All The Weird

A blog about weird fiction, games, shows, and movies.

Supernatural Horror studies book – “New Directions in Supernatural Horror Literature” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) – Sean Moreland interview

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Sean Moreland teaches English at the University of Ottowa. His main field of research is Anglo-American literature from the late 18th century to present. He particularly enjoys Gothic, horror and weird fiction and is involved with various journals and events on the subjects. We spoke about his latest editorial work on Lovecraft’s critical theories on horror.

0:58 – Sean talks about how he got into working on Lovecraft.

1:44 – Sean talks about the essays in the book. All the contributors study weird fiction or horror.

4:36 – Sean talks about what precisely the essays focus on.

7:57 – Sean talks about the Lovecraft documents the essays draw from.

9:55 – Sean talks about how the ssays developed for the book.

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19:40 – Sean talks about how he has researched the foundational basis of the various essays.

21:55- Sean talks about the Lovecraft archives at Brown University.

23:19 – Sean compares Lovecrat to Poe.

26:41 – Sean was surprised that Lovecraft’s ideas can be applied to medieval writing.

28:14 – Sean talks about the questions that still surround Lovecraft.

31:47 – Sean talks about the fear of the different as a basis for horror.

42:33 – Sean has a horror blog at www.pstdarkness.com.

Links of interest

https://www.palgrave.com/la/book/9783319954769

https://arts.uottawa.ca/english/people/moreland-sean

https://pstdarkness.com/

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Sean Moreland

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, Lovecraft, critical thinking, horror, weird fiction, Edgar Allen Poe, gothic

Supernatural fiction studies book – “A Feeling of Wrongness” (Penn State University Press, 2018) – Joe Packer interview

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Joe Packer is a communications academic and became interested in how pessimism is expressed in popular culture. He co-wrote a book on the subject and we discussed it.

0:56 – Joe talks about how he got into writing about pessimism in popular culture. He references Lovecraft.

2:14 – Joe talks about the book and philosophical pessimism. The book focuses on the idea that things would be better if humans didn’t even exist.

6:31 – Joe talks about why they incorporated True Detective, Rick and Morty, and Final Fantasy VII into the book’s ideas.

12:37 – Joe talked about other works they considered including such as drone metal.

16:08 – Joe talks about their backgrounds in communications studies.

17:09 – Joe talks about the short story “I have No Mouth and I Must Scream” and how it affected him.

22:53 – Joe talks about post-apocalyptic films.

27:38 – Joe talks about the philosophies of BioShock.

28:52 – Joe is on academia.edu and Google Scholar.

Links of interest

A Feeling of Wrongness https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08235-6.html

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Joe Packer

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, art, artist, Rick and Morty, True Detective, Lovecraft, Final Fantasy VII, Inside Out, drone metal, Get Out, BioShock, video games

Horror movie history – “Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror” (Counterpoint, 2018) – W. Scott Poole interview

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Scott Poole is a professor of history in American pop and folk culture with a heavy emphasis on horror studies. We talked about his latest book that examines the effect World War One had on horror movies.

0:56 – Scot talks about how he got into studying horror.

2:58 – Scott talks about the book and how World War One changed horror literature and stories.

9:58 – Scott talks about directors and creators who delved into horror.

12:45 – Scott talks about how Franz Kafka is associated with horror.

16:03 – Scott talks about the occult, horror and the Great War.

22:57 – Scott talks about French author Celine’s affect on horror.

25:33 – Scott talks about the death of animals affected horror.

28:34 – Scott talks about how he found old horror films and war footage.

35:30 – Scott talks about comedy in early horror.

38:39 – Scott talks about the great emotional difficulty he had in writing this book.

43:11 – Scott talks about an interesting discovery he made about Bela Lugosi.

53:04 – Scott tweets @monstersamerica.

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Scott Poole

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: horror, movies, literature, Kafka, Lovecraft, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, World War One, The Great War, Celine, movie directors, Nazis, occult