Category Archives: Critical thoughts

The Science of Lycanthropy

Posted on 3rd February 2016 by firekrank

The website for ‘The Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency’ has a page dedicated to the science of Lycanthropy. Whilst there are plenty of other pages and books dedicated to pseudo-scientific frameworks for the existence of monsters – Max Brooks’ The Zombie … Continue reading →

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More on Fairy Tale Fashion

Posted on 25th January 2016 by William the Bloody

Following on from Kaja’s post on the Fairy Tale Fashion exhibition in New York, here’s a short piece on the fashion for fairy tale and fairy tale in fashion, suggesting the utopian components of fairy tale (as explored by the … Continue reading →

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Origins of the Fairy Tale

Posted on 25th January 2016 by William the Bloody

Kaja recently commented on and posted links here to articles describing the research by Dr Jamie Tehrani (Durham University) and Sara Graça da Silva (New University of Lisbon) on the origins of fairy tales. I found this fascinating but had … Continue reading →

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It’s A Kind of Magic: The Books of Renaissance Magician John Dee Go On Display

Posted on 22nd January 2016 by Sam George

One of the courses I was teaching last semester was Renaissance Literature and the most enjoyable part was the exploration of magic on stage from Dr Faustus to The Tempest and the magical statue scene in A Winter’s Tale. The … Continue reading →

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Magical Skins: The Selkie’s Transformation

Posted on 21st January 2016 by Sam George

As soon as the seal was clear of the water, it reared up and its skin slipped down to the sand. What had been a seal was a white-skinned boy George Mackay Brown ‘Pictures in the Cave’ In response to … Continue reading →

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Top 10 Werewolf Scenes

Posted on 21st January 2016 by firekrank

Bill posted a YouTube video containing the ‘Top 10 Werewolf Scenes’. Most of these scenes centre, understandably, on the transformation of man into wolf/ lupine monster. Interestingly the obsessive recording of the agonising transformation is a relatively recent addition to … Continue reading →

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‘How to Recognise a Werewolf in the Nineteenth Century’ by Will Pooley

Posted on 20th January 2016 by firekrank

This well researched post, ‘How to Recognise a Werewolf in the Nineteenth Century’, on the Beastly Histories blog is a very interesting read. (Actually the whole of the blog is pretty exciting so get ready to lose a few hours … Continue reading →

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YA Shapeshifters: The Selkie

Posted on 19th January 2016 by Sam George

The ‘Animal Kinship’ panel at OGOM Company of Wolves included some discussion of the ‘Selkie’ or shapeshifting seal. This elusive creature was discussed in Peter Le Couteur’s paper ‘Sealskins: Finns, Seal Wives, and Mythmaking’. We were rather excited to receive … Continue reading →

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Sexualising the Witch: Magic, Witches & Devils #jrlmagic

Posted on 19th January 2016 by Sam George

The majority of convicted witches in early modern Europe were women, and two female stereotypes became particularly powerful: the alluring young woman, and the dried-up old ‘hag’. Regardless of age, female witches were believed to be in sexual thrall to … Continue reading →

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David Bowie, science, and Gothic absurdity

Posted on 16th January 2016 by William the Bloody

A few more Bowie-related links, here. Science Fiction is, one might say, a rationalising mode of the fantastic; SF motifs feature frequently in Bowie’s work from ‘Space Oddity’ to his penultimate single ‘Blackstar’ (the video of which combines elements of … Continue reading →

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