Jeffrey Weinstock | Central Michigan University (original) (raw)
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Disney Gothic: Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse, 2024
Extrapolation, 2024
The use of salvaged objects in post-apocalyptic narratives has primarily been addressed in relati... more The use of salvaged objects in post-apocalyptic narratives has primarily been addressed in relation to Evan Calder Williams's concept of "salvagepunk"-a repurposing of objects in an idiosyncratic way that Williams sees as a form of capitalist critique. Such a reading, however, accommodates neither the frequent emphasis on the novelty or sublimity of such objects, nor their tendency to collapse into nostalgia and ultimately capitalist reification. Far more often than not, the break between pre-apocalyptic past and post-apocalyptic narrative present is less a profound rupture opening up the possibility of a reimagined Utopian future based on reconfigured social relations, and more an inconvenient and lamentable fissure that will eventually be bridged. Attending to a variety of primary texts such as Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven (2014), David Macauley's Motel of the Mysteries (1978), and Ruben Fleischer's film, Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), this essay considers the ways in which salvaged items in post-apocalyptic narratives end up reaffirming the present status quo, once again proving the oft-cited maxim that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than an end to capitalism.
Gothic Nostalgia: The Uses of Toxic Memory in 21st-Century Popular Culture, 2024
Stephen King's short story, "1408", initially included in his 1999 audiobook, Blood and Smoke, an... more Stephen King's short story, "1408", initially included in his 1999 audiobook, Blood and Smoke, and subsequently incorporated into his 2002 collection of dark tales, Everything's Eventual, was not intended to be a short story. As King explains in the brief introductory note to the story, he wrote the first few pages as an appendix for his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000) with the idea of leaving it unfinished and using it as an example of how a story changes from one draft to the next; however, the story, as King puts it, "seduced" him (457), and he ended up completing it as his take on what he calls the "Ghostly Room At The Inn" horror trope (Ibid). The story is about author Mike Enslin, who writes bestselling books about haunted places despite himself not believing in the ghosts. The skeptical Enslin then spends 70 minutes being tormented by supernatural phenomena in Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City before escaping and giving up writing altogether. "1408", although completed as a short story, nevertheless remained unfinished-at least for director Mikael Håfström and screenwriters Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander, and Larry Karaszenwski. Håfström's greatly
Female Identity in Contemporary Fictional Purgatorial Worlds, 2023
The Evolution of Horror in the Twenty-First Century, 2023
The Oxford Handbook of New Science Fiction Cinemas, 2023
The cult science ction (sf) lm is one that, in various ways, is excessive in relation to common u... more The cult science ction (sf) lm is one that, in various ways, is excessive in relation to common understandings of the genre. It is typically weirder, stranger, quirkier, and/or of lesser quality than other sf lms. This chapter de nes that di erence and focuses speci cally on a cult subcategory-the quirky dystopian lm. With particular attention to Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Alex Cox's Repo Man, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster, and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, the chapter explores how these black comedies use absurdity to offset the bleakness of their dystopian settings and to amplify their critiques of contemporary life. Their particular quirkiness becomes a marker of and for their cult audience who find in this character a reflection of themselves and their desire for individuality.
Nosferatu in the 21st Century, 2023
The Transmedia Vampire: Essays on Technological Convergence and the Undead, 2021
The Undead in the 21st Century, 2022
College English Association Middle Atlantic Group, Mar 1, 1994
University of Minnesota Press, May 1, 2016
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, Mar 1, 2003
International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Mar 22, 2012
Edgar Allan Poe Society, Oct 1, 1999
The American Literature Association [ALA] conference, May 1, 2003
International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, Mar 1, 2005
Disney Gothic: Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse, 2024
Extrapolation, 2024
The use of salvaged objects in post-apocalyptic narratives has primarily been addressed in relati... more The use of salvaged objects in post-apocalyptic narratives has primarily been addressed in relation to Evan Calder Williams's concept of "salvagepunk"-a repurposing of objects in an idiosyncratic way that Williams sees as a form of capitalist critique. Such a reading, however, accommodates neither the frequent emphasis on the novelty or sublimity of such objects, nor their tendency to collapse into nostalgia and ultimately capitalist reification. Far more often than not, the break between pre-apocalyptic past and post-apocalyptic narrative present is less a profound rupture opening up the possibility of a reimagined Utopian future based on reconfigured social relations, and more an inconvenient and lamentable fissure that will eventually be bridged. Attending to a variety of primary texts such as Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven (2014), David Macauley's Motel of the Mysteries (1978), and Ruben Fleischer's film, Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), this essay considers the ways in which salvaged items in post-apocalyptic narratives end up reaffirming the present status quo, once again proving the oft-cited maxim that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than an end to capitalism.
Gothic Nostalgia: The Uses of Toxic Memory in 21st-Century Popular Culture, 2024
Stephen King's short story, "1408", initially included in his 1999 audiobook, Blood and Smoke, an... more Stephen King's short story, "1408", initially included in his 1999 audiobook, Blood and Smoke, and subsequently incorporated into his 2002 collection of dark tales, Everything's Eventual, was not intended to be a short story. As King explains in the brief introductory note to the story, he wrote the first few pages as an appendix for his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000) with the idea of leaving it unfinished and using it as an example of how a story changes from one draft to the next; however, the story, as King puts it, "seduced" him (457), and he ended up completing it as his take on what he calls the "Ghostly Room At The Inn" horror trope (Ibid). The story is about author Mike Enslin, who writes bestselling books about haunted places despite himself not believing in the ghosts. The skeptical Enslin then spends 70 minutes being tormented by supernatural phenomena in Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City before escaping and giving up writing altogether. "1408", although completed as a short story, nevertheless remained unfinished-at least for director Mikael Håfström and screenwriters Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander, and Larry Karaszenwski. Håfström's greatly
Female Identity in Contemporary Fictional Purgatorial Worlds, 2023
The Evolution of Horror in the Twenty-First Century, 2023
The Oxford Handbook of New Science Fiction Cinemas, 2023
The cult science ction (sf) lm is one that, in various ways, is excessive in relation to common u... more The cult science ction (sf) lm is one that, in various ways, is excessive in relation to common understandings of the genre. It is typically weirder, stranger, quirkier, and/or of lesser quality than other sf lms. This chapter de nes that di erence and focuses speci cally on a cult subcategory-the quirky dystopian lm. With particular attention to Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Alex Cox's Repo Man, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster, and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, the chapter explores how these black comedies use absurdity to offset the bleakness of their dystopian settings and to amplify their critiques of contemporary life. Their particular quirkiness becomes a marker of and for their cult audience who find in this character a reflection of themselves and their desire for individuality.
Nosferatu in the 21st Century, 2023
The Transmedia Vampire: Essays on Technological Convergence and the Undead, 2021
The Undead in the 21st Century, 2022
College English Association Middle Atlantic Group, Mar 1, 1994
University of Minnesota Press, May 1, 2016
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, Mar 1, 2003
International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Mar 22, 2012
Edgar Allan Poe Society, Oct 1, 1999
The American Literature Association [ALA] conference, May 1, 2003
International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, Mar 1, 2005