Stratofanatic's Emporium

So, one of the local U of A media students is doing a podcast on true crime, and her first episodes is on "ghosts." She asked for an interview after noticing that I was teaching a course on monsters, and of course I was delighted to participate. Just finished up now. Since she set me a list of pre-set questions, I'm just going to post them here -- fun stuff! Firstly, have you heard of the Maricopa Hall haunting, and if so what have you heard? Oh yes, sure I have. I actually first heard about the haunting of the Modern Language Building, because that’s where the English Department is. Then when I was prepping for my Monsters class this semester, I googled haunted U of A buildings and found some websites on things like Maricopa Hall haunting. The websites didn’t strike me as the most reliable things in the world, but there’s various stories for Maricopa Hall.  (a wealthy young female U of A student who committed suicide when she found out her future husb...

Been reading a monograph by Dr. Adrian Howe, a postmodern feminist, called Sex, Violence and Crime: Foucault and the ‘Man’ Question. She's a criminologist who approaches her subject from a poststructuralist perspective. One section tackles another criminologist critical of PM-modes of thinking, Stan Cohen. I think her discussion worth posting about because it highlights my own skepticism to PM questioning and problemization. So, Howe has two basic issues with Cohen ( States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering ). Cohen resusitates the public/private distinction that feminists hate, and his anti-postmodern way of tackling issues like denial strategies, discrediting whistleblowers, re-naming & justifications. He's critical of such things, of course, but as acts, not as matters of discourse So, let's take Howe's second problem with Cohen in particular. According to Howe, Cohen lambasts the idea “that there can be no access to current or historical ...

I'd been hearing for a few years about The Shannara Chronicles, a fantasy adaptation of Terry Brooks clearly trying to take advantage of the Game of Thrones buzz. I've always been drastically curious about it. Brooks's first Shannara novel is, infamously, an almost point-by-point copy of The Lord of the Rings, and I knew that the series (which premiered on MTV) began with Brooks's equal, The Elfstones of Shannara . But the success of the adaptation has been always something that's aroused my curiosity. Well, no more. Last night the wife and I watched the first episode, and . . . . well, egads. Bad bad bad bad bad. Imagine a show full of ridiculously beautiful teenagers who can't act, put horrible plastic fake-looking Elf ears on them, and then insert a whole bunch of genre cliches and banalities. The Shannara Chronicles ends up being the result. Skipping the rest of the series seems like a pretty safe decision, methinks. Even for a teenaged target audience wit...

Ran across a "roast" of Harlan Ellison a few days back. A few of my favorites: Screenwriter David Gerrold: "The fact that Ellison is a self-made man relieves God of a great responsibility."  Gerrold again: "I've been Harlan's friend for six years. Of course, I've known him for eighteen years. . . ."  Robert Bloch: "I first met Harlan in 1952. He was 18, and I was unlucky."  The full roast can be read here .