I’ve been meaning to do this links round-up for approximately ten thousand years, so some of these links are a little older. You know what? Who cares! They’re still terrific!

Resy won the reservation wars. Here’s how.

“Despite the Black-film streaming guides that proliferated on the internet during last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, the streamers themselves have been ill-equipped to fully articulate the wealth of important Black titles that are available.” The Black Film Archive is here to help.

While we’re on the subject of Black cinema, Slate and NPR have teamed up for a very cool project called The New Black Film Canon.

“Sudden, dramatic hair changes, she says, ‘are a big part of who I am.'” A profile of the lady who invented at-home rape kits, and how, uh, that’s all going.

Eurgh, the world is a hellscape, including TikTok.

This is a fascinating story about Black journalists who were hired to train Nigerian reporters in the 1980s.

A really stellar breakdown on SFF world-building, by TV writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach.

“Vitriol is a precious resource. Spend it wisely.” Steven Hyden contemplates the decline of the negative review. (He’s talking about music but I suspect it applies to other spheres too.)

“The hardest stunt I ever pulled off.” Stunt people are so cool.

This is a fascinating article about transnational corporate espionage.

Oscars-related things I am mad about: Jamie Lee Curtis winning over Angela Bassett or Stephanie Hsu. The Whale.

On the trope (ongoing!) of the disabled villain.

It has made me SO happy to witness Abbott Elementary come for the throat of charter schools.

A woman from Leicestershire devoted her energy to trolling Madeleine McCann’s parents on Twitter. When her involvement in the online harassment came out, she killed herself. Now her son is trying to find meaning (for himself and others) in her life and death.

Swarm dehumanizes Black women.

FINALLY, a deep dive on whump fic!!

The always-wonderful Linda Codega takes us inside the dysfunctional, sexist, unsafe offices of Wyrmwood Gaming.

Dara Horn asks if the focus on Holocaust education is, paradoxically, making anti-Semitism worse.

“There was a woman who was Irish, which was not her job, but, my God, she was good at it; she owns a pug who apparently is a successful working actor, which was also not her job.” Caity Weaver went on a package tour for millennials trying to make friends.

And Lauren Oyler went on a GOOP cruise. My cup runneth over.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends! Or if you do not have a wonderful weekend because the world is dumb and bad, at least know that you have not lost thirteen billion dollars in a single day. Yay!

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“Watching the series, I was unable to ignore one central question: Why should we give a damn about the emotional life of a racist, sexist white woman?” Angelica Jade Bastien is typically brilliant on Mrs. America. (link)

Judith Butler is not having it. (link)

Maisy Card considers her memory of Nanny, leader of the Jamaica Maroons. (link)

Code Switch tries to figure out what kind of books we should be reading during quarantine, with the help of Farah Jasmine Griffin. (link)

A wonderful profile of romance and thriller novelist Alyssa Cole! (link)

Here is an oral history of Wishbone. I love Wishbone! (link)

How do people understand each other? Linguist David Adger discusses how language works. (link)

The James Beard Awards got canceled this year, and it’s all a big mess. Here’s your guide to what’s going on. (link)

“It’s a system that can construct a fiction with facts.” ZZ Packer discusses the facts that were raised by Kentucky’s attorney general in the Breonna Taylor case, and the facts that were obscured. (link)

Aisha Harris has created a pretty incredible taxonomy of modern American blackface. (link)

An open letter from the UK & Irish publishing community, in solidarity with trans and nonbinary people. (link)

“I’ve spent the past four months watching sex scenes to determine which seeming sex symbols actually, you know, have sex in movies.” (link)

Can we rethink how YA frames coming out? (link)

“To answer a glaring question: No, collab houses don’t really make any money. It is not a wise business decision, per se, for a management company to spend lavishly on rent solely because fans like seeing their favorite TikTokers hanging out together.” This is fascinating. (link)

Rejoice! Despite the meaninglessness of all time, it is nevertheless the weekend! Eat, drink, and be merry! As for me and my house, we are in intensive quarantine and shall have no pancakes this Sunday, but we will struggle to get by all the same.

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“To celebrate what was good and criticize what was lacking in the American Revolution were two sides of the same civic coin. Both were necessary for political reasons, but not least because both were true.” On the historians’ debate over The 1619 Project.

