Ricardo Blanco's Blog

Alchemy, alephs and insomnia: origins of The Blue Tent

The Blue Tent is released by Parthian as an e-book next Tuesday (20th August). Since the novel has provoked quite a few questions from readers, I thought it might be helpful to publish the text of an email… Read More

Tlön, Uqbar, and the girl in the moon

    Having fallen ill on the last day of teaching, the accumulated tensions of the  semester finally erupting in an onslaught of snot, fever, and a hideous, raucous cough, I take to my bed in the hope… Read More

Into the Mystic

  The motif of the ouroboros appears in the ancient cultures of Egypt, India, Greece and Mexico, and was of particular interest to European alchemists in the early modern era. Conventionally it depicts a serpent or a dragon… Read More