What does the word “Gothic” mean to you? Gothic cathedrals and castles? Gothic fiction? Teenage goths dressed in black? Horror and the supernatural? This episode explores the origins of the gothic and one man’s lasting influence on this most important of genres. Guest Prof Dale Townshend is Professor of Gothic read more…
Horror
Ep 53: Fiction & Food
How do we use fiction in food? What does a character’s choice of food reveal about them? Do you simply have to go and make a dish when it’s described so beautifully in a book? On this very special episode, a collaboration with the wonderful Spice Bags podcast, we discuss read more…
Ep 52: Gothic Forests
The forest is a place we have very mixed feelings about. Forests can be calm and peaceful, full of ancient and natural beauty. Until they’re not. The forest, in so many ways, is a place we fear. They are dark and dense and overgrown, all too easy to get lost read more…
Ep 45: Mashups, Remixes, and Frankenfiction
Remix, mashup, sample, adaptation, parody, homage, knock-off. The lines between these, and so many other similar terms, are not always very clear. In one sense, all culture is a remix, nothing exists in a vacuum. On the other hand, some people may take a dim view of lifting almost the read more…
Ep 36: Blood, Death, and Varney the Vampire
There is no pop culture monster more written about, more critiqued and analysed, more portrayed and adapted and reimagined, than the vampire. So this episode is not about most vampires. There are no discussions of Dracula or Nosferatu, no True Blood or Twilight or Buffy, no Anne Rice or Stephen read more…
Ep 35: Jekyll and Hyde
For most people today, I think it’s fair to say, the story of Jekyll and Hyde is a rough outline of a tale, a fairly straightforward allegory of the potential dark side within us all. Read Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella, however, and you immediately realise there is so much read more…
Ep 26: Unwrapping the Egyptian Mummy
In the 19th century, a very popular form of entertainment was the mummy unwrapping party. You could go to a private or public event at which an ancient Egyptian mummy would be unrolled and examined. Bandages would be passed around, touched and smelled, ancient jewellery would be admired, and a read more…
Episode 14: H.P. Lovecraft & Weird Fiction
H.P. Lovecraft’s Weird Fiction The American writer H.P. Lovecraft wrote weird fiction. His work is both weird, in the conventional sense of the word, and Weird, in a very specific sense. His tales are not typical horror stories, but instead invoke a type of cosmic terror, a slow realization read more…
Episode 13: The Ghost Stories of MR James
Words To That Effect + Down Below The Reservoir This week’s episode, the end of Season 1, is a Christmas Special. It’s a collaboration with the disturbingly good horror podcast, Down Below The Reservoir. The result is an episode about the ghost stories of MR James, followed by an audio-drama read more…
Episode 12: The Horrifically Complicated History of Zombies
The History of Zombies from Haiti to Hollywood Whether we like it or not, the zombies are coming for us all. Films, books, computer games, comics and TV shows. From historical and mythical zombies to claims to have proven the scientific truth behind zombification. From the gruesome, cannibalistic monsters of read more…
“He’s always going to be the guy who wrote Sherlock Holmes” [Article]
When Authors are Overshadowed by their Creations: A Frankenstein Tale When Dr Victor Frankenstein brings his famous creature to life in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), it is not long before he has lost control of his creation. The creature is bigger, faster, and stronger than his creator and so, when read more…
Dracula and Invasion Fiction [Article]
Invasion Literature: Armies to Aliens to Vampires “This was the being I was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps for centuries to come, he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless” read more…