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!

The post Vampire Hotness Rankings and Other Important Matters: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

“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.

The post Multiple Calebs: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.