To nobody’s surprise, the Catholic Church continues to resist transparency on child abuse by priests. Also the owners of the New Orleans Saints are for some reason involved???

As a 28-Year-Old Latino, I’m Shocked My New Novel, Memoirs of a Middle-Aged White Lady, Has Been So Poorly Received.

Heeheehee this is just some Little Women fanfiction about Jo writing fanfiction, as she would.

Comics discuss the jokes that should be retired in 2020. I agree with most of these, but I also love Sara Schaefer and Shalewa Sharpe for being so like, positive and kind in their answers. What nice people.

Black authors are changing what YA publishing looks like. (We hope.)

Would your partner Force Majeure you?

“The baby takes a ton of purse stickers (as in, they are stickers that look like purses) and puts them on the floor, and they look really awesome since we don’t have a rug, but I can’t even compliment her art or really look at it because of dopamine.” Rebecca Harrington tries a dopamine fast.

Historical movies and biopics consistently sideline women, people of color, and queer people in a very ahistorical manner. Fuck the Oscars.

Most people who live to an extremely old age — allegedly — are lying or mistaken. Is Jeanne Calment one of those people? Warning: This article is a journey.

Museums are grappling with the fraught histories of their funders and their acquisitions.

Here’s Roxane Gay on the complicated emotions that Kobe Bryant’s history and death have engendered in her and many people.

And that’s all the links I have for you right now! If you’ve read anything interesting this week, please drop it in the comments so I can read it too. Have a wonderful weekend!

The post Let’s Take a Moment to Appreciate The Boston Review: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

The internet is not a shared space of equality. It’s as segregated as the real world.

US vs UK book covers of 2018.

Years of poaching and loss of habitat have led to aggressive behavior in elephants. (An older article that was on Longform.org and was so fascinating I had to share.)

A line about limping in The Good Place last season really threw me, so I was glad to see this piece on disability in the afterlife.

CBS’s company culture is reflected in the rash of sexual harassment claims they face, but also in the stories they choose to tell.

“This is how all bad relationships should end. Just: Helicopter. Credits. No contact with civilians.” On Buffy’s break-up with Riley Finn. (This is, incidentally, how my relationship with George W. Bush ended. I cannot recommend it highly enough.)

These are Alyssa Cole’s best romances of 2018.

I am fascinated by this deep dive into glitter production. Please read it and then share your hypotheses about which industry buys the most glitter. Toothpaste is so far the best theory I’ve heard.

A black Jewish woman responds to Alice Walker’s anti-Semitism.

Here’s what it’s like to be a cable guy (while queer and female).

Jamilah King on the black lives lost at Jonestown — and the archivists who have dedicated their lives to making sure those lives are not forgotten.

The Tournament of Books shortlist has been announced!

“This concludes the last thing I’ll ever write about Kevin Spacey or Louis C.K., until they’re sentenced in courts of law, or I have to write their obituaries.” I mostly link to women writing about sexual harassers, but eh, I’ll make one exception because I love this kicker.

I was hoping Angelica Jade Bastien (one of my fave critics working right now) would tackle Surviving R Kelly, and she has! Aisha Harris has a thoughtful take on some of the reasons R Kelly has escaped consequences for his actions. And Morgan Jerkins explores the manipulation of teenage fans.

One of my favorite things about Ask a Manager is how she’s bringing together the advice community. Here’s an excellent roundtable of Ask a Manager, Dear Prudence, Captain Awkward, Care and Feeding, Dr. Nerdlove, and Ask a Clean Person, all talking about the world of giving advice.

Happy weekend! I got such a sweet hug this morning!

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In thrilling news, Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon IS TOMORROW. Can you tell I’m excited? I am SO excited. I have an aunt coming into town, so I don’t know exactly how many hours I’ll end up being able to do, but I’m excited about whatever it turns out to be.

Molly Ringwald wrote a really fascinating piece about sexual harassment and her films with John Hughes.

Junot Diaz writes with extraordinary power and honesty about being raped as a child. Trigger warning for child sexual abuse, ofc.

After taking the top prize at Sundance yet somehow not being picked up by a distributor, The Miseducation of Cameron Post finally has a distributor and will be available to watch in the summer. Yay!

It’s okay to give up on books you aren’t enjoying. Let the switch flip in your brain, and set yourself free from the prison of books that aren’t a good fit for you. The mindset “Maybe I didn’t give up forever” is the one that has helped me a lot.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is incisive on the subject of NFL cheerleaders and the problem with the NFL setting itself up as the guardian of moral virtue.

