Author Archives: William the Bloody

About William the Bloody

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

Fairy Tale Films

Posted on 15th August 2016 by William the Bloody

Some interesting recommendations here of ten fairy tale films that are not so mainstream. I’ve seen five of these, and am intrigued by the rest. Adaptations of Grimm, Perrault, and Andersen appear, of course, but also tales from the Arabian … Continue reading →

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Alan Garner — review essay

Posted on 15th August 2016 by William the Bloody

Alan Garner is one of the finest fantasy writers for children, though his work goes beyond both that genre and that audience. Michael Newton, in an excellent essay here, reviews First Light, ‘a festschrift of essays, reminiscences, poems and stories … Continue reading →

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5 YA Sci-Fi & Fantasy Series Adults Need to Read

Posted on 10th August 2016 by William the Bloody

Some very appealing suggestions here for Young Adult SF and fantasy. I’m not sure how they overlap with paranormal romance but I’ll be investigating these.

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Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber televised

Posted on 10th August 2016 by William the Bloody

I have to confess I’m not usually a fan of high/epic fantasy, but I make an exception for Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber series, where the quasi-medieval world of Amber overlaps with our own and a host of shady worlds … Continue reading →

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Fairy tale and the bizarre

Posted on 10th August 2016 by William the Bloody

A very stimulating essay here by Tobias Carroll, ‘Why we love weird fairy tales’, tracing the career of the unsettling imagery found in the original fairy tale–here, particularly Giambattista Basile’s seventeenth-century collection The Tale of Tales. Carroll then shows the … Continue reading →

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Maggie Stiefvater live on line

Posted on 10th August 2016 by William the Bloody

The fabulous YA author Maggie Stiefvater is taking part in the SLJ Teen on-line conference alongside the author Meg Medina from 10.00 am – 5.00 pm EDT today–that’s 5 hours behind GMT, so it will begin at 4.00 pm in … Continue reading →

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Buffy singalong!

Posted on 10th August 2016 by William the Bloody

Devotees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will be aware of the many experiments with genre that the series carried out, most notably the musical episode ‘Once more with feeling’ (season 6, episode 7). The episode explores ideas of communication and … Continue reading →

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SF and Romance

Posted on 6th August 2016 by William the Bloody

The worlds of science fiction and romance may seem antithetical but, as in the encounter of Gothic with romance that generates paranormal romance, the romance genre insinuates its way into the, perhaps, masculine, rationalist world of SF. Here, Gail Carriger, … Continue reading →

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Soviet Communism and Technological Utopia

Posted on 6th August 2016 by William the Bloody

The Soviet version of communism was infused with optimism about technology as much as about social transformation. Soviet science fiction expresses this utopianism, and there’s some great artwork here; there’s an imaginative power to these images that goes beyond the … Continue reading →

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Film noir and the Gothic

Posted on 5th August 2016 by William the Bloody

In a fascinating article, ‘Gothic Cinema in the ‘40s: Doomed Romance and Murderous Melodrama‘, Samm Deighan explores the overlaps between horror, film noir, and women’s films of the 1940s, and finding the Gothic mode there. Deighan discusses well-known classics such … Continue reading →

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