Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies

Another new anthology of interest is Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies, apparently currently available only from Lulu (trade paperback, $20.28, ISBN 978-1326376376).  It is an odd hodge-podge of articles and interviews concerned with various types of "folk horror," often film-related but also encompassing music, folklore and literature. Of general interest are the interviews, although many are shorter than one could wish for, even if they are mostly original. Those interviewed include writers Kim Newman, Philip Pullman and Thomas Ligottti (note that the Ligotti interview by Neddal Ayad dates from 2004, and also appears in Matt Cardin's excellent 2014 collection Born to Fear: Interviews with Thomas Ligotti). Others include artist Alan Lee, director (of The Wicker Man) Robin Hardy, and Simon Young, the driving force behind the current manifestation of the Fairy Investigation Society.  There are a couple of articles by Adam Scovell on Nigel Kneale (Beasts, and Quatermass II), and John Coullthart on the (sadly neglected) dramas of David Rudkin, and Jim Moon on M.R. James.  Plus many more items of interest.

This hefty trade paperback (nearly 500 pages) offers much to enjoy, but the fact that each article is formatted in a different way—some are double-spaced, though most are not; some have spaces between paragraphs, though most do not—shows an unfortunate lassez-faire to the design and editorship.

I reproduce below the three pages comprising the table of contents so one can see what else is in this volume. (Click on them to make them bigger.) 

THE TWILIGHT LANGUAGE OF NIGEL KNEALE

In November 2012, a day-long celebration was held at the Michelson Theater of New York, celebrating the British television writer Nigel Kneale (1922-2006), author of the Quatermass series, The Stone Tape, and The Year of the Sex Olympics, among many other works. A resultant book (with cassette tape comprised mostly of experimental synthesizer music inspired by Kneale's works) was published, called The Twilight Language of Nigel Kneale, edited by Sukhdev Sandhu, with contributions by Roger Luckhurst, Mark Pilkington, China Mieville, and others.  This small printing disappeared fairly quickly, but a second edition is reportedly in preparation. The contributions aren't especially well-edited---e.g., at least two contributors refer correctly to Kneale's birth in Barrow-in-Furness, while two others state  (incorrectly) that he was born in the Isle of Man. Some of the contributions are creative, while the more focused and analytical ones worked best for me (including one putting Kneale's least successful science fiction Kinvig into context).  A few essayists make intriguing remarks about Kneale's recurring contempt for his medium (television), which shows up (most obviously) in The Year of the Sex Olympics, as well as in the final Quatermass. Overall this volume makes an interesting entry point to the study of Kneale's work, which deserves all the attention it gets.