CATASTROPHE BALLET
As evening falls, knowing the dark for light
CATASTROPHE BALLET
As evening falls, knowing the dark for light
Books
Books at Catastrophe Ballet follows the Gothic, Decadent, existentialist and underground literary canon, alongside dark science fiction — from Poe and Baudelaire to Burroughs and Ballard. Coverage tracks new releases, reviews and essays from independent presses and literary journals working the same shadowed territory.
Forgotten Words: The Raincoats’ Three Lives
More than Theoretical Girls: Adele Bertei on the Women of No Wave
A Cave of Wonders: Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten on the Record Shop that Made Him
Smashed Glass, Smack & Dog-Throwing: the Anarchy of early Clock DVA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Ben Cardew on The Pivotal Role of Stereolab’s ‘Super-Electric’
The American Civil War: ‘A Rose for Emily’
Hawai’i, History, & the Unexpected Gothic: ‘The Hala Tree Walks in Darkness’
Identifying the Gothic: The Seven Gothic Signs
Duality: ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’
Audio and Irony: ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’
Raising Ghosts: ‘The Haunting of Hill House’
Love Letters to Poe: A Convergence of Wonder and Terror
Bram’s Birthday Bite: ‘A Gothic Cookbook’ Recipe
Guest Post: Wicked Women and the Female Gothic, Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ & ‘My Cousin Rachel’
That Very Special Gingerbread: ‘A Gothic Cookbook’ Recipe
In Surreal Life: ‘Surrealism Beyond Borders’
Low Culture Podcast: Performance
Overmono Detail New Album, ‘Pure Devotion’
Sergeant – Symbols
The Great Majority: Body Snatching and Burial Reform in 19th-Century Britain
“Wretches, Speak Evil of Me”: Goethe and Schiller’s Xenions (1896 edition)
Broken Ground: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Fear and Fragility: The Glass Delusion and Its History
Pulex irritans: The Attack of the Monster (1885)
“A Beautiful Purplish Hue”: Frank Dudley Beane’s Experience with Ergot and Cannabis Indica (1884)
Magic by Return of Post: How Mail Order Delivered the Occult
Books I’m Excited for in 2026
Longitude by Way of Wounded Hounds: Kenelm Digby’s Sympathetick Powder (1669 edition)
Review of The Villa, Once Beloved—Filipino Gothic
Review of Wolf Worm—Entomological Horror
Review of The Red Winter—Werewolves in Revolutionary France
Race and Regionalism: ‘Drenched in Light’
Guest Post: ‘Geek Love’, An Intimate Portrait of a Nuclear Family
Southern Gothic Foundations: ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’
Review of Morsel—Anti-Capitalist Folk Horror
