From “The Myth Maker” (Guardian, June 4, 2005), an edited extract of the English translation of Michel Houellebecq’s H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (which, I can attest, is an astonishingly powerful and moving book): Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might…
Author: Matt Cardin
Teeming Brain founder and editor Matt Cardin is the author of DARK AWAKENINGS, DIVINATIONS OF THE DEEP, A COURSE IN DEMONIC CREATIVITY: A WRITER'S GUIDE TO THE INNER GENIUS, and TO ROUSE LEVIATHAN. He is also the editor of BORN TO FEAR: INTERVIEWS WITH THOMAS LIGOTTI and the academic encyclopedias MUMMIES AROUND THE WORLD; GHOSTS, SPIRITS, AND PSYCHICS: THE PARANORMAL FROM ALCHEMY TO ZOMBIES; and HORROR LITERATURE THROUGH HISTORY.
Education and the pleasure of thinking
Edith Hamilton — a worthy intellectual companion indeed — once said something that ought to be emblazoned on the wall of every classroom and discussed at length by every teacher and teacher-wannabe, so wonderfully does it encapsulate a vital truth that cuts neatly through the endless layers of bullshit that encrust the contemporary theory and…
Is abstract thought just piggybacking on the physical body?
According to some new psychological research into the nature of metaphors, “much of what we think of as abstract reasoning is in fact a sometimes awkward piggybacking onto the mental tools we have developed to govern our body’s interactions with its physical environment. Put another way, metaphors reveal the extent to which we think with…
Arthur Machen profiled in The Guardian as “forgotten father of weird fiction”
I was pleasantly surprised to see this story come cross the Internet transom today: Machen is the forgotten father of weird fiction Damien G. Walter, The Guardian online, September 29, 2009 The slug line accurately indicates the article’s content: “Arthur Machen might be little read today, but his ideas lie at the heart of modern…
Impressions and advice from a new Kindle DX owner
A few weeks ago I announced here that I had decided to get an e-reader. Well, I’ve gone and pulled the trigger and am now the owner of a new Kindle DX, which I bought as a gift to myself for my birthday. (Clever man that I am, I asked family members who intended to…
ArmadilloCon 2009: Michael Moorcock, martial arts, and more
First read my previous post about last weekend’s ArmadilloCon, which I wrote on Saturday night during the con itself. Then read the following to fill in the rest of the details of my experiences there. In no particular order: I attended readings by Joe McKinney, Lee Thomas, and A. Lee Martinez, the last of whom…
At ArmadilloCon: Monsters, religion, mysticism, fantasy, SF, horror, blogging, podcasting, and more
A quick update from Austin and ArmadilloCon 31 (with photos to follow within a couple of days, when I can swipe them from the sites of people who brought a camera): It’s Saturday night — nearing the end of Day 2 of the three-day con — and everything’s going well. Lots of fun and productive…
New Video: Ray Bradbury on F451, education, life passions, and humanity’s destiny in space
Macmillan, the publishing giant, has just made available an absolutely wonderful new video interview with Ray Bradbury as a marketing adjunct for the release of the new graphic novel adaptation of his Fahrenheit 451, for which he wrote the introduction. (See “Graphic novel of ‘Fahrenheit 451’ sparks Bradbury’s approval,” USA Today, Aug. 3. You can…
DARK AWAKENINGS — Final table of contents
It occurs to me that I haven’t yet shared the final TOC for Dark Awakenings, even though, as I mentioned earlier today, the book is on schedule for publication this November or December. So here it is: TABLE OF CONTENTS for DARK AWAKENINGS Apologia Pro Libro Suo FICTIONS: Teeth The Stars Shine Without Me Desert…
In serving his vision of truth, the artist best serves his nation
These may be my favorite words ever spoken by an American President. They come from a speech delivered by John F. Kennedy on October 26, 1963 — less than a month before his death — at Amherst College, in honor of the late Robert Frost. The speech was published the following February in The Atlantic…