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History of Urban Fantasy: Genesis of the Genre

December 7, 2015 by AJ 2 Comments

In the previous posts we talked about the definition of urban fantasy and its origins. Now let’s see how this genre started and why it became so popular.

History of urban fantasy

Charles de Lint, the pioneer of urban fantasy

The very first urban fantasy work was probably the novel Moonheart: A Romance by Charles de Lint published in 1984. At that time, however, the term “urban fantasy” hadn’t been coined yet. Urban fantasy was defined in 1997 by John Clute and John Grant in their Encyclopedia of Fantasy as “texts where fantasy and the mundane world interact, intersect, and interweave throughout a tale which is significantly about a real city.”

Ironically the series that launched urban fantasy wasn’t set in a real city, but in an imaginary one. Newford invented by Charles de Lint represents a typical American city, with its wealthy residential areas and its slums, its beachfronts and its wastelands, and, of course, its vast network of underground tunnels. Newford series started with the short story “Uncle Dobbin’s Parrot Fair” that appeared for the first time in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in 1987. In 1993 several short stories by Charles de Lint, all set in Newford, were compiled by Terri Windling and published under the title Dreams Underfoot.

Dreams Underfoot is a memorable read. We meet colorful characters, grow attached to them, and explore the mysteries of Newford in their company. Some stories border on magical realism or surrealism, for example “Freewheeling,” where a street kid steals bicycles to set them free. For him even unanimated objects have a soul, a mind of their own, and therefore deserve to be free. Is he insane, or is he perceiving something real, a magic hidden in mundane objects? We will never know. Throughout the book, reality, myth, and magic intertwine so intimately that sometimes it’s impossible to tell what’s real and what’s illusion. Whether magic is real or not doesn’t change the meaning of the stories, however. What matters is what people believe in. Such is the theory of consensual reality: things exist because we want them to exist.

Dreams Underfoot has been compared with works of literary fantasy such as Little, Big (1981) by John Crowley and Winter’s Tale (1983) by Mark Helprin.

Sex and fey and rock and roll!

Some would say that the first urban fantasy novel was the War for the Oaks (1987) by Emma Bull. Not sure I agree, but let’s talk about this book. It tells the story of Eddi McCandry, a young singer who lives in Minneapolis. She is having a bad day, or rather a bad night. She has broken up with her boyfriend and left his band, and later she finds herself running from a sinister man and a huge dog. The two creatures are one and the same: a phouka, a faerie being who has chosen Eddi to be a mortal pawn in the age-old war between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

Eddi from War for the Oaks by Emma BullWar for the Oaks isn’t the most appropriate title for this novel, as the war of the faerie courts is not at the core of the story. Rock music is. A good title for this book would be Eddi and the Fey (the name of Eddi’s band) or even better Sex & Fey & Rock & Roll! Emma Bull was a musician; she played guitar and sang in the Flash Girls, a goth-folk duo, and was a member of Cats Laughing, a psychedelic folk-jazz band. No doubt that her passion for music inspired the War for the Oaks.

This novel would be better described as paranormal romance rather than urban fantasy. The plot revolves around Eddi and her love life (and her sex life, although there are no explicit sex scenes). There is even a love triangle between Eddi and two supernatural beings, a narrative device that will later become a hallmark of paranormal romance.

Overall, there isn’t much action in this book. Most of it (especially the middle part) is filled with dialogues between Eddi and the phouka or other members of her band. Although there are some good ideas, they are not exploited in this novel, for example the role Eddi was supposed to have in the reformation of seelie courts. On the positive side, the writing style is inspired, and the story is quite imaginative, but the characters are clichéd (the valiant price, the noble queen, the evil witch, etc.) The phouka is an exception as he seems to be more subtle than the others.

Overall the War for the Oaks is a light read, enjoyable if you like paranormal romance, but not a must read in my opinion. I mentioned this book for historical reasons, because it set the stage for more successful novels and series blending urban fantasy with paranormal romance.

For completeness I also mention Bedlam’s Bard (1998) by Mercedes Lackey which has similarities with the War for the Oaks. Again this is a story about music and elves in a contemporary setting. It’s interesting to see how urban fantasy writers integrated folk and rock music into their narratives. Charles de Lint’s stories often mention music, and this is no coincidence. In the 70s fantasy and horror literature influenced popular music to a great extent, therefore it’s not surprising that, in the 80s and the 90s, music returned the favor, so to speak, by inspiring a new breed of fantasy stories. This vast subject deserves a separate post; for now let’s return to the matter at hand and talk about vampires!

Here be vampires!

Today we couldn’t imagine urban fantasy without vampires. They are everywhere. It wasn’t the case in the early 90s, however. The novel that introduced vampires into urban fantasy was Guilty Pleasures (1993) by Laurell K. Hamilton, the first instalment of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series.

