Category: Essay
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Borges Wrote the Sci-Fi Masterpiece of the 20th Century
Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. — Ray Bradbury In 1944 a little-known Argentine writer named Jorge Luis Borges published a slender volume of cryptic short stories humbly titled Ficciones. Enigmatic and…
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Borges Essay Wins Thresholds International Feature Competition 2017
It was announced today that my essay “Did Borges Write the Sci-Fi Masterpiece of the 20th Century?” won this year’s Thresholds Feature Writing Competition. The judges were incredibly generous in their assessment of the piece: ‘This intriguing short essay allows us to explore the brilliance of Borges’ short stories as well as his uncanny prescience as…
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Submitted For the Approval of the Midnight Society: The Rise and Decline of Horror Anthologies on TV
The history of television is marked throughout by horror anthologies: shows that presented standalone terrors night after night. In spite of a healthy birth and a productive span of decades, the form has–sadly–witnessed a sad decline. That television as a medium is currently booming makes this decline all the more puzzling. The heyday for televised…
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How Michael Crichton Mined Classic Literature to Write Modern Science Fiction
Years after his death, Michael Crichton is still dominating American culture. Jurassic World shattered records at the box office upon its release, demonstrating that Crichton’s dinosaurs-run-amok brainchild still holds wide appeal. HBO’s remake of Crichton’s early film Westworld was met with great fanfare, both from critics and audiences. And in 2017, a newly-discovered Crichton manuscript will be…
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The Art of Writing Great F#$@%#& Titles
“Title’s the first thing’s got to go…I mean, even this writer’s name, Murray Saffrin, is better than Lovejoy.” —Chili Palmer in Get Shorty Selecting the right title for your work is one of the most challenging aspects of writing. It ought to be easy, given that even the longest title is only half a…
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The Beginning, The Middle, and the Twist: Writing Lessons from RL Stine
RL Stine is often acknowledged as the 90’s horrormeister for children, but he is rarely given much credit as a competent and (yes) talented writer. Stine himself often derides his work with humble criticisms, claiming that he is a hard-working wordsmith with little literary talent. Say what you want about the quality of Stine’s prose.…
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Bradbury Essay Takes Runner-Up in International Essay Competition
Thresholds, home of the international short story forum, has announced that my essay “The Radical Horror and Loneliness of The Martian Chronicles” has taken runner-up in the Thresholds International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition! The judges noted that the essay was: “A lucid and fresh discussion of the groundbreaking work of Ray Bradbury. It’s reminder of a story’s…
The Black Cat Moan 