Dr. Strangename, or, How I Learned to Talk About Diversity Without Sounding Like an Idiot

If there are two great bugaboos of the American conservative weltanschauung, they are the idea that socialism might ever possibly accomplish something unachievable by unfettered capitalism, and the idea that black people might actually be good for something other than forced labor.  These terrors have manifested themselves in a number of …

Deep Beneath the Skin: Hannibal‘s Flowers of Evil

The character of Hannibal Lecter has had a difficult journey over the years.  The charming, terrifying psychiatrist and serial killer has made his creator, Thomas Harris, very rich, and has become what is known in our media-savvy age as a ‘franchise’, but the artistic merit of that franchise is a …

Inspiration Disinformation

Joy:  Still got your seaman’s papers? Lllewyn:  Yeah.  Why? Joy:  If the music’s not… Llewyn:  What, quit?  Merchant marine again?  Just…exist? Joy:  ‘Exist’?  That’s what we do outside of show business?  It’s not so bad, existing. — from Inside Llewyn Davis Lately I’ve been thinking about Zen Pencils. Normally, I don’t …