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.
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Dark Academia novel: Promise Boys by Nick Brooks (2023)
From the cover:
Perfection. Excellence. Discipline. Murder.
Quote:
Sometimes what’s obvious takes a while to see – the person who pulls a trigger doesn’t just disappear into the dark. They are right here among us once we decide we’re ready to question everything we think we know. They’re always closer than you think.
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Today’s text is “Halloween Lore Told” from The Butte Daily Post on 10/31/1931.
Read the article here.
Quote: “Halloween, the night of black hours, ‘when churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead.’ will be celebrated in traditional style when the sun goes down… legend has it, the lake of hades freezes, and friends skate across to stalk the world unchallenged. Evil will possess the shadows until cock-crow.”
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Halloween Lore Told
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Thanks to a lovely Valentine’s surprise from my sweetheart, we now have a new family member. He likes my taste in posters, and he’s found some friends to hang with.
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It’s not every day that you and your brilliant co-editor Emily Strand submit your completed book to your publisher, but today is that day for me!
More information on STAR WARS: ESSAYS EXPLORING A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY, the sibling to our previously-submitted and also-forthcoming academic anthology STAR TREK: ESSAYS EXPLORING THE FINAL FRONTIER, will be coming soon!
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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.
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It was a joy to narrate the powerful “More Real Than Real” by Greta Hayer for the Cast of Wonders podcast.
Cast of Wonders 537: More Real Than Real | Cast of Wonders
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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)!
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Free Online Star Trek and Star Wars Book Events!
Everyone is welcome! I’m delighted to announce a weekend of free online events celebrating two anthologies from Vernon Press, Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier and Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away, edited by Emily Strand and Yours Truly. We hope you’ll join us!
Register for Sept. 9 event here.
Register for Sept. 10 event here.
See more about the books here.
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Today’s text is “Hallowe’en – A Holiday of Traditions” from The Stoughton Courier on 11/1/1907.
Read the article here.
Quote: “From time out of mind this has been heralded as a night when witches, devils and other mischief-making beings go abroad on their baneful midnight errands…. The traditions of Hallowe’en also teach that on no other night in the twelve-month do such supernatural influences prevail as after dark on the final day of October.”
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Hallowe'en - A Holiday of Traditions
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Soon, very soon, Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier (2023) will have a sibling: Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away (2023).
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Today’s text is “Hallowe’en Activities” from The News-Pilot on 10/29/1928.
Read the article here.
Quote:
Goblins gobble and werewolves howl;
Banshees shriek and cry and scream
Ululations, while the mournful owl
Makes many fitful mortals dream.
Hallowe'en Activities (With an Owl and Witch)
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My latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment is now available on Episode 741 of the StarShipSofa podcast. I discuss the Radium Age imprint of reissued science fiction classics from 1900-1935 published by MIT Press.
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I am very happy to share that my essay “‘Lifting Old Curses’: The mirror dance of The Flowers of Vashnoi and The Mountains of Mourning” has been published in Short But Concentrated #2: a second essay symposium on the works of Lois McMaster Bujold, edited by the brilliant @unamccormack. The ebook version is free for download here.
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Today’s text is “Twinkling Feet’s Hallowe’en” from The Topaz Story Book: Stories and Legends of Autumn, Hallowe’en, and Thanksgiving (5th ed. 1928) compiled by Ada M. and Eleanor L. Skinner.
Read it here.
Quote: The pixie looked at her for a moment. Then he asked, “Do the children laugh a good deal on Hallowe’en?”
“Why, my little man, it’s the time in all the year when they laugh most. To-night there is to be a witch’s party. I shall secretly join the children, and play all sorts of tricks for their amusement.“
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Song: “Wind and Rain”
Quote:
So she pushed her into the river to drown. Oh, the wind and rain! And watched her as she floated down… Oh, the dreadful wind and rain!
Read the complete lyrics.
Listen to Crooked Still’s performance…
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Song: “Pretty Polly”
Quote:
Polly, Pretty Polly, your guess is about right:
I dug on your grave the biggest part of last night.
Read the complete lyrics.
Listen to the performance of Ralph Stanley & Patty Loveless:
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The Meaning of Star Wars - Signum University
I’m delighted to be teaching my “The Meaning of Star Wars” class for M.A. students and non-degree-seeking auditors online for Signum University in Fall 2024. I have taught a college course on Star Wars (either at the undergraduate or graduate level) every year since 2015.
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Song: “Down in the Willow Garden”
Quote:
My father often told me That money would set me free, If I’d but murder that dear little girl Whose name was Rose Connolly.
Read the complete lyrics.
Listen to the performance of Tim O'Brien & Paul Brady…
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