Author Archives: William the Bloody

About William the Bloody

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

David Richter, The Progress of Romance

I’m reading David Richter’s The Progress of Romance: Literary Historiography and the Gothic Novel–one of the best books on literary theory I’ve read for a long while. It’s an undogmatic approach to the way that literature, and especially literary genres, … Continue reading

Posted in Books and Articles, Critical thoughts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Essays on Fantastic Fiction and SF

This is a very useful web page, with short reviews of books of essays on science fiction and other fantastic literature, covering such fields as steampunk and Afrofuturism, and by such authors as Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, … Continue reading

Posted in Books and Articles, Reading Lists | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Franziska Kohlt, ‘Alice in the asylum: Wonderland and the real mad tea parties of the Victorians’

An excellent article here by Franziska Kohlt, ‘Alice in the asylum: Wonderland and the real mad tea parties of the Victorians‘. Franziska looks at the Alice books and the theme of madness in the context of both the recent Disney … Continue reading

Posted in Books and Articles | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Review: Therapy for a Vampire

This new Austrian vampire film, Therapy for a Vampire looks well worth seeing–a subtle comedy with themes of psychoanalysis and the representation of women. A thoughtful review here (thanks to Stacey Abbott for sharing this).

Posted in Film Clips, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

CFP: Edited collection on iZombie

I’ve not seen the TV series iZombie (nor the graphic novel on which it is based) but I’ve heard very enthusiastic reports on this new manifestation of the sympathetic zombie (of which one of our favourites, Daniel Waters’s Generation Dead … Continue reading

Posted in Call for Articles | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Genres, Classification, and Adventures in the Library

In my explorations of the endless swarming and interbreeding of genres that is contemporary popular fiction, I recently discovered a new species. Among the proliferating subsubsubgenres of paranormal romance and similar breeds, I’ve noticed quite a few that feature libraries … Continue reading

Posted in Books and Articles, Critical thoughts, Reading Lists | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Old French Fairy Tales

The Public Domain Review is a brilliant resource, full of all kinds of texts freely available on line, many of them very beautiful. Here, you can view a 1920 translation of Old French Fairy Tales by the Comtesse de Segur, … Continue reading

Posted in Resources | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, and the New Horror

I must confess I’m not a great fan of horror. But this excellent essay by Terrence Rafferty on a new wave of subtle and ambiguous literary horror does make me want to explore some of the writers here. Joyce Carol … Continue reading

Posted in Books and Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

Monkey Tales: Apes and Monkeys in Asian Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 14 Jun 2016-30 Oct 2016

Number one of Sam’s favourite shapeshifters is Monkey, the character from the Chinese epic Journey to the West which was made into a children’s TV series in Japan in the 1970s. By an uncanny coincidence, 2016 is the Year of … Continue reading

Posted in exhibitions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Generation Dead news

If you don’t know, Daniel Waters‘s Generation Dead and its sequels, Kiss of Life and Passing Strange are wonderful YA novels about teenagers who return from the dead and struggle to find autonomy and love. They’re brilliantly written, full of wit … Continue reading

Posted in Books and Articles, Generation Dead: YA Fiction and the Gothic news | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment