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.

You Are What You Urn

England’s Telegraph is running a “Best Pictures of The Year” gallery to wrap up 2009…and with images like the above from the “Weird Inventions” gallery — or even from their other bizarre and weird and spectacular galleries — one can only marvel over what a strange year it’s been…and how remarkably stranger it is going… Continue reading You Are What You Urn

The Uncanny Design of Robot Heads

While theories of the “uncanny valley” are debatable (see Hanson’s “Upending the Uncanny Valley” (.pdf)), the quest for human-like androids and automatons continue to compel their designers. At Carnegie-Mellon University’s anthropomorphism.org, I found an interesting early study of robot head design that shows how these designers sometimes make choices about when to make robots anthropomorphic… Continue reading The Uncanny Design of Robot Heads

Uncanny Digital Literacies: Defamiliarization in The Classroom

Just found this neat Prezi presentation on “Uncanny Digital Literacies” by Sian Bayne, from the ESRC seminar series on Literacy in the Digital University (University of Edinburgh, 16 Oct 2009). I like the free-floating zoomieness of Bayne’s presentation, but with an ‘absent’ presenter, it is a little difficult to make the ideas and images cohere.… Continue reading Uncanny Digital Literacies: Defamiliarization in The Classroom

Uncanny Listmania on Amazon.com

I’ve started building a ‘Listmania’ of Uncanny-related books on amazon.com. Recommendations via comments are most welcome. This is all part of my renewed interest in all things Amazon.com and ebooks. I just ordered the new, international version of the Kindle 2, and I’m very excited. Read all about it on my horror writing blog here.… Continue reading Uncanny Listmania on Amazon.com

The Monkanny Valley

News note: Monkeys, according to a recent study, behave similar to humans in the face of the Uncanny Valley. From the New Scientist: “These primates don’t participate in human culture, which suggests the uncanny valley has a biological basis,” says Karl MacDorman of Indiana University in Indianapolis. Wired magazine suggests that this means “the uncanny… Continue reading The Monkanny Valley

The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease — A Class Review

I am currently teaching an online horror literature course in “Psychos and the Psyche” for graduate students in our MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. This month we are studying Freud’s article on “Das Unheimlich” and reading a fascinating new anthology of horror fiction called The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease,… Continue reading The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease — A Class Review

The Literal Coney Island of the Mind

“Dreamland” is an amazing concept for an amusement park attraction based on literal interpretations of Freud’s theories. I’m learning about this from Zoe Beloff‘s exhibition at Coney Island museum (running till July 2010): The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and Its Circle, 1926-72. I’m ordering the book that covers the history of this fascinating group,… Continue reading The Literal Coney Island of the Mind

Call for Papers: Ghosts and the Uncanny

The Canadian literary journal, Descant, is calling for submissions on the theme, “Ghosts and the Uncanny” (deadline: March 01, 2010): An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. – Charles Dickens For this special issue, Descant turns ghost hunter and dares to explore the murky connections between… Continue reading Call for Papers: Ghosts and the Uncanny

The Vytorin Double: You Are What You Eat and You Eat What You Are

Vytorin is a single pill — a drug that combines two different medicines (Zetia and Zocor) to combat the two kinds of cholesterol (generally called “good” and “bad” cholesterol”) which they identify as coming from two different sources (“food & family”). As Time magazine reports, there may be truth in these claims, and also problems… Continue reading The Vytorin Double: You Are What You Eat and You Eat What You Are