A cover, contents list, and release date (Dec 2012) for the forthcoming fungi-themed fiction anthology, Fungi…
Fungi from Innsmouth
04 Wednesday Jul 2012
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, New books
Author Archives: asdjfdlkf
World Fantasy Convention 2013 in Brighton
03 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted in Odd scratchings
Just heard from S.T. Joshi, via his new blog post, that the World Fantasy Convention is happening in Brighton in late 2013. 31st Oct – 3rd November to be precise. For those who don’t know the British Isles, Brighton is the hip seaside playground town for London.
The Uncanny
02 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Historical context, Podcasts etc.
An excellent new half-hour BBC Radio 4 documentary on the meaning and history of ‘the uncanny’. Three days left to ‘listen again’, online. Listeners outside the UK may need to use a UK proxy, to access the audio stream.
Yuggoth?
02 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Astronomy, Historical context, Unnamable
Over on the Urania blog, a new scholarly/scientific essay in Italian by Albino Carbognani, on Lovecraft’s first publication in a national journal. This was the letter to Scientific American, advising on a method of detecting the presence of possible planets beyond Neptune…
From the conclusion of Carbognani’s essay (my approximate translation), in which he suggests naming any beyond-Pluto planet ‘Yuggoth’…
“In 1999 two groups of researchers claimed to have proof of the presence of an unknown planet at the edges of the solar system, due to the alignment of [the paths of] long-period comets [but today, to prove such a theory] there is [still] the need to have a [wider] sample of long-period comets that is free from selection effects. Full details of this kind may be provided by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, to be launched in the spring of 2013. Gaia should allow the discovery of about 1,000 long-period comets during its five year mission. Will an analysis of the distribution of [their] cometary aphelia [paths] give us details about the existence of a true ‘Yuggoth’ planet? It would be very symbolic to call any [new outer] planet by that name, the name summoned from the fervid imagination of Lovecraft to designate the hypothetical trans-Neptunian planetary body that he anticipated astronomers should find the edge of the Solar System.”
Incidentally that very same edition of Scientific American carried an ad for the Remington, the same typewriter Lovecraft had used to type his letter…
“Lovecraft on the Web” Directory checked and repaired
02 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Housekeeping
I’ve completed the annual “check, clean and repair” on this blog’s “Lovecraft on the Web” Directory.
Lovecraft et ses mythes intimes
02 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Scholarly works
A scholarly paper that appears to be new online: Gilbert Lascault, “Lovecraft et ses mythes intimes” (“Lovecraft and his intimate myths”). It appears to be pages 175-190 from Territoires des Fantastiques (1998), published by the Presses de l’Universite de Provence. As best I can judge it’s a survey of the rhetoric of “the monstrous” in Lovecraft’s fiction.
Caves in context
01 Sunday Jul 2012
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
An interesting short survey article on the transforming 18th century understanding of caves, “The Mighty Cavern of the Past“, which may shed some light on the ways in which the young Lovecraft’s mind approached the idea of ‘the cave’.
Above: “The Dead Sea”, engraving of Mammoth Cave by Alfred R. Waud, printed in Every Saturday, 1871.
Old paths and legends of New England
30 Saturday Jun 2012
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
Two books found on the Internet Archive…
Old paths and legends of New England (1908 edition)
Old paths and legends of the New England border (1907 edition)
Dead Reckonings No.11, out now
27 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
Out now, a new issue of Dead Reckonings: a review of horror literature. Including a review of Massimo Berruti’s Dim-Remembered Stories: a critical study of R.H. Barlow (2011).
Necronomicon 2013
27 Wednesday Jun 2012
Posted in Odd scratchings
An early dating of the Providence Necronomicon… August 2013. Exact dates and venue to be announced.
Jamie Bishop Memorial Award
26 Tuesday Jun 2012
Posted in Scholarly works
The call is out for the 2012 Jamie Bishop Memorial Award, for a critical essay on the fantastic. 3,000-10,000 words, deadline 1st September 2012.
Queer pussy
26 Tuesday Jun 2012
Posted in Scholarly works
Mention of an interesting-sounding academic paper, presented last month at the Queertopia! queer studies conference in northwest Australia…
Alexandra Edwards, “Like some monstrous stealthy cat”: queerness and felinomorphism in Charles Brockden Brown, Henry James, and H.P. Lovecraft.
Edwards won the English Department’s Best Graduate Essay prize with the paper, but sadly it’s not online. The term “felinomorphism” appears to come via the parody Ground Zero by Paul Lysymy, which makes me think the paper might be also in that line(?).