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Friday, October 30, 2020

Ghosts, Demons, And Depression: Writers And Their Many Hauntings, by Claire Cronin, Literary Hub

I only wish to be obedient to this thread of sight, this line of thought, this longing. I worry that my interests are like Faust’s: I want to know the secrets of hell. Or they are like Fox Mulder’s: I want to believe.

I think it’s far more frightening to hesitate than know. The uncertainty of a ghost’s existence is why the ghost story scares us. In the presence of spirits, we are called to doubt our minds and senses, and a horror of interpretation lingers after images and text. This makes the ghost story the paradigmatic horror narrative rather than a misfit of the genre.

How To Escape A Sinking Ship (Like, Say, The 'Titanic'), by Cody Cassidy, Wired

Your first instinct will be to immediately sprint out of your bunk. Don’t.

Instead, change into your finest clothing. Put on a tux, a dress, or at the very least brush your hair.

The lifeboats are on the first-class deck. They are an invitation-only party that you need to crash. It will help if you look the part.

Psychopathic High Strangeness: On Jeremy Robert Johnson’s “The Loop”, by Matt E. Lewis, Los Angeles Review of Books

Like the best of Crichton or Benchley, it is a great beach read, but it is infused with the neon blood of a brave new writer with his finger on the racing pulse of our society and everything wrong with it. To me, it is some of Johnson’s best work, and a revelation that I think will catapult his immense talent into the public eye. Things are difficult for everyone right now, which goes without saying. But I challenge you to look at The Loop as a kind of literary roller coaster. It will take you to thrilling highs and terrifying lows, and when it’s over, the only thing on your mind will be the adrenaline high and the overwhelming desire to ride again.

Book Review: "The Camera Lies: Acting For Hitchcock" - The Art Of Doing Nothing, Well, by Tim Jackson, The Arts Fuse

“Actors are like cattle,” Alfred Hitchcock famously declared. He later claimed it was merely one of his “Machiavellian quips” and not to be taken seriously. “Let us say, rather, that actors are a necessary evil.” Revising his statement further, he said, “Actors should be treated like cattle.” Dan Callahan’s new book, The Camera Lies: Acting for Hitchcock, is filled with anecdotes that detail the director’s fraught relationship with his performers.

Boston, by Sandra Lim, New York Review of Books

When I first moved to this city to take a job,
and the snows began to fall, a slow sadness took hold of me.

Ambergris And Gasoline, by Patrick Meeds, Guernica Magazine

Are you seeing cats where there are no cats?
Bats where there are no bats? Fighting the urge
to put your trash in a public mailbox, to write