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9 Nov, 5 tweets, 3 min read
More #novemberhorror:

Jonathan Aycliffe (UK; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Mac…) is a respected academic who writes think-pieces and thrillers as well as horror. I’m of the opinion that his horror is better than the rest of his work, despite those being more popular.

1/5
Aycliffe works in the Gothic mode, relying on psychological complexity, atmosphere, and setting to terrify the reader rather than overt horror or the suggestion of or appearance of the visceral or cosmic.

#novemberhorror

2/5
Aycliffe’s strengths are in creating the sense of an atmosphere sodden with terror & in creating modern characters w/modern strengths and foibles. Aycliffe is supremely good at mood, although sometimes at the expense of a novel’s plot.

#novemberhorror

3/5
His novels generally rework traditional horror plots and themes very competently for modern settings and characters. He’s always conscious of the tradition he is working in—he’s noted his debts to M.R. James and Bram Stoker.
#novemberhorror
4/5
Recommended starting place: either NAOMI’S ROOM (amazon.com/NaomiS-Room-Jo…) or A GARDEN LOST IN TIME (amazon.com/Garden-Lost-Ti…).
#novemberhorror

5/5

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More from @jessnevins

Jess Nevins Profile picture
10 Nov
More #novemberhorror:

Lygia Fagundes Telles (Brazil; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lygia_Fag…) is a highly decorated novelist whose stories & novels are more horror-inflected than pure horror. She writes psychological stories with dreamlike, nightmarish, or hallucinatory atmospheres.

1/4
Telles' characters—usually women—are customarily alone and experience misunderstanding, conflict, disillusionment, deceit, fear, and death, with conflicts not being happily resolved and the narrative tension not being relieved.

#novemberhorror

2/4
It is in Telles' short stories that she most often uses the supernatural and the surreal, with shifting realities being a norm. Occasionally she uses surreal elements as an allegory against the oppressive Brazilian government.

#novemberhorror

3/ 4
Read 4 tweets
Jess Nevins Profile picture
9 Nov
What people don't understand is that Big Bird is a represenation of Veðrfaðir, who sits atop Yggdrasil, the World Tree of Norse Myth, and quarrels endlessly with Níðhǫggr, the dragon who gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots. In this essay I will describe the allegorical meaning of

1/256
Big Bird, whose kindliness sweeps across Sesame Street the way that the winds caused by the flapping of Veðrfaðir's wings sweep across Miðgarðr, and Oscar the Grouch, who as the parallel of Níðhǫggr gnaws at the foundation of Sesame Street with his grouchiness.

2/256
Where it gets really interesting is that Veðrfaðir was an Odin parallel: Odin sent his two ravens, Huginn & Muninn, "Thought" and "Memory," out to observe the world and bring back news. Veðrfaðir had the falcon Veðrfǫlnir ("storm-pale" or "wind-witherer") do the same.
3/256
Read 62 tweets
Jess Nevins Profile picture
19 Oct
Enough people expressed an interest in this, so here I am, about to tell you one of the ways to write Superman correctly. There are any number of ways to write him. This one is mine and is how I’d write him if I ever got the chance.

1/34
Not surprisingly, Alan Moore is my main influence in this, but not based on “Whatever Happened to the Man Of Tomorrow?” No, Moore summarized my approach to Superman in this sequence from WILDCATS #26:

2/34
Superman as Super-Dad. Superman, as a literally superior being who loves humanity and puts himself in a position to protect and nurture us, to shield us from damaging influences and people, and to help us grow—to be the sort of father that Jonathan Kent was to him.
3/34
Read 35 tweets
Jess Nevins Profile picture
19 Oct
Thinking about my undergrad alma mater, Bates College, which is currently going through a scandal about the administration censoring something that appeared in the student newspaper.

I wrote an opinion column for that newspaper, back in 1988. 1/3
I've been smug in thinking that the administration didn't censor us in the old days--but I remembered this morning that that's not true.

I wrote a column pointing out (naming w/out naming) the date rapists on campus and the frat-like house of students where date rapes occurred.
I upset much of the campus and a number of alumnae and donors, got attacked at a party, etc. And one of the Deans called me into his office and in what I'm sure he thought was a cordial tone of voice "recommended" I meet with my "victims" (i.e., the date rapists).
Read 5 tweets
Jess Nevins Profile picture
15 Oct
Last time, we finished up the text of “English Jack.” Now, some notes & thoughts.
Although story paper serials were always patriotic, the quality of the patriotism and the range of feelings about the Empire and about foreigners varied depending on the years.
1/31
During those years when the British public and policy makers felt relatively sanguine about the Empire, the story papers produced what was for the time a relatively diverse set of heroes whose interaction with foreign cultures was comparatively tolerant.
2/31
But during those years when British culture and cultural assumptions were seen to be under attack, and when the British public and policy makers felt anxiety about the Empire or its future, the tone of penny dreadfuls and story paper serials changed.
3/31
Read 32 tweets
Jess Nevins Profile picture
14 Oct
More on "English Jack":

When last we left our heroes they had just outwitted Afghans from inside a hollow statue of a false god.
Jack etc. rejoin the British troops. Elphinstone decides that the situation in Kabul is hopeless & that it’s time to leave the city.
1/30
Elphinstone orders all his troops to lead the retreat over the mountains to the nearest safe city, Jalalabad (93 miles away). All the civilians in Kabul are to accompany them.
His officers try to persuade Elphinstone not to do this, but he is insistent.
2/30
Problems with his idea:
-4,500 troops to guard 12,000+ civilians (plus Afghan & Indian camp followers) is bad military math.
-4,500 troops staging a fighting retreat against 30,000+ Indigenous troops is bad military math.
-It’s early January. The weather is the enemy.
3/30
Read 30 tweets

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