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Always Halloween and Never Thanksgiving

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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 9

Dark Academia novel: The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue (2020) Quote: The cabinet was filled with curious and bizarre items. There was a jar with a dead tarantula in it, a case of butterflies and one with insects, a chain made of teeth; there were stamps, an ivory horn, a photo of a two-headed calf, an old jewelry box, some gemstones, a miniature violin and other jars filled with liquid which was too murky to see what was inside. I chose a skull. It was small, like that of a child. Mr. Lavelle nodded as he handed it to me. And for what was not the first time, I felt like he was a seer and that everything that would come to happen he had already foreseen. I held the skull in my hands. I imagined, for a moment, I could squeeze it and it would shatter. I have not thought about this for many years, but now I wonder if I should not have chosen the skull. That perhaps if I had just picked a gemstone, things would have been different. I would not have become what I did. But then I remember the way I felt as they both, he and Victoria, looked at me, and I think perhaps not. It was all inevitable. ALT
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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 6

Dark Academia novel: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala (2022) Quote: I don’t fear the dark. I know the dark, and it knows me. Within it, I’m safe from the sun’s lovely illusions. I know what I’ve always known: The monsters worth fearing are the ones that are dangerous enough to hide in daylight. ALT
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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 15

_____ Dark Academia novel: The It Girl by Ruth Ware (2020) Quote: Afterwards, it was the door she would remember. It was open, she kept saying to the police. I should have known something was wrong. She could have retraced every step of the walk back from the Hall: the gravel crunching beneath her feet of the path across Old Quad, under the Cherwell Arch, then the illegal shortcut through the darkness of the Fellows’ Garden, her feet light on the dew-soaked forbidden lawn. Oxford didn’t need KEEP OFF THE GRASS signs; that lawn had been the preserve of dons and fellows for more than two hundred years without needing to remind undergraduates of the fact…. Then up staircase VII, four flights of worn stone steps, right up to the top, where she and April slept, on the left-hand side of the landing, opposite Dr. Myers’s rooms. Dr. Myers’s door was closed, as it always was. But the other door, her door, was open. That was the last thing she remembered. She should have known something was wrong. But she suspected nothing at all.  ALT
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<p>I’m delighted to share that I’ll be giving a...

I’m delighted to share that I’ll be giving a paper at the upcoming Realizing Resistance Episode III: The Expanding Universe conference on Star Wars. My talk will be “‘They Walked without Speaking’: GUARDIANS OF THE WHILLS, ANDOR, and Local Resistance. More on the conference is here: dcsco-op.org/rriii/ ALTALT
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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 2

Dark Academia work: “Presentation of an Intact Specimen” by Premee Mohamed, from Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia edited by Ai Jiang and Christi Nogle (2023) Quote: No. This one is mine. This museum is mine. I worked too hard for this, and it belongs to me and if he intends to take anything of mine, I will not show the restraint I did when we were students. No one is watching me now. Only God, so they say; and He will, I think, forgive me this. Surely it is not a sin to remove a sinner from the face of the Earth to prevent future sins. Think of everything Bainbridge has done. Think of the oceans of blood on his hands. And the tiny, tiny bit that would be on hers. ___ It was madness, it was all madness; but she examined the madness from every angle and it seemed good and sound, like an old tool of forged iron. She saw no weaknesses in it. It was merely the removal of something worthless from the museum — it was curation. She and Godfrey could find a more suitable assistant. It would only benefit the institution. ALT
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Halloween 2022: Day 19

Song: “Matty Groves” Quote: So Matty struck the very first blow, and he hurt Lord Orland sore.
Lord Orland struck the very next blow, and Matty struck no more.
And then Lord Orland took his wife, and he sat her on his knee,
Saying, “Who do you like the best of us, Matty Groves or me?”
And then up spoke his own dear wife, never heard to speak so free,
“I’d rather a kiss from dead Matty’s lips than you or your finery.” Lord Orland he jumped up and loudly he did bawl,
He struck his wife right through the heart and pinned her against the wall.
“A grave, a grave, ” Lord Orland cried, “to put these lovers in,
But bury my lady at the top for she was of noble kin.” Read the complete lyrics. Listen to the performance of Alela Diane and Alina Hardin…
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Everyone is invited!

