The Britney Spears truthers are out there, and they are CONVINCED.

“Is it tantamount to sexual harassment to fantasize about being a piece of ice so a Swedish hockey player will glide on you?” This story fascinates me because the only person who I feel clearly did something wrong is the Kraken social media team. AND YET everyone is very unhappy!

Evette Dionne and Tirhakah Love explore the allegations against Lizzo.

The publishing industry keeps consolidating. It’s terrible for books (yes, even now that S&S was not sold to PRH after all!).

Native communities shoulder the cost of reburying the ancestral remains that were taken from their nations. It’s a heavy burden to carry.

Free returns aren’t free (surprise!).

The history of cooking videos!

“Even if you could integrate Bama the brand, you cannot integrate Bama the social reproduction machine.”

“The production team created the conditions of our existence but when we were frustrated with these conditions, we simply turned on each other.” What it’s like to be cast as the villain of a reality show. And speaking of that…

“Quote me on this in capitals and bold letters. Don’t hire anybody to help you through the casting process.” How the cast of season 45 of Survivor got selected.

I’ve been saying for ages that prioritizing the fear of being taken advantage of is morally corrosive, so it’s nice to read an article that’s making that exact same argument from a place of more authority than I personally possess.

What’s it like to be named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists?

This piece on Michael Oher of The Blind Side is tremendously great, top to bottom. I read it three times in a row.

What are we to make of the social media tradwives?

“I’m just saying that he is the sort of guy who is a typical Burning Man attendee these days: the establishment in a goofy hat.” It has been a true pleasure to see the mess of Burning Man.

NUN MUTINY.

“If not blurbs, then what?” This is a terrific piece on the necessity and the injustice of book blurbs.

As someone who is presently watching (and loving) The X-Files for the first time, I endorse this explanation of why it is Good, Actually. (I actually think this writer is understating how good and important the chemistry between the two leads was, but whatever.)

The internet is written in pencil.

A lot of what gets written about AI-generated literature is … kind of garbagey, but this article is legitimately good, thoughtful, and interesting.

JUSTICE FOR NEANDERTHALS.

Happy Friday!

The post lol this is horribly overdue: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

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.

True crime got worse.

“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!

The post Links, links, links! A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.