The Mask Behind the Face, the collection of metaphysical horror fiction by Teeming Brain contributor Stuart Young (see his column Sparking Neurones), was short-listed for the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 2006, and the title story — about brain disease, psychedelics, and the far outer and deep inner reaches of consciousness — ended…
Category: Religion & Philosophy
Orwellian America and spiritual sickness
A decade into the “War on Terror,” things have started to get truly Orwellian here in the U.S. And you don’t have to be one of the wanton fear-mongers yammering on both ends the political continuum to recognize it. Consider: last week a U.S. federal judge in Manhattan ruled that President Obama is not required…
Stephen King: We forget that life is fundamentally mysterious
I ask you to consider the fact that we live in a web of mystery, and have simply gotten so used to the fact that we have crossed out the word and replaced it with one we like better, that one being reality. Where do we come from? Where were we before we were here?…
My Own Personal Tesseract: Reflections on ‘A Wrinkle in Time’
Although my work as an author has been overwhelmingly centered in realms of darkness and horror, as cross-fertilized by my deep and personal focus on matters of religion, philosophy, and psychology, I have also been a lifelong lover of fantasy and science fiction. So perhaps it’s not surprising that one of the foundational books…
“The Uncanny Convergence of Religion and Horror”: My new column for NAMELESS MAGAZINE
The first installment of Numinosities, my new column for [Nameless] Magazine, is available for free reading at the journal’s Website. [Nameless] is a newly launched “Biannual Journal of the Macabre, Esoteric and Intellectual.” Edited by Jason V. Brock and S. T. Joshi — a fine team indeed — its stated goal is “to meld divergent…
The Teeming Brain Podcast #1: “Cosmic Horror vs. Sacred Terror”
PLAY IT: Listen now (92 min.): https://www.teemingbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Teeming_Brain_podcast_001_Cosmic_Horror_vs_Sacred_Terror-1.mp3 Download mp3: Cosmic Horror vs. Sacred Terror DESCRIPTION: Do nihilism and cosmic meaningfulness stand in fundamental tension with each other at the heart of the horror genre? Were Lovecraft and Machen getting at fundamentally different moral, aesthetic, and metaphysical points with their respective horror stories? Does the (possible)…
Awakening the Esoteric Spirit: Mapping the Occult City
I am fresh from attending the recent American Academy of Religions pre-conference event Mapping the Occult City: Magic & Esotericism in the Urban Utopia, hosted by Phoenix Rising Digital Academy and DePaul University. Convened by Dr. Jason Winslade, Â the day-long event explored the interaction of the city as entity, idea, and cultural engine with esoteric…
The Next Big Thing: TO ROUSE LEVIATHAN
“The Next Big Thing” is a meme that asks authors to answer ten questions about their next project, after which they tag five additional authors to do the same a week later. Last week I was tagged in this regard by my friends, fellow authors, and fellow Teeming Brain writers Stuart Young and T. E….
Teeming Brain contributor Stuart Young’s SPARE PARTS reissued as ebook
Spare Parts, the 2003 debut collection of short horror fiction by Teem member Stuart Young, has just been reissued in a new ebook edition by Stumar Press. Note the chorus of praise below from various fellow authors in the field. Note especially the final blurb, from a source that will be familiar to Teeming Brain…
Christians and cosmic horror: Linked by Lovecraft?
In a fascinating October 30 article published at Hieropraxis — a website about Christian apologetics and, more broadly, “literature and faith, truth and beauty” — creative writing teacher Garret Johnson, who works for both the University of Houston and Houston Baptist University, talks about the deep value of Lovecraftian cosmic horror for Christians. Specifically, he…