This is really something weirdly brilliant. Lucas Mattila has written an incredible article for the latest issue of the Australian Studies Journal from the German Association for Australian Studies, called Violent Vibes: ‘Stimmung’ in Alan Baxter’s The Roo. Stimmung is a term often translated as “mood”, but it’s better explained in the article itself, which looks at the deeper aspects of “slasher” horror in general as well as the specific focus on The Roo.
As you can see from the excerpt above (click for a larger version) it’s a very serious and very in-depth piece and it’s genuinely superb. The fact that it focuses on my crazy, gonzo, blood-soaked novella is mind-blowing. It’s also incredibly satisfying to see what I was trying to achieve with this book deconstructed at such an intellectual level. It makes me feel proper clever, I tell you.
This link will take you directly to the PDF: https://australienstudien.org/ZfA/Full/ZfA%20ASJ%2037%202023.pdf
Lucas’s article starts on page 61.
The main website is here:
https://australienstudien.org/