In honor of Towel Day, my favorite Douglas Adams' H2G2 quote: Space Is Big... (25 May 2010). Today, some are celebrating towel day in honor of Douglas Adams and the impact of his extraordinarily influential Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I forgot to bring my towel (I know, for shame), but I'll post my favorite quote, instead.
Some additional notes/commentary about Doug Talks Weird 2: Robert Aickman's The Trains, Aickmanesque, and Irrealism (02 May 2015). I have posted the second episode of Doug Talks Weird, this one dealing with an Robert Aickman story along with the concepts of Aickmanesque and Irrealism. Still goes on a bit long, but I think I like this even more than the first.
Tartarus Press to release book chronicling early development of Robert Aickman's style, includes documentary, Robert Aickman: Author of Strange Tales (4 May 2015). Tartarus is to release a book of early stories+fragments by Aickman, chronicling the development of his style. Book will include a DVD of a documentary that should be quite worth watching, if you are into that sort of thing.
Doug Talks Weird Bonus Episode: Re-Reading Aickman. Additional notes and commentary, with some response to Jason Wilcox's "The Shadow Woman: A Re-reading of Robert Aickman's 'The Trains'". (2015 May 14). I've released an [actually] short video talking about reading Aickman and the importance of re-reading his works, with a quote from Nabokov. I'll add in a few more details with this post and talk, briefly, about Jason Wilcox's recent article on Aickman's The Trains.
Laird Barron's The Imago Sequence (16 Aug 2011). Barron's 2007 collection of nine weird tales show his stylistic hallmarks of visual horror, carnivorous universes, disjointed narratives, insectoid digressions, power addicted madmen, and hints of noir. Overall a solid, fairly unique book with enough weird to chew on for a bit.
The funny weird glitch with my copy of Laird Barron's "The Light is the Darkness" (15 Oct 2011). I sometime back pre-ordered Laird Barron's 'The Light is the Darkness', and excitedly received it recently. But there was a glitch. A strangely perfect coincidental glitch.
The first thing I thought about was Laird Barron's "The Imago Sequence": Creature in The Rock Crevice (05 Jul 2014). A strange creature in a rock crevice? Or, you know...not? Either way, I thought of 'The Imago Sequence' by Laird Barron.
My last three thoughts of Ray Bradbury, and one of his more powerful quotes. (6 Jun 2012). Ray Bradbury has died. For generations of geeks, he has been one of the quintessential sources of wonder and merriment. For me, he was a second star from the right to sail on till dawn towards. Here are three of my most recent thoughts about him, his work, and his influence, and one of his most powerful quotes.
Ramsey Campbell's The Pretence, a Review. (10 Dec 2013). Paul Slater flies home on the night the world is supposed to end due to yet another doomsday prediction. But something is wrong this time, things feel...off. Campbell taps into a vibe of truth and consequences, and comes out with a good novella about the nagging fear that reality is more fragile that it looks.
The two moral codes given in Crime and Punishment Part III, Chapter V and the Nietzschean notion of the Superman (14 Mar 2010). Near the end of the fifth chapter of the third part of Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov and Porfiry Petrovitch (amongst others) get into a discussion about moral codes, stemming in part from a drunkden debate occuring at a party that Raskolnikov's friend Razumihin threw the night before. Both would be deemed immoral by many Americans today, but at their core they offer two different views of humanity worth considering, whether or not you agree they are worth adopting.
I dare you to read Eliot's "Burnt Norton" and not assume it was written about today... (17 Aug 2011). Distracted from distraction by distraction.
New website design (sort of) and the trip to Tuscaloosa to see Neil Gaiman (20 Feb 2010). This past Thursday, Sarah and I went down to Tuscaloosa to visit the University of Alabama campus (especially Gorgas Library) and to attend an event featuring one of my favorite authors: Neil Gaiman. I talk a little bit about that event and some about changing the layout of my site to better work with mobile devices and so forth.
Combining some ideas from Podcast to the Curious's recent A Warning to the Curious episode, or some weird possibilities of what was going on... (19 Oct 2013). Podcast to the Curious has released part one of their two part coverage for 'A Warning to the Curious'. Listening to them talk about some oddities in the story, started playing around with other possibilities...
Six Reasons Why You Should Support the Kickstarter for the movie adaptation of Brian Keene's The Cage (1 Oct 2013). There is a Kickstarter for a movie adaption for The Cage. You should support it? Why. I have reasons.
Perhaps the single best scholarly article title I have ever seen (29 Sep 2014). Some scholarly journal articles have great titles. This one takes the cake, though...
Additional Notes and Commentary on Doug Talks Weird 3: Thomas Ligotti's "The Frolic" and "What's a Lovecraftian?" (2015 May 31). Another Doug Talks Weird is up and I'm looking at Thomas Ligotti's story, The Frolic, and also talking about what makes something Lovecraftian. As is my custom, here are some additional notes and bits.
A writing friend of mine once pointed out the works of "Topaz" McGonagall as very bad poetry. At first, a random smattering of his stuff didn't seem that bad, but then I read a little more and a little more. I began to realize that he was truly horrible. In fact, he often bears the title of "Worst English Poet" (I suppose out of those that were published and were in contending as real poets, since there are likely worse that one would never have heard of). In fact, you can get a whole fix of his stuff at http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/ if you want. I think you might enjoy it. It is different, or something like that.
But, for your pleasure, I have included two of my favorites and one to grown on...
Micro-Reviews for the Stories in Reggie Oliver's The Sea of Blood (2015 Jul 26). As I read through The Sea of Blood, I left micro-reviews of most of the stories on Twitter. Here is the complete collection, in the order they show up in the anthology.
Why I no longer feel worthy to read Terry Pratchett's books... (20 Sep 2010).
Clark Ashton Smith can be a bear to read, but sometimes his message is kind of wonderfully parable-like (22 Jan 2010). In the midst of thick prose and fantastical trappings, it can be kind of fun to see the simple message that Clark Ashton Smith often wrote around.
A Vonnegut volume was released by Library of America. Not everyone is thrilled... (1 Sep 2011). Kurt Vonnegut's inclusion in the Library of America makes sense to me. First off, I like his works (some more than others), but more than that, I think it makes for an important mode of American letters (the sarcastic uncle, more or less). Others disagree...
Mor Jokai: the man whose wikipedia entry stands, gloriously, above the rest... (29 May 2010).
Just in case you were ever wondering how to pronounce some author's name, you might can find a clip of them saying how at Author Name Pronunciation Guide.
Written by W Doug Bolden
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The longer, fuller version of this text can be found on my FAQ: "Can I Use Something I Found on the Site?".
"The hidden is greater than the seen."
