15 Tuesday Nov 2011
Posted in Historical context, Podcasts etc.
A blast from the past: a 45-minute BBC radio discussion on The Gothic (2001). Covers the history of the literary and architectural gothic in the British Isles. May only be available from the online “listen again…” service for those in the UK (others might try here). Part of the BBC’s outstanding “In Our Time” series.
14 Monday Nov 2011
Posted in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts
I found a new Lovecraft documentary, or at least new to me. Sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (“major grant awarded in the Spring of 2011”) and the Center for Independent Documentary. The directors of Finding Lovecraft only have this trailer at present, released June 2011…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N438T1Wylk&w=560&h=315]
“a feature-length documentary fantasy, now in production in Providence, RI. We explore the life and unique style of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, and illustrate his unique legacy using an innovative mix of narrative and documentary storytelling. A Lovecraft-inspired story unfolds for the filmmakers as we delve into the life of this extraordinary character through archival research and expert interviews.”
I was disconcerted to hear the director say in the trailer that he’s one of those who simply dislikes all of Lovecraft’s fiction. Seriously, does he really mean to say he couldn’t find anything to like, not even “The Cats of Ulthar”? But it seems the documentary is to focus instead on the the life and letters, and the various ‘Lovecraft’ places in Rhode Island. I think Finding Lovecraft will be the fourth substantial documentary:— it will follow the workmanlike but flawed The Eldritch Influence: The Life, Vision, and Phenomenon of H.P. Lovecraft (2004); the excellent Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (2009); and the 45-minute BBC Radio documentaries The Young Man of Providence (BBC Radio 4, 1983), and Weird Tales: the Strange Life of H.P. Lovecraft (BBC Radio 3, 2006). I’d love to see someone make a proper Ken Burns-style Lovecraft documentary about his time in New York City.
14 Monday Nov 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
A fine poster for the movie The Captured Bird…
“The film is inspired by a nightmare that Jovanka’s twin brother had when he was a child, the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, the fables of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen”
It’s a successfully crowd-funded $25,000 film, expected to complete in December, and will then be shown only on the film festivals circuit during 2012.
13 Sunday Nov 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
A behind-the-scenes look at the miniature sets created for the movie of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Talking of movies, Aaron Vanek has a substantial round-up of the 2011 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.
13 Sunday Nov 2011
Posted in New books
Coming at the end of November from Night Shade Books, The Miscellaneous Writings of Clark Ashton Smith…
“gathers together the adventure, juvenilia and other non-fantastic fiction … editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger have prepared this volume by comparing original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith’s notes and letters, in order to prepare a definitive set of texts”
12 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Scholarly works
Some new open dissertations/theses:
From 2010, The Gothic as a Practice: Gothic Studies, Genre and the Twentieth Century Gothic (doesn’t address Lovecraft in any substantial way, but may be conceptually useful to some).
From August 2011, Radical Realms: A Materialist Theory of Fantasy Literature (undergraduate)
Also noted while searching, though either not online or behind a paywall…
* Smith, P. (2011), “Re-visioning Romantic-Era Gothicism: An Introduction to Key Works and Themes in the Study of H.P. Lovecraft”. Literature Compass, 8 (Nov 2011), pages 830–839.
* Aaron Smuts, “Pickman’s Model”: Horror and the Objective Purport of Photographs”. Revue internationale de philosophie, 2010/4 (No. 254).
* David Farnell, “Unlikely Utopians: Ecotopian Dreaming in H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Shadow over Innsmouth’ and Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood”, Arena Journal, issue 35-36 (2011)
* A Canadian 2010 M.A. disseration called “Spectres of Darwin: H.P. Lovecraft’s Nihilistic Parody of Religion”.
12 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
S.T. Joshi has updated his blog with news of new projects and progress on old ones. A updated and enlarged edition of the collection of Lovecraft’s poetry, The Ancient Track. The possibility of “an anthology of original stories based on At the Mountains of Madness“. Joshi’s history of supernatural fiction, Unutterable Horror, in set for Autumn 2012.
12 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts
Miskatonic School for Girls raises $36k on Kickstarter.
Does any reader know how someone from the UK might get on Kickstarter? It seems to be the only site worth using for crowd-funding, but they’re apparently “USA only”.
12 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, New books
Alan Moore’s Neonomicon mini-series is collected as a graphic novel, and available for pre-order with a 25th Nov release date. The book also includes the earlier The Courtyard. Not sure if there are any nice extras like a text-fiction continuation of the story. It seems not. Personally, I found the art more memorable than the story…
11 Friday Nov 2011
Posted in Odd scratchings
Zompist gives an intelligent newb’s impression of first encountering H.P. Lovecraft (specifically, the classic At the Mountains of Madness). This may just about sum up some people’s reaction to a great deal of Lovecraft and similar ‘old fashioned’ writing, among those who buy such books expecting all the streamlining of a modern ‘speed-read’ supermarket novel…
“What stands out about both stories is the narrative technique, which I find so antiquated that it’s hard to deal with. Bluntly, the narration hides the good stuff as long as possible. It approaches the theme from way off, teases us with ambiguous details, goes out of its way to suggest that there may be rationalistic explanations or it may all be mad hallucinations. This was kind of standard for the period, of course, but Lovecraft takes it to an extreme. I let him go on and on, but I think it’s not to modern tastes.”
11 Friday Nov 2011
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
Click on the “Look Inside” at the Amazon page for the new The White People and Other Weird Stories — and the 10% Kindle preview gives you the excellent introductions by del Toro and S.T. Joshi, for free…
del Toro: “Philosophers, writers, and artists are rarely emotionally successful human beings.”
S.T. Joshi: “…the supernatural can only manifest itself in literature when a relatively stable and coherent idea of the natural has been arrived at.”
S.T. Joshi: “…the best weird writers understood that supernatural motifs could serve as metaphors for the expression of truths about the human condition (the vampire as social outsider, for example) in a more vivid and pungent manner than in conventional mimetic realism.”
The book is not available in the U.K. Kindle Store (sigh…, when will publishers learn that publicity is now global and not national?), but U.K. readers can read the intro by going to the American Amazon store and clicking “Look Inside”. I guess you may have to be registered with the U.S. Amazon to do this.
11 Friday Nov 2011
Just found out about a 200 page book that gives an overview of the various incarnations of R.E. Howard’s Conan, Conan: the Phenomenon. Currently the hardback can be picked up on Amazon, used, for about $2.50.