Coco and the Land of the Dead
I’m a little slow at watching new film releases. But since Coco won the Best Animated Feature at the 2018 Academy Awards, and my youngest granddaughter is staying with us for a while, I figured it was time to purchase the film and take a look. I can now understand why it has been so […]
New series: Horror and Scripture
HORROR AND SCRIPTURE Lexington Books/Fortress Academic is pleased to announce a new series: Horror and Scripture. The series seeks monographs that explore horror, monsters, and the monstrous in early Jewish and Christian scriptures (including canonical and non-canonical texts). Books in the series will be grounded in the disciple of Biblical Studies, but will exhibit a […]
Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Apocalypse
This conference looks interesting, and i’s connected to the work of Robert Geraci who has been featured here previously. April 5 – 6, 2018. Inside the Big Top at the Panacea Museum gardens, Bedford, United Kingdom CenSAMM Symposia Series 2018 Deadline for abstracts extended to February 16. We invite papers from those working across disciplines […]
del Toro Wins Golden Globes and Affirms Monstrous Faith
Guillermo del Toro recently won the Best Director award at the Golden Globes for The Shape of Water. He was true to himself and his lifelong faith in monsters, as evidenced in his acceptance speech. Excerpts below: “I thank you. My monsters thank you.” “Since childhood, I’ve been faithful to monsters. I have been saved […]
Pop Culture Animation and Religion
I’ve just become aware of a new book based upon a PhD dissertation. It’s titled Drawn to the Gods: Religion and Humor in the Simpsons, South Park, & Family Guy by David Feltmate (NYU Press, 2017). The dissertation was supervised by Douglas Cowan, a friend of TheoFantastique who has been interviewed here several times previously […]
Monster Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Terry Wright of the Sacred Writings blog made me aware of a new essay applying monster theory to biblical studies. The title and abstract are reproduced below. Text and Terror: Monster Theory and the Hebrew Bible Brandon R. Grafius Currents in Biblical Research Volume 6, Issue 1 (2017) Abstract While biblical scholars have long been […]
Titles of Interest: Why Horror Seduces
Why Horror Seduces by Mathias Clasen (Oxford University Press, 2017) From vampire apocalypses, shark attacks, witches, and ghosts, to murderous dolls bent on revenge, horror has been part of the American cinematic imagination for almost as long as pictures have moved on screens. But why do they captivate us so? What is the drive to […]
Call for Papers – Supernatural Cities: Narrated Geographies and Spectral Histories
The Open Graves, Open Minds Project unearthed depictions of the vampire and the undead in literature, art, and other media, before embracing shapeshifting creatures (most recently, the werewolf) and other supernatural beings and their worlds. It opens up questions concerning genre, gender, hybridity, cultural change, and other realms. It extends to all narratives of the […]
Salt Lake Comic Con presentations
My complete panel list for Salt Lake Comic Con. Some great and thought provoking discussions, two of which I moderate. Harry Potter is My Bible: Fandom as Faith Thursday September 21, 2017: 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm People turn to fandoms for more than just entertainment. We find comfort and inspiration, guidance and even spirituality, […]
Titles of Interest – “Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse”
Living with the Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse by Greg Garrett When humankind faces what it perceives as a threat to its very existence, a macabre thing happens in art, literature, and culture: corpses begin to stand up and walk around. The dead walked in the fourteenth century, when the Black Death […]
