blaft

blaft, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

This is an old twitter thread from 3 years ago which we had fun with. We are reposting it here because old twitter threads are endangered by link rot, and because we seem to have a newish audience here.

It's a comparative mythology thread that focuses on a legendary race of ancient Indian people who....

(drum roll)

had no buttholes.

blaft, 8 months ago to random

Trying to follow this story about Canada's Trudeau accusing the Indian government of assassinating a Sikh leader on its soil, and I'm really feeling the demise of old Twitter. Over on "X" half of the quote-tweets are mysteriously unavailable, it really looks like Musk is helping or allowing the government to suppress discussion. On Bluesky I can only find white people talking about it--the Indian voices are super few and far between. And here on Mastodon, search turns up nothing?

blaft, 27 days ago to random

Earlier this month we took a trip to Ahmedabad, where we met with veteran pulp authors H.N. Golibar, Bansidhar Shukla, and Ekta Doshi, all of whom will be featured in our Gujarati Pulp Fiction anthology, scheduled for December.

Pre-order here: https://www.blaft.com/products/the-blaft-anthology-of-gujarati-pulp-fiction

The meeting with H.N. "Atom" Golibar and family was especially amazing!
🧵

blaft, 11 months ago to random

Twitter used to be our main marketing tool--the primary way we sold books online and got the word out.

These days, not so much.

Please help support us and our authors with a signal boost! We are an independent publisher based in Chennai with books on folklore from different parts of India, graphic novels, ghost encyclopedias, weird horror, pulp fiction in translation, and some wonderfully strange little zines.

https://www.blaft.com/collections/new-arrivals

Front Cover, Moonward by Appupen
Front Cover, Conversations Regarding the Fatalistic Outlook of the Common Man by Kuzhali Manickavel
Front Cover, Tamil Pulp Fiction Vol. 1

blaft, 11 months ago to india

Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India has just gone for its third printing in #India and a US/UK edition is due out soon from Watkins.

It's an illustrated encyclopaedia of 300+ folkloric fiends from every corner of the country and all eras of history, from Vedic necromancers to the Devchars of Portuguese Goa to Saamri from the Ramsay Brothers films.

Pre-order your copy now!

https://watkinspublishing.com/books/ghosts-monsters-and-demons-of-india/

#ghostlore #ttrpg #Indiepublishing #bookstodon

Bugarik (Garo water-wight) by Samita Chatterjee
US/UK Edition (Watkins Publishing)
Front cover - India edition

blaft, 4 months ago to random

I've got a science fiction story written in the late 1940s in an Indian language that I suspect may be a case of "transplant plagiarism" -- a translated English story with names changed & local elements added to make it seem original.

What's the best way to check? I usually try google searches with various combinations of keywords (guessing at what the English would have been), but I'm wondering if there's a better way -- an SF plot synopsis database or something. Any SF fans have tips?

blaft, 8 months ago to random

Has anyone else heard this folk wisdom that if vegetables taste extra bitter, especially gourd vegetables and aubergines, it means that a snake slithered over the plant?

blaft, 2 months ago to random

The last few audiobooks I've listened to have all featured white (UK/USian) readers who at some point in the narration do an Indian or Chinese or African-American vernacular accent for a character's voice. This is always offensive, or at best very cringe, even when you can tell the reader is trying valiantly not to do a caricature.

I wish audiobook producers wouldn't do this. Get an Asian or Af-Am reader to read the whole thing, or just the character parts, or at least just read it neutral.

blaft, 24 days ago to random

Now in our webstore -- A collection of books by other great Indian independent publishers and comics artists. Find titles from @bakarmax_ , @WorldOfHalahala, and @studioekonte. We'll be adding more indie comics and zines soon!

https://www.blaft.com/collections/other-indie-stuff-1

blaft, 4 months ago to random

Our Gujarati Pulp Fiction Kickstarter is live! Come check it out, chip in, book your copy, tell your friends!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blaftgujaratipulp/an-anthology-of-gujarati-pulp-fiction

blaft, 10 months ago to folklore

Tameable thief-#ghosts appear in the #folklore of many different regions of India.

One of these is the Chordeva, common among the Kurukh and other tribes of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bengal, and Assam.

