More noting of the titles of papers given at recent academic conferences:

James Machin (Birkbeck College, UK), “Music Against Horror: H.P. Lovecraft and Schopenhauer’s aesthetics”. Given at the May 2011 academic conference on Literature and Music.

Jonathan Paquette (Community College of R.I./University of R.I, USA), “H.P. Lovecraft and the Quebecois”. Given at the New England Historical Association Spring Conference 2012.

Christos Callow (University of Lincoln, UK), “The Key to the Gate of Dreams: searching for utopia in H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands”. Video available. Given at the 13th Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, July 2012.

Fred Botting (Kingston University, UK), “More Things: horror, materialism and speculative realism” (said to be “a discussion of speculative realist philosophy and H.P. Lovecraft”). Given at Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2012, June 2012.

Benjamin Mitchell (York University, UK), “The Synthetic Folklore of H.P. Lovecraft: scientific mythology, the Necronomicon and the fetishization of the occult grimoire”. Given at ‘Generative Figurations’ conference, University Toronto, Canada, June 2012.

The summary ‘abstracts’ of papers delivered at the recent Zurich conference “Transitions and Dissolving Boundaries in the Fantastic”, 13th to 16th September 2012. Two of the papers on Lovecraft have abstracts…

“Cosmic Fear. H.P. Lovecraft, die Poetik des Unaussprechlichen und der Horrorfilm” (In German. Translates as: “Cosmic Fear: H.P. Lovecraft, the poetics of the unspeakable, and the horror film”).

“Hybrids as the monstrous in H.P. Lovecraft’s writing” (In English. Examines… “the question of hybridity in three of his short stories”).

A classroom-based education day at City Lit in London, Anthropology: H.P. Lovecraft, esotericism and popular culture. 6th October 2012. Cost is £38. It…

“explores the extensive cultural influence of the work of author Howard Phillips Lovecraft and his fictional ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ upon a range of contemporary ‘alternative’ beliefs such as ufology, cryptozoology and esotericism.”

Those who have paywall access to the prestigious science publication Nature may like to have a look at the two page article in the latest issue, “Science Fiction: the radium age” [1903-1934]… Nature 489, 13th September 2012, pp.204–205…

“Joshua Glenn explores the dark, fascinating, largely forgotten science fiction of the early twentieth century”

The Bodley Head / Financial Times Essay Prize aims to…

“attract the best young talent in long-form essay writing. Open to writers aged 18 to 35, the competition prize is £1,000. Plus an e-publication with Bodley Head, and a mentoring session with a Bodley Head or a FT writer.”

I completely missed the news of the Weird Council: an International Conference on the Writing of China Mieville, which finished yesterday in London. But there’s news that an edited book collection of essays on China Mieville will come out in 2013, arising from the conference.

New online:

* Miguel Bernardo Olmedo Morell (2012), “Three representations of the fall in Lovecraft’s dream cycle”, Revista de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, No.11, September 2012. (In English. The stories “The Other Gods”, “The Doom that Came to Sarnath”, and “The Quest of Iranon” are analyzed in relation to the myths of Icarus, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Biblical Eden).

Added to the “Lovecraft on the Web” directory:

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies in the Preternatural, an academic journal from Penn State University Press…

“a rigorously peer-reviewed interdisciplinary forum for original research that touches on the appearance of magic, prophecy, demonology, monstrophy, the occult, and related topics that stand in the liminal space between the natural world and the preternatural.”

The first issue has been published, and the Fall 2012 issue is apparently set to be themed: “Anomalous Ethnographies: Wild Wonders, Diminutive People and Reticent Races”.

Preternature replaces the old Journal for the Academic Study of Magic (2003-2009).

Some final extra-dimensional summonings for the Open Lovecraft page…

* Luciana Martinez (2009), “En busca del lenguaje del horror: H.P. Lovecraft segun Alberto Breccia”, Extravio: revista electronica de literatura comparada, 4, 2009. (In Spanish, English abstract: “analyzes Alberto Breccia’s transpositions of the H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos in the 1970s”).

* Keira McKenzie (2009), “Triggering Time’s Trapdoor”, online at inter-disciplinary.net. (On the nature of Lovecraft’s monsters).

* Ben Woodard (2011), “A Nature to Pulp the Stoutest Philosopher: towards a Lovecraftian philosophy of nature”, Incognitum Hactenus: art, philosophy, horror, Vol.1, No.1, 2011.

Three more for the Open Lovecraft listings page…

* Jose Carlos Gil (2010), “Poe and Lovecraft: interior and cosmic terror”, Revista Anglo-Saxonica, Vol.3, No.1, 2010. (Portugese journal, but article is in English. This is a special Poe issue of Revista Anglo-Saxonica.)

* Roberto Garcia Alvarez (2010), “La masoneria en la obra de H.P. Lovecraft”, Masoneria y Literatura, Vol.1, No.4, July 2010. (On freemasonry in the work of H.P. Lovecraft. In Spanish).

* Jose Carlos Gil (2009), “H.P. Lovecraft: im icone da cultura ocidental contemporanea”, BANG! revista de literatura e fantasyico, No.6. February 2009. (In Portugese, explores the importance of Lovecraft for western culture, and specifically for Portugese culture. Continues in BANG! 7 and BANG! 9).