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.

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.