eldritchhobbit

Another Gothic title very popular with women working in 19th-century factories in Manchester and Lancashire, UK, was The String of Pearls; or The Barber of Fleet Street (aka Sweeney Todd) (1846-1847) by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. Read it here. Quote: “How still everything was in those vaults of old St. Dunstan’s. Were there no spirits from another world—spirits of the murdered, to flit in horrible palpability before the eyes of that man who had cut short their thread of life? Surely if ever a visitant from another world could have been expected, it would have been to appear to Todd to convince him that there was more beyond the grave than a forgotten name and a mouldering skeleton.” ALT View the full post.

Halloween season is here! Since 2005, I’ve been observing a Halloween countdown on whatever social media I was using at the time with a daily post throughout October. These days I am primarily on Mastodon (so if you’re in the Fediverse, or connected to it via Threads or some other means, please say hi!), but I also post on Tumblr, my Goodreads blog, and Dreamwidth, among other places. I look forward to sharing October with you! Happy Countdown to Halloween 2024! This year I will focus on Halloween-friendly texts (long and short) available for free online. I will try to lean away from the usual suspects and, I hope, bring you some treats that you will enjoy! This countdown will have several separate parts. The first part is inspired by Bridget M. Marshall’s excellent 2021 work Industrial Gothic: Workers, Exploitation and Urbanization in Transatlantic Nineteenth-Century Literature. In her book, Marshall notes that dark and dreadful Gothic novels were very popular with the “mill girls” who worked in 19th-century factories. I’d like to start the countdown by recommending some of the shiver-inducing texts these women reported reading and savoring. ALT Here begins the Day 1 post! One of the most popular titles with women working in factories in Manchester and Lancashire, UK, was Mysteries of London (1844-1845) by G.W.M. Reynolds. Read it here. Quote: “Perhaps there is no other cry in the world, save that of ‘fire!’ more calculated to spread terror and dismay, when falling suddenly and unexpectedly upon the ears of a party of revellers, than that of ‘A corpse! a corpse!’” View the full post.

ALT ALT Me on September 30 vs. me on October 1. ? View the full post.

ALT It’s almost October, which means it’s almost time to start my annual re-reading of one of my all-time favorite books, A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. With 31 chapters, one for each day of the month, it is a fantastic mash-up of creepy seasonal goodness wrapped into a compelling story, a kind of literary advent calendar for Halloween. View the full post.

unamccormack: Not long now till my new book comes out! Una by Una! Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Asylum View the full post.

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. ALT View the full post.

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. ALT ALT ALT View the full post.

It was a joy to join my co-editor Emily Strand to talk about our new book Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier with the New Books Network podcast! Emily Strand and Amy H. Sturgis, “Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier” (Vernon Press, 2023) - New Books Network View the full post.

On this Star Trek Day, as Trek turns 58, I feel tremendous gratitude for the many years of joy I’ve had teaching, writing about, and being inspired by Star Trek and the Trek community. ALT ALT ALT ALT 2024’s STAR TREK DAY Kicks Off a Global Charity Awareness Campaign View the full post.

dramyhsturgis: Happy birthday to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (30 August, 1797 – 1 February, 1851)! “Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.” - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) View the full post.

ICYMI, there is a documentary series that highlights the contributions of women and non-binary people in the Star Wars fandom and in related discussions of resilience and resistance. I was delighted to play a small role as a consultant on this project, and I will be sharing it with my graduate students this semester as we discuss Star Wars and popular culture. It’s Looking for Leia, and all seven episodes are free to watch! ALT View the full post.

Just in case you’d like your October to be extra haunted, I’ll be back in SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online with Signum University. Voting is now open for my October module, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Early voters will determine when our live discussions will meet online. I had so much fun with this before, we’re doing it all over again! More information is here. View the full post.

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. View the full post.

ALT ALT Octavia E. Butler’s “must read” masterpiece Parable of the Sower (1993) begins its first chapter on July 20, 2024. View the full post.

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” - Rumi View the full post.

dramyhsturgis: Happy birthday to the mother of the Gothic, Ann Radcliffe (9 July, 1764 – 7 February, 1823). “A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. Store it with ideas, teach it the pleasure of thinking; and the temptations of the world without, will be counteracted by the gratifications derived from the world within.” ― Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) View the full post.

ALT Book mood. ? These novels were inspired by the 1924 Leopold and Loeb case. View the full post.

Emily Strand and Amy H. Sturgis, “Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away” (Vernon Press, 2023) by New Books in Film It was a joy to join my co-editor, Emily Strand, to talk about our anthology Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away with the New Books Network! View the full post.

dramyhsturgis: May the 4th be with you. Happy Star Wars Day! View the full post.

ALT Grab your garlic, paprika, and train timetables. It’s Dracula Daily/Re: Dracula time again. View the full post.

I was happy to be able to contribute to the University of Louisville’s year-long examination of Alexis de Tocqueville by discussing A Fortnight in the Wilderness. I’ll also be leading a seminar for Kentucky teachers on this text. View the full post.

It’s wonderful to hear Martine G. Ræstad on this episode of Women At Warp discussing how the Federation’s economy works. Martine contributed the excellent essay “The Future Burning Brightly: The Dual Impact of Energy in Star Trek’s Post-Scarcity Universe” to our new Vernon Press anthology Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier. Episode 234: How Does the Federation Economy Work? Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier View the full post.

I’m delighted to share that both of my co-edited academic anthologies with Vernon Press are now available in hardback, ebook, and (new!) paperback format: STAR TREK: ESSAYS EXPLORING THE FINAL FRONTIER and STAR WARS: ESSAYS EXPLORING A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY. More information is here. ALTALT View the full post.

Good mail day! New Palgrave Macmillan publications related to my current research/book project. ALT View the full post.

Thesis Theater: Laurel Stevens, “An Awareness of Debts: Dark Academia and its Source-Texts” Congratulations to Laurel M. Stevens! It’s been a true joy to be Laurel’s M.A. thesis director. View the full post.