Party at the Czech Death Temple, 1969 

High angle black and white shot of a family of four outside in a park. The father and the mother are looking directly into the camera, their children (son and daughter) are looking down. They are dressed in fine clothing, suits and blazers, and there is a gated off bush behind them.

|Finn Odum| It’s 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday.  The lights in your apartment are dimmed. There’s a migraine kicking in, and your insomnia is fighting the sedative in your medication just long enough to keep you conscious. You’re aching for the sweet release of death sleep—but you know that if you try to lay down… Continue reading

“For No Good Reason At All”: The Dialogue of Detour in Two Villanelles

|Nate Logsdon| Fate’s Finger Fate can put the finger on you or me. Awful chump to throw away all that dough. No. Not yet, darling. Tomorrow. Maybe. Why you dope. Where did you leave his body? Suppose he doesn’t die… He will, I know. Fate can put the finger on you or me. Another one… Continue reading

The Thin Veil Between Comedy and Horror in Coward’s Blithe Spirit (1945)

|Allison Vincent| A foundational memory of mine is sitting in Dr. Doug Julien’s “Comedy Text and Theory” course at the University of Minnesota and realizing the slender thin line that separates a scream from a laugh. Dr. Doug, as he liked to be addressed, told the class he was… Continue reading