Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4660 )

• Conjuring Success

  

  I wonder if it’s one of the consequences of success. While writing up some thoughts on The Conjuring diegesis, I got to wondering how accurate the movies’... Read more

  Posted on 06 August 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• International Standards

  

  I risk being seen as even more of a book nerd by addressing the topic of International Standard Book Numbers, or ISBNs. For those who’ve purchased a book in... Read more

  Posted on 05 August 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• A Decade of Augusts

  

  Well, my July post with past quotes was so much fun I decided to do another. Owen Chadwick once told me—or was it his brother Henry? They both came to my... Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Sound of Musik

  

  “Why is there so much people here?” The words aren’t mine, but those of a random stranger I heard in Herald Square. Not only was it grammatically offensive, I... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Infinity

  

  It occurred to me the other day that I will never read all the books on my list. Only in my fifties, it’s not as if I’m knocking at death’s door, but who... Read more

  Posted on 02 August 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Victorian Nightmares

  

  J. Sheridan Le Fanu isn’t exactly a household name, but as a writer from the same era (and perhaps same cloth) as Poe, he was known for his gothic imagination. Read more

  Posted on 01 August 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Price of Writing

  

  Academic writing strives to remove personality from your work. It can be soul-crushing. I remember well when my daughter—a talented writer—came home in sixth... Read more

  Posted on 31 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Zone

  

  My youth—who am I kidding?—my life has been a search for father figures. Since I grew up with television, many of them came from the tube. The professor from... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Live Long

  

  Maybe you went through it too. In your teenage years the fascination began. Before you knew it, you had a stack of them tucked away, each well-thumbed and... Read more

  Posted on 29 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ghouls and Dolls

  

  It was my plan—as if plans ever really work out—to see Annabelle Comes Home on opening weekend. July got away from me but I finally found my way to the theater... Read more

  Posted on 28 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sighs

  

  Suspiria is a movie intentionally difficult to follow. The original 1977 version was an Italian film about witches posing as dance instructors. Read more

  Posted on 27 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Monsters and Gods

  

  Nothing makes you feel quite as old as seeing a documentary where the names of the experts are unfamiliar to you because they’re too young. So it was when I... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Universals

  

  It was on television that I met them. The Universal monsters. The entire run of films from Dracula to The Creature Walks among Us had been shot, printed, and... Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Funny Business

  

  Do animals laugh? The question sounds innocuous enough, and when my wife played me a RadioLab episode on that very question, the conclusion, although cautious,... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Fearing Errata

  

  Well before I became an editor, I noted mistakes in books. I go through phases of marking up books as I read them—in pencil only, please!—and not doing so, but ... Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Internet Epistemology

  

  Where do we find reliable information? I’m asking this question on an internet-based medium, which itself is ironic. While spending time with some younger... Read more

  Posted on 22 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Witch Way from Here?

  

  Häxan is often considered a horror film. Produced by Benjamin Christensen, it was released in 1922, the same year as Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Making Monsters

  

  It’s not so much I’ve been away from monsters lately, but that life has intervened between them and me. Life can be scarier than monsters sometimes. Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Identity Crisis

  

  Living in Boston can be a heady trip for a budding academic. Even if you’re across the river from Harvard and MIT, it’s a city known for its education scene.... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Tumblin’ Down

  

  RadioLab (not to be confused with Radiohead) is an NPR program to which my wife likes to listen. She’s introduced me to a few episodes since, as a person who... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2019 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY