I go by interest cycles too! It took me years to realise it and I agree that it takes the pressure off to recognise it. I absolutely adore the mood pictures at 7:30! I recently got into a similar mood/vibe and started reading King Solomon's Mines. H Rider Haggard ended up taking British colonialism to all sorts of wild places, it's both troubling and fun. There's a book I recently borrowed by Huw Lewis-Jones called Explorers' Sketchbooks which if you haven't heard of is right up your alley. I'm almost as excited as you are for all of this!
what a funny coincidence. I just found Haggard's "She" in a little free library this morning and took it home with me. I"ll have to look into that one too. Oh wow, I'd love to see the Explorer's Sketchbook, thank you for telling me about it. I sometimes wish you could read in a more communal way, but this is as close as I can get to it
I am so excited for all these. Yes to dinosaurs! Yes to Victorian sci fi! I never had a dinosaur phase as a kid but man do I love looking at all the fossils now. Have you checked out Stephen Brusatte's books?
hmmm I wonder if Shirley Jackson will make it in your weird fiction project. I have not read any of her novels but I read her short stories and Oh MY! I loved them so much so I want to re-read them soon. Poe is a good weirdo too. Shirley has her own flavor of weird though, yes, dystopian and the women she writes about are often alienated from society inasmuch as they perceive that which no one else does therefore they are cast aside or looked at as strange. It's a shame that "The lottery" is what she is only typically known for as far as short stories go, (which is a great story btw) but her oeuvre in this genre is way more expansive and varied. I recently read Roxane Gay's "difficult women", also a short story collection and there's lots of good material (aside from magical realism) there to be categorized as "weird" fiction. I bet Roxane read Shirley. Thank you and Im looking fwd to hear about how your projects come along.
I do love Shirley Jackson and her works. I challenged myself in 2018 to read all the Jackson awards finalists and ended up with some great reads. I only read Hunger and Bad Feminist by Gay but this sounds interesting. I'll try to tackle as many weird fiction authors as I can. I tried laying down the definitions of what I mean in a previous video in terms of "weird" but Jackson is definitely on the list. Thank you for your comment and for joining!
