Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week, I read the eagerly anticipated “The End of the World as We Know It- New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand”.

Solid collection but more non-N. American stories would have been nice. We just lived through a pandemic which saw different countries react in strikingly different ways after all.

A collage of photos from the Covid-19 Pandemic in Singapore

August 25, 2025 at 2:01 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week the Reggie Oliver Project looks at Fascism writ small, in The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler

substack.com/home/post/p-...

#ReggieOliver #WeirdFiction #TheEnglishWeird #Fascism #Murder #Art

The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hiter: The Reggie Oliver Project #15

Welcome to the Reggie Oliver Project.

substack.com

June 2, 2025 at 12:41 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

So I asked my six year old to help me pick up this pin that had fallen from my bag and he said 'Oh yeah, your Minecraft guy pin'.

@officialjackblack.bsky.social would honestly work for a Marx biopic. #Marx #Minecraft #MeansOfProduction #MeanGirls

A Mean Girls parody pin of Karl Marx sitting in a car, captioned 'Get in loser, we're seizing the means of production'

Jack Black as Steve from the Mlnecraft movie

May 20, 2025 at 5:58 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week, The Reggie Oliver Project discusses institutional abuse, Magdalene Laundries and crises of faith as we read ‘The Seventeenth Sister’ sanjaymathew.substack.com/p/the-sevent... #ReggieOliver #WeirdFiction #TheEnglishWeird #Catholicism #MagdaleneLaundries #whistleblowing

The Seventeenth Sister, The Reggie Oliver Project #12

It was evil: pure, unadulterated malevolence, nothing added, nothing removed.

sanjaymathew.substack.com

May 7, 2025 at 3:51 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week, the Reggie Oliver Project discusses despair, prayer and compassion as we read ‘Death Mask’

substack.com/home/post/p-...

#WeirdFiction #ReggieOliver #Horror #Ghosts #TheSecondWorldWar #Love #Compassion #TheEnglishWeird

Death Mask, The Reggie Oliver Project #11

All that is left behind is my gratitude to them; and that I cherish.

substack.com

May 6, 2025 at 3:55 AM

Reposted by Sanjay Mathew

Lisa Kadonaga

@tapirtrouble.bsky.social

This week I found out that @grossman.bsky.social has mapped out a potential sequel, and even could deliver a TV adaptation if it were green-lit. And honestly, the next four years would be perfect timing for a political/supernatural thriller. Hope someone at FX or Netflix is paying attention!

Cover of first edition of Austin Grossman's novel Crooked. Chartreuse greenish background, with a front-facing Richard Nixon Halloween mask suspended from a string. Title and author name in black lettering, and "The real Cold War was the living against the dead" in smaller yellow font.

November 21, 2024 at 4:00 PM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

A throwback to my foray into #ColdWar #Weird - a wonderfully eerie secret history of Nixon and America by @grossman.bsky.social. It crams Nixon's genuinely weird life in with Grossman's Weird embellishments. Would love to see more of this world
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#horror #nixon

I Read the Weird: Crooked by Austin Grossman

My name is Richard Milhous Nixon. I swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. I was educated at Whittier College in Whittier, California, and I have seen the devil walk.

open.substack.com

April 28, 2025 at 11:46 PM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week the Reggie Oliver Project discusses fatherhood, aspiration and obsession in The Golden Basilica
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...
#Weird #Horror #BodyHorror #ReggieOliver #TheEnglishWeird #class #fatherhood

The Golden Basilica, The Reggie Oliver Project #10

It was a parody of passionate love, a war for possession and mastery in one obscene body

open.substack.com

April 27, 2025 at 6:40 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week, the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘The Boy in Green Velvet’ and discusses Oliver’s recurring theme of the tension between aesthetics and practicality in knowledge work and the arts. Also, sinister uncles substack.com/@sanjaymathe... #Weird #Horror #ReggieOliver #Arts #Magic #Family

These Things I Read on Substack

This week on the Reggie Oliver Project, we discuss The Boy in Green Velvet, and why you shouldn’t let your kids play with things sent by mysterious uncles.

substack.com

April 12, 2025 at 6:11 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘The Black Cathedral’ and we figure out why it’s important to touch grass.
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#TheWeird #WeirdFiction #Horror #EnglishWeird #ReggieOliver #MRJames #GhostStories #Tech #Magic #Rationalists

The Black Cathedral- The Reggie Oliver Project #7

MR James, Tech as Magic, Rationalists and Zizians

open.substack.com

April 4, 2025 at 7:13 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘Garden Gods’. We discuss class, conformity, amateurism and the danger of dabbling in the dark art of gardening
open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#ghoststories #weirdfiction #TheWeird #ReggieOliver #Class #Paganism #Exploitation #horticulture

Statue of The Great God Pan at Columbia University. Photo by Another Believer https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Another_Believer

March 28, 2025 at 12:12 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week the Reggie Oliver Project reads ‘Tiger in Snow’ and consider Art, exploitation, and how #solidarity and #intersectionality may not always be as prevalent as we would wish.
substack.com/home/post/p-...

#ghoststories #weirdfiction #TheWeird #ReggieOliver #Class #Gender #Intersectionality

A painting of a tiger in a winter landscape

March 12, 2025 at 8:01 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week the Reggie Oliver Project, reads 'Miss Marchant's Cause' and find out why getting emotionally involved with your research isn't a great idea open.substack.com/pub/sanjayma...

#WeirdFiction #Weird #GhostStories #ReggieOliver #EnglishWeird #Relationships #Spiritualism #Dante

Miss Marchant's Cause, The Reggie Oliver Project #5

Her undying wrath

open.substack.com

March 6, 2025 at 12:32 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week in the Reggie Oliver Project, we read 'Evil Eye'
substack.com/home/post/p-...

I discuss found footage & voyeurism in horror as well as the intersection of Oliver’s work with Clive Barker. #Weird #WeirdFiction #ReggieOliver #TheReggieOliverProject #englishghoststories #englishweird #horror

A painting of a CCTV camera on a gritty concrete wall

February 26, 2025 at 8:00 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

This week in the Reggie Oliver Project I read 'In Arcadia': substack.com/home/post/p-...
We consider hubris, arete, and ask whether you would choose a life in the arts, or eternity in Tartarus.

#Weird #WeirdFiction #ReggieOliver #TheReggieOliverProject #englishghoststories #englishweird #litcrit

A 17th C painting by Nicolas Poussin depicting shepherds in an Arcadian landscape examining a tomb

February 18, 2025 at 3:46 AM

Sanjay Mathew

@sanjaymathew.bsky.social

To commemorate the anniversary of the Fall of Singapore to the Japanese we've switched off the electricity for an hour to remins ourselves of the travails of our forefathers. NGL, its been 15 mins with no A/C and I'm ready to capitulate.

February 17, 2025 at 1:33 AM