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!

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Watch Ted Lasso, please. I beg you will watch Ted Lasso. I am saying this for your own good, because I want you to feel positive emotions in your life, and frankly where else can that happen? (link)

How to throw a non-terrible con. (link)

“NXIVM was a distillation of all the failures and lies of corporate feminism.” No, I am not yet finished being fascinated by cults. (link)

(White) women’s anger as marketing strategy. (link)

Who gets named in crossword clues? (link)

Whatever did happen with all those white people buying books about antiracism this summer? (You already know the answer.) (link)

“I now know about so many consumer goods I previously had no idea existed.” Roxane Gay on pandemic dread-induced shopping. (link)

Nothing is fun anymore. (link) Except for Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso is fun.

And this; this one thing is fun. Romance novelists and readers raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Stacey Abrams flip Georgia all the way blue. (link)

Speaking of blue, THE GREEKS DID HAVE BLUE. I am shook and cannot believe so many people have misled me for so long. (link)

The National Theatre has rolled out a new subscription-based plan where you can watch their plays online for free! They launched this month with a library of 11 plays, and they’ll be adding new plays monthly. (link)

How should you incorporate food into fantasy worlds? NOT RACIST-LY, PLEASE. (link)

In conclusion, watch Ted Lasso. You may report back to me when you have finished it.

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A personal account from a former teaching assistant to Avital Ronell, the NYU professor accused of harassment.

The brilliant Carol Anderson recommends books about democracy and its challenges.

Okay, maybe — MAYBE — I will consume this Sherlock Holmes property. MAYBE.

Design a spaceship: Some instructions.

Over at the Book Smugglers, Foz Meadows reminds us to critique the critics when we’re talking about problematic elements in media.

Constance Grady goes in on redemption narratives for men in Hollywood, versus women. Guess who gets the benefit of the doubt.

I absolutely love this piece about the jokes comedians regret making. The people who aren’t white dudes generally have more interesting, thoughtful things to say.

Deadspin and Jezebel understand how hard this time is, and they have accordingly switched out their editors. Two Jezebel writers attend a football game, and a Deadspin writer covers a fashion show.

Why the Serena Williams thing was so viscerally upsetting for black women.

I don’t know what this partnership between Sony and the owners of The Ripped Bodice but I am ALL ABOUT IT.

I just adore this piece about how authors dress their characters — with accompanying fashion images!

Want to know how Crazy Rich Asians managed to look so, like, crazy rich? The Wrap has you covered!

How to fart when sharing a bed.

Here’s some measurements and statistics about how stupid and useless the pockets in women’s clothes are WHEN WE EVEN GET TO HAVE THEM.

Women retell myths from classical antiquity: a top ten list.

Is social psychology in a replication crisis? Professionals differ on the answer.

What women really want from Jian Ghomeshi. Also: a conversation with the editor who decided to run the Jian Ghomeshi piece, in which Isaac Chotiner gives no quarter to bullshit, and which I believe led to the editor being fired/resigning. Also: Rebecca Solnit on the tradition that men are objective and women are subjective. Also: Mo Ryan on abusive men rewriting their stories (badly). Megan Garber on the question of (vis-a-vis Kavanaugh) whether sexual assault is Just How Things Are. Jia Tolentino on dudes being not very sorry at all. Also Lili Loofbourow on Kavanaugh because Jesus Christ this fucking week.

Are we in a romcom renaissance? God I hope so.

Willa Paskin reviews (with spoilers) the show Forever, and gets into some of the reasons I find it frustrating when the whole marketing push for a thing is KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS THING GOING IN or it will be COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY RUINT.

Everything you know about obesity is wrong.

Have a great weekend! Cuddle up with blankets and gin and good friends, as I will be doing.

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“Every comment allowed to pass, every rapist defended by friends and family and strangers, every man afraid of being falsely accused, creates a culture saying, ‘We have your back when you harm women.'” Natalie Degraffinried on how badly we need men to take on accountability for rape culture.

“Let’s be dragons together”: Maureen Ryan on her sexual assault by a TV executive and the (lack of) fall-out.

And (last Harvey Weinstein thing) the typically brilliant Bim Adewunmi on sexual harassment, black women, and being in the room where it (movie, assault) happens.

Well, okay, one more tangentially Harvey Weinstein thing: Soraya Chemaly on what we teach girls when we enforce dress codes.

What time is it? VIDA COUNT TIME!

I’m really looking forward to Alexis Okeowo’s book A Moonless Starless Sky, which tells the stories of ordinary people fighting against extremism in Africa. Lithub has an adapted excerpt.

Do you read WIP fics? Caroline Crampton dives into the fraught problem of WIPs and what happens when your favorite story lacks an ending.

On the protection racket of sexism, and what leads women to blame the victim.

Dear universe, I don’t want to learn anything bad about Taika Waititi ever, so please see to that, thx. Here’s how he supported and incorporated indigenous New Zealand in Thor: Ragnarok.

“I enjoy full-sized toilets that flush into a municipal sewage system.” Roxane Gay on tiny houses and what they say about America.

Chaya Bhuvaneswar writes about her complex love for the bigoted, and talented, T.S. Eliot.

Have a safe and excellent weekend, friends!

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