The Week 35 Listicle
Scary and cautionary tales for Hallowe'en
1) Ghost Moose
A spectral poem by Hilary Menos.
2) Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Olga Tokarczuk’s engrossing eco-thriller takes place in the frozen Polish countryside, and features Janina, an eccentric heroine obsessed with astrology, William Blake and fighting the local hunters.
3) Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation
Silvia Federici’s classic feminist account of the transition to capitalism, dedicated to “the many witches I have met in the Women’s Movement, and to the other witches whose stories have accompanied me for more than twenty-five years”.
4) A Brief History of Witches: or where real horrors are found
A graphic history of witches from Malleus Maleficarum through Salem to the activists fighting the fiery attacks on pregnant bodies in our own day. By Aubrey Hirsh on The Audacity.
5) A Marxist theory of extinction
Troy Vettese grapples with histories of eco-fascism and environmental racism, argues that “Marxists should fervently oppose capital’s ruthless domination of nature” – and concludes that we need a vegan communism that goes beyond lifestyle politics.
6) Indigenous story tellers share scary stories and the wisdom they hold
Tales from North America, told through a decolonial lens on CBC’s Unreserved podcast.
7) Pan’s Labyrinth
In Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 fantasy film, 12-year-old Ofelia stumbles across a fairy-tale underworld of terrifying creatures in her attempt to escape the real-life horrors of post-Civil War Spain.
Pen in Fist is written by me, C Lou Hamilton, aka Dr Carrie. To find out more about my activism, follow me on twitter. You can access my other writing, and information on my editing and translating work, on my website. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to Pen in Fist for free here.