Category Archives: Critical thoughts
Fairy News: Jeanette Ng, Holly Black, Carnival Row, Queen Mab, and Irish sidhe
the fae are the mythical creatures of the hour. Sometimes they’re portrayed as monstrous, sometimes as tricksters, sometimes as sensuous love interests So says Samantha Shannon, who is herself a superb fantasy novelist. So the next OGOM event, our conference … Continue reading
Posted in Critical thoughts, OGOM: Ill met by moonlight, Reviews
Tagged Brontës, Carnival Row, fairies, Fantasy, Gothic fairies, neo-Victorianism, Percy Shelley, Queen Mab, Romanticism, sidhe, steampunk, TV
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Hans Andersen’ s Dark Musings From A Discarded Christmas Tree
I have been reading Hans Andersen’s unsettling account of a Christmas fir tree that feels pain. I was reminded of this story last year when I came across Lars Ostenfeld’s beautifully sad and poignant adaptation of The Fir Tree (Danish: Grantræet) on the … Continue reading
Posted in Critical thoughts
Tagged Discarded Christmas trees, Fir Tree, Hans Andersen
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How Scooby Doo Influenced A Whole Generation of Gothic Scholars
If you were one of those kids who rushed home from school in the 70s to watch Scooby Doo it might just have influenced you in your Gothic thinking and in your understanding of the way Gothic stories are told. … Continue reading
What Happens to a Werewolf in the Harvest Moon?
The condition of shapeshifting into a wolf in the full moon is, of course, known as lycanthropy. September brings us the full moon closest to the Autumn equinox. The Harvest Moon will appear bigger and brighter tonight and will inspire … Continue reading
Posted in Critical thoughts
Tagged English eerie, Folklore, harvest moon, old stinker, Werewolves
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Every Time A Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings
I am writing on Hans Andersen in my forthcoming book on shadow play and despite the discourse of suffering and redemption, the stories are full of imagination and sensibility, and are always heart-wrenchingly empathic. Many of the tales have a … Continue reading
Twilight: feminism and fandom
It’s the ten-year anniversary of the first film of Stephenie Meyers’s Twilight series (Twilight, dir. by Catherine Hardwicke), the YA vampire paranormal romance which became a sensation. Both book and film, and the adulation both received, attracted much criticism, often … Continue reading
Vampires: Dracula, James Joyce, Jane Austen, bats, and Marx
Again, a bit too late for Hallowe’en, but a handful of essays on vampires here: 1. Recent research at the London Library on Bram Stoker’s annotations to source material for Dracula: ‘The Books That Made Dracula‘. 2. Austen Gilkeson, ‘The … Continue reading
Posted in Critical thoughts
Tagged bats, Bram Stoker, capitalism, Carmilla, cinema, Dracula, graveyards, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Marx, Père Lachaise, Valeska Suratt, Vampires
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Frankenstein: essays and 1910 film
A bit behind with blogging, so quite a few Frankenstein items have accumulated (it being, as I’m sure you’ll know, the 200th anniversary of the novel’s publication). First, a brief discussion, with some very useful links, of the claim by … Continue reading
Posted in Critical thoughts
Tagged art, Film, Frankenstein, Ireland, Mary Shelley, moral philosophy, morality, science, science fiction
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Older than Dracula: in search of the English vampire
Older than Dracula: in search of the English vampire The Premature Burial. Antoine Wiertz (1854) Sam George, University of Hertfordshire The story of Count Dracula as many of us know it was created by Bram Stoker, an Irishman, in 1897. … Continue reading