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Mistress of a New World: Early Science Fiction in Europe’s “Age of Discovery”

- October 11, 2018 in Books, early science fiction, empire, imperialism, Literature, proto science fiction, science fiction

Considered by many one of the founding texts of the science fiction genre, The Blazing World — via a dizzy mix of animal-human hybrids, Immaterial Spirits, and burning foes — tells of a woman’s absolute rule as Empress over a parallel planet. Emily Lord Fransee explores what the book and its author Margaret Cavendish (one […]

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Eric, Count Stenbock: A Catch Of A Ghost

- September 12, 2018 in Books, count stenbock, decadence, decadent movement, eric stenbock, estonia, estonian writers, Featured Articles, gay writers, Literature, occult, occultism, oscar wilde, poetry, w. b. yeats

With his extravagant dress, entourage of exotic pets, and morbid fascinations, Count Stenbock is considered one of the greatest exemplars of the Decadent movement. David Tibet on the enigmatic writer’s short and curious life.

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“Alas, Poor YORICK!”: The Death and Life of Laurence Sterne

- March 7, 2018 in consumption, death, Featured Articles, Laurence Sterne, Literature, mortality, sentimental journey, tristram shandy

On the 250th anniversary of Laurence Sterne's death, Ian Campbell Ross looks at the engagement with mortality so important to the novelist's groundbreaking work.

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“Alas, Poor YORICK!”: The Death and Life of Laurence Sterne

- March 7, 2018 in consumption, death, Featured Articles, Laurence Sterne, Literature, mortality, sentimental journey, tristram shandy

On the 250th anniversary of Laurence Sterne's death, Ian Campbell Ross looks at the engagement with mortality so important to the novelist's groundbreaking work.

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Master of Disaster, Ignatius Donnelly

- October 24, 2017 in apocalypse, Atlantis, Books, catastrophe, disaster, disaster porn, Featured Articles, Ignatius Donnelly, Literature, pseudo-science, Religion, Myth & Legend, Science & Medicine, science fiction

The destruction of Atlantis, cataclysmic comets, and a Manhattan tower made entirely from concrete and corpse — Carl Abbott on the life and work of a Minnesotan writer, and failed politician, with a mind primed for catastrophe. The magnificent civilization of Atlantis shattered and plunged beneath the sea in February 1882. Or, to be more […]

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Ignatius Donnelly: Recipes for Disaster

- September 27, 2017 in apocalypse, Atlantis, Books, catastrophe, disaster, disaster porn, Featured Articles, Ignatius Donnelly, Literature, pseudo-science, Religion, Myth & Legend, Science & Medicine, science fiction

The destruction of Atlantis, cataclysmic comets, and a Manhattan tower made entirely from concrete and corpse — Carl Abbott on the life and work of a Minnesotan writer, and failed politician, with a mind primed for catastrophe.

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American Freedom: Sinclair Lewis and the Open Road

- March 22, 2017 in america, automobile, car, first road trip novel, free air, freedom, Literature, On the Road, road trip, sinclair lewis, travel, united states

Some three decades before Kerouac and friends hit the road, Sinclair Lewis published Free Air, one of the very first novels about an automobile-powered road trip across the United States. Steven Michels looks at the particular vision of freedom espoused in the tale, one echoed throughout Lewis’ oeuvre. Sinclair Lewis at the wheel of his automobile, ca. 1920s — Source. Sinclair Lewis is experiencing a renaissance of late — butâ�¦

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Defoe and the Distance to Utopia

- January 25, 2017 in Books, captain singleton, daniel defoe, Featured Articles, gulliver's travellers, jonathan swift, Literature, new atlantis, robinson crusoe, thomas more, utopia

In the wake of recent shifts in the political landscape and, what has been for many, a distinct turn to a more dystopian hue, J.H. Pearl looks to the works of Daniel Defoe and the lessons they can teach us about bringing utopia home.

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Astral Travels with Jack London

- November 22, 2016 in astral projection, astral travel, Books, Featured Articles, hallucination, jack london, Literature, reincarnation, solitary confinement

On the centenary of Jack London’s death, Benjamin Breen looks at the writer’s last book to be published in his lifetime, The Star Rover — a strange tale about solitary confinement and interstellar reincarnation — and how it speaks to us of the dreams and struggles of the man himself.

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Frankenstein, the Baroness, and the Climate Refugees of 1816

- June 15, 2016 in Baroness de Krüdener, Culture & History, famine, frankenstein, Literature, lord byron, mary shelley, refugee crisis, refugees, year without a summer

It is 200 years since The Year Without a Summer, when a sun-obscuring ash cloud — ejected from one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history — caused temperatures to plummet the world over. Gillen D’Arcy Wood looks at the humanitarian crisis triggered by the unusual weather, and how it offers an alternative lens through which to read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a book begun in its midst.

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