Sanjay Mathew

As well as to the amazing series of interviews on @talkscaredpod.bsky.social

Shoutout to @premeemohamed.com @catrionaward.bsky.social @tananarivedue.bsky.social @usmantm.bsky.social @catvalente.bsky.social and many more outstanding Weird Writers

I Read the Weird: The End of the World as We Know It, New Tales of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ NB: I don’t intend to feature any spoilers in this overview but some very broad plot points will be referenced.

open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

A collage of photos from the Covid-19 Pandemic in Singapore

This week, I read the eagerly anticipated “The End of the World as We Know It- New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand”.

Solid collection but more non-N. American stories would have been nice. We just lived through a pandemic which saw different countries react in strikingly different ways after all.

The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hiter: The Reggie Oliver Project #15 Welcome to the Reggie Oliver Project.

This week the Reggie Oliver Project looks at Fascism writ small, in The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler

substack.com/home/post/p-...

#ReggieOliver #WeirdFiction #TheEnglishWeird #Fascism #Murder #Art

A Mean Girls parody pin of Karl Marx sitting in a car, captioned 'Get in loser, we're seizing the means of production'

Jack Black as Steve from the Mlnecraft movie

So I asked my six year old to help me pick up this pin that had fallen from my bag and he said 'Oh yeah, your Minecraft guy pin'.

@officialjackblack.bsky.social would honestly work for a Marx biopic. #Marx #Minecraft #MeansOfProduction #MeanGirls

The Seventeenth Sister, The Reggie Oliver Project #12 It was evil: pure, unadulterated malevolence, nothing added, nothing removed.

This week, The Reggie Oliver Project discusses institutional abuse, Magdalene Laundries and crises of faith as we read ‘The Seventeenth Sister’ sanjaymathew.substack.com/p/the-sevent... #ReggieOliver #WeirdFiction #TheEnglishWeird #Catholicism #MagdaleneLaundries #whistleblowing

Thanks- Buehlmann is always good fun

Death Mask, The Reggie Oliver Project #11 All that is left behind is my gratitude to them; and that I cherish.

This week, the Reggie Oliver Project discusses despair, prayer and compassion as we read ‘Death Mask’

substack.com/home/post/p-...

#WeirdFiction #ReggieOliver #Horror #Ghosts #TheSecondWorldWar #Love #Compassion #TheEnglishWeird

I haven't read any of Lev Grossman's work tbh. But yes, either sequels or prequels.

How Eisenhower learned his craft- maybe it was linked to his coast to coast US Army expedition in 1919. Lots of time and space for him to get in touch with America.

Cover of first edition of Austin Grossman's novel Crooked. Chartreuse greenish background, with a front-facing Richard Nixon Halloween mask suspended from a string. Title and author name in black lettering, and "The real Cold War was the living against the dead" in smaller yellow font.

This week I found out that @grossman.bsky.social has mapped out a potential sequel, and even could deliver a TV adaptation if it were green-lit. And honestly, the next four years would be perfect timing for a political/supernatural thriller. Hope someone at FX or Netflix is paying attention!

I Read the Weird: Crooked by Austin Grossman My name is Richard Milhous Nixon. I swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. I was educated at Whittier College in Whittier, California, and I have seen the devil walk.

A throwback to my foray into #ColdWar #Weird - a wonderfully eerie secret history of Nixon and America by @grossman.bsky.social. It crams Nixon's genuinely weird life in with Grossman's Weird embellishments. Would love to see more of this world
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#horror #nixon

The Golden Basilica, The Reggie Oliver Project #10 It was a parody of passionate love, a war for possession and mastery in one obscene body

This week the Reggie Oliver Project discusses fatherhood, aspiration and obsession in The Golden Basilica
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...
#Weird #Horror #BodyHorror #ReggieOliver #TheEnglishWeird #class #fatherhood

These Things I Read on Substack This week on the Reggie Oliver Project, we discuss The Boy in Green Velvet, and why you shouldn’t let your kids play with things sent by mysterious uncles.

