It's the end of December, so time to consider the year's highlights. Favorite Infocult topics from 2008 cover a variety of horrible grounds:
- Gothic in everyday life. We've seen it in innocent cornfields and human flesh powering cars. Cannibalism is always a favorite. New developments: horror language in the presidential election, and concerning the economic crisis.
- Web 2.0 storytelling. A new blog category appeared on the topic, Alan Levine and I published an article, set up a wiki, a del.icio.us tag, and examples kept flowing in.
- Uncanny valley Gothic, especially reborn dolls. This theme picked up in January, and kept toddling along, getting links, attention, criticism, and shivers of fear.
- Crowdsourcing. Although I haven't published on this yet, I've ruthlessly exploited the world for my own benefit. You, Web, have been generous.
- Severed feet and the rise of the Canadian Gothic. The feet just kept drifting onto the Pacific shore, while other bizarre things afflicted the brooding northern giant.
- Cold War Gothic has emerged as a new subtheme, surfacing from the gothic in everyday life topic. This can include atompunk and spaceflight eerieness.
- Mourning deaths. Arthur C. Clarke died, and so did my wife's father.
- Fearing the internet continues. From academic technology to the scary sex-box, Infocult's founding meme keeps growing.
Anything we missed? Any recommendations for 2009?
May you have all the washed up severed feet you wish for in 2009.
It's been a great year, Elwood, thanks for the co-authorship
Posted by: CogDog | December 31, 2008 at 23:30
Thanks, pal. It was fine working with you. Let's see what stories we can tell this year.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | January 07, 2009 at 13:10