May saw the publication of the horror anthology Urban Cthulhu: Nightmare Cities, edited by Henrik Sanbek Harksen and featuring a story by Teeming Brain columnist T. E. Grau. As you’ll recall, T. E. writes The Extinction Papers for us, and as you’ll see if you read his bio on our Teem page or check out…
Tag: Books
Simon Strantzas: “There are no boundaries in horror”
Weird Fiction Review has just published an interview with Simon Strantzas that anybody interested in supernatural horror will surely find worthwhile. Here’s a taste: WFR: In his introduction to your collection Nightingale Songs, John Langan mentions your shared affection for Ramsey Campbell and Robert Aickman. What in particular do you think draws you to their…
Cloud Atlas (MOVIE TRAILER)
This extended trailer for the forthcoming film Cloud Atlas — written and directed by Lana (formerly Larry) Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, and adapted from David Mitchell’s 2004 mindblow of a novel — looks positively extraordinary. I don’t know how the film can possibly live up to it. But I’m hopeful, since the Wachowskis…
On transmitting artistic and spiritual vision
Some years ago as I was searching for a way to introduce poetry to the high school writing and literature classes that I was then teaching — not just certain, selected poets and poems but the entire idea and import of poetry itself — I started telling my students that language can have an alchemical…
Recommended Reading 17
This week’s recommendations encompass the spiritual past and future of money and capitalism; the use of neuroscience by tech companies to profit from Internet addiction; the future of books, libraries, and old movies in an age of digital instant gratification and a perpetually shrinking historical awareness; the deep appeal of fairy tales; thoughts on…
Discount for preorders of DARK FAITH: INVOCATIONS featuring my story “Prometheus Possessed”
Apex Publications announced yesterday that Dark Faith: Invocations, the sequel to their very well received Dark Faith anthology, is now available for preorder. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m pleased to be back again for this second outing with a new story — part dystopian science fiction, part supernatural/spiritual horror — titled “Prometheus Possessed.” I’m also…
Everything Old Is New Again (If You Donât Look Too Hard)
I was reminded recently of something my English teacher once told me. In the middle of the English lesson he fixed me and my classmates with a solemn stare and imparted this great truth about literature and creativity: âThere is nothing new under the sun.â I nodded. âYeah, Iâve heard that before.â Fortunately my teacher…
Recommended Reading 16
This week’s recommended readings include an essay in defense of the philosophy of science; thoughts and insights on channeling, creativity, savants, and the farther reaches of human potential; a recounting of Bobby Kennedy’s defense of LSD research during the heady 1960s; essays about the influence of neuroscience on novelists and the deep value of the…
The wisdom of waiting
In a super essay at FT.com (“Waiting Game,” June 22), Frank Partnoy, law and finance professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, delves into the psychology and physiology of optimum performance among professional athletes to draw out a profound insight about the supreme value of waiting. This value, he says, isn’t just…
A world without Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury, photo by NASA (http://history.nasa.gov/EP-125/part6.htm) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons I was stunned when the news of Ray Bradbury’s death broke today. Yes, he was a very old man who suffered from declining health, a man who obviously stood near the end of his life. But that’s immaterial to my emotional reaction. When…