Over at Wormwoodiana, Dale Nelson looks at Arthur Machen’s The Terror. When I reviewed it, I thought Machen was dealing with the idea of the Great Chain of Being. Nelson looks at the novel using the related idea of “auto-sacrilege”.
Stealing Other People’s Homework
Stealing Other People’s Homework: “The Essex-Born Master of Horror”
Since there will probably be several reviews of William Hope Hodgson works here in the near future, I thought I’d link to the reprint of Peter Berresford Ellis’ 1977 biographical article about Hodgson over at Greydog Tales.
Stealing Other People’s Homework: The Political Thought of Edgar Allan Poe
A reprint of Robert Merry’s article “The Political Thought of Edgar Allan Poe” looks at the aristocratic Virginian writer.
Stealing Other People’s Homework: The Origin of Poe’s “Hop-Frog”
Over at Mental Floss, Maria J. Perez Cuervo (a frequent contributor to Fortean Times) gives us “The Gruesome Medieval Masquerade That Inspired Edgar Allan Poe“
Stealing Other People’s Homework: “The Man Who Invented Tomorrow”
Stealing from the best this time.
James Gunn’s “The Man Who Invented Tomorrow“, an excerpt from his The Science of Science-Fiction Writing, looks at the career of H. G. Wells, how he invented futurology, and the inspiration and influence of his most famous science fiction works.
Stealing Other People’s Homework: “Leave the Capitol”
I reviewed a bit of Arthur Machen for this blog and have read a bit more.
Lee Arizuno’s piece from The Quietus website has a good survey of his work.
Fans of the musician Mark E. Smith (I’m ignorant of his work) will be interested in Smith’s use of Machen.
Stealing Other People’s Homework: “The H. G. Wells Problem”
What’s the H. G. Wells problem?
Well, according to Darrell Schweitzer, it’s Wells’ anti-Semitism.
I must admit I wasn’t aware of that aspect of Wells. His love of eugenics and Joe Stalin, yes.
I could quibble with some of Schweitzer’s piece. I will just say that plenty of people in the early 20th century, including Jews, were fond of eugenics
Stealing Other People’s Homework: “Gustav Meyrink”
I reviewed Meyrink’s The Green Face awhile back, so I thought I’d link to David Barnett’s “Gustav Meyrink: The Mysterious Life of Kafka’s Contemporary“.
Stealing Other People’s Homework: “7 Reasons Why Robert Silverberg Remains a Must-Read”
As an accompaniment to today’s review of The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Seven, I present Silverberg scholar Alvaro Zinos-Amaro’s look at that protean author.
Stealing Other People’s Homework: “Edgar Allan Poe’s Literary War”
An “indirect descendant” of Edgar Allan Poe, Harry Lee Poe, looks at the cultural war between the Bostonians and Edgar Allan Poe over the merits of Southern literature.
He shows how it contributed to the sabotage of his reputation after Poe’s death.
For me, though, the most interesting thing is that Poe, author of several, largely forgotten today, humorous tales criticized Northern writers as lacking in humor, a deficit not found in Southern writers.