As I already mentioned in the post on the origins of urban fantasy, it’s difficult to establish the boundaries between vampire fiction (a subgenre of horror fiction) and urban fantasy. In my opinion, the difference between horror and fantasy is that the former tends to be more introverted while the latter is more extraverted. Horror fiction often focuses on what the characters feel, with an emphasis on strong negative emotions such as anger, fear, sorrow, etc. Fantasy, on the other hand, relies more on the sense of awe, and usually involves extensive world building to achieve its effect. This is by no means an absolute rule, but I think it applies quite often.

Guilty Pleasures is difficult to categorize as it borrows from horror, thriller and fantasy genres in equal measure. The novel takes place in a world where vampires revealed their existence to the living. As one would expect, such a revelation cased quite a stir, if not panic. After all, aren’t vampires preying on humans? What should be the legal status of a vampire in our society? Should they have the same rights as the living?

The author of Guilty Pleasures happily skips over social and legal aspects of this problem to focus on action. Anita Blake has a most unusual job: she’s an animator working for the police. She raises the dead so the police can interrogate them. Convenient for the police, isn’t it? Your key witnesses are dead? No worries, Anita Blake will resurrect them for you!

Her other job is even more dangerous: she executes vampires. If she has a court order of execution, she can kill a vampire in all legality. If she doesn’t have a court order… Well, she kills those bloodsuckers anyway. Not all vampires are portrayed as bloodthirsty monsters in the novel, but it’s implied that most of them are. We are not far from the situation portrayed in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). In short, Anita Blake is a self-appointed Agent 007 with a license to kill, and she uses this license quite liberally, eliminating the bad guys whether they are living or undead. By “guys” I mean both males and females, as the main villain of the novel is a female vampire. No sexism here.

Female vampire

Guilty Pleasures is the kind of novel that keeps the reader engaged from the first to the last page. Hamilton excels in the art of creating and maintaining tension. Her writing is visceral, full of strong sensations. However, it would be unfair to say that the novel is only sensationalist. Underneath a relatively shallow vampire hunting story, one can discern some interesting observations about human psychology.

Hamilton is probably the first urban fantasy author to step into the realm of female fantasies. In the following decade, many writers will follow her on this path. Those fantasies are not as innocent as male writers imagined them. For example, many women are attracted by men with strong personalities, to say the least. We knew that at least since Byron and his poems about charismatic, yet dangerous men. Cinema has been exploiting this theme since the early 40s. Danger and romance—a winning combination! Humphrey Bogart’s characters may have been tough, even dangerous sometimes, yet none of them could compete in both sophistication and ferocity with Anne Rice’s Lestat or Hamilton’s Jean-Claude.

Sophistication, ferocity and sex appeal—that’s the winning combination for a vampire in an urban fantasy novel. Hamilton understood that and represented vampires as the embodiment of the deepest female desires. Although this view can seem shocking at first, it is surprisingly insightful considering recent scientific evidence. (For scientific information on this subject I recommend the Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, 2nd Edition, D.M. Buss, ed. Wiley, New York, NY. In particular see the chapter Women’s sexual interests across the ovulatory cycle: Function and phylogeny by S.W. Gangestad, R. Thornhill and C.E. Garver-Apgar.)

We will continue this discussion in my next post on urban fantasy, as there is a lot to say on this subject. Now let’s talk about another urban fantasy author who contributed to shape the genre. He needs no introduction; ladies and gentlemen, I give you Neil Gaiman!

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere started as a television series first aired in 1996 on BBC Two. It was written by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry, and directed by Dewi Humphreys. Later that year Gaiman adapted the series into a novel. And what an influential novel that was!

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere is a parallel world that coexists alongside ours, but normally cannot be seen by us. Sometimes, for mysterious reasons, people “fall through the cracks” and become part of this unseen universe. Gaiman uses this as a metaphor for social exclusion; these people are no longer part of civilized society, lose everything they owned, have to live homeless and obey the ruthless rules of the underworld. Yet, as grim as this place originally appears, it is full of adventure and magic, which makes it more appealing for a romantic soul than our safe and predictable technological world.

There are no vampires or werewolves in Neverwhere, but there are all sorts of fantastical creatures, some of them stranger than others. In this novel, the protagonist discovers the existence of an invisible London, the London Below. Every London Underground station hides a secret world that reminds us of the city’s medieval past. There is a monastery under Blackfriars, at Earl’s Court lives an actual earl with his court, and under Angel hides… well, an Angel! Interestingly there is no paranormal romance in Neverwhere, not even a hint—this is urban fantasy in its purest form.

I believe Neverwhere is one of the best urban fantasy novels. Witty, imaginative, but also thought-provoking—this is what the genre was meant to be. The main focus of an urban fantasy story should be the city, the urban life with its contrasts and paradoxes.

Urban fantasy may be an escapist genre, but this is an ambiguous escapism that always brings us back to reality. In Neverwhere, this ambiguous escapism appears through the tribulations of the protagonist between the London Above and the London Below, the former representing reality, and the latter representing fantasy.

Gaiman produced other noteworthy works, in particular the comic book series Sandman and the novel American Gods (2001) for which he received several awards, including Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Bram Stoker Awards (see my post on science fiction, fantasy and horror awards for details on those awards).

In the next post on urban fantasy, we’ll talk about the evolution of the genre in the first decade of the 21st century, starting with Jim Butcher and Kelley Armstrong.

Filed Under: Books, Fantasy Tagged With: Anita Blake, Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, fantasy, horror, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, paranormal, urban fantasy, vampires

Win a copy of The Gothic: 250 Years of Success!

October 25, 2015 by AJ Leave a Comment

A perfect gift for Halloween: win a copy of The Gothic: 250 Years of Success, Your Guide to Gothic Literature and Culture! My publisher gives away 3 copies of the book, no strings attached. Unfortunately only US residents can participate in the draw.

To participate click here: The Gothic: 250 Years of Success giveaway

The Gothic: 250 Years of Success. Your Guide to Gothic Literature and Culture.

The draw ends on Oct 30, 2015 11:59 PM PDT, or when all prizes are claimed. See Official Rules .

Good luck and Happy Halloween!

 

Filed Under: Books, giveaways Tagged With: giveaway, Gothic, history, horror

Urban Fantasy and its Illustrious Origins

October 18, 2015 by AJ 2 Comments

The Temptation of Sir Percival, 1894, Arthur HackerUrban fantasy is a young and vibrant genre of speculative fiction that brings the fantastical into a modern setting*. Elves play guitar in rock bands, goblins roam our cities’ underground tunnels, and the dead rise from the graves to torment—or seduce!—the living. Those who look down on this genre and dismiss it as mere escapism would be surprised to learn about its pedigree. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, as we shall see, urban fantasy is of noble descent!

Let’s embark on a journey through time to the discovery of the origins of urban fantasy.

*Read about the definition and the characteristics of urban fantasy in the previous post.

Origins of urban fantasy

The pioneer of present-day urban fantasy was Charles de Lint, a writer, poet, folklorist, artist, songwriter and performer (according to his official biography). His first novel Moonheart: A Romance was published in 1984, so we can consider this year as the starting point of our journey back in time.

Let’s jump in the seat of our time machine and pull the lever—back in time we go!

The most immediate forerunner of urban fantasy was horror fiction, in particular vampire novels, for example Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles (starting with Interview with the Vampire, 1976). In fact, it is difficult to tell where the vampire subgenre ends and urban fantasy starts. Horror fiction also brings mythological creatures into a modern setting, as urban fantasy does. The main difference is the mood of the stories; while horror fiction focuses on the terrifying and the macabre, urban fantasy is usually lighter in tone and puts more emphasis on world building.

The evolution of traditional fantasy in the 60s and the 70s also contributed to pave the road for urban fantasy. Some authors started to bring together science fiction and fantasy, technology and magic. The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny were remarkable in this regard. Nine Princes in Amber (1970) starts with Corwin, the protagonist, waking up from a coma in a hospital in New York. He has amnesia, but he soon discovers that he’s not from Earth. He’s a member of a superhuman royal family that rules over a world called Amber. He also discovers that our reality is just a “shadow” of Amber, and that there are infinite parallel worlds called “shadows” through which the princes of Amber can travel.

At that time, female protagonists made their appearance in fantasy books thanks to authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey. In general, women started to have a more active role in fantasy stories, and were no longer merely damsels in distress waiting to be rescued from some dungeon.

Romantic and Victorian periods

Now let’s move back in time to the Victorian period. There we find lots of books featuring magical objects or creatures such as ghosts, vampires or supernatural doubles. Some of those books became classics, for example Sheridan Le Fanu’s In a Glass Darkly (1872), Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan (1894), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), and Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898).

This interest in the supernatural wasn’t new. When we move further back in time, we discover that Romantic authors were also interested in the fantastical. The Magic Skin (1831) by Honoré de Balzac is a good example. One of my favorites is the novella Dead Woman in Love (1836) by Theophile Gautier. It tells the story of a gorgeous woman who was in fact a vampire and who fell in love with a priest. Can one find a better example of 19th-century paranormal romance?

Now we reach the 18th century; let’s stop our time machine and talk about the Gothic novel. This sort of terrifying stories grew in popularity in the 1780s to culminate in 1800 and progressively fall from grace toward the 1820s. (Read more about the Gothic novel, see also The Gothic: 250 Years of Success.) The Gothic novel was more than the forerunner of horror fiction—it set up the foundations for all genres we know collectively as “speculative fiction,” including fantasy. The Gothic novel has many similarities with urban fantasy: intrusion of the supernatural into everyday life, constant presence of tension and fear, and—importantly—female protagonists. The main difference is that Gothic stories were usually set in the medieval times while urban fantasy stories are set in the present or the near future.

