Here’s Erik Davis, in a recent interview conducted by Jeremy Johnson, briefly discussing the similarities between the respective realms of high weirdness exemplified by Philip K. Dick’s VALIS and Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger. Erik and Jeremy also make some interesting observations about the way the reading of these types of texts can often kick…
Category: Arts & Entertainment
‘Demons and Devilry’ – Five tales of occult horror
Here’s a treat for fans of classic occult horror in the vein of Dennis Wheatley (author of the iconic/legendary novel The Devil Rides Out): Teeming Brain columnist Stuart Young has edited a volume of five stories in this vein for Hersham Horror Books. Here’s the publisher’s description: Hersham Horror Books presents five original stories from…
Video: An uncanny and beautiful illusion by French juggler Lindzee Poi
Part of me is still wondering if this was faked with the help of CG, but after watching it twice, I’m inclined to think it’s real, and that’s also the consensus among the zillion sites where this viral video has already proliferated. Even if it’s fake, it’s an amazing concept, beautifully executed, and frankly mesmerizing….
Anthony Hopkins on philosophy, shamanism, and ‘a landscape of darkness and horror’ in ‘Noah’
“The Flood” by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld (1634/35) Via Art and the Bible, Fair Use I recently saw the Noah movie, and I’m pleased to report that I really liked it. The angle taken by writer-director Darren Aronofsky and his co-writer Ari Handel struck me as deeply engrossing and just right for our collective cultural moment….
Superfluous humans in a world of smart machines
Remember Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian short story “The Veldt” (excerpted here) with its nightmare vision of a soul-sapping high-technological future where monstrously narcissistic — and, as it turns out, sociopathic and homicidal — children resent even having to tie their own shoes and brush their own teeth, since they’re accustomed to having these things done…
That Occulted Part of Ourselves: Interview with John Langan
John Langan John Langan is a professor, a literary scholar, and the author of the superlatively excellent supernatural horror collections Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Tales and The Wide Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies, as well as the equally excellent supernatural horror novel House of Windows. In 2010 I interviewed him for Demon Muse. Then in…
The Cultural Sounds of Apocalypse
Sounds of Apocalypse, Part Two “The Walls of Jericho Fall Down” by Gustave DorĂ© This is Part Two of contributor Dominik Irtenkauf’s four-part essay “Sounds of Apocalypse.” Before reading it you may want to read Part One, “Roar of Creation and Destruction,” in which Dominik lays the explanatory groundwork for the theme he is pursuing….
Video: Christopher Walken can’t stop dancing
Yes, I talk a lot about the damnability of the Internet’s inbuilt capacity for destructive distraction, but damn, sometimes the whole thing is hugely useful for circulating a dose of pure fun. And if this mashup of nearly 70 movies featuring a vigorously dancing Christopher Walken, set to a very familiar and appropriate song, isn’t…
Table of Contents for ‘Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti’
I know that reader interest is very high for this book, which is scheduled for publication this June by Subterranean Press. So here is the full table of contents for those who would like an advance peek. You can click the cover image above or the link below to visit the preorder page and reserve…
The real-life paranormal origins (and impact) of ‘Ghostbusters’
Fascinating: last week, right on the heels of Harold Ramis’s death, Esquire published “An Oral History of Ghostbusters” (originally published in Premiere Magazine), in which various cast and crew members recount the making, reception, and enduring cultural impact of everybody’s favorite ghost-chasing movie. And it leads with a statement from Dan Aykroyd about the way the…