literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
Book Review: "Standing Heavy" by Gauz
Translated by Frank Wynne Everyone here has a powerful motivation, although it may be very different depending on which side of the glass one finds oneself. For the dominant male in the glass cage at the far end of the open-plan office, it is maximum turnover. By any means necessary. Hiring as many people as possible is part of the means. For the Black procession in the stairwell, it is an escape from unemployment or a zero-hours contract. By any means necessary. Security guarding is one of those means. It’s relatively accessible. The training is absolutely minimal. No experience is required. Employers are all too willing to overlook official status.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Chain-Gang All-Stars" by by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
“I’m saying that the death penalty has always been an abomination, even before the CAPE program. Prison as it exists is an abomination. Right now, the fact is, people are doing the exact kinds of harm you’re describing. Prisons haven’t deterred the harm they’re meant to deter. They’re a failed experiment.”
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Roads of Destiny" ed. by Alasdair Richmond
Full Title = Roads of Destiny: And Other Tales of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms edited by Alasdair Richmond “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate, and provoke study, and when you follow the lame, uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions.”
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
How 'The Grinch' Became an Icon
He was the cruel, evil green-animated Ebenezer Scrooge of our childhood props to author Dr. Seuss for making the Grinch a Christmas icon. The Grinch is based on the 1957 children's illustrated book How the Grinch Stole Christmas introduces the Grinch, a green, furry, Pot-bellied, pear-shaped, snub-nosed humanoid creature with a cat-like face and cynical personality who hates Christmas and decides to rob everybody's gifts and holiday decorations down in Whoville to make them feel sad. The story would be adapted in a 1966 short television special, a television series, a 2000 live-action film, a 2018 animation film, musicals, and a song written by the author himself that would be the theme song fitted for the Grinch.
By Gladys W. Muturi3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Friday Black" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
“Even the apocalypse isn't the end. That, you could only know when you're standing before a light so bright it obliterates you. And if you are alone, posed like a dancer, when it comes, you feel silly and scared. And if you are with your family, or anyone at all, when it comes, you feel silly and scared, but at least not alone.”
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Circles of Stone" ed. by Katy Soar
Full Title = Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites ed. by Katy Soar I was anxiously awaiting the newest instalment of The British Library Tales of the Weird which happened to be a folk horror anthology. As we all know, folk horror is my favourite subgenre of all time. It has an interesting history which dates back to (I believe) before the time of the film The Blood Of Satan's Claw. Instead, folk horror has been a thing for hundreds of years and we can even argue that novels like Dracula are folk horror too - playing on the myths and legends that pervaded a certain society which was based in some spurns of reality no matter how small.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Telling the Seasons" by Martin Maudsley
Full Title: Telling the Seasons: Stories, Celebrations and Folklore Around the Year by Martin Maudsley Just because folk horror is my all-time favourite subgenre does not mean I don't enjoy reading the plain stories of the old folk traditions that don't happen to be as horrific. Folk stories are fascinating to me - passed down through oral traditions of hundreds of years and nobody really knows exactly where they came from.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "This Other Eden" by Paul Harding
“Eha had been bewildered by the woods. He was used to the openness of the island and the ocean and the sky. The huge quiet still trees seemed alive and as if they were conferring, about lofty old secrets a hundred feet above, secrets they’d been discussing for ages before he intruded and would continue to ponder for ages after he’d long been gone. Like the sea, the woods felt older than he could possibly imagine. Whereas he knew the sea, though, he knew nothing about the woods and felt his presence register with them as that of a stranger, trespassing.” - This Other Eden by Paul Harding
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Shadows on the Wall" ed. by Mike Ashley
Full Title = The Shadows on the Wall: Dark Tales by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman edited by Mike Ashley Suddenly he began hastening hither and thither about the room. He moved the furniture with fierce jerks, turning ever to see the effect upon the shadow on the wall. Not a line of its terrible outlines wavered.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Spectral Sounds" ed. by Manon Burz-Labrande
Full Title = Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of the Acoustic Weird edited by Manon Burz-Labrande British Library Tales of the Weird is an excellent anthology of stories to read in the winter months. Often filled with creepy and sometimes obscure stories on a theme, these books are collections of short fiction that is both famed for its spooky writing or, has often been lost to time. This particular anthology is called Spectral Sounds in which we have ghosts communicating with the real world through audio. From footsteps up the stairs on a quiet night to rousing and sudden noises, this anthology has a great amount of tales that won't make you want to sit at home in silence as that is where things go 'bump' in the night. Including stories by Algernon Blackwood and Sheridan Le Fanu, I think this is possibly one of the better compilations of scary stories by the British Library.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Treacle Walker" by Alan Garner
‘What’s amiss?’ said Joe. ‘I’ll tell you what’s amiss. I shall. I shall that. You come here, you and your box and your pots and your donkey stone, and fetch in enough to make me frit to death. You’re on about bones and all sorts; and then you’re off, some road or other, and I can’t tell where I am. I’ve got a pain in my eye. I can’t see proper. And I go down the bog and get stuck; and this chap with no clothes on and a daft silly hat, he sits up in the water and he makes no more sense than you do. He says I’ve got glammeritis, and then Stonehenge Kit, he’s gone, and so’s my best dobber; and Whizzy’s with a Brit Basher and they’re after Kit and the mirror’s all wrong then he’s back in the picture.
By Annie Kapur3 years ago in Geeks
