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Anne Rice, five years later, memento vivere, and ‘evil as food for genius’
Begin the Journey: Anne Rice, five years later, memento vivere, and ‘evil as food for genius’the necessity of the dark and remembering that the only power that exists is within ourselves Alternatively titled: Anne Rice…
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Dave Malloy’s Octet and the limits of ‘knowing’
Spoiler-free review: Rating out of 10: Although I concede this round to Dave Malloy’s capacity to write both a pointed original story and write music… Read more.
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Great Comet, Tolstoy and the fallacy of exceptional
Spoiler free review: Rating out of 10: 10(+) note, however, in this case, this rating is heavily coloured by bias as I would consider myself… Read more.
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AMC’s Mayfair Witches season 2, or the problem of ‘morally good’ representation
The Lives of The Mayfair Witches (novels) is a Southern Gothic horror about generational trauma, necrophilia, cycles of abuse, male violence against women, subtly but… Read more.
Our intentions make blackguards of us all. – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 1782
The great object of life is sensation- to feel that we exist, even though in pain. – Lord George Byron
The Author
“Truth titillates the imagination far less than fiction.”
— Donatien Alphonse François de Sade
Archive
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Anne Rice, five years later, memento vivere, and ‘evil as food for genius’
the necessity of the dark and remembering that the only power that exists is within ourselves Alternatively titled: Anne Rice and the fallacy of acting well enough to be ‘one of the good ones’ “Evil is a point of view. God kills indiscriminately and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we…
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Dangerous Liaisons, a study on the trouble with decorum, power and control
“perfections are chimerical and exist only in… imagination.” – Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1782) Spoiler-free review: Rating out of 10: (Exceeding) 10, noteworthy only because until recently I knew very little in the way of plays as opposed to musicals and other forms of theatre, and because the 1988 movie and the…
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Beetlejuice the musical and the subversive yet timeless wisdom of ‘memento mori’
All in all, it is safe to say humans have grappled with this inevitably many different ways, artistically and otherwise. So, I find it very reasonable to ask how one would explain the universality of death to a child. I think Beetlejuice the musical, as Beetlejuice the film (1988) it answers this very well. As…
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Blood and Belonging: Sinners (2025) and the Marginalized Body
“You Twins?’ ‘Nah, We’re Cousins.’” – Twins Smoke, and Stack (Sinners 2025) Spoiler-free review: Rating out of 10: 10. If I permit myself to rank it above 10, it would be far higher, as it truly deserves. Likes: The world building, the casting, the sets and costume designs, and I deeply appreciate the fact that…
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Censorship: Philosophical Thought and Modern Examples
Throughout history, many examples of societies benefitting from a better idea of the truth exist. As an example, take the protestant reformation and Luther’s rather loud and, at the time, controversial criticisms of the Catholic church. It was not popular then but necessary because of church corruption. The main idea behind freedom of speech is…
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The Vampyre: A History.
An incredibly brief history of vampires as it relates to The Company of Death by Elisa Hansen. First written in English as John Polidori’s The Vampyre: a tale in 1816, The earliest recorded folklore we have of vampires in the western world are from Europe, what is now Romania and Transylvania specifically. That said bloodsuckers…
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Dave Malloy’s Octet and the limits of ‘knowing’
Spoiler-free review: Rating out of 10: Although I concede this round to Dave Malloy’s capacity to write both a pointed original story and write music and lyrics well: 6 and ½, which is on me this time, not the work itself. Likes: acting choices, textual and musical character choices, set design, as a whole, how…
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Great Comet, Tolstoy and the fallacy of exceptional
Spoiler free review: Rating out of 10: 10(+) note, however, in this case, this rating is heavily coloured by bias as I would consider myself the target audience for Dave Malloy’s musical, Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812. Likes: use of space (as in staging), set design, costume design, lighting choices, overall, even…
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AMC’s Mayfair Witches season 2, or the problem of ‘morally good’ representation
The Lives of The Mayfair Witches (novels) is a Southern Gothic horror about generational trauma, necrophilia, cycles of abuse, male violence against women, subtly but omnipresent the horrors of capitalism and European or North American slavery and the moral issue of looking down on others and dehumanizing people for one’s own ends.
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Nosferatu (2024): prohibition feeds desire
Nosferatu (2024) has a self awareness few forms of media have and is brillant film both as an adaption of Dracula (1897 novel), Nosferatu (1922) and of our society in the here and now.
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TURN: Washington’s Spies (AMC) – You’ll shine where you stand
I believe we should ask for this kind of intellectual work put into our media to have media (like TURN) that presents nuance and asks (but doesn’t answer for you) tough questions and sets one on a path to looking into history, historiography and the stories that have shaped the past and the stories we…
