Tap tap, this thing on? I thought I’d actually share some links, for a change! I hope everyone reading this is staying safe at this absolutely idiotic moment in our climate emergency. I guess like, stay cool, get air filters, and call your elected representatives to demand that they take action to fix the goddamn planet.
The always-great Angelica Jade Bastien reviews the new The Little Mermaid.
At the close of the inaugural #EndOTWRacism campaign (but hopefully there are many more iterations to come!), Stitch reflects on what fandom needs.
“The music of a bygone time, a simpler, better era, when cars weren’t sold by direct-to-consumer, the internet barely existed, and prices were negotiable and opaque.” Inside the National Automobile Dealers Association, a weirdly powerful force in the Republican party.
Maureen Ryan’s book Burn It Down promises to be a barn, um, burner. Vanity Fair excerpted a chapter about the racist, sexist, bullying culture on Lost.
Here is the update on Caroline Calloway, because you know we all needed that.
“The operative factor is the training to recycle their traumas through violence.” Why it’s not surprising that the man who killed Jordan Neely was a marine.
“Dark romance novels don’t fear abusive men—if they did, the books would be wiped clean of their assault scenes. Their ultimate fear is of non-normative desire.”
Here is what is up with the embarrassing Hannah Gadsby exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.
The downfall of Tom Sandoval.
Why are there so many gd Persephone retellings!!
The ghost of carbon monoxide stories (a folklore perspective).
Writing for robots: The SEO arms race and all the garbage it’s left us with.
If you missed the recent Anne Carson discourse, please feel to treat yourself.
And a lovely piece on a poet shelved directly next to Anne Carson on my bookshelves: my beloved CP Cavafy!
Tressie McMillan Cottom perfectly explains why I dropped out of Ted Lasso, the first season of which I loved beyond reason.
“A deteriorating rest stop on the road to nowhere.” Last Angelica Jade Bastien link, I swear! This one’s a review of The Flash.
“And these efforts do not include plans for training or mentorship or support long-term career trajectory for up-and-coming BIPOC who may be thrown in the deep-end on the job, and be expected from the start to do it well.” Black women are being erased from book publishing.
“How I treasure any artwork that preserves a silence or recognizes a limit!” Zadie Smith reviews Tár.
The dueling realities of Caroline Calloway and Natalie Beach.
Leave the deep ocean alone. Leave it alone. Leave it alone.
What is a bottle episode? Kathryn VanArendonk is now the authority on all things bottle episode, and she has a handy guide to understanding what is and isn’t one.
A guide to the many queer bookshops of the UK. (This is not useful to me but I want UK readers to be happy too.)
Happy 75th birthday to “The Lottery,” a perfect jewel of a short story. Writers reflect on what the story has meant to them.
Every time I’ve heard someone wonder why all animated movies don’t look as good as Spiderverse, I have thought, there is a reason for this. And surprise, I was right.
Happy 4th to those who celebrate, by which I mean I hope everyone’s able to have a chill quiet weekend!