Although Arthur Machen died (December 15) in 1947, he is a transitional figure from Victorian supernatural fiction (which adjective apparently means relating to magic and ghost stuff) to the modern examples of this genre. In fact Machen is a good model for Stephen King in his ability to build the spooky from strands of the ordinary. His 1895 novel, The Three Imposters is a good example. Herein we meet a thoughtful fellow who notes that the foulness of witches has given way to a "diabalerie of old women and broomsticks and a comic cat with outstretched tail." Well you can take it from there.
Machen himself was a cat keeper--he eulogized his black cat, as having 'served with distinction for 16 years the house of Machen.
Onora Sylvia O'Neill (August 23, 1941) is a British thinker. She studied at Oxford and received a doctorate from Harvard. After a noted career, in 1992, she accepted the post of Principal of N ewnham College, Cambridge, and since 2006 she has been Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge. Her 1997 paper, "Environmental Values, Anthroporphism, and Speciesism" contains a timely argument in which Dr. O'Neill, (she prefers that title to the "Baroness" to which her elevation to the peerage allows) points out inadequacies in the use of the term speciesism to argue against according humans more ethical rights than aspects of the non human world. A viewpoint that puts " a person torturing a cat is on a par with a cat torturing a bird," is not one she finds supportable. The link is to a downloadable version of this paper. We have this picture of Onora O'Neill, in 2002, at Newnham College: We meet in the Principal's lodge at Ne
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