How publishing is changing (and not) w/r/t race and gender.

Millicent Simmonds, one of the stars of the new film The Quiet Place, wrote a piece for Teen Vogue about becoming the deaf role model she never had.

Mikki Kendall on the two black men arrested at Starbucks for existing there. Black customers are inherently perceived as threatening, which is what leads to situations like this one. And last but not least, here’s a round table of some of my favorite writers talking about navigating public spaces while black. (If you’re not following all these people you should be! They’re great.)

How grad school applications can become performances of trauma for applicants from marginalized groups.

I can’t assess the accuracy of this piece about how East Asian narrative traditions differs from Western narrative traditions, but it’s a really interesting read. I want to keep this in mind when I’m reading books from China and Japan in the future.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is the best show on TV but it does have a tonal dissonance problem in how it portrays the moral implications of various actions. Irene Yoon and Lili Loofbourow break it down.

On constructing a kinder future (in the stories we create and consume).

Not sure what’s been going on with FanCon? Clarkisha Kent has the depressing scoop. Rosie Knight and Jazmine Joyner have another very detailed breakdown of all the nitty-gritty details, at Women Write about Comics.

Skin care marketing is often just selling whiteness.

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A complete history of Addy Walker, who I honestly still can’t deal with the fact that they retired her books and her doll. Hmph.

Why clothes for women don’t have any goddamn pockets.

The VOYA thing began during my last links round-up period, yet somehow continued through to the period of this links round-up. I don’t understand it either. Here’s all the receipts. VOYA’s latest and best apology, although it says a lot of good things, does not come with unblocking the YA authors they’ve blocked, or like contacting Tristina Wright or the author specifically to say what happens next, or like twelve million other things. So uh, take it with a pillar of salt.

If you’ve heard about Ian McEwan’s Fetus Hamlet book but do not want to read it, can I recommend this epic live-tweet of it instead? Jeanne also reviewed it and she did NOT like it.

I already thought Lionel Shriver was a dick BEFORE learning that her latest book featured a black woman kept on a leash by a white family, but now I want to kick her in the shins forever. Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen talks about how to navigate the “cultural appropriation” wars.

Girls in houses: Laura Miller on Shirley Jackson.

This review of a Hitler biography is incredible. Honestly. Read this. I don’t want to say it elevates the art of criticism, but like, maybe.

Vinson Cunningham argues that The Birth of a Nation isn’t worth your time. Y’all, the journey of public discourse around this film should be its own damn biopic, seriously.²

Ann Friedman on Kim Kardashian’s recent trauma, the outing of Elena Ferrante, and the place of women in the public eye.

Daniel Jose Older on how (and if and why) to write characters from backgrounds that are not yours.

Angelica Jade Bastién wrote for the New Republic about the price of being a vocal woman of color in the worlds of geek fandom.

Have a good weekend!

The post No Luke Cage Thinkpieces: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

On competing for the one single diversity spot in the writers’ room: Aisha Harris writes about the unbearable whiteness of TV writers’ rooms.

Nobody could be more excited about the new Star Wars trailer than stars John Boyega and Daisy Ridley.

Recovering the history of years in slavery, and the story of a forgotten forced deportation: An article that opens with an oddly upsetting anecdote.

New details emerge about that Harry Potter play! (It’s not a prequel, it’s a sequel! Joke’s on you, prequel-wanters! You’ll never ever learn more about the Marauders.)

“Jenny, shut up about Hamilton already, Gahd!” NEVER.

Kelly Sue DeConnick spoke with Alyssa Rosenberg about her comic Bitch Planet, and predictably, she has lots of interesting things to say. In particular, she notes that comics do a thing where “they will set up something to be deliberately salacious, and then pretend to have some ethical structure around it.” YEP. The interview is in two parts, here and here.

Are you excited for Jessica Jones? Or do you wish her backstory didn’t have to be so rapey? Or both?

South By canceled a panel about harassment in gaming because they’re afraid of getting harassed. Caroline Linders, one of the organizers of the panel, has a good rundown of what happened. BuzzFeed has withdrawn participation from the festival in protest. SXSW appears to be in damage control mode, but as of today, no final decisions appear to have been made.

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