Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net To preface today’s offering of recommended and necessary reading, here are passages from a hypnotic meditation on solitude, inner silence, reading, and the literary vocation by Rebecca Solnit, excerpted from her new book The Faraway Nearby: Like many others who turned into writers, I disappeared into books when…
Category: Arts & Entertainment
Teeming Links – August 30, 2013
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Today’s opening word is actually double: two opening words. The first is from John Michael Greer, writing with his typically casual and powerful lucidity. The second is from international studies expert Charles Hill, who writes with equal power. They’re lengthy, so please feel free to skip on down…
H. P. Lovecraft’s literary reputation: Joshi’s keynote address at this weekend’s NecronomiCon (Video)
The NecronomiCon, long known as the greatest of all Lovecraft conventions, is going on in Providence even as I type these words. A huge number of my friends in the Lovecraftian realm are there, and I’m presently experiencing severe pangs of regret at being unable to attend. Here’s some consolation, though. Steve Ahlquist has done…
Teeming Links – August 23, 2013
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Today’s invocation comes from author and cultural historian Mike Jay, author of last year’s The Influencing Machine, slated for U.S. publication in January 2014 as A Visionary Madness. The article’s tagline states the basic thesis, which articulates an uncanny experience, sensation, and intuition that we’ve all had with…
Richard Gavin on the numinous power of “Nightmare Horror”
Teem member Richard Gavin has contributed a brand new and powerful entry for “The H Word,” the rotating column at Nightmare magazine, editor John Joseph Adam’s excellent online pro ‘zine devoted to horror and dark fantasy. Richard’s theme and thesis will be of pointed interest to Teeming Brain readers: [What I call] Nightmare Horror is…
‘Visitors’ – The new film from Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, and Jon Kane
There simply are no words. And I mean that literally, as you’re about to see. When I learned recently of the imminent release of a new film by director Godfrey Reggio, he of Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi fame, I was fairly stunned. Then the sensation was augmented when I watched the trailers. As I explained…
Teeming Links – August 20, 2013
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Did somebody say “apocalypse”? Oh, yeah: that was me, here, all the time. And it was also, as it turns out, everybody, everywhere these days. To preface the current roundup of recommended and necessary reading, here’s a rich reflection on this very fact, and on the deeper meanings…
Magick, Madness, and Outsider Art: The Lovecraftian Path to Happiness
A Search for the Heroic in Lovecraftian Fiction, Part Four NOTE: This is the final part of a four-part series in which Stu Young explores the works and influence of H. P. Lovecraft in an attempt to tease out themes of heroism and optimism among the more familiar themes of horror, gloom, and despair. Although…
Teeming Links – August 16, 2013
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Today’s (rather extended) opening word goes to Morris Berman, who was recently interviewed for The Atlantic online in connection with his new book Spinning Straw into Gold: Straight Talk for Troubled Times. Morris first rose to prominence as the author of several books about the evolution of human…
Soundtrack for a Dark Enlightenment: A Numinous YouTube Playlist
Thomas Ligotti once spoke of having been subject to a “craving for enlightenment in darkness” that never worked out in real life, but that he channeled into various aspects of his horror stories. If you, like me, happen to be someone who has shared this craving with Tom, and if by chance you’re searching for…