Sex and Horror
A few nights ago, I watched A Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s one of those canonical horror films that’s been on my list for ages but never appealed to me enough to sit through. It’s weird – since the self-aware horror of the ’90s, the genre’s tropes have been burned into the cultural consciousness, parodied and exhausted until they’re so far removed from the original … Continue reading Sex and Horror
Eighth Grade
In my and probably many others’ opinion, it’s the most heart-wrenching scene of the film: thirteen-year-old Kayla Day sits with her father who has helped her light the fire which will burn a memory box her sixth-grade self made. On the front is unabashedly strewn: To the coolest girl in the world! In it are once-precious relics, alongside a Spongebob USB which holds a video … Continue reading Eighth Grade
A Tale for the Time Being
“[…] it’s not like this is happening now, right?” Deep breath. It’s 9 degrees outside in Newcastle tonight but feels easily sub-zero in my room. I’ve got three candles burning, a lamp and fairy lights on, a hot water on my lap and I’m underneath my dressing gown and a blanket. At lunchtime today I got back from a really nice trip home which I … Continue reading A Tale for the Time Being
(Over) One Hundred Nights of Anxiety and One Hundred Years of Solitude
“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.” Gabriel García Marquez There have been many times over the past two weeks when I’ve thought about how I’d start this post. I … Continue reading (Over) One Hundred Nights of Anxiety and One Hundred Years of Solitude
Quentin Tarantula’s Latest
In a change from the scheduled proceedings I’ve decided to write up some of my thoughts on Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. Like any of his work after Reservoir Dogs this release was hotly anticipated not least because of the big names plastered on the poster: DiCaprio, Pitt, Robbie. I must admit, I was going into this film with the awareness … Continue reading Quentin Tarantula’s Latest
Home Fire is… really good
‘As she walked home she thought how much more pleasant life was when you lived among foreigners whose subtexts you couldn’t hear.’ So much has already been written about Kamila Shamsie’s seventh novel since its publication two years ago that I feel anything I have to say would be nothing but a flimsy regurgitation of better-worked analysis. Home Fire is a huge novel condensed into … Continue reading Home Fire is… really good
Being Present, Forever: Crudo
One of the most difficult parts of my anxiety recovery was the constant harping on about the importance of being present. I didn’t want to be present – I felt spaced out, struggled to function in everyday life, was unhappy with my body and the general state of affairs that my small life was in. It was easier to long for the surely sunnier days … Continue reading Being Present, Forever: Crudo
The Wives He’d Never Know: Swan Song
“In madras pajamas and ratty pink cardigan, the ageing wunderkind sees less the literary lion, less still the social barracuda of public perception. Alone in the darkened room, stripped of bravura, he looks like what he is – ‘just a pissant rug rat from Monroeville, Alabama, shit-scared as ever.’” Whether it was a good idea or not to read Swan Song, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott’s 450-page long … Continue reading The Wives He’d Never Know: Swan Song
A Modest Proposal: The Handmaid’s Tale
‘‘I’ll obliterate myself, if that’s what you really want; I’ll empty myself, truly, become a chalice.’’ Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood has rightly said, time and again, that dystopian fiction is much less about the future and more so about pressing concerns of the present. The monumental success of HBO’s adaptation of Atwood’s 1985 novel shows that, alarmingly, the socio-political concerns that were bubbling over thirty … Continue reading A Modest Proposal: The Handmaid’s Tale
Pessimism, Realism and The Mars Room
“[…] but the rhythms of the world did not always coordinate with the rhythms of the person” Rachel Kushner The opening I had briefly sketched out to this post was going to go something like: this book took me so long to read, it was a drag, I’m losing the pace of enthused reading that I once had, etc. In reality it took me twelve … Continue reading Pessimism, Realism and The Mars Room
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