Parisfal by Hermann Hendrich
Parisfal by Hermann Hendrich

Middle Ages and Antiquity

At this point, we have traveled some 250 years in the past. Can we say that our journey is over? Not quite! Let’s pull the lever again and venture even further. The wheel of time is spinning, taking us to the Middle Ages. Even there we find works that resemble urban fantasy.

Okay, not “urban” in the modern sense. Yet we find stories, poems, and ballads that tell us about magical creatures or objects interfering with people’s everyday lives. Arthurian legends are the most famous example. Do you think that Chrétien de Troyes genuinely believed in the existence of magic cups when he wrote Perceval, the Story of the Grail? Probably not, not more than Neil Gaiman believes in the existence of London Below (or does he?) For medieval authors, the Grail was a symbol, a metaphor, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t consider stories about Perceval as a medieval form of fantasy.

Our journey continues. When we go further back in time, it becomes more and more difficult to separate mythology from fantasy. The Romans, for example, took religion very seriously as it was part of their everyday life. For the Greeks, Hercules was not a fictional character, but a historical figure. People genuinely believed in sirens, ghosts, and faeries. This is where we find the true origins of fantasy, in the belief that, alongside the world as we know it, exists another reality, a magical realm where anything is possible.

Conclusion

What have we learned from our journey? We learned that, although urban fantasy is a young genre, its roots stretch back to the Middle Ages and Antiquity. It took inspiration from some of the greatest literary works in history: the Epic of Gilgamesh, Metamorphoses by Ovid, Beowulf, Perceval by Chrétien de Troyes, Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory, The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, and other classics.

On a deeper level, we can say that urban fantasy is a genre that connects us to our distant past. By opening the doors of our cities to the magical and the fantastical, urban fantasy helps us to discover the cultures of our ancestors, makes them more understandable and appealing to modern readers.

In the next post we will talk about the genesis of urban fantasy and see how a handful of authors managed to create one of the most popular genres in history. Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Books, Classics, Fantasy, History, Horror, Literature Tagged With: Anne McCaffrey, Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, Charles de Lint, classic, Dracula, fantasy, Gothic, history, horror, paranormal, Roger Zelazny, romanticism, Theophile Gautier, urban fantasy, Ursula Le Guin, vampires

Embrace the Darkness! Part 1.

October 4, 2015 by AJ 2 Comments

Whether you enjoy books, comic books, movies or TV series, you can’t escape this—“darkness” is everywhere. “Dark”, “darkness”, the words that evoked fear in our ancestors are used nowadays as marketing tools. But what do we mean by “dark” when referring to a work of fiction?

Dark fantasy, horror, dark science fiction

Historically, it was the 18th-century Gothic novel that transformed negative emotions such as fear or melancholy into a source of pleasure (see the Gothic Novel and The Gothic: 250 Years of Success). However, the success of this initial wave of terrifying stories was short-lived, and in the 1820s this genre gave way to a more sophisticated kind of aesthetics—the Romantic movement was on the rise.

During the 19th and the 20th centuries—roughly until the 1970s—horror fiction was little more than an underground culture, although some horror books and movies managed to achieve long-lasting popularity. For example, classic adaptations of Frankenstein by James Whale and Dracula by Tod Browning were successful in the 1930s and remain influential to the present day.

The situation changed dramatically toward the end of the 1970s, when a tsunami of darkness swept away the naïve enthusiasm of the post-war period. This impressive attack of the “dark side” operated on several fronts. In 1974 appeared the first novel by Stephen King, Carrie, and two years later Anne Rice published the first book of her famous Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, 1976). In the 80s and the 90s, Stephen King’s popularity was nothing less than phenomenal, and some other authors writing horror fiction enjoyed considerable success.

Darkness does not necessarily equal horror, however. Science fiction and fantasy also grew darker in the 70s and the 80s. Those ugly and often ridiculous monsters who terrorized beautiful girls on the covers of pulp magazines were history—a new breed of monstrosities was about to transform science fiction. In Alien (1979), Ridley Scott created a shocking, futuristic aesthetic of fear. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) blended science fiction with film noir, and challenged our perception of human condition in the process. The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984) and Predator (John McTiernan, 1987) introduced us to new, disturbingly realistic sorts of killing machines.

Fantasy also grew darker during that period. Far from innocent fairytales for kids, fantasy drew inspiration from its roots: myths, medieval ballads, and history itself. And God knows human history is a bloody business. Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné, for example, is not your average sword & sorcery hero. He is a sorcerer and a necromancer capable of both heroism and cruelty. Knights in shining armor are no longer fashionable. Readers crave for a different kind of protagonists: anti-heroes (Stephan R. Donaldson’s Lord Foul’s Bane, 1977), torturers (Gene Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer, 1980), assassins (Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice, 1995), and others.

