the Messy Nessy Cabinet of Chic Curiosities website, which is full of treats … Continue reading →

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Kafka in animation

Posted on 11th May 2017 by William the Bloody

The excellent Open Culture website (a marvellous repository of open source texts of all kinds) has four wonderful animations from around the world of Franz Kafka’s dark fables.

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Red Riding Hood and Illustrations

Posted on 11th May 2017 by William the Bloody

Pook Press are a small independent publisher who do some lovely editions of fairy tales and classic children’s literature. Every fortnight, they post a different fairy tale on their blog; this is Perrault’s very familiar version of ‘Red Riding Hood‘, … Continue reading →

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