The Lost Art of Criticism

"A critic who is driven primarily by their politics, who is blinded by their own sense of moral superiority, or who cannot temporarily surrender to the worldview of their subject, can barely be said to be a critic at all"

From "The Lost Art of Criticism" by Andrew Doyle.  Full article here.

The Frankenstein Notebooks at the Bodleian Library

A fascinating Bodleian Library Discussion, click here.

 

Description: 

An examination of the notebooks in which Mary Shelley drafted Frankenstein. These two notebooks, one purchased probably in Geneva, the second in England, are now kept in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

With: Miranda Seymour, biographer of Mary Shelley, Richard Ovenden, Bodley's Librarian, Stephen Hebron, curator and author of Shelley's Ghost

Recorded on Saturday, 24 March, 2018, for Frankenreads 2018

The 1910 Edison film of Frankenstein has been restored!

Read and watch here.  Fascinating!

The Books That Made Dracula

Stoker's 1890 application for membership in the London Library

"The London Library today unveiled a fascinating discovery that sheds new light on how Dracula was researched and written. We've found 26 books that are almost certainly the original copies that Bram Stoker used to help research his enduring classic."

Read the full article here.  (And watch the video there too!)  

Free Will Has Become Dangerous

Governments and corporations will soon know you better than you know yourself. Belief in the idea of ‘free will’ has become dangerous.

Read "The Myth of Freedom" by Yuval Noah Harari here.

"A Secret too Terrible to Know"

"As history confirms, people will change their minds about almost anything, from which god they worship to how they style their hair. But when it comes to existential judgments, human beings in general have an unfalteringly good opinion of themselves and their condition in this world and are steadfastly confident they are not a collection of self-conscious nothings."

From Thomas Ligotti's new "Introduction" to the Penguin edition of The Conspiracy against the Human Race.  Read the full Introduction here.

The Pleasure of a Used Bookstore in an Airport

Yes, an airport.  Specifically the Milwaukee airport.  I have fond memories of browsing there, and of the books that I found, since the mid-1980s.  I would even stop in at the airport when driving up to Milwaukee so that I could visit the bookstore. Back then it was a secondary location for a huge multi-floored bookstore in a dilapidated downtown building (since condemned and destroyed).  Now only the airport location remains.  Here's a link to a news story about it, including some pictures that bring such memories.