Fantasy grew gritty, brutal, sometimes bleak and pessimistic. No need to insist on the influence of the Game of Thrones (this book had enough publicity already). Let’s mention a few noteworthy authors such as Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series), Joe Abercrombie (The First Law Trilogy), Patrick Rothfuss (The Kingkiller Chronicle), and Mark Lawrence (The Broken Empire trilogy).

Urban fantasy was not immune to the overwhelming rise of darkness neither. Although the very first urban fantasy stories were relatively light in tone (War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint), horror quickly found its way into this subgenre, starting with Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and followed by The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Those stories are teaming with vampires, ghouls, zombies, necromancers, and the nastiest sorts of black magic.

In your opinion, why are we craving for this sort of terrifying stories? What makes them so appealing to science fiction and fantasy readers?

Filed Under: Books, Fantasy, History, Horror, Literature, Science fiction Tagged With: Anita Blake, Anne Rice, Brandon Sanderson, dark fantasy, fantasy, Game of Thrones, Gene Wolfe, Gothic, history, horror, Jim Butcher, Joe Abercrombie, Laurell K. Hamilton, Mark Lawrence, Michael Moorcock, Patrick Rothfuss, Robin Hobb, sci-fi, science fiction, Stephan R. Donaldson, Stephen King, Steven Erikson, The Dresden Files, vampires

Whitby, in the footsteps of Dracula (Part 2)

July 5, 2015 by AJ 2 Comments

Read the first part here: Whitby, in the footsteps of Dracula (Part 1)

Gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey
Ruins of Whitby Abbey

“Perched high on a cliff, it’s easy to see why the haunting remains of Whitby Abbey were inspiration for Bram Stoker’s gothic tale of Dracula,” states the English Heritage website.

The story of Whitby Abbey in itself could be the subject of a book. This story begins in 657 with the foundation of a monastery by Hilda of Whitby. This monastery became one of the most important religious centers in the Anglo-Saxon world. Following the withdrawal of Roman legions from Britain, Northumbria emerged as a powerful independent kingdom. Members of the Northumbrian royal family were buried at the Whitby monastery, which shows the symbolic importance this monastery had at that time. The layman Cædmon, the earliest English poet whose name is known, lived and died in Whitby in the 7th century. The memorial to Cædmon has been preserved and can be seen in St Mary’s Churchyard.

Gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey in the fog
Ruins of Whitby Abbey in the fog

Whitby monastery was abandoned in the 9th century, probably because Viking raids. In 1078, when Viking invasions were already history, a monk named Reinfrid founded a new monastic community at Whitby. Initially the monastery was built of wood, but in the 12th century it was rebuilt in stone in the Romanesque style. Later, in the 13th century, the monastery was rebuilt again, this time in the Gothic style. As many Gothic buildings, Whitby Abbey was built in stages, and the work continued with interruptions until the 15th century.

Following the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the abbey was abandoned and its buildings sold to Sir Richard Cholmley (1578). During the Civil War (1642–51), the Parliamentarian troops captured Whitby and looted the Abbey House. After the war Sir Hugh Cholmley II restored it and added a new wing, known as the Banqueting House.

Gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey in the sunrise
Ruins of Whitby Abbey in the sunrise

The Cholmleys abandoned the place in the 18th century. The Abbey House suffered from storms and part of its roof was removed. Weakened by erosion, the shell of the abbey church also started to collapse. The south transept collapsed in 1736, the nave in 1763, the central tower in 1830, and the south side of the presbytery in 1839.

In the 19th century, the Strickland family, descendants of the Cholmleys, entered in possession of Whitby Abbey. At that time, the abbey ruins became a popular tourist destination.

In 1914 Whitby was shelled by a German fleet. The abbey ruins were hit and the west front was damaged. In 1920 the Strickland family handed the abbey over to the Ministry of Works. English Heritage carried out archaeological excavations and surveys at this site between 1993 and 2008. The visitor centre was built during that period.

Such is the story of Whitby Abbey. The symbolic importance of this building changed constantly over the centuries. Place of spirituality and knowledge, place of power, place of violence and tragedy, place of hope, place of leisure, place of artistic inspiration.

Gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey
Ruins of Whitby Abbey

Why did Bram Stoker find inspiration here, among the ruins of Whitby Abbey? The past haunting the present—such has always been the main motif in Gothic fiction. Medieval ruins remind us that we cannot break from our history, at least not completely. Dracula is an intruder from our past; he brings with him the memories of troubled times and the ways of our ancestors. Yet we cannot ignore our medieval heritage. Whether it causes awe or fear, the medieval culture is still an important part of our civilization, and it will remain part of our culture for the decades to come.

Gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey
Ruins of Whitby Abbey

Read also: Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015 (Part 1) and Part 2.

Gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey in the fog
Ruins of Whitby Abbey in the fog

Filed Under: Fantasy, History, Horror, Literature, Travel, UK Tagged With: Bram Stoker, Dracula, Gothic, history, horror, photos, vampires, Whitby

Whitby Goth Weekend: April 2015 (Part 2)

May 25, 2015 by AJ 2 Comments

Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. Photo.
Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. WGW turns 21!

Read the first part here: Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015 (Part 1)

Okay, so now we climbed the 199 steps leading to the Church of Saint Mary and the cemetery surrounding it. Photographers huddle around the entrance of the church—the show is on!

Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. Photo, Gothic fantasy model
Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. Gothic fantasy model.

The lighting is perfect, making colors rich and vivid. We meet gorgeous models competing for the attention of numerous photographers and visitors.

Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. Photo, steampunk men and a woman
Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. Elegant Victorian steampunks!

All imaginary worlds meet here: medieval fantasy, steampunk, cyberpunk, science fiction, horror …

Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. Photo. Death and a witch

I saved my favorite image for the end. Amid grim tombstones, we meet a lovely fae straight from an urban fantasy novel! What a delightful encounter, isn’t it?

Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. Photo. Beautiful Gothic fantasy model
Whitby Goth Weekend, April 2015. A lovely fae straight from an urban fantasy novel!

I would like to thank all the lovely people who allowed me to take a picture of them. Very kind of you indeed!

Also read Whitby, in the footsteps of Dracula (Part 1)

 

Whitby Goth Weekend: April 2015 (Part 1)

Whitby Goth Weekend: April 2015 (Part 2)

Filed Under: Alternative cultures, Events, Fantasy, Science fiction Tagged With: fantasy, fashion, Gothic, horror, sci-fi, steampunk, Whitby

Whitby, in the footsteps of Dracula (Part 1)

May 7, 2015 by AJ 5 Comments

The adjective “amazing” was invented to describe the kind of experience I had in Whitby, a small town located in North Yorkshire, UK. This is where Bram Stoker found inspiration for his famous novel Dracula (1897). Now I understand what he felt when he visited this town – I felt it too.

Whitby, UK: Church of Saint Mary and Whitby Abbey
Whitby, UK: 199 steps (bottom right) leading to the Church of Saint Mary and the ruins of Whitby Abbey.

I arrived in Whiby on Wednesday 22 April after a 6-hour journey by train. Went to the B&B where I had made a reservation, checked in, then started my exploration of the famous vampire town. My first destination was Whitby Abbey, or, to be more precise, the ruins of Whitby Abbey. In the footsteps of Dracula, I climbed the 199 steps leading to the Church of Saint Mary and the top of the East Cliff.

Old tombstones surrounding the church greeted me solemnly. I turned to contemplate the setting sun that burned like a molten copper orb, bathing the cemetery in a warm orange glow.

Church of Saint Mary in the sunset
Whitby, UK: Church of Saint Mary in the sunset.

I continued my journey toward Whitby Abbey, its ruins silhouetted against the darkening sky.

Whitby Abbey in the sunset
Whitby, UK: Whitby Abbey in the sunset.
Ruins of Whitby Abbey in the sunset.
Ruins of Whitby Abbey in the sunset.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a cloud of fog appeared to shroud the town in semi-darkness. It hung oppressively – as Edgar Allan Poe would say – over the bay, the valley and the town, eclipsing the last rays of the dying sun.

Sunset over Whitby, East Cliff
Sunset over Whitby, East Cliff
Sunset over Whitby, East Cliff, panoramic view
Sunset over Whitby, East Cliff, panoramic view

The cloud swiftly slid over the ruins of the abbey, as if some malevolent power had cast a spell. Then the cold came, this humid, traitorous, creeping cold that sucks the warmth out of your body. The change in temperature was as swift as the change in luminosity. The warm glow of the setting sun was replaced by an icy semi-darkness. This sight was surreal, as if nature itself had staged it for my benefit. I felt a connection, an inexplicable bond with this place – the ruins, the church, the cemetery, the old stones.

ruins of Whitby Abbey shrouded in fog
Whitby, UK: ruins of Whitby Abbey shrouded in fog

After this moment of awe came the realization that I was freezing. I felt the need to send some hot drink down my throat to expel the cold tentacles of the night. Destination – the nearest café!

Church of Saint Mary in the evening
Whitby, UK: Church of Saint Mary in the evening.

* * *

Learn more about the history of this town in

Whitby, in the footsteps of Dracula (Part 2)

Filed Under: Books, History, Horror, Literature, Travel, UK Tagged With: Bram Stoker, Dracula, fantasy, Gothic, history, horror, photos, vampires, Whitby

Science fiction, fantasy, and horror book awards

March 29, 2015 by AJ 1 Comment

Hugo Award logo
Hugo Award logo

I’ve compiled for you a list of science fiction, fantasy, and horror book awards with descriptions and links to their websites.

