Russell Hoban – The Mouse and His Child: moving metaphysics for kids
George Orwell explains in a revealing 1944 letter why he’d write 1984
In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Andrea Hairston reviews Paradoxa 25, Africa SF, ed. Mark Bould
Paul Kincaid discusses Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes at Big Other.
And to go with it, Lynd Ward’s illustrations for Frankenstein, courtesy of John Coulthart at [feuilleton].
Also via John Coulthart, a link to a performance of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach.
Republic of the Moon is an arts project currently ensconced at the Barge House, Oxo Tower Wharf in London. One component of this exhibition takes as its inspiration Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone, in which, famously, a traveller goes to the moon in a vehicle drawn by geese. There is more information about Agnes Meyer-Brandis’s work here.
I have a rather odd interest in the inappropriate use of dangerous substances. I swear I once saw an advert for radium toothpaste, and I try not to think about what was in the paint on the toys I chewed as a child. So, radioactive toys (which is not entirely as awful as it sounds).
The latest instalment of ‘which European nation really got to Australia first’ features a rather adorable kangaroo. It’s almost too good to be true, it looks so convincing.
Long-time readers of this blog will know I have a thing about paper sculpture. Here, a model of Smaug emerging from The Hobbit.
A new biography of Tove Jansson, author of the Moomin books.
Orson Welles’ film of Kafka’s The Trial
Jeff Wayne and David Essex: how we made War of the Worlds (and I bet, if you’re of a certain age, the chords are all crashing through your brain)
Extraordinary black and white photos of superstorms.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s own Alice illustrations
Via kuriositas, a French sea serpent
2013 Philip K Dick Award nominees announced
And finally, John Coulthard (who seems to be taking up residence here this week) has a nice post on [feuilleton] about illustrations for The Angel of the Revolution by George Griffiths.
Paper Knife 