Everyone is invited on September 9 at noon Eastern for this free online event hosted by the The Digital Cultural Studies Cooperative! Join us for a Book Talk with the editors of the new anthology STAR WARS: ESSAYS EXPLORING A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY. We’ll be joined by the co-editors and contributors to discuss this exciting collection of essays that offer a compelling new take on the familiar and not-so-familiar corners of the Star Wars universe and media megatext. Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away | Book Launch
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Consumed by the Campus

I’m delighted to share that I will be presenting my paper “Consumed by the Campus: Dark Academia, the Gothic Imagination, and the Missing Student” at Sheffield Gothic’s “Consuming the Gothic” conference in November! ALT
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Halloween 2023: Dark Academia 2023, Day 14

Dark Academia novel: Don’t Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor (2021) Quote: “Yesterday” starts to play again from the beginning, but it’s a hell of a lot eerier as it becomes the backdrop to the story I typed on the next slide: “In 1962, Hardwick sent a small group of students underground to test a nuclear fallout shelter. Six went down, but only five survived…” ALT
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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 25

Dark Academia novel: The Sea of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman (2020) Quote: Every year the coast guard holds an assembly about the dangers of crossing the causeway that only seems to increase its appeal. When I get out of the car I can hear the dense pines that stand sentinel over the peninsula creaking in the salt-laced wind… and something else. A sound like a girl crying. I freeze and listen. It could just be the wind in the trees or the mournful sigh of the tide retreating over the rocks below the coastal path, but then, peering through the fog, I catch a glimpse of something white that looks like a girl running… I remember the ghosts who are said to haunt these woods.  ALT
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Halloween 2022: Day 18

Song: “Blackadders Cove” Quote: I tell you a secret that nobody knows:
Her body’s still layin’ in Blackadders Cove. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to NewFound Road’s performance…
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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 11

Dark Academia novel: Shadow of the Lions by Christopher Swann (2017) Quote: The two lions crouched on top of their pedestals, frozen in preparation to leap. One was snarling, its stone teeth menacing in the late-afternoon shadows, while the other stared out with disdain at the broad sweep of empty soybean fields that lay just across the state highway, a disdain made all the more pointed because the lion was missing its left eye. The missing eye was their only major flaw. A myth of swift and terrible justice falling on those who harmed the lions had shielded them further disfigurement over the years. Blackburne legend had it that the student who chiseled out the left eye as a class prank in 1947 died that same week, drowning in the Shenandoah Creek when his canoe tipped over. Since then… the lions were left alone. ALT
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<p>I had a fantastic time talking with brillian...

I had a fantastic time talking with brilliant hosts Ashley Thomas and Mike Slamer of the WE ARE STARFLEET podcast about the new anthology STAR TREK: ESSAYS EXPLORING THE FINAL FRONTIER, which I co-edited with Emily Strand. Thanks so much for a wonderful chat! ? Listen to the episode here.
ALT
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StarShipSofa 714 William Meikle | StarShipSofa In my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast, I discuss Library of America’s recent “Back to The Future Is Female!” event and some of the works of science fiction related to it. ALT ALT ALT
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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 12

Dark Academia novel: Very Bad People by Kit Frick (2022) Quote: Tuesday morning, three classrooms have been ghosted. All over campus, there are whispers. It’s happening again. And I heard they make initiates drink blood. And it’s just a stupid hoax. The teachers talk too. I bet I know who is responsible. And at least they’re not defacing school property. And there are proper channels here at Tipton. Three students have completed their initiation rite. Which leaves seven of us. ALT
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StarShipSofa 706 Eleanor Arnason | StarShipSofa On my “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the latest episode of the StarShipSofa podcast, I discuss the new series The Rig and its deep science fiction roots. ALTALT ALT
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Register here (it’s free)!

Everyone is welcome! The Mythgard Institute at Signum University will be dedicating its upcoming “Mythgard Miscellany” Pub Night to a celebration of our two Vernon Press anthologies, Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier and Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away. You’re invited to this free and informal event, live on Zoom at 6pm Eastern on Sunday, September 10. Register here (it’s free)! ALT
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Visit Hill House with me in October 2024!

Just in case you’d like your October to be extra haunted, I’ll be back in SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. Voting is now open for my October module, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Early voters will determine when our live discussions will meet online. I had so much fun with this before, we’re doing it all over again! More information is here.
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