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.

“My issue with how we read is as much an existential grievance as it is a labor dispute.” Elaine Castillo addresses the foundation of white supremacy in the literary world, making me VERY excited to read her book.

This is an absolutely bananas story about a criminology professor whose life, uh, takes a turn.

On authors who cross categories.

It’s hard to keep track of all the shit the Supreme Court is currently doing, but ONE of the things they’re doing is decimating the rights of Native nations.

Carmen Maria Machado discusses the Jumi Bello plagiarism thing and considers a better path forward for writers and writing programs.

Here’s why there’s a shortage of peer reviewers, tenure committee members, and journal editors.

How ASL is changing in the digital age.

Really excited to learn that the Department of Education cannot tell the people who owe it money for student loans how much they’ve paid off, how much is left to pay, and what the interest rate is. Super normal stuff.

The mutant metaphor: A new generation is falling in love with the X-Men via queer communities online.

Look, YES I am obsessed with reading about the new book about Go Ask Alice, but NO I am not going to read it probably because tbh I feel like I have gotten everything I need from the media coverage of the book. Anyway, here is Casey Cep.

“Nichelle Nichols gave us the future – what we make of it is up to us.”

I loved this interview with the actresses of Yellowjackets.

Mohsin Hamid’s latest novel was inspired by the growing tendency to sort everyone into buckets of like-me and not-like-me.

Biden’s commission on how to fix the Supreme Court has finished its work, and the report has some interesting and helpful ideas.

In case you’ve missed the updates on the S&S / Random Penguin merger, John Maher is doing yeoman’s work in live-tweeting the trial. You can also check out the New York Times explainer and the Vanity Fair explainer. Also, Amazon is playing a silent role in this trial.

Money diaries: How prison inmates make money and what they spend it on. (Surprise, it’s horrifying.)

Many stars of Twitch and other video services have had to learn how to live with stalkers and harassers.

It’s great that Beyonce and Lizzo changed their offensive lyrics; but why are we so stingy with second chances and benefits of the doubt when it comes to Black women artists?

The New York Times has a handy explainer of why restaurant prices are soaring.

The Good Little Pig and the trend of bathos in contemporary literature.

“Yuval Harari is what I call a ‘science populist.’… [His] errors are numerous and substantial.”

Tressie McMillan Cottom considers the beloved-by-conservatives TV show Yellowstone.

Happy Friday, friends!

The post I Am Very Excited to Read Elaine Castillo’s Book: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

MUMSY READ THIS ARTICLE. Everyone in it is such an asshole. THANKS AND SEE YOU SOON. (link)

Did your mom keep buttons in that one kind of cookie tin? Priya Krishna goes long on food containers and how we repurpose them. (link)

In trying to rewrite sexist narratives about the women of the 90s (and other recent times), films and TV shows often flatten out their complexities. (link)

Someone’s gotta stop Disney. (link)

Here is a piece about Margaritaville in Times Square that’s really about our relationship to work and leisure and how fucked up it all is. (link)

BLOB COVERS. Now that someone’s pointed it out, I can’t unsee it. (link)

Jails and prisons were always unbearable. Under COVID, they’ve gotten worse. (link)

“If one race—black people—was essentially invented in order to be bought, sold, used, and enjoyed at will, the desire to transform oneself into that race, even imaginatively, amounts to the capitalist impulse to own.” Namwali Serpell on racial transformation. (link)

“Viewing the average R. Kelly defender as uniquely deranged misses the societal forces that empower people like him in the first place.” Shamira Ibrahim on her time among the R Kelly supporters at his trial. (link)

The dangers of stan Twitter. (link)

“There would be no River of Gender to cross and leave my old life behind.” Ryka Aoki (whose new SFF book Light from Uncommon Stars I reviewed this week!) on what Ranma 1/2 meant to her. (link)

Who coaches the life coach? (or, cultish nonsense, part eleven trillion) (link)

Have a beautiful and majestic weekend, my darlings! Remember to strive for ethical behavior in all things! And remember that even if someone does a slightly unethical behavior unto you, it’s wise to have a sense of proportion rather than stalking and harassing the person what wronged you over the course of five years.

The post I’m Sorry But I Need to Talk about It: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

The pandemic will end. Ed Yong, savior of cogent COVID explanations, lays out the path to normalcy, and considers what our new normal will look like. (link)

“Customers affect a demeanor of antagonistic helplessness.” PHEW this whole article about what it’s like to work retail at a time when everyone is being The Worst is very good, but this one line just about did me in. (link)

Here is why every woman in all of TV has the exact same hair. (link)

“You know how little girls dream of their weddings? I dreamt of houses.” Sandra Cisneros on finding a room of her own. (link)

Nylah Burton interviews Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman on the dystopian world of their new workplace novel, The Very Nice Box. (link)

Lesley Anne Warren remembers Clue. (link)

On the people and companies that are trying to make travel less racist. (link)

“Who is to blame in this transaction: the lone shopper who purchased hundreds of dollars worth of clothes, or the billion-dollar retailer?” How Gen Z shops. (link)

Music critic Craig Jenkins sees no end in sight for homophobia in hip-hop. (link)

The central theme of Howl’s Moving Castle is unappreciated labor. Also it slaps. (link)

Midnight’s Borders, by Suchitra Vijayan, has been one of my favorite nonfiction books of the year. Here’s its author getting interviewed over at The Rumpus. (link)

“Does Lenù like Lila?” On the friendship plot and how it could be better. (link)

“Here is what it is: no force on earth will keep a writer’s preoccupations out of their fiction. You are not necessarily looking for them, but you find them every time.” A new Patricia Lockwood review is always cause for rejoicing. (link)

Why the devil do grocery stores still have an ethnic food aisle? (link)

“You can make a lot of money in diversity being abstract.” WHEW. On the DEI industry. (link)

This weekend, I am planning to do many, many tasks! If that doesn’t work out, I will at least spend time with my nephew, who is one of my favorite people on earth. I have two puzzles for him to play with and a new copy of Chutes and Ladders and a bed that goes up and down and a typewriter. All the ingredients for a fun time!

The post It’s Friday the 13th But We’re Not Doomed: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.