In the form of a short little man, about one-and-a-half feet tall, it wanders from house to house late at night holding a bag. When it finds a small
entrance, it transforms into a cat and sneaks inside to steal things.

blaft, 1 month ago to random

Reprinted and back in stock on our website: STUPID GUY GOES TO INDIA, an autobiographical manga chronicling the adventures of Yukichi Yamamatsu, whose missionary zeal for spreading manga culture inspired him to leave Japan for the first time at the age of 56 to move to Delhi, without knowing any English or Hindi, and try to start a publishing company. Hilarious hi-jinks ensue!

https://www.blaft.com/products/stupid-guy-goes-to-india

Translated by Kumari Sivasubramanian

blaft, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to 13thFloor

#Ebooks are available from the Blaft website, from Smashwords, or from the muchtoolarge retailers. Can we interest you in a #Tamil supernatural #thriller in English #translation? #Mythology from the state of #Mizoram on India's border with Myanmar? Bonkers slipstream short fiction from Kuzhali Manickavel? An encyclopedia of #ghosts and #cryptids?

https://www.blaft.com/collections/ebooks

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/blaft/newest#published

blaft, 6 months ago to random

We were directed to Deepanjana and Supriya's latest podcast episode because it mentions our book Kumari Loves a Monster. But they discuss lots of other fun stuff, including casting the film version of Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Fernanda Melchor, menstruation as body horror, monsterf*king, full-body hardons, and more

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lFpAFcWp6Guwlo1HxpROb

blaft, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

Via Haider Shahbaz on Twitter:

"Walter Rodney’s children’s books told fictionalised stories about the histories and cultures of the different migrant groups that were brought to Guyana. He only got to prepare two of them before he was assassinated. They were published posthumously."

Look at the grace with which he writes about caste here, and how he valorizes labour... makes me think about what we're missing in Indian children's literature

blaft, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

Here's the UK edition of Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India on display at Watkins Books, established 1897, the oldest esoteric/occult bookshop in London, frequented by Alistair Crowley and Helena Blavatsky and other spooky vintage weirdos back in the day. We are dead chuffed!

https://watkinspublishing.com/books/ghosts-monsters-and-demons-of-india/

blaft, 7 months ago to random

Since we're talking about how gross the Israeli defense industry is, and how much money India gives them, it seems like a good time to remind people of this gem of a video

https://youtu.be/ktQOLO4U5iQ?si=qE1VIuf7OSxZQZhY

blaft, 7 months ago to random

Exactly 20 months ago, Rolling Stone India gave Kuzhali Manickavel a music column, and she used it to write about a Lithuanian noisecore hategrind album called "ANUS OF SATANUS" from Fecal Nazi Shapeshifter Records, and then "The Victor Feldman All-Stars Play the World’s First Album of Soviet Jazz Themes."

The column was tragically cancelled after three installments

https://rollingstoneindia.com/discovering-music-archive-org-with-kuzhali-manickavel/

blaft, 10 months ago to random

"A thrilling romp through the annals of what goes bump in the Indian night" —Helen Nde, curator of Mythological Africans

This is SUCH a cool endorsement for Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India -- we have been gigantic fans of Helen Nde since we learned of her site!

Indian edition available from our store, international edition from Watkins

https://www.blaft.com/products/ghosts-monsters-and-demons-of-india

https://watkinspublishing.com/books/ghosts-monsters-and-demons-of-india/

Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India, International) edition, front cover by Alice Coleman (using Appupen's ghost lady)

blaft, 8 months ago to random

Indie Comix Fest Bengaluru was super fun! It's been so great to see the scene grow and develop over the years -- there are LOTS of cool weirdo creators doing excellent stuff now.

In the age of widespread corporate/AI enshittification, it's incredibly refreshing to see so many fiercely human artists.

We will be doing a bunch of shout outs in the coming weeks!

blaft, 3 months ago to random

Aaand it's done! 187 backers!

A gazillion thanks to you all! We're really looking forward to finishing up the book 🙏

blaft, 2 months ago to random

This postcard book's been out of print for a while, but we have 5 copies back in stock! HEROES, GUNDAS, VAMPS, AND GOOD GIRLS: 25 classic Hindi pulp fiction covers by Mustajab Ahmed Siddiqui, aka Shelle.
https://www.blaft.com/products/heroes-gundas-vamps-good-girls

Heroes, Gundas, Vamps & Good Girls: Hindi Pulp Cover Art by Shelle
Nasib Mera Dushman (Fate, My Enemy) by Ved Prakash Sharma, cover art by Shelle

blaft, 3 months ago to random

Extremely chuffed at this Goodreads review of Ghosts, Monsters, and Demons of India!

Buy the book here: https://www.blaft.com/products/ghosts-monsters-and-demons-of-india

blaft, 2 months ago to random

I know we post this rather frequently but I never get bored of it

blaft, 6 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to folklore

Editing a story for our Anti-Caste SF book, I have just been alerted to the fact that the colloquial expression for a "sunshower"--in languages ranging from the southern tip of India all the way to Korea and Japan--is "a wedding of foxes/jackals".

My mind is a little blown!

In the Philippines, it's a wedding of Tikbalangs!

There's a cool-looking academic paper about how this might have been transmitted, but it's in Korean

https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003068703

#sunshowers #folklore