Most prestigious awards in alphabetical order:

Arthur C. Clarke Award

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is the most prestigious award for science fiction in Britain. It is awarded every year to the best science fiction novel which received its first British publication during the previous calendar year. The Award is chosen by jury.

2014 winner announced at Sci-Fi London Film Festival, London, May 1, 2014

2014 winner: Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie (Orbit)

List of Clarke Award winners 1987-2013

Bram Stoker Awards

The Bram Stoker Awards are the horror equivalent of the Nebulas, voted by members of the professional Horror Writer’s Association. They are notable for being awarded “for superior achievement” — not for “best” of the year.

2013 winners announced at World Horror Convention 2014, Portland, USA, May 10, 2014

2013 Stoker Awards winners | Lists of Stoker Awards winners 1988-2013

British Fantasy Society (August Derleth) Award

Administered annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS). The shortlists for the awards are compiled from nominations submitted by members of the BFS. They are then voted on by BFS members only.

2014 winners announced at FantasyCon, York, England, September 7, 2014

History and list of BFS winners 1972-2014

British Science Fiction Association Award

Presented annually by the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA), based on a vote of BSFA members and – in recent years – members of the British national science fiction convention.

2013 winners announced at Satellite 4 Eastercon, Glasgow, April 20, 2014

BSFA Winners 1969-2013

Hugo Award

The Hugo Award, also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award, is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). All Awards are given for work in a given year. Individual works are eligible only in their first year of publication. Members of past and current years’ World SF Convention nominate up to five items per category.

2014 winners announced at LonCon 3, London, UK, August 17, 2014

Hugo winners 1953-2014

John W. Campbell Memorial Award

The Award was created to honor the late editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, which is now named Analog. Campbell, who edited the magazine from 1937 until his death in 1971, is called, by many writers and scholars, the father of modern science fiction. Nominations come from the science-fiction publishers as well as individual jurors. Nominations are usually requested in December, and the jurors read and debate the merits of these books through April. This process produces a list of finalists based on jurors’ rankings, and the final decision is made after vigorous debate on the merits of the finalists during May.

2014 winners announced in June 2014

List of Campbell Memorial winners 1973-2014

The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is the short fiction counterpart of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year.

Locus awards

Presented to winners of Locus Magazine’s annual readers’ poll. There are many categories, including Science Fiction Novel, Fantasy Novel, Young Adult Book, First Novel, etc.

2014 winners announced in Seattle, USA, June 28, 2014

List of Locus 2014 winners | Lists of Locus winners 1971-2014

Nebula Awards

The Nebula Awards are the Oscars of the SF/F field, awards presented by professionals to professionals. The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Since 1965, the Nebula Awards have been given each year for eligible novels published in the United States during the two previous years.

There are several associated awards: Ray Bradbury Award, Andre Norton Award, SFWA Grand Master Award, and SFWA Awards.

2013 winners announced in San Jose, USA, May 17, 2014

2014 nominations and list of Nebula 2000-2013 winners | Lists of Nebula 1966-2013 winners

Philip K. Dick Award

The Philip K. Dick Award is given to the best original paperback published each year in the US. Each year the five judges read as much of the paperback original SF as they can get, or can stand, and then deliberate and choose nominees, that are announced in January each year, and the winners, who are announced in late March or early April at a ceremony at Norwescon. The judges then nominate their own successors. Only writers or academics are eligible to be judges.

2014 winners announced at Norwescon 37, SeaTac, USA, April 18, 2014

List of PKD 1983-2014 winners

Shirley Jackson Awards

In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards have been established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year. The Shirley Jackson Award are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors.

2013 winners announced at Readercon, Burlington, USA, July 13, 2014

List of Shirley Jackson 2007-2013 winners

World Fantasy Awards

The World Fantasy Awards, associated with the annual World Fantasy Conventions, were established as a fantasy counterpart to the SF-oriented Hugo and Nebula Awards. They differ from those awards in significant ways, primarily in that winners are determined by judges — though two places in each category on the final ballot are determined by votes from convention members.

2014 winners announced at World Fantasy Convention, Washington, USA, November 9, 2014

List of WFA 1975-2014 winners

In addition to the awards listed above we can also mention the following, less known awards:

  • David Gemmell Award (heroic fantasy)
  • The Kitschies: The Red Tentacle, The Golden Tentacle, etc.
  • Mythopoeic Award (fantasy)

To this already impressive array of awards we need to add the Goodreads Choice Awards that has separate categories for science fiction, fantasy, and horror books.

Literary awards come in all shapes and sizes – some are prestigious, others are less known; some involve a panel of judges, others are decided by readers. However, each of those awards has a role in the publishing ecosystem. In my view, they are useful not because of their effect on sales, but because they give exposure to books and talented authors who might have remained unnoticed. Now brace yourselves for the book awards season – it starts in April!

