Too long; do not read.
The use of violence is not only one of the most powerful conundrums not only in fiction, but in life. In art, the most problematic aspect of violence is that it is often used as a framework for threat and action, designed to bring viewers into a story who might …
The Booth at the End is a lonely little animal, tucked away in Hulu’s menagerie of “search all” television along with Korean retail soap operas, low-rent British dramas too crass for the BBC, and reruns of American shows nobody wanted to watch in the first place. It was originally produced …
That well-fed fellow up there is the Reverend Douglas Wilson. A product of Idaho’s state university system and a recipient of the largesse of his flock, this noble sky pilot is best known for his series of debates with the notoriously godless Christopher Hitchens on the topic of whether or …
Goodness knows who I am disappointing in this matter, but The Hunger Games is probably the best blockbuster film I’ve seen in years. Which isn’t, unfortunately, to say it’s a great movie. It suffers from a lot of the same problems all blockbusters do, and as is the case with all …
So, something you might not care about — and why should you, I ask, giving you a chance to bail out now — is the ‘controversy’ over Lupe Fiasco’s new single, “Bitch Bad”. In the song, he attacks the use of misogynistic imagery in hip-hop (the concomitant video compares rap’s …
Barring the promotion of Isaac from a tropical storm to a full-blown hurricane, and presuming it does not alight directly on the Tampa Bay Times Forum and slay all the Grand Old Party luminaries gathered there for the Republican National Convention (an occurrence which would provide, to me at least, the …
When I woke up yesterday, I found myself in the latest of a wearyingly long series of go-nowhere arguments with a handful of folks who believe that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is a multiple rapist, and that he, and by extension the organization he founded, should be nothing …
When I was young, and I was spending every penny I could scrape together on new comics at the 7-11 and older stuff at thrift stores and bookshops, I knew who the best artist was — the one who seemed like he was working and thinking a few steps ahead of …
With the selection of union-busting oenophile Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential candidate, the mystery of which wealthy Caucasian ideologue will stand next to him clapping for the next four months is over, and we can relax and enjoy the two make fools of themselves until whatever ridiculous decision the …
Comic books, it is safe to say, made me who I am today. Though I was an unusually literate child, reading above my grade level practically from the time I learned to read, I never enjoyed anything as much as I did superhero comics. I devoured them from my early …
It’s no secret that the way to handle a feudalistic society of the sort America’s ruling class wants to return us to is to keep the public voting against their own economic interests. And you do that by designing a social and educational system that keeps them pig-ignorant. But the …
I don’t believe in any organized religion, and I’m against prescriptivism in general, so the Ten Commandments can go pound sand as far as I’m concerned. But here’s a decalogue I wish I’d taken less time to learn: I. Be careful about anyone who says they’re doing something “for your …
Okay, I know this is probably a tired observation and all that, but forgive me, I haven’t slept in four days. WHY I HATE ‘CREATIVE’ PEOPLE, CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED BILLION Watching the Olympics reminds me of something that’s been true since the dawn of competitive athletics: you don’t have to …
IN WHICH I COMPARE WOMEN I’VE KNOWN TO POP SONGS BECAUSE THAT’S THE KIND OF HIGHLY ORIGINAL, NON-OBJECTIFYING HETERONORMATIVE HEPCAT I SWING TO BE #1: You were “Harden My Heart” by Quarterflash. You were by the first band I ever saw in concert of my own volition; and you were, …
Whenever I write about politics, someone I know — often it’s a well-meaning friend of largely the same liberal temperament as myself — will scold me about being an idealist. We are, after all, discussing “the art of the possible”, and it does no good to refuse to face up …
