The top article on the Black Gate blog last month was Foz Meadows’s debut piece for us, “Challenging the Classics: Questioning the Arbitrary Browsing Mechanism,” an unflinching examination of the value of the classic fantasy canon to the modern reader.

The classics were a popular subject last month: second on the list was M. Harold Page’s article “(Not) Recommending SF&F Classics to the Young Person or Novice.”

Third was Connor Gormley’s salute to the prose of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock, “Who Took the Flowers out of My Prose?” Still sticking with the classic theme, I see. You folks are nothing if not consistent.

Fletcher Vredenburgh’s look at Karl Edward Wagner’s Night Winds was in 4th place, and Jon Sprunk finally broke us out of our September fascination with fantasy classics with his post “War – What is it Good For? Violence in Fantasy Literature.”

The complete Top 50 Black Gate posts in September were:

1. Challenging the Classics: Questioning the Arbitrary Browsing Mechanism
2. (Not) Recommending SFF Classics to the Young Person or Novice
3. Who Took the Flowers out of my Prose?
4. Night Winds by Karl Edward Wagner
5. War — What is it Good For? Violence in Fantasy Literature
6. Why I Write Fantasy
7. “It’s Your Job to Make it Interesting. Just Do Your Job“
8. Vintage Treasures: The List of 7 by Mark Frost
9. The Other Appendix N
10. Andre Norton, Michael Moorcock and Appendix N: Advanced Readings in D&D

     

11. Excavating the Lost Novels of Bram Stoker
12. Understanding “The Tower of the Elephant”
13. Gateway Drug: Excalibur
14. Jack Williamson, Lin Carter and Appendix N: Advanced Readings in D&D
15. Shock of the New: Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang and Metropolis
16. Cosmic Horror and Gritty Noir: A Review of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
17. “A Sudden Entrance is a Good Way to Break up Exposition“
18. Haunt the House: The Music and Art of Will Houlihan
19. Adventures on Film: Pan’s Labyrinth
20. Vintage Treasures: The Best of Hal Clement

     

21. Adventures in Horrific Fantasy Literature
22. Vintage Treasures: The Best of John W. Campbell
23. Vintage Treasures: The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph P Brennan
24. Frederik Pohl: November 26, 1919 — September 2, 2013
25. A Point of Transition: Andre Norton’s Witch World
26. Self-published Book Review: Woman of the Woods by Milton Davis
27. Chapter Eight Changes Everything: Iris Murdoch’s The Sandcastle
28. Vintage Treasures: The Lords of Underearth
29. Three Against The Witch World by Andre Norton
30. New Treasures: Weird Detectives, edited by Paula Guran

     

31. Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon Part Seven
32. Kaiju Rising
33. The Black Fire Concerto & The Monsters of Memory
34. What is the Benefit of Science Fiction and Fantasy?
35. The 2013 Hugo Award Winners
36. Blogging Arak: Valda Gets Naked on Christmas Eve
37. Sea-Change
38. Blogging Arak 9: Adventure on the High Seas
39. Unconcerned with Genre: Lydia Millet’s Oh Pure and Radiant Heart
40. When is Writing Like a Magic Trick?

     

41. Monster Island
42. Vintage Treasures: The Best of Philip K. Dick
43. New Treasures: The Revelations of Zang by John R. Fultz
44. A Conversation With Mike Allen
45. New Treasures: Lord of Bones
46. Blogging Sax Rohmer‘s The Drums of Fu Manchu, Part One
47. Wrath-Bearing Tree by James Enge
48. The Devil in the Details: A Review of Lawyers in Hell
49. Adventure in a Place of Unholy Shadows: A Review of Crypts and Things
50. Ancient Worlds: The Island of Circe

 

The Top 5o Black Gate blog posts in August are here, and you can see all 93 posts we made in the month of September here.