'This special edition of Coolabah, ‘On gases, clouds, fogs and mists,’ collects articles and creative writing on the theme of atmospheres. While set in a variety of geographic regions and spanning different historical time periods, a through line in these works is their concern for the embodied experience of atmospheres. They are also full of ghosts, monsters and unexplained apparitions, gaseous forms that demand our attention. These apparitions are not just figments of one’s imagination or mere frightened projections, they are made of real atmospheric effects that exist outside of human perception or narration of them.' (Publication abstract)
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'Receiving an Aurealis Award for best horror novel in 2019, The Rich Man’s House tells the story of events that unfold within and around the mansion commissioned by Walter Richman on a mythical mountain in the Southern Ocean near Tasmania, Australia. The external atmosphere around Richman’s house consists of elemental forces or “presences” that become increasingly sinister. These external elements and the architectural atmosphere of the house create disturbing uncertainties about how to interpret the events of the novel. Collapsing traditional notions of background and foreground, McGahan’s novel is susceptible to “an atmospheric reading” (Chandler, 199) that includes but exceeds the fogs, clouds, mists and winds that are its partial constituents.' (Publication abstract)
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