On my latest "Looking Back on Genre History" segment on StarShipSofa (Episode 760), I discuss Ashley Lawson's new book On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett.

My "Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson: Exploring a Gothic Campus Mystery" one-month module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently "on the launchpad" for potential launch in the autumn of 2025.

Here is the official description:

"Shirley Jackson is rightly celebrated as a master of Gothic storytelling thanks to her most well-known novels such as The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). In recent years, however, her earlier novel Hangsaman (1951) has received new attention and critical appreciation from fans and scholars alike.

"Far ahead of its time when it was published, Jackson’s deeply personal Hangsaman is many things: a psychological study of a young woman’s coming of age; a haunting Gothic mystery; a pointed critique of gender roles, family dynamics, and higher education; a meditation on trauma and mental illness; and an ancestor of today’s dark academia storytelling. Shirley Jackson drew inspiration from a variety of sources to craft this remarkable campus novel, from folk ballads and the Tarot, myth and ritual, to a real college campus and an unsolved New England cold case of a missing sophomore student.

"In this module, we will unpack this gem of a Gothic story, following freshman Natalie Waite as she searches for her 'essential self' and discussing why Hangsaman feels freshly relevant and important to many readers today."

Here is more information on the Hangsaman module.

To help launch this module, please go here, log in, and put this module on your launchpad short-list. Thanks!

My "The Hunger Games" module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently a candidate for September 2025. This is a proposed first module of five, one for each of the five Hunger Games novels by Suzanne Collins. Each week will include one recorded lecture and one live discussion section. Voting runs through August 1. I hope you will join us as we explore the lessons we may learn from Panem.

May the odds be ever in our favor!

More information is here.

On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa (Episode 758), I discuss science fiction, nuclear weapons, and the ongoing relevance of the classic Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald.

Here is the link!

Join me in June 2025!

June is almost here! Next month I will be offering my month-long "Meet The Last Man" module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University.

Mary Shelley's novel is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I can't wait to discuss it with students!

Watch the teaser here:

Watch on YouTube

More information is available here.

On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 756), I discuss two pioneering dystopian novels published fifty years apart, works with much to say to each other and to us in 2025. Here is the link!

1>New "Looking Back on Genre History"

On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 754), I discuss (in a spoiler-free way!) Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, intellectual history, and genre references. Here is the link!

Pictured is the cover of Sunrise on the Reaping: A Hunger Games Novel by Suzanne Collins. The cover art is purple, and it shows the image of a flint-striker pendant depicting a snake facing a mockingjay.

Pictured is part of a quote by Scottish Enlightenment thinker David Hume, a quote listed as an epigraph to Sunrise on the Reaping. The relevant part reads, "Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers...." The key phrase here is "implicit submission."

Pictured is a quote from the late-eighteenth-century protest poem "The Common and the Goose," which is quoted in Sunrise on the Reaping. This excerpt reads, "The law demands that we atone/ When we take things we do not own,/ But leaves the lords and ladies fine/ Who take things that are yours and mine."

My 12-week graduate course on the Dystopian Tradition will be offered this summer online at Signum University. I'm so glad that this class made; these works, and the conversations they make possible, are more important and relevant than ever.

Pictured is a stack of books including George Orwell's 1984, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, Sheri Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, M.T. Anderson's Feed, Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth's The Space Merchants, Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, and Mordecai Roshwald's Level 7.

I'm delighted to say that it's back! My month-long module "Meet The Last Man" module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University has been confirmed for June 2025.

Mary Shelley's novel The Last Man is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I'm really looking forward to exploring it with students!

Here is more information.

Watch on YouTube

“Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.” - David Hume, quoted in Sunrise on the Reaping

Happy Sunrise on the Reaping Day!

To celebrate, here is my new talk for the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville: "Why You Should Read The Hunger Games.

Watch on YouTube

My graduate course on the Dystopian Tradition will be offered again this summer online at Signum University if there's sufficient interest. I hope the class will make, because it seems more relevant than ever.

I'm delighted to say that it's back! My month-long module "Meet The Last Man" module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently up for candidacy for June 2025. Voting is open through May 1.

Mary Shelley's novel The Last Man is one of the most relevant books we can read right now, and I'm really looking forward to exploring it with students!

Here is more information.

Watch on YouTube

On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 750), I revisit the brilliant The Tomorrow Series and other works by John Marsden and discuss the lasting contributions of science fiction scholar H. Bruce Franklin.

Here is the link!

On my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 748), I revisit the brilliant The Twilight Zone series and discuss Monsters on Maple Street: The Twilight Zone and the Postwar American Dream by David J. Brokaw.

Here is the link!

Thank you to all of the podcasts that invited me on this year!

My "Looking Back on Genre History" science fiction segment ran each month on StarShipSofa.

I talked to Potterversity about my book chapter "Dark Arts and Secret Histories: Investigating Dark Academia"; to Trash Compactor and New Books Network about my book Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away; and to New Books Network about my book Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier.

I also talked about Alexis de Tocqueville with the Vital Remnants podcast and Mary Shelley (twice, once about The Last Man and once about Frankenstein) with The McConnell Center podcast.

Links to all of these podcast episodes are here.

New Publication in 2024:
An essay, "‘Lifting Old Curses’: The mirror dance of The Flowers of Vashnoi and The Mountains of Mourning" in Short But Concentrated #2: a second essay symposium on the works of Lois McMaster Bujold, edited by Una McCormack.

New in Paperback in 2024 (previously published in hardback & ebook in 2023):
Two books, Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier and Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away, both co-edited with Emily Strand.

Some of the university and conference talks I gave this year are now online.

“Missing Students & Their Fictional Afterlives: True Crime, Crime Fiction, and Dark Academia" (presented at the Popular Culture Research Network’s “Guilty Pleasures: Examining Crime in Popular Culture” conference).
View this presentation here.

Why You Should Read The Last Man by Mary Shelley

Watch on YouTube

Why You Should Read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Watch on YouTube

"A Fortnight in the Wilderness" with Alexis de Tocqueville

Watch on YouTube

I've been on a Mary Shelley roll lately! On my latest “Looking Back at Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 747), I revisit the brilliant Frankenstein. Here is the episode.

Pictured are open pages of The New Annotated Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and edited by Leslie S. Klinger. The pages show sepia-toned decorative artwork around the edges and a vintage illustration of Victor Frankenstein fleeing his awakened Creature.

One of the most relevant works you can read today was published in 1826.

Here I make my case for why you should read The Last Man by Mary Shelley.

Watch on YouTube

Profile

eldritchhobbit

My Official Website

Navigation

Syndicate

Page Summary

Active Entries

1: Rebellions Are Built on Hope - in SPACE!
2: Star Wars and Resistance
3: Upcoming Presentation
4: The Dracula "Group Read" Experience
5: Help launch Hangsaman!
6: Join me in June 2025!
7: The Dystopian Tradition
8: Bertha Mellish and the Missing Student
9: Why You Should Read Frankenstein
10: Thoughts Right Now

Style Credit

Style: Night Sea for Tranquility III by branchandroot

eldritchhobbit

On Edge on StarShipSofa!

Help launch Hangsaman!

Will you join me in Panem?

My Latest "Looking Back on Genre History"