Category: Criticism

  • “The Loop”/Horror Endings/What I am Reading

    I read “The Loop” this week; which was… ok? It showed up in a twitter thread from a horror writer I like, and was on sale, so I gave it a whirl. I note a number of horror novels I’ve read this year have trouble sticking the landing. It seems to be an issue with…

  • “Pougemaghone”

    If you’re writing or speaking about Pougemahone, you’re legally obligated to translate the title– which is Irish for “kiss my ass”. You’re also obligated to mention that was the original name of the band “The Pogues”, and also mention that the band appears briefly somewhere in the book. Having fulfilled those obligations, let us begin. …

  • More “Moby Dick”/Ambient Novels/Sunn O)))/Drone Novels

    I. Apparently it’s “Moby Dick” season. I have learned through a friend that someone I follow on twitter (who’s work/twitter I admire) is also heeding the call of the wretched sea™ and like me is around halfway through. I finished “The Town-Ho’s Story”, and shortly after that “Moby Dick” turns heavy into encyclopedia mode, with…

  • Religion Nerd/50% of “Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials”

    For a long time, I have been a religion nerd– I have traveled through two different denominations of Buddhism, three or four (depending on how you count it) of Christianity, at one point considering becoming a clergyman (that lasted a few months, so don’t get too excited), and a few other random things. I’ve read…

  • 70% of “You Can’t Win”

    I’m about 70% of the way done through “You Can’t Win” and I’m not 100% sure about finishing it. Here’s the thing: it’s a well written book, and it does a good job of telling its story. But there’s an underlying problem I’ll get to in a bit.  I first heard of this book somewhere…

  • In Which the Author Stops Apologizing/What I am Reading

    One of the things I have found about writing a blog that you update frequently is that certain themes emerge whether or not you want to. For a while, I struggled with my role with the blog, eventually deciding “gee, I’m a critic”. I’ve played with the notion of “status vs. contract” novel, and described…

  • “The Pallbearer’s Club”/Booktube/A Definite Title

    A couple of anecdotes: A little bit ago, I was wasting time watching YouTube, which is something I do a little too much of, if I am being honest. There was a video on the movie “Incident in a Ghostland” which I saw some length of time ago, and decided to watch. The youtuber appeared,…

  • Hating Will Shortz/Cleverness/”Ella Minnow Pea”

    “Everybody’s clever nowadays” -Oscar Wilde Clever is a difficult thing. It’s fairly easy to write something without being clever at all. We’re going to have to define our terms a little bit here: on it’s surface, clever is a synonym for ‘smart’— but when I hear the word, I tend to think of something that’s…

  • Roger Ebert/Criticism/”Ghoul”

    Roger Ebert was basically America’s critic for a large chunk of his career. He was an excellent writer, and had a canyon deep understanding of the medium he spent most of his time writing about. He was also a passionate and thoughtful critic: watch this clip of him arguing with Gene Siskel about the film…