But Carthage may rise again one day

[sovay]

I cannot express my happiness on discovering that a queer classics student reblogged my ghost poem for Lucan on the occasion of the poet's yahrzeit; this is exactly the kind of tradition I want to be part of. Have some links!

1. In which my plan to stress-buy a zillion waistcoats is vindicated by literature: Samuel Rutter, "A Dandy's Guide to Decadent Self-Isolation."

2. Courtesy of handful_ofdust: the value of practical effects in the case of the Cottingley Fairies.

3. Adam Bolivar, whose rhyming marionette theater I had the privilege of enjoying last summer at NecronomiCon 2019, has recorded his Rhysling Award-winning ballad "The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner" as performed by H.P. Lovecraft Theobald Craftwell. I also recommend checking out the self-introduction of dapper, skeletal Solomon Scratch.

4. Frankly, the history of the Pearl of Lao-Tzu makes Steinbeck's The Pearl (1947) look like a tea cozy.

5. The storyboards of The Ballet of the Red Shoes, from Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948), are just great.

In case I forgot to mention, my short story "Where the Sky Is Silver and the Earth Is Brass" is reprinted in the latest issue of Uncanny Magazine. It won't be free to read online until June, but you can always buy an e-book.

Comments

[thawrecka]

5 - Those storyboards are gorgeous!

[asakiyume]

The Cottingley Fairies thing is so clearly a case of not asking the right question / starting with the wrong assumptions! As the post says, if you start out with the assumption that the trick is in the photography and don't bother asking about what was filmed, then you're going to have problems. It reminds me of when I was in college and a guy was trying to explain to me why it was absolutely impossible to store nuclear waste safely: "You put the waste in barrels, you stick the barrels in a mountain, the barrels rust, the waste comes out. You put the waste in barrels, you put the barrels deep under the sea, the barrels rust, the waste comes out" (and then more variations on that theme), all starting with "You put the waste in barrels." Now I think nuclear waste is a huge huge problem, but even I could see that this guy was stuck on this assumption that it absolutely had to go in barrels--and apparently metal ones at that.

I approve of a waistcoat-enhanced quarantine.

[gwynnega]

Those storyboards are beautiful.

Congratulations on the reprint!

[nineweaving]

Ooh, what a lovely assortment of chocolates! Lucan's yahrzeit, elegant waistcoats, fairy fakery, puppetry, the pearl of pearls, the Archers on paper and glass...

Congratulations on the reprinted story.

Nine