Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

The Romney Zombie a la Whedon

The zombie politics theme keeps lurching along, showing new undead life in the American president election. Today's instance comes from Joss Whedon, who makes the Romney-zombie equation.  It's the Zomney:

(thanks to Amanda)

When a drone twitches into life

Another step in the story of our drone overlords:

The classic text here is Peter Watts' "Malak".

Cannibal cop in New York

New York City police arrested one of their one for... planning to kidnap, torture, rape, cook, and eat up to 100 people.

He documented these plans carefully:

The police officer recorded details like the woman’s date of birth, height, weight and bra size. He made note of certain materials, like chloroform and rope.

And then the officer, Gilberto Valle, a six-year veteran of the New York Police Department, created a document on his computer, calling it a blueprint for “Abducting and Cooking.”

(thanks to Alexander Knorr and Jesse Walker)

Aickman's ghostly tales

MetaFilter has a fine post for Robert Aickman resources.  I especially like the focus on anthologies Aickman edited.

Plus this short video adaptation of one tale:

Humanity in limbo

"The Origin of Creatures" is a short video about something strange happening in a post-apocalyptic city.  Amidst the ruins body parts appear, move, and start to build.

The Origin of Creatures from floriskaayk on Vimeo.

(via Vice Motherboard)

Severed head found in Canada

What's going on, Canada?  What dark rituals are you performing?  What's in the box?

[A] woman walking her dog in an alley found a human head in a cardboard box.

The woman, who lives in a nearby apartment, shook as she described what she found in the north-end alley at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. She described it as something from a "Halloween scene."

Being Canada, this single event could well fit into a larger pattern:

Many residents in the area are fearful, and believe the case may be linked to a homicide investigation in Ranfurly, located about 130 km east of Edmonton, where a man's headless corpse was discovered in a ditch Saturday night...

(thanks to Randy McCall)

Zombie labor politics

A new article in Jacobin makes a key point about the zombie metaphor, thought of in terms of economics.  It's about labor: its control, its uses.

While images of insatiable flesh-eating can cleverly lampoon a late capitalism choking on its own excesses, these satires too readily lose sight of what the Haitian image of the undead grasped: that all this manic consumption is impossible without the millions of workers who feed the machinery of profit with their labor.

A ghost who ran through Scandinavia

Thomas Quick was a monstrous serial killer, who tortured, murdered, and sometimes ate at least 30 people. But it turns out he wasn't, and didn't, because he made it all up.

The story of Sture Bergwall is disturbingly Gothic, from the actual horrors (the 30+ victims were killed, and the perpetrators uncaught) to the web of drugs, cult, terror, and deep sadness around him.  Or the simply bizarre: "In 1990, he robbed a local bank dressed in a Santa Claus outfit..."

When he has gone, what strikes me most about him is his absence of personality. He leaves no strong impression. It is perfectly possible, of course, that after 21 years of incarceration and drug addiction, he no longer has much of an idea of who he is.

(via MetaFilter)

Comics for Halloween month

Atop the Fourth Wall is running a fun series about horror comics all month, Longbox of the Damned.  Every day Linkara presents another issue or ongoing title drawn from various sources: manga, superheroes, and, of course, horror comics.

Extra fun comes from the persona and atmosphere Lovhaug creates for Longbox.  He plays a classic horror host, a cackling, over the top vampire.  Opening credits have frantic music, screams, and a splattered logo.

Through this, we get nice intros to stories, with context and good interior shots.  For example, on Uzumaki part 1:

It's a fun change of pace for Linkara, whose usual metier is mocking bad comics.

(thanks to my awesome daughter)

A haunted game

"Kill Screen" (Chris Carter, 2011) is a short story about a scary computer game. Nice tale.

But it's that podcast we recommend.  It's not a reading so much as audio theater.  Multiple voices, sound effects, and especially a cruel, nostalgic soundtrack make for a fine experience.