This week, the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘The Boy in Green Velvet’ and discusses Oliver’s recurring theme of the tension between aesthetics and practicality in knowledge work and the arts. Also, sinister uncles substack.com/@sanjaymathe... #Weird #Horror #ReggieOliver #Arts #Magic #Family

The Black Cathedral- The Reggie Oliver Project #7 MR James, Tech as Magic, Rationalists and Zizians

This week the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘The Black Cathedral’ and we figure out why it’s important to touch grass.
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#TheWeird #WeirdFiction #Horror #EnglishWeird #ReggieOliver #MRJames #GhostStories #Tech #Magic #Rationalists

Statue of The Great God Pan at Columbia University. Photo by Another Believer https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Another_Believer

This week the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘Garden Gods’. We discuss class, conformity, amateurism and the danger of dabbling in the dark art of gardening
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#ghoststories #weirdfiction #TheWeird #ReggieOliver #Class #Paganism #Exploitation #horticulture

A painting of a tiger in a winter landscape

This week the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘Tiger in Snow’ and consider Art, exploitation, and how #solidarity and #intersectionality may not always be as prevalent as we would wish.
substack.com/home/post/p-...

#ghoststories #weirdfiction #TheWeird #ReggieOliver #Class #Gender #Intersectionality

Miss Marchant's Cause, The Reggie Oliver Project #5 Her undying wrath

This week the Reggie Oliver Project, reads 'Miss Marchant's Cause' and find out why getting emotionally involved with your research isn't a great idea open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#WeirdFiction #Weird #GhostStories #ReggieOliver #EnglishWeird #Relationships #Spiritualism #Dante

A painting of a CCTV camera on a gritty concrete wall

This week in the Reggie Oliver Project, we read 'Evil Eye'
substack.com/home/post/p-...

I discuss found footage & voyeurism in horror as well as the intersection of Oliver’s work with Clive Barker. #Weird #WeirdFiction #ReggieOliver #TheReggieOliverProject #englishghoststories #englishweird #horror

Thanks for the repost, Simon! Oliver is a hidden gem

A 17th C painting by Nicolas Poussin depicting shepherds in an Arcadian landscape examining a tomb

This week in the Reggie Oliver Project I read 'In Arcadia': substack.com/home/post/p-...
We consider hubris, arete, and ask whether you would choose a life in the arts, or eternity in Tartarus.

#Weird #WeirdFiction #ReggieOliver #TheReggieOliverProject #englishghoststories #englishweird #litcrit

Sorry to hear that- I'm outside the EU so I found little difference with the mail pre and post- (heh) Brexit. No one else seems to have done it so I've actually started a weekly analysis of Oliver's stories on my Substack. Re reading them with my English teacher glasses on has been very rewarding

How did you enjoy the Oliver? After reading Vittorini I went out and slowly bought every e-book of his I could find. I have even more slowly been accumulating copies of the physical texts.

He's the best living English Weird writer imo.

Happened to come across this while searching for Oliverian stuff on BlueSky. In case you weren't aware, Tartarus released a new Oliver collection last October (This Haunted Heaven).

To commemorate the anniversary of the Fall of Singapore to the Japanese we've switched off the electricity for an hour to remins ourselves of the travails of our forefathers. NGL, its been 15 mins with no A/C and I'm ready to capitulate.

Ah, the opportunity to become a Friend of the Senate and People of Ro... America. Worked out well for the Herodians I guess.

What's your sign?

A 19th Century picture titled 'Original Sin' depicting Adam, Eve and a demon-faced Serpent.

The Reggie Oliver Project 2: Feng Shui
substack.com/home/post/p-...
We ask ourselves if there's a suburban equivalent to Folk Horror. Also a #cat faces his comeuppance. #Weird #WeirdLit #Horror #GhostStories #Reviews #LitCrit #ReggieOliver

I assure you. Every time you insist on saying "ethnic cleansing" you mean genocide.

In the first of what I hope will be a series of reviews of all of Reggie Oliver's stories, I read 'Beside the Shrill Sea'
substack.com/home/post/p-...
#Weird #WeirdLit #Horror #GhostStories #Reviews #LitCrit #ReggieOliver