White Wolves in and out of the Academy

Posted on 16th May 2017 by Sam George

OGOM is keeping track of wolf related stories ahead of the Being Human Festival in November. I posted earlier that May is the month of the wolf and Dr Catherine Spooner, a plenary at the now legendary Company of Wolves conference  and contributor to the OGOM’s forthcoming book The Company of Wolves: Werewolves, Wolves, and Wild Children – Narratives of Sociality and Animality is giving a talk at London College of Fashion on 22nd of this month entitled ‘Wearing the wolf: fur, fashion and species transvestism’. The talk begins at 6.00 pm and is free but you must book via the event site here 

I have some sad news to add to this unfortunately the BBC have reported that a mature female white wolf has been shot in Yellowstone prompting a 3,500 dollar reward. I have written about my own encounter with Lincoln’s white wolves previously on the blog (see my photo above) and Catherine’s essay for the book has many insights into the symbolism of the white wolf. I learnt recently that Freud’s ‘wolf man’ dreamt only of white wolves (see below). You can see my comments on an exhibition which featured his famous paintings here. 

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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 have been discussed, by both conservatives and progressives, going back at least to the eighteenth-century.

In fact, fiction itself has always come under suspicion, but that which partakes of the irrational and anti-realist particularly, as does that intended for children (perhaps understandably). But the explicit lawlessness, violence, and sexuality of the unexpurgated fairy tale attracts more attention than most other genres (which is why fairy tales become expurgated–or rewritten–in the first place).

Today, they are more likely to offend liberal mores, or, as with Disney’s sweetened versions, come under attack precisely because of that expurgation. It’s an interesting topic, one which raises ideas about autonomy and the interpretive freedom of the reader; I leave it here for discussion.

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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 in SF>

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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 from Paris and elsewhere, for revealing this.

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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‘, a tale of much interest to the lupophiles of the OGOM Project, but I’ve posted it because it has some fine illustrations of the tale. I’ve also added a link to Pook Press on the sidebar Related Links and to their very interesting blog in Blogroll.

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Jack Zipes on the Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Posted on 11th May 2017 by William the Bloody

The renowned fairy tale critic Jack Zipes has a new book out on the diverse manifestations of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice motif in folklore and literature, from Lucian and Ovid, through the Grimms, to Harry Potter. There’s a thought-provoking interview with Zipes here, where he discusses ideas of Enlightenment, world-transformation, and rebellion via Frankfurt School theory.

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Penda’s Fen: Symposium, BFI, 10 June 2017

Posted on 11th May 2017 by William the Bloody

We’ve posted a few items here on Folk Horror recently. The classic TV drama Penda’s Fen (1974) is frequently mentioned in this context; I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never seen it (though have just borrowed the DVD). Sukhdev Sandhu writes about the film here. Now Birkbeck University of London, with the BFI and Strange Attractor Press, have organised Child be Strange, a symposium on the film, 10 June 2017.

When Penda’s Fen was first broadcast in 1974, The Times commented that it was a ‘major work of television’, only for the film to vanish into unseen cult status – viewing Penda’s Fen became a clandestine activity for esoteric enthusiasts. Its recent BFI DVD release marks a revival of interest in the film, and it is now recognised as an extraordinary countercultural investigation of landscape, myth, and the self at a crucial moment in post-war Britain. This symposium brings together academics and writers to excavate this weird and wonderful artefact.

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Divine Horror: Essays on the Cinematic Battle Between the Sacred and the Diabolical

Posted on 10th May 2017 by William the Bloody

There’s a new collection announced from McFarland, Divine Horror: Essays on the Cinematic Battle Between the Sacred and the Diabolical, edited by Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper. It looks very promising.

From Rosemary’s Baby (1968) to The Witch (2015), horror films use religious entities to both inspire and combat fear and to call into question or affirm the moral order. Churches provide sanctuary, clergy cast out evil, religious icons become weapons, holy ground becomes battleground—but all of these may be turned from their original purpose.

This collection of new essays explores fifty years of genre horror in which manifestations of the sacred or profane play a material role. The contributors explore portrayals of the war between good and evil and their archetypes in such classics as The Omen (1976), The Exorcist (1973) and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), as well as in popular franchises like Hellraiser and Hellboy and cult films such as God Told Me To (1976), Thirst (2009) and Frailty (2001).

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