Reading Kristeva: Unraveling the Double-bind Book

I first became aware of Black Coat Press when I revived my interest in Philip Jose Farmer's Wold-Newton Universe concept and through Win Scott Eckert discovered Black Coat's annual Tales of the Shadowmen short story anthologies. This book is a compendium of a range of classic French pulp fiction (and some slightly older) characters. Some of the names are familiar to American audiences (The Phantom of the Opera, Captain Nemo, the Count of Monte Cristo) and some will feel vaguely familiar (Judex feels like the French Shadow; Dr. Omega is the French Doctor Who). The Lofficier Brothers' research is detailed and flawless. For the most part their author biographies and character bibliographies and filmographies are succinct. The character biographies occasionally wander a bit (if there's one consistency to "Wold-Newton scholarship," it's that penchant to wander through a character's familial history in sometimes circular fashion. Farmer was great at it!) but overall are also well done. I enjoyed learning a bit more about these characters.

The one downside to a book like this is that it is difficult to read straight through as you would a novel or even a short story collection. I actually started this sometime last year, and kept it by my bedside at home (which meant I sometimes went more than a month without reading an entry). Of course, the upside is that you don't have to read it in order, nor do you have to read it all at once. It's an excellent resource book. I finally ordered volume two last week, so I'll be looking forward to that as well.