My latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment is the first of a two-part review of the anthology AI Narratives: A History of Imaginative Thinking about Intelligent Machines, edited by Stephen Cave, Kanta Dihal, and Sarah Dillon, published by Oxford University Press in 2020. It’s now up on the new episode of the StarShipSofa podcast.
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StarShipSofa 718 Lincoln Michel | StarShipSofa
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October 18: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (2017)
Quote 1:
But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart — by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute.
Quote 2:
You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.
October is almost here!
I’m currently working on new academic projects related to Dark Academia (the subgenre, not the aesthetic), so for Halloween month I’ll be posting a different DA title each day with a haunting/atmospheric quote. I hope you’ll enjoy the recs!
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October 2: Conversion by Katherine Howe (2014)
Quote:
Something was eating away at the back of my brain. Girls. Dominant narratives. Sex. Death. Arthur Miller. Ann Putman sitting invisible right in the middle of history.
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Dark Academia novel: The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige (2020)
From the cover:
These sorority girls are real witches.
Quote:
That was when she noticed the single tarot card positioned nearly at the head of her bare mattress, as if placed there by a careful hand.
It was the Death card her mother had given her.
The skeleton leered up at her with a gruesome smile, and for a moment, it almost looked like the eyes glowed red. Vivi shivered, despite knowing that it was a trick of the light. I told you. Westerly isn’t a safe place, not for people like you…
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Happy Halloween, everyone!
Song: “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
Quote:
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
Read the complete poem.
Listen to Joan Baez’s performance…
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In 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote. Here’s What They Seek Now.
Native women were highly visible in early 20th-century suffrage activism. White suffragists, fascinated by Native matriarchal power, invited Native women to speak at conferences, join parades, and write for their publications. Native suffragists took advantage of these opportunities to speak about pressing issues in their communities — Native voting, land loss and treaty rights. But their stories have largely been forgotten.
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October 27: The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino (2021)
Quote:
Demons. Dark magic. The devil. These were the things he searched, muttering under his breath and dead to the world around him as dawn broke; as something grappled at the door of his office and found itself forbidden.
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Watch Now: Race Massacre graves researchers need DNA, genealogies to tie burials to victims
Utah Cold Case Coalition Intermountain Forensics is seeking DNA help from anyone who may have relatives from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Researchers think DNA is the best chance for the case known for now as “burial 27” to be the first conclusively identified victim of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
In a project update Wednesday with reporters, University of Oklahoma archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck expressed optimism the team’s efforts could possibly have “successfully located the first victim of the massacre” after a young Black man was exhumed with two bullets from a potter’s field corner of Oaklawn Cemetery.
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Dark Academia novel: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (2012)
Quote:
Keep calm and carry on. Also, stay in and hide because the Ripper is coming.
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October 3: Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (2021).
Quote:
I feel like I’m reliving the same nightmare over and over, and it will never stop.
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On my latest “Looking Back at Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 748), I revisit the brilliant The Twilight Zone series and discuss Monsters on Maple Street: The Twilight Zone and the Postwar American Dream by David J. Brokaw.
Here is the link!
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Dark Academia
I’m delighted to share the details of my Fall 2022 online Dark Academia class at Signum University!
I’m also thrilled to add that 3 of the brilliant authors whose works we’ll be studying in the Dark Academia course will be holding live Q&A sessions with the class!
I’m thrilled to add that 3 of the brilliant authors whose works we’ll be studying in the #DarkAcademia course will be holding live Q&A sessions with the class!
Peadar Ó Guilín for THE CALL (‘16)
Elisabeth Thomas for CATHERINE HOUSE ('20)
R.F. Kuang for BABEL ('22).
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October is here! This year for my Halloween countdown, with the invaluable assistance of my husband (and resident expert on all things Appalachian), I will be bringing you a spooky, Halloween-appropriate song with a twist of mountain flavor. I’ve chosen one version of each of these songs to share, but some have been recorded and reinterpreted many, many times.
If you like “Boograss” (or Spooky Bluegrass), Southern Gothic tales, traditional murder ballads, ghost stories, and/or Halloween chills, I hope you will enjoy each day’s post!
Song: “O Death”
Quote:
O Death, O Death in the morning,
O Death, spare me over ‘til another year.
Listen to Rhiannon Giddens’ performance…
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Song: “Knoxville Boy”
Quote:
When the moon is high the Knoxville boy Goes prowling out to kill. We don’t know why so many die To give that boy a thrill. A handsome lad with a wealthy dad And eyes of bluebird blue, He’s killed before, he’ll kill some more, And the next one could be you.
When the fog rolls into Knoxville And the river’s on the rise, Don’t go near the Knoxville boy There’s murder in his eyes.
Listen to Larry Stephenson’s performance…
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Song: “Darlin’ Cory”
Quote:
Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadows. Dig a hole in the cold, cold ground. Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadows, Gonna lay darlin’ Cory down.
There are many versions of this song. Read more here.
Listen to Driftwood Company’s performance…
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Vernon Press - Call for Book Chapter Proposals: “Second Star to the Right: Essays on Leadership in Star Trek”
FYI, here’s a new call for papers for the academic anthology Second Star to the Right: Essays on Leadership in Star Trek. ?
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October 25: S.T.A.G.S. Series by M.A. Bennett (2017-2021)
Quote from S.T.A.G.S. (2017):
I think that’s when I realised he was crazy: he was still being chivalrous, waiting until I was quite ready for him to kill me.
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October 30: The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (2021)
Quote 1:
And when you’re truly scared, there’s nowhere to hide - no private school, no popularity, no trust fund. It’s just you and your most base emotion. Fear is where the truth lies.
Quote 2:
But there was something wrong with me. It clawed at my insides, desperate to get out.
Quote 3:
If you want this to be over, just make sure she screams.
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I am delighted to report that STAR TREK: ESSAYS EXPLORING THE FINAL FRONTIER is coming soon! ? I’m so excited to share this with the universe!
This academic anthology includes work from Emily Strand, Una McCormack, Daniel Unruh, Edward Guimont, Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco, Kristina Šekrst, Javier Francisco, Erin Bell, Martine Gjermundsen Ræstad, Andrew Higgins, John Jackson Miller, and me. The cover art is by Emily Austin.
More information, including the complete Table of Contents, is available here from Vernon Press.
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October 10: This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers (2012)
Quote 1:
We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the soundtrack of our own impending death.
Quote 2:
Sometimes you catch something specific like the screams and cries of people trying to hold on to each other before they’re swallowed into other, bigger noises. This is what it sounds like when the world ends.
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