In their latest campaign, “Enough. Is. Enough,” JC Penney is running what is, to my mind, a hilarious television commercial, involving a serial montage of consumers shouting for outrageously loud and extended time periods at sales tags and other marketing tricks familiar to us all. What makes this commercial so great is all the horror… Continue reading JC Penney — Screaming For Retail
Tag: horror
Interview with NHRS: The Uncanny in Popular Horror Fiction
A former grad student of mine, WD Prescott, is running an interesting website bluntly called The Non-Horror Reader Survey that is studying what today’s readers think about the modern horror genre. It features interviews with various readers, writers, and scholars, along with a research questionnaire you can fill out, if you want to participate. It’s… Continue reading Interview with NHRS: The Uncanny in Popular Horror Fiction
Uncanny Beauty and Weird Tales
Weird Tales magazine (issue #356) will have “uncanny beauty” as its theme, and I’m excited to see what it has in store. The cover art is gorgeous. Even Jeff Vandermeer’s cat loves it. I highly recommend subscribing to this longstanding genre fiction magazine, which has been around since the pulp era and helped draw attention… Continue reading Uncanny Beauty and Weird Tales
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
The Oobleck Effect: Living Liquid
Last year, writer Jason Jack Miller shared with me a popular YouTube video of uncanny monsters born by placing a layer of water and cornstarch on a subwoofer. I find myself returning to these videos often, contemplating the animism made possible by the rhythm of sound and the chaos of vibration. This neat effect “animates”… Continue reading The Oobleck Effect: Living Liquid
The Addams Family Returns…Online
A public service announcement: The Addams Family is now streaming for FREE on YouTube, from MGM. A pastiche of horror fiction iconography — and also an indictment of the 50’s nuclear family, the conventions of the sitcom, and all things domestic — this show is perhaps one of the most interesting and clear-cut manifestations of… Continue reading The Addams Family Returns…Online