TMO Tags: gothic

Stories – edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

The American Academic Cass R. Sunstein has an interesting argument in his book Republic.com.2.0 Revenge of the Blogs, that the abundance of information, choice, and social networking available on the internet ultimately leads to a more restricted closed culture. For a well functioning system of free expression, Sunstein argues, there are certain requirements that go [...]

The Resurrectionist – Jack O’Connell

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

So, you want to write a thought-provoking novel about consciousness, death, fatherhood and the role of narrative in our lives? What’s the best way to do it? A stereotypical gothic mansion turned into a health clinic run by a mad scientist doesn’t sound like a promising start.  A split universe setting whose hero is chick, [...]

Naming the Bones – Louise Welsh

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

The more I think back on Louise Welsh’s latest novel, Naming the Bones, which I finished just over two weeks ago, the more quietly impressed I am by it.  And if that seems like damning with faint praise, nothing could be further from the truth.  While the novel has a narrative arc that brings its [...]

Should the laws of physics apply? Helen Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Should the laws of physics apply to a novel? There are readers who,  not without reason, demand that yes, the laws of gravity, and thermodynamics must apply at all times if the work is to be taken seriously. For example, if a character is to cross a room, they should do so – with or [...]

The making of a monster – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007

“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! – Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; [...]