Monsters, mashups, and popular culture
Megen de Bruin-Molé This post first appeared on An American in London, a travel blog run by Natalie Romero. You can find the original post here. I am an American citizen. I am also a Dutch citizen. This means I get to pick and choose which passport I want to travel on, and when I want to identify either the … Read more
Are you a Victorianist, or do you just love all things Victorian? Then feast your eyes on the 2016 British Association for Victorian Studies’ Call for Papers: ‘Consuming (the) Victorians’, brought to you with the help of the invaluable Tom de Bruin! At this 3-day conference, hosted by Cardiff University, we’ll be looking at Victorians practices … Read more
In a new piece of performance art, Shia LaBeouf (Nymphomaniac, Transformers, Holes) is watching all 27 of his movies in reverse chronological order, 24 hours a day, for three days — and you can watch him do it. He won’t be stopping to sleep, and there is only a five minute intermission between each screening. The finished piece will essentially … Read more
I’ve got apocalypse on the brain this week (possibly because my subconscious is desperate to latch on to anything besides my current thesis chapter), and have also been scouring the internet for teaching aids. The Green brothers have predictably been a highly entertaining source of material, but this week the winning discovery was the YouTube channel Wisecrack. You … Read more
Things are happening in the world of popular (neo-)Victorianism! This week not one, but two calls for papers graced my inbox. The first is for a symposium (a.k.a. a one-day conference) in Amsterdam on historical and neo-historical fiction, and the second is for a symposium in Portsmouth on Victorian materiality and the material object. If you’re interested in alternate … Read more
Giles – ‘It’s the end of the world.’ Buffy, Willow and Xander – ‘Again?’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ‘Doomed’ (Season 4, Episode 11) Trigger warning: this post is going to be about religion (sort of). The fine details will be about history, politics, and popular culture, but I’ve been asked to reflect back on something … Read more
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe; Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain, Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn’d brain. (Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella, sonnet 1: 5-8) The autumn semester has started at Cardiff University, … Read more
This week’s post by Monica Westin debates the highs and lows of the (still-undead) literary mashup genre, and also traces the evolution of the zombie in popular culture. It was originally posted on October 26, 2010, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of Newcity Lit. We’re living in strange times in the world of literature, a time … Read more
As you may already have heard, the internet was livid with rage on Monday, after Guardian columnist Jonathan Jones accused Terry Pratchett of being a mediocre writer who pens ‘ordinary potboilers’. Perhaps the most prominently featured response came from Sam Jordison. Crucially, Jones casually admits that he has never read Pratchett himself, and Jordison chides Jones for this admission, arguing that … Read more
