masculinity – Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

December 22, 2018

Planted

Planted A review of Richard Keelan’s “The Waltzing Tree” in Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales From The Margins” (Exile, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille Richard Keelan’s “The Waltzing Tree” is a suburban fairy tale about loneliness and transformation. It is a tale about overcoming the distance that traditional modes of masculinity place between our bodies and the fear of...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

July 19, 2015

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 43: WolfCop

In this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio, I am joined in the studio by horror movie scholar Amy Jane Vosper and we discuss the Canadian film WolfCop (written and directed by Lowell Dean). We explore the relationship between werewolf films and gender, looking in particular at the over masculinity of the film and the use of this hypermasculinity...

On Air Comments: 0

September 9, 2014

Definitely Not A Chameleon.

A Review of Jason Loo’s The Pitiful Human-Lizard Issue 1 (May, 2014) By Derek Newman-Stille Few superheroes call themselves “pitiful”. Most tend to hypermasculinize themselves to try to make themselves seem beyond the human, more powerful, further beyond moral critique, but Jason Loo’s The Pitiful Human-Lizard plays with the superhero genre and opens it to critique, question, and, yes, pity....

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

August 26, 2014

Quote – Measuring Value by Who Has Been Loved

“”These days, I can quantify my remaining decades. I can measure them out in life-events. I can gauge my value as a man by who I’ve loved, who has loved me, and by the ones I didn’t love nearly enough.” -Michael Rowe, “Ghosts” (Postscripts to Darkness, http://pstdarkness.com/2014/08/08/ghosts-by-michael-rowe/ )

Quotes Comments: 0

January 14, 2014

Gender Swopping Characters to Reveal Stereotypes

I recently read a fascinating article by Michelle Nijhuis, who gender-swopped Bilbo in The Hobbit when reading to her little girl to try to introduce her daughter to a strong female character in a fantasy narrative. You can explore the article here http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/12/18/one-weird-old-trick/ . When I read it, I thought about what an effective strategy gender swopping could be for...

Teaching Comments: 8

February 27, 2013

Dissolving Selfhood

A Review of Brett Savory’s In and Down (Brindle & Glass, 2007) By Derek Newman-Stille Brett Savory’s In and Down is a truly horrifying novel, not necessarily because of the haunting images of bodies, clowns, and flies, but because it reminds the reader about the fluidity of identity – that we are not fixed, unchanging things, but are rather constantly...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

August 21, 2012

What is Barbarism?

A review of: Regan Wolfrom’s The Hill Where Thorvald Slew Ten Skraelings (OnSpec #88, Vol. 24, No. 1, Spring 2012) By Derek Newman-Stille Regan Wolfrom’s The Hill Where Thorvald Slew Ten Skraelings recreates a Norse worlds where Seidr, magic, meets Viking might and ideas of strength. Wolfrom challenges ideas of masculinity in this short story, using a group of people,...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

Tag: masculinity

Planted

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 43: WolfCop

Definitely Not A Chameleon.

Quote – Measuring Value by Who Has Been Loved

Gender Swopping Characters to Reveal Stereotypes

Dissolving Selfhood

What is Barbarism?