Jane Austen responds to Michael Chwe naming her a master of Game Theory.
One can receive reliable advice on introductions, cuts and other questions of Victorian etiquette and manners from Etiquette & Espionage authoress, Gail Carriger. “I would urge caution not to rely on characters from Austen as, in her very subtle way, she is often breaking the rules of courtship, in order to comment on society as [...]
Monster Island Resort Podcast celebrates Women In Horror Month with a reading of horror forerunner, Romantic and Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe’s “The Supernatural in Poetry.” Terror vs. Horror. Gore vs. No Gore. Realism vs. Atmosphere. It’s all discussed.
The Smithsonian Magazine investigates the vampires and vampire panics of 18th and 19th Century New England. “In Manchester, hundreds of people flocked to a 1793 heart-burning ceremony at a blacksmith’s forge: ‘Timothy Mead officiated at the altar in the sacrifice to the Demon Vampire who it was believed was still sucking the blood of the [...]
“A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hasn’t ended.” “The mask is to show that Batman could be anybody.” Is saying anyone can be Batman the same as saying anyone can be a [...]
Terry Windling recounts the history of the Ash Girl or Cinderella story from the 9th Century Yeh–hsien to the Disney film, Cinderella, based on Charles Perrault’s 1697 version.
“I used a descending chromatic scale throughout the score,” explains Marc Wilkinson, who was director of music at the National Theatre when Haggard approached him to write the score for Blood On Satan’s Claw. “To make it scary, I omitted the perfect fifth, which is the one true consonant in the chromatic scale, and highlighted [...]
Actor Jonathan Frid has died. He was best known as Barnabas Collins in the Gothic daytime soap opera, Dark Shadows. The New York Times has an obituary. And here is an interview with Frid on The Merv Griffin Show. Frid discusses playing Barnabas.
Author Beverly Jenkins talks with USA Today about writing romance rooted in 19th Century African-American history as well as her new projects and favorite authors. “I got a bit of push back because publishers didn’t seem to know what to make of my story. It was based on the 19th-century, all-black townships of Kansas and [...]
Pornokitsch writer (and Kitschies judge) Jared Shurin writes about fairies as fuel and the vast potential of Steampunk as a resource for discussing industrialization.
Some great analysis of a lurid Gothic novel, feminism, the nature of the novel, etc, by way of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey…
Adam Roberts (perhaps still scarred by his encounter with The Wheel of Time) takes a look at the relatively brisk 400 pages of Rivers of London and reflects on the appeal of a certain type of bulked-up reading experience, with a detour to talk about Sir Walter Scott: “The trick to understanding the prodigious success [...]
Scholars are combing digitized records from London’s Old Bailey and discovering fascinating trends in plea bargaining, divorce and bigamy in the 1800s.
AbeBooks has a nice profile of Georgette Heyer, a writer of all kinds of fiction, but most influential as an author of Regency romances. The profile includes a gallery of covers from her books.
“A murder is somehow more quintessentially English when committed on the cobbles of a foggy East End alley. If there’s a silhouetted top hat, a rustle of crinoline and a scream cut short with straight razor, all the better.” The Guardian has more on “the Great English Slaying.”
Wong Fei-Hung’s been on my mind lately. Luckily, Kung Fu Cinema has a nice video (scroll down) of Wong Fei-Hung in the movies from Kwan Tak-Hing to Gordon Liu, Jet Li as well as Jackie Chan and actress Angie Tsang Tze-Man’s portrayals of young Wong Fei-Hung. There’s also a detailed companion article tracing the historical [...]
Fantasy fiction is overrun by dragons. The fiery beasts have become a way to spice up an otherwise standard book — just add dragons. When I first heard about Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series — the Napoleonic Wars, a la Hornblower, except with dragons — I sighed to myself: hasn’t this been done before? Isn’t this [...]
