Lauded by critics yet largely unappreciated by fans of horror and "weird fiction," T.E.D. Klein is considered one of the great horror writers, despite his scant body of work. His prose blends the mundane and the supernatural, conjuring the monstrous and the malign with accessible but charged discourse that breaks with the formulaic entries in the genre. Exploring a range of topics from religious fundamentalism and right wing extremism to fashionable pessimism and the rise of "digital humanities," the author argues that Klein's work is a prime example of what he terms "critical horror," a distinct subgenre that entertains while questioning individual and cultural complacency.

¿Table of Contents


Acknowledgments

Introduction: "Sabbats likely"

1.¿"The Weird Tradition of America"

2.¿Events and Ceremonies

3.¿White, Black and Other People: "Children of the

Kingdom" and "Black Man with a Horn"

4.¿Sorceries of ­Self-Negation: "Petey" and "Nadelman's God"

5.¿Goosebumps and the Haunting Conscience

6.¿"We are not saved": Critical Horror Today

Appendix I-Reassuring Words: An Interview with T.E.D. Klein

Appendix II-The Singular Ceremonies

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index

Thomas Phillips is an academic living in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to novels and story collections, he has written two previous scholarly monographs. He is known internationally as a composer of minimal electronic music.