Blog Archives
sEasily the most controversial thing to come out of the Appendix N series was my claim that in the seventies, J. R. R. Tolkien was far from being the kind of influence that we think of him as being today. Sure, he practically defines the genre of fantasy today. But it wasn’t always like that. […]
John C. Wright has a new book on the way. This one’s going to be delivered a little differently, but have no fear. This isn’t like all those other Patreons out there. The posts are all going to be public, so he’s basically using it as a sort of “pay what you want” platform. But […]
I recently received this comment on my Appendix N series recently from a student of classic science fiction and fantasy calling himself Atlemar: You make the observation here that “It used to be normal for science fiction and fantasy fans to read books that were published between 1910 and 1977. There was a sense of canon […]
Raven Daegmorgan has delivered a top grade rant that will be of interest to fans of old style fantasy: …Elves in modern fantasy fiction suck — nigh every depiction of them post-Tolkien, in that they are not portrayed as otherwordly, supernatural, whimsical, fickle and dangerous others. That is, they are not fey, they are far too human…. […]
When the subject of Appendix N comes up, people almost invariably turn toward the question of what more recent fantasy belongs on the list. Certainly, several people have made the case that Clark Ashton Smith should have been included in the first place. Many are irked that C. L. Moore was excluded as well. And no […]
RETROSPECTIVE: The Woman of the Wood by A. Merritt
Friday , 8, April 2016 Appendix N, Before the Big Three 1 CommentAnne M. Pillsworth and Ruthanna Emrys over at Tor.com have covered A. Merritt’s “The Woman of the Wood” and their reaction is I think indicative of just how far contemporary fantasy has strayed from the older styles. They look at this story and they have no idea how to categorize it. It’s that different from […]
JD Cowen at the Wasteland and Sky blog has been reviewing Cirsova magazine in a series of blog posts (here, here, and here.) Here’s his take on my retrospective that was included there: The last thing to talk about is the essay by Jeffro Johnson on the novel, Toyman, by E.C. Tubb, and comparing the rules […]
RETROSPECTIVE: “The People of the Pit” by A. Merritt
Thursday , 25, February 2016 Appendix N, Before the Big Three Leave a commentAfter reading “Through the Dragon Glass”, this one is a real disappointment. A. Merritt’s lush prose is completely appropriate in describing mysterious otherworldly women and strange, nightmarish landscapes. But the former is completely absent here while the latter is only given a brief treatment here. It’s compelling, though… and it’s stunning to realize that people […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Thought Police, Social Media and the Hugos
Monday , 22, February 2016 Appendix N 7 CommentsIf you didn’t catch the Superversive livestream this weekend, you missed some of the most substantial discussion on Appendix N I’ve yet seen. The whole thing is good, but the part I’ll be responding to here begins at 1:53:33 when L. Jagi Lamlighter reins everybody in. Briefly, I do want to address the whole picaresque thing again […]
RETROSPECTIVE: “Through the Dragon Glass” by A. Merritt
Monday , 22, February 2016 Appendix N, Before the Big Three 2 CommentsWhen I read The Moon Pool, Creep, Shadow, Creep!, and Dwellers in the Mirage last year, I noted such a difference between his first novel and his later ones that I mistakenly assumed that A. Merritt’s writing must have improved drastically over the course of the 1920’s. I could not have been more wrong. Everything […]
A Beautiful Friendship: Lovecraft’s Induction into the WEIRD TALES Roster
Friday , 12, February 2016 Appendix N 2 CommentsThanks to the tireless efforts of SFFAudio, a smorgasbord of hard to find information about the early days of the weird fiction scene is freely available for anyone that wants to dig through it. Among the many treasures hidden in the scans from Weird Tales magazine are H. P. Lovecraft’s first several letters to that iconic […]
Maria Popova at Brain Pickings has uncovered a fascinating piece by H. P. Lovecraft: the advice he gave to aspiring writers in the January 1920 issue of The United Amateur. His praise for the King James Bible is especially striking: It is also important that cheaper types of reading, if hitherto followed, be dropped. Popular magazines inculcate […]