X-Men: Ghosts of Genomes Past – Part Two
Haunting the Present — politics, surveillance and control. The paradoxes of mutant time are embodied in the recurring figure of the future mutant who returns to warn of a catastrophe … Continue reading
Phantom Limbs, Withheld Worlds, and the Quatermass Experience (Part Four)
The intersection of Kneale’s work with the mechanics of the phantom limb becomes most visible through his preoccupation with systems that persist in running on invalid assumptions. This phenomenon is … Continue reading
Phantom Limbs, Withheld Worlds, and the Quatermass Experience (Part Three)
In Quatermass and the Pit, Kneale’s ‘Hobbs End’ is London’s wound reopening. Agoraphobia is the private version of that reopening; the moment the body realises its access to the world … Continue reading
Phantom Limbs, Withheld Worlds, and the Quatermass Experience (Part One)
Amputation gets described as removal, which is technically accurate in the way a spreadsheet can be accurate. Yes, the limb is not there. Well done, everyone. The problem is that … Continue reading
The Ghosts of Ash and the Nuclear Spectre (Part Two)
If Hiroshima haunts through absence, the Titanic haunts through overexposure. The Titanic has been replayed, retold, reconstructed, and reanimated so many times that it barely qualifies as an event anymore. It … Continue reading
The Ghosts of Ash and the Nuclear Spectre (Part One)
Disasters have a habit of lingering long after everyone has agreed that they are finished. The rubble gets cleared. The plaques get installed. The anniversary documentaries get commissioned. The calendar … Continue reading
Namaste, or: What Keeps Coming Back (in a Slightly Worse Mood) (Part 1)
We were almost at the top when we heard it. Not music exactly, more a pressure system. A low drone with delusions of grandeur, stretching itself between notes like a … Continue reading
The Spiral: Six Attempts to Notice While the System Keeps Running 3
THE SUPERHERO AS A GHOST OF MODERNITY (in which capes become spectral shrouds and continuity becomes a séance) Superheroes are the friendliest ghosts we’ve ever invented. They die constantly, but … Continue reading
Haunted When the Minutes Drag 6
6. Nostalgia Is Not Memory Nostalgia is often mistaken for memory. This flatters nostalgia enormously. Memory is unstable, unreliable, and prone to decay. Nostalgia is selective, repetitive, and oddly resistant … Continue reading
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