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Filed Under: Awards, Fantasy, Horror, Science fiction Tagged With: Arthur C. Clarke, awards, Bram Stoker, fantasy, horror, John W. Campbell, Philip K. Dick, science fiction, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon

The Gothic novel – history and influence

March 28, 2015 by AJ 2 Comments

The Gothic: 250 Years of Success book cover
The Gothic: 250 Years of Success. Your Guide to Gothic Literature and Culture.

In December 1764 appeared a curious book titled The Castle of Otranto. Its preface stated:

The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not appear. The principal incidents are such as were believed in the darkest ages of Christianity; but the language and conduct have nothing that savours of barbarism.

The preface went on to speculate that this story had been written during the Crusades, between 1095 and 1243. A haunted castle, a mysterious prophecy, an evil and manipulative aristocrat, two young and beautiful heroines, a forbidden love and lots of action – such are the ingredients of this wildly imaginative melodrama.

Despite an initially positive critical reception, this unlikely story could have remained a footnote in the history of literature, as did other literary curiosities. However, the following year, a second edition of this book was published, and, this time, its true nature was revealed by the author. The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story was a work of fiction written by Horace Walpole, a forty-eight-year-old English aristocrat known for his passion for the medieval period and Gothic architecture.

In this stylish, rationalist 18th century, dominated by the baroque and the Classicism, Walpole was viewed as an eccentric. He went as far as to transform his villa at Strawberry Hill (just outside London) into an imitation of a Gothic castle. In the preface to the second edition of The Castle of Otranto, Walpole explained that his book was “an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern”. In other words, he transposed his love for medieval art into literature and thus created the first neo-Gothic fictional work in history.

In the 1760s, the world was not yet ready for the onslaught of the Gothic. However, two decades later, England was ready, as were other European countries that went through radical social changes.

The Gothic novel exploded in the 1790s and the 1800s, when, in England, up to 20% of all published titles belonged to this type of literature. Paradoxically, the effects of this cultural phenomenon were as profound as the books that caused it were shallow. Few Gothic novels published in the 18th century had literary merit (those by Ann Radcliffe being among the rare exceptions). More than their intrinsic quality, it was their ability to excite the imagination of a broad readership that made them so influential. The 18th-century Gothic fiction was probably the first popular genre in the history of Western civilization; it was the prototype of what we call a genre nowadays.

The success of this early wave of terrifying novels was short-lived, and, in the 1820s, readers grew tired of this kind of story. Nevertheless, 19th-century literature would not be the same without the spark of wild imagination brought by the Gothic novel. This genre created a portal between the mysterious past and the rational present through which the power of medieval fancy could relive to inseminate the modern culture. It inspired Jane Austen to write her first novel, Northanger Abbey, a satirical, yet respectful parody of the Radcliffean Gothic. It influenced Walter Scott, the father of historical fiction. It paved the road for the budding Romantic Movement, in particular its darker forms, and we can see its imprint in Byron’s poems or in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Some literary critics viewed the Gothic as biologists view extinct species, like a relic of the past, something that had a role in evolution, but was now history. As a genre the Gothic is no more; nevertheless, as an artistic style it is as strong nowadays as it was two centuries ago. It was its ability to evolve beyond the boundaries of a genre that made it so influential and widespread.

By the first decade of the 19th century, the Gothic had invaded literature and, to a lesser extent, theatrical drama and visual arts. By the first decade of the 21st century, the Gothic was everywhere: cinema, TV, comic books, music, internet, role-playing games, video games, digital art, and fashion. Not only was it adopted by every form of art and media, but it also penetrated most genres; we can find its influence in fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, romance, historical fiction, and literary fiction.


From The Gothic: 250 Years of Success by A J Blakemont. Copyrighted material.

Filed Under: Books, History, Horror, Literature Tagged With: classic, Frankenstein, Gothic, history, Horace Walpole, horror, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, romanticism, Walter Scott

H. P. Lovecraft’s vision of the future

March 28, 2015 by AJ Leave a Comment

Cthulhu-450pxH. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) had a particularly grim vision of the future. He created a dark, yet sublime fictional universe. What Lovecraft brought to speculative fiction is the concept of world building. He did not only create a myth; he created an entire fictional world to illustrate his cosmological views. This is how he summarized his vision in the introductory paragraph from The Call of Cthulhu (1926):

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

What if he was right?

Filed Under: Classics, Horror, Science fiction Tagged With: classic, Cthulhu, Gothic, horror, Lovecraft, science fiction

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About the Author

A. J. Blakemont is a novelist and essayist interested in speculative and gothic fiction. He is also passionate about music, history and its mysteries. He grew up in Paris where he studied literature. He lives near London and he is a member of the Society of Authors.

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