Hand-made map of the history of Science Fiction, imagined as a Lovecraftian monster
11 Friday Mar 2011
Posted in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts, Maps, Odd scratchings, Scholarly works
Category Archives: Scholarly works
Kindle edition of Ice Cores
24 Thursday Feb 2011
Posted in Historical context, New books, Scholarly works
The new Kindle edition of my Ice Cores: essays on Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness is available now in the UK and in the USA. Slightly revised, and with another four passes of proofreading to correct a few minor niggles from the print edition. Hand coded for the Kindle, with illustrations.
Talking of Kindle / ebook sales, Barnes & Noble’s chief executive William Lynch says…
“we now sell twice as many ebooks as we do physical books at BN.com”
New journal on science fiction
08 Tuesday Feb 2011
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
A new Spanish-language journal of science-fiction, Sci-Fdi : Revista de ciencia ficcion. Three issues so far, and the articles include one on Ray Bradbury’s stint with EC’s horror comics, 1951-1954, during which time 27 of Bradbury’s stories were closely adapted by Al (Albert B.) Feldstein. Initially pirated, but Bradbury was a comics fan and so he eventually found out and asked for a fee. He got it, to EC’s credit.
Colby Quarterly
30 Sunday Jan 2011
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
The Colby Quarterly may be of interest to those seeking to place Lovecraft in the wider context of New England writers. The full-text of the journal is now online for free, 1943-2003. The journal…
“solicited [articles] on Maine authors and Maine history, including books and authors that had influenced Maine life and letters [and as the journal expanded to cover a wider range of English literature] The special interest in Maine and regional history and literature was maintained, now including the neighboring provinces of Canada”
I Am (in) New York
04 Tuesday Jan 2011
Posted in New books, Scholarly works
Sigh. It seems my copy of S.T. Joshi’s magnum opus Lovecraft biography I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft is still in the USA. I had a shipping notification on 28th October 2010, and had hoped it might be in my hands in the UK by Christmas. But I just checked the despatch number, and the system says it’s only just been accepted in the New York depot. Possibly in a crypt in the Red Hook district.
Incidentally, the book is now listed on Amazon USA ($100.00 from Amazon with free shipping). Perhaps it might have been quicker to wait for the Amazon listing, and then (assuming there are copies in their warehouse) rely on Amazon’s generally quite speedy service for the transatlantic shipping.
Weird Fiction Review #1
25 Thursday Nov 2010
Posted in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts, Scholarly works
Weird Fiction Review. The first issue is out now…
“The Weird Fiction Review is an annual periodical devoted to the study of weird and supernatural fiction. It is edited by S.T. Joshi. This first issue contains fiction, poetry, and reviews from leading writers and promising newcomers. … Among the articles, there are discussions of a forgotten story by Victorian weird writer R. Murray Gilchrist; Poe’s “The Imp of the Perverse”; Algernon Blackwood’s novella “A Descent into Egypt”; Neil Gaiman’s treatment of the Beowulf story; a 16-page full-color gallery of art by David Ho; and much more.”
Technology and the Horrible
24 Wednesday Nov 2010
Posted in Lovecraftian arts, Scholarly works
In Media Res is seeking curators for its spring schedule. Among the ‘theme weeks’ for which they are currently seeking proposals for curators include:
Technology and the Horrible
Proposals need not be any longer than a sentence or two. For more information, as well as deadlines for each individual week, please go to: Current Calls.
Curated pieces include a 30-second to 3-minute clip, an image, or a slideshow accompanied by a 300 to 350 word response to/contextualization of the clip, image, or slideshow. In addition to curating your piece, you will be expected to engage with the other pieces presented that week as a means of fostering discussion and further fleshing out the individual topic in relation to the week’s theme.
New H.G. Wells bibliography on The Time Machine
24 Sunday Oct 2010
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
Those interested in the possible influence of H.G. Wells on H.P. Lovecraft (Victorian pessimism about the ultimate fate of man in the light of advanced science and the unsustainability of religious belief, degeneration of the race, seamless blendings of horror and science fiction, the uncertainty of perception and world-understanding on the part of the scientific/rational narrator, tentacles, etc) might be interested that I’ve just published a Selected Bibliography of Scholarship on H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (PDF link, 220Kb). I undertook it as part of creating a new 18,000 word novelette The Time Machine: a sequel for the Amazon Kindle Store.
Speculative Heresy essay
21 Tuesday Sep 2010
Posted in Scholarly works
Ben Woodard of Speculative Heresy opens a week of essays with a long philosophical article on Lovecraft’s attitude to science, the categorisation of the natural world.
“That Crawford Tillinghast should ever have studied science and philosophy was a mistake. These things should be left to the frigid and impersonal investigator, for they offer two equally tragic alternatives to the man of feeling and action; despair if he fail in his quest, and terrors unutterable and unimaginable if he succeed.” — Lovecraft, in “From Beyond” (1920).
I note that the Speculative Heresy team link to the Open Humanities Alliance, who have a template up for a new academic ejournal, titled simply Monster. No issues or even any blurb yet, but I’d welcome an open access journal that sees contemporary philosophers tackling monsters and the monstrous in the human imagination.
‘I Am Providence’ is printed
15 Wednesday Sep 2010
Posted in Scholarly works
S.T. Joshi’s blog has updated, with an overview of his current scholarly activities. He writes…
“I understand that I Am Providence has shipped from the printer”
This is shipping in bulk to Hippocampus Press, presumably for quality-checking and then packing. So it look like those of us in the UK may get copies around the end of September? And Hippocampus now has a cover picture for the two-volume set…
Two theses
08 Wednesday Sep 2010
Posted in Historical context, Scholarly works
Two recent academic theses, published online in full-text form:
Geographies of the Underworld : the poetics of chthonic embodiment and game worlds (2008).
William Hope Hodgson’s borderlands : monstrosity, other worlds, and the future at the fin-de-siecle (2009).
Studies in Gothic Fiction #1
01 Wednesday Sep 2010
Posted in Scholarly works
The first issue (2010) of the academic journal Studies in Gothic Fiction is available. It’s an open-access full-text ejournal, so the contents are free.
