literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
- Top Story - November 2023
"Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November..."
"The State sanctifies its own violence as law. Yours it calls crime." Max Stirner I've quoted the above little observation by proto-anarchist and egoist Max Stirner, author of The Ego and What it Possesses, many, many times; perhaps too often, but there is no other way I could think to introduce an essay on Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, the most important graphic novel ever penned, a book so transcendent in its scope, so vast in its vision of humanity (both dark and light), it has become a piece of cultural iconography. The Guy Fawkes Face Mask is now an endemic, ubiquitous symbol of covert rebellion. Adopted by the Anonymous hacker group, it has gone the rounds of the internet and the face of the globe, a way for the most radical and dedicated and subversive elements of cultural fuckery to disguise themselves, as well as meld into one single "hive mind"; a collective unit pushing against repression and corruption; or, alternately, pushing the world forward past the edge of the envelope of nihilistic rebellion. V for Vendetta, more than any other single comic book creation I can think of (outside of Superman and Batman) has transcended the realm of mere entertainment into having a permanent place in the cultural zeitgeist.
Book Review: "He Who Whispers" by J.D Carr
"...if you were to attend a dinner of the Murder Club you did not go in by the front door. Instead you went round the corner to the side entrance in Greek Street. Beyond a low door and up a thick-carpeted flight of stairs - according to popular legend, this was once royalty's discreet way of entering - you emerged into an upstairs passage with the doors of private rooms along one side..."
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "Playground" by Aron Beauregard
I normally feel myself wading through films and films before I get to a good horror film. Unfortunately, this also applies to books. I have to read lots and lots of terrible horror novels to get to the good ones. This is one of those bad ones I have to wade through. On the cover of the book, we are advertised a terrifying novel that will make even the 'most jaded' horror fan squirm. As someone who thinks that they are maybe not the most jaded, but somewhere in the ballpark, I can honestly say I neither was squirming nor was I very impressed.
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "The Night Wire" ed. by Aaron Worth
Full Title: The Night Wire and Other Tales of Weird Media edited by Aaron Worth New technology has always been scary at first. My personal favourite aspect of scary new technology is when I was in high school and the first person to have an iPhone was treated like an outcast because back then, touching your screen with your finger seemed like a pretty demonic thing to do. But, at the turn of the 20th century, more than one hundred years before my own anecdote would occur, technology and science were spinning out from the industrial revolution and into a whole new age of things. Factories, machinery, communication by telephone and so much more - possibilities during the Victorian Era seemed endless. Just think of what those people who had grown up in the Victorian Era felt when they saw the kinds of technology being used in World War One. It must have been confounding.
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "The Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides
“I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.”
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksHow “Harry Potter” Became the Gold Standard of Film Series Adaptations
It’s hard not to be a little biased when the first Harry Potter film came out not long after your fifth birthday, but there’s a magic to these films that extends well beyond the wizardry. I can think of no film that’s done more justice to the fantastical world of its source material than the colossal Hogwarts castle and the hallowed grounds around it.
Ben UlanseyPublished 5 months ago in GeeksMichael Gambon's Most Unforgettable Role
For those who grew up with the Harry Potter movies, they likely see Michael Gambon's face as the apotheosis of warmth and wisdom. Taking over the role of Professor Albus Dumbledore upon the death of the beloved Richard Harris, though, it was no easy task he had before him trying to fill those shoes. Famously, though, Gambon didn't even attempt to. He didn't read the books, and he didn't allow his approach to the character to be tainted by Harris's prior portrayal.
Ben UlanseyPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "The Voyage Out" by Virginia Woolf
"That is what one means by an adventure; that one doesn't go by road; that one makes the road by going, and that one faces the road in the knowledge that one is foolish, and that one is going to suffer and be happy."
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "Divine Might" by Natalie Haynes
"Women can now make art, and we require no one’s permission. We can create our own stories of all those gods and monsters, and –if we choose –make them in our image."
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "The Horned God" ed. by Michael Wheatley
Full Title = The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan edited by Michael Wheatley “Though horror and revolting nausea rose up within me, and an odour of corruption choked my breath, I remained firm. I was then privileged or accursed, I dare not say which, to see that which was on the bed, lying there black like ink, transformed before my eyes.” "The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "Minor Hauntings" ed. by Jen Baker
Full Title: Minor Hauntings: Chilling Tales of Spectral Youth edited by Jen Baker When I first read this title I did not mind that it probably was not going to be as haunting as it claimed as it was a compilation by the British Library Tales of the Weird. With these, I am more interested in whether the stories have managed to capture my imagination and stay true to their theme whilst also being compiled as to not be overly similar so that I cannot tell them apart. Yes, it is a strange set of criteria but I think that this book really did the trick. I was also shocked at how haunting spectral youth can actually be. I never knew that ghostly children could scare anyone - it was more or less hauntings happening to children like The Turn of the Screw that I found terrifying. This book really opened my eyes to more possibilities for ghost stories.
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in GeeksBook Review: "Looking Glass Sound" by Catriona Ward
"The leaves of the sugar maple whisper—under it, there’s a high-pitched whine, a long shrill note like bad singing…it sounds like all the things you’re not supposed to believe in—mermaids, selkies, sirens…’What’s that sound?’ It seems like it’s coming from inside of me, somehow. Dad pauses in the act of unlocking the door. ‘It’s the stones on the beach. High tide has eaten away at them, making little holes—kind of like finger stops on a flute—and when the wind is in the east, coming over the ocean, it whistles through."
Annie KapurPublished 5 months ago in Geeks