Author: Michael Arnzen

Michael Arnzen holds four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his disturbing (and often funny) fiction, poetry and literary experiments. He has been teaching as a Professor of English in the MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University since 1999.

Call for Papers: Thinking After Dark – Horror Video Games

Ludicine has posted a call for papers to an intermedial conference focused on horror video games (and films and books and such), entitled “Thinking After Dark.” With a focus on such topics as “figures of interactivity specific to the survival horror subgenre” and a featured guest in Barry K. Grant as a keynote speaker, this… Continue reading Call for Papers: Thinking After Dark – Horror Video Games

Slideshow on Freud’s Uncanny

[UPDATE 4/29/12…] Dr. Rob McMinn (the UK teacher behind the We Study Media edublog) gives a succinct overview of Freud’s work on the uncanny (das Unheimliche) in relation to horror texts and the media, in the following slideshow (formerly a “slideshare”, now a google document) related to one of his courses: I particularly liked this… Continue reading Slideshow on Freud’s Uncanny

TRON, Gaming and the Death Drive Crash

Software designer Daniel Wellman writes about an uncanny experience where a game he was programming seemed to come to life with a will all its own in his essay, “Real Life Tron on Apple IIgs”: One day, when Marco and I were playing against two computer opponents, we forced one of the AI cycles to… Continue reading TRON, Gaming and the Death Drive Crash

30 Rock Popularizes the Uncanny Valley

There’s a lot of talk lately about how uncanny Tina Fey’s impression of VP hopeful Sarah Palin really is, and with the next season of her Emmy-award winning TV show,  30 Rock, getting ready to launch at the end of the month, I thought the timing was right to post a consideration about this very… Continue reading 30 Rock Popularizes the Uncanny Valley

Uncanny Media 2008 Reflections

Conference reports and reflections from the Uncanny Media conference in Utrecht, Netherlands (2008) are starting to pop up online. Since it relates to my work on The Popular Uncanny, I was very interested in attending this event, but was unable to, so I’m seeking as many discussions and reports from the conference as possible online… Continue reading Uncanny Media 2008 Reflections