Blog Archives
sSUPERVERSIVE: Why “The Incredibles” is the greatest superhero movie ever made
Wednesday , 16, November 2016 Fiction, Superversive 14 CommentsI have a lot of respect for animation, and the highest respect for Pixar. Animation is the one genre where you’re allowed to take real risks since the critics are never going to give you the respect you deserve anyway, so why try to please them? Children’s animation especially tends to take more risks than […]
August Derleth was a member of the Lovecraft circle from the late 1920s until Lovecraft’s death. He was also one of the first to make use of the Cthulhu Mythos (with Lovecraft’s blessing). He remains controversial among Lovecraftians for his handling of Lovecraft’s legacy and especially for his Mythos fiction. A review of Derleth’s Mythos […]
One of the surprising books of the late 1980s was a Robert E. Howard collection, Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors. This was a Baen paperback published in May 1987. David Drake edited the book. It sold for $2.95, was 247 pages, and had three printings. The cover by Steve Hickman is spectacular. This book […]
SUPERVERSIVE: How Netflix’s “Daredevil” can pull off “Born Again”
Tuesday , 1, November 2016 Book Review, Fiction, Superversive Leave a commentFull disclaimer: I LOVE “Daredevil: Born Again”, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. Not like. Love. I make a point to pick it up and re-read it a few times a year, and it is one of the very few books I read – and I mean I can count them on one hand – […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Haunter of the Dark
Sunday , 30, October 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 5 Comments“The Haunter of the Dark” was H. P. Lovecraft’s last story. He wrote it in November 1935 right after finding out about the sale of At the Mountains of Madness and “The Shadow Out of Time” to Astounding Stories. It is a relatively short piece of fiction at 9,320 words in comparison to most of […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Shadow Out of Time
Sunday , 23, October 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 11 CommentsH. P. Lovecraft wrote “The Shadow Out of Time” in November-December 1934. It is a novella at 25,323 words. This is the other pillar of his cosmic history. There is a sense of déjà vu reading it as he reused some ideas. The main plot concerns Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, an instructor of Political Economy […]
I’m not sure that there is a consensus on just what the opposite of the Bechdel test would be exactly. I have my own pet theory, sure. One thing is clear, however: any sufficient repudiation of the Bechdel test is indistinguishable from awesome.
SUPERVERSIVE: “Futurama” explores the big ideas while avoiding message fiction
Tuesday , 18, October 2016 Fiction, Superversive 7 CommentsThere will be spoilers to endings of episodes. The subject of the post happens not to depend so much on twists, but even so, I recommend watching the show first before reading my review. In any case, all spoilers here on in are unmarked. You’ve been warned. The more I think about it, the more […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Sunday , 16, October 2016 Fiction 4 CommentsLovecraft followed up “At the Mountains of Madness” with “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” He wrote the story in November 1931 with a few different drafts. The story is 27,026 words long, so it is a little longer than “The Whisperer in Darkness.” Lovecraft wrote a story not about cosmic entities from other dimensions this time. […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: At the Mountains of Madness
Sunday , 9, October 2016 Fiction 8 Comments“At the Mountains of Madness” is H. P. Lovecraft’s third longest work coming in at 40,881 words. He wrote it from February 24 to March 22, 1931 (Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life). I read 1/3 of the short novel 33 years ago but bogged down and scanned through portions of the rest. I think […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Whisperer in Darkness
Sunday , 2, October 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 9 CommentsH. P. Lovecraft’s next story in Weird Tales, “The Whisperer in Darkness” appeared in the August 1931 issue. It had been over two years since a story has appeared under his name. Zealia Brown Reed’s “The Curse of Yig,” essentially a Lovecraft story was in the November 1929 issue of Weird Tales. The end result […]
The 2016 H. P. Lovecraft Re-read: The Dunwich Horror
Sunday , 25, September 2016 Fiction, Short Fiction 6 CommentsH. P. Lovecraft wrote “The Dunwich Horror” during the summer of 1928. S. T. Joshi states the story is a result of a tour of Athol and central Massachusetts at that time. The story is 17,524 words so about 5,000 more words than “The Colour Out of Space” and 6,500 words more than “The […]