This post was first published in the Journal of Victorian Culture Online as "On the Images of Others." I am very grateful to the Editors for permission to re-publish it here. As a Victorianist and a collector with an interest in photography, I decided, about a year ago, to begin amassing my own Victorian photography … Continue reading On the Images of Others

This post was first published in the Journal of Victorian Culture Online. I am very grateful to the Editors for permission to re-publish it here. If I take out a loan now, I’ll have enough money to build a coal mine.  The coal I produce will enable me to build rail to my cotton mill … Continue reading Victorian Game Night

It was clear---too clear---that something was not right. I recently attended a screening of the award-winning 1989 film Glory, and noticed, a few seconds into the first scene, that everything looked too...real.  Everything was extremely crisp, as though I were watching daytime television.  This crispness gave the visual impression of hyper-reality.  I found myself distracted by … Continue reading The Cinematic Aura

Sometimes I have discipline envy.  Like this weekend, when an overzealous afternoon with the interlibrary loan system at my university meant that I found myself with 48 hours to survey 18 books carefully enough to be able to reference them in The Book Project.  It was an unpleasant way to spend a weekend, to be … Continue reading Discipline Envy

I am currently editing a special issue, and as one of the essays in the issue discusses the non-auratic in Benjaminian terms, I have been thinking a lot about Benjamin and the aura of late.  It's like the best part of grad school all over again, but with fewer spontaneous Wordsworthian hiking trips. The thing … Continue reading On Auratic Books

My Dickens class designed blogs (and one group designed a wiki) as part of a group project on reading communities and Dickens.  Take a look! One group's blog, All Things Dickens, integrates audio recordings, passage interpretations, and reflections on our own public reading of A Christmas Carol. The blog Dickens in Performance combines research on … Continue reading Dickens Wikis and Blogs!

I've often thought to myself that I like the world of Neo-Victoriana---not necessarily in itself, but because I like the enthusiasm such a trend implies for Victorian things.  If someone really falls in love with The Eyre Affair, it's not such a stretch to see them reading Jane Eyre next. Yet the reader who falls in … Continue reading Lost in Time and Space

"I am almost certain that the last picture shows a deceased subject." "Actually it looks like four of them are deceased imo." "They all look alive to me, but I’m often wrong." "Ok; pictures 2 and 3 are 100% photographs of deceased children." "Actually I disagree about most of these photos being memento mori." "None … Continue reading “Where’s Ma? Oh, she’s the one ensconced in the rug.” (Part II)

I recently came across this ridiculously interesting post (which was itself reposting images from Retronaut and The Hidden Mother Flickr Group) about hidden mothers in Victorian photographs.  I find this phenomenon fascinating because of what it implies about Victorian motherhood, but I am also struck by the ensuing "Response" section debate about whether or not these … Continue reading “Where’s Ma? Oh, she’s the one ensconced in the rug.” (Part I)

There are eighteen board game adaptations of Dracula, nineteen based on Sherlock Holmes, and seven dedicated to the Frankenstein tale.  Far from antiquated forms of entertainment, board games are experiencing a renaissance of sorts: new games are released each month, and game shops and international conventions regularly draw enthusiasts.  Many board games are also under-analyzed … Continue reading Playing Fictions