Well, well, well, another week gone, and another week closer to Thanksgiving, a time at which I hope we can all look forward to having a few days of goddamn peace and quiet. Events keep flying at my head at very high speed, despite the fact that I have clearly stated in writing that I don’t want things to happen very suddenly. I want none things to happen! At slow speeds! My position on this has been clear from the beginning!
However, since that seems not to be in the cards for me or for anyone, I am enjoying the cooler weather, basking in the sunshine like a happy lizard, and collecting good links for your enjoyment. Here they are!
Carrie Wittmer helpfully ranks every vampire by hotness. This is science, and she is absolutely correct about the number one hottest vampire ever. (content note, some lunatic has chosen the YouTube video of the attempted rape scene from “Seeing Red” for Spike. Don’t watch it! It’s very upsetting!) (link)
Rafia Zakaria considers Thoreau and the nature of solitude in Walden and Karachi. (link)
A story was reported recently that a woman was raped on a subway in Philadelphia, while numerous bystanders looked on and did nothing. But we have no real evidence that it’s true. (link)
“The hysterical throng gets a lot less threatening if, instead of a maniacal cabal of liberal despots, they’re just regular folks who are allowed to consume things they like, disengage with things they don’t like, and talk about it with whomever they want.” On cancel culture. (link)
Dune takes place in the desert and makes use of Muslim ideology and Arabic language and culture. But it doesn’t engage with Middle Eastern cultures in any serious way. (link)
There is a specific intimacy in being able to read side-by-side with your friends. (Also, though the article does not get into this, of reading the same thing your friends are reading in roughly the same few days they are reading it, because you like them and you feel like it.) (link)
Netflix is dipping its toe into the waters of gaming. Do they understand the gaming audience well enough to make it work? Also, are they just a buncha dicks? (y) (link)
“These negative representations make so much of the world not only physically inaccessible but emotionally inaccessible, too.” On disability in superhero stories. (link)
A secret 1970 court case established a legal precedent that changed everything for trans people in England. (link)
Though it’s a very niche area that has nothing to do with me personally, I’ve really been enjoying some of the writing I’ve read lately reassessing how MFA programs work (most especially Matthew Salesses’s Craft in the Real World). Here’s another one of those! (link)
What’s the status of the antiracist book clubs everyone was so excited about founding the summer of last year? (link)
I am delighted to learn via this profile that Nikole Hannah-Jones is the middle one of three sisters. Middle children woooooo! (link)
Who’s got lovely weekend plans? Please tell me about them!