Tag: Spooktober

#Spooktober 22: The Silver Nose

Famed Italian author Italo Calvino, an author some intellectuals fiercely insist he never wrote fantasy or science fiction way beyond the point of the ridiculous, collected and translated 200 folktales from around the Country and published them in a vastly underrated book. Among them, some tales will sound familiar and were already presented by Giambattista […]

#Spooktober 18: Madame de Montespan and the Witchcraft Scandal of 1677

When we talk about witch hunts, the mind usually goes to remote and muddy villages where poor old practitioners, mostly focused on healing with herbs and indulging their neighbours’ tantrums, were fiercely snatched away from their lives and persecuted on someone’s whim. This is of course true, but it’s not the whole truth: some major […]