I thought we’d start this week’s links round-up with something heartening: An article about why the AskHistorians subreddit bans Holocaust denial on their platform.

Here’s what’s been happening with the programming at WorldCon. For heaven’s sake. Mary Robinette Kowal and a team of other cool people have stepped in to help fix it.

If you can get through how much R. Kelly makes your skin crawl, Hannah Giorgis has a wonderfully thoughtful take on his new (vile) song and all the wrongs he thinks he’s suffered.

Welp this Buzzfeed piece about sex positivity and working in a sex toys shop broke my heart.

An authoritative ranking of all the secret siblings on CW shows. Luckily they rank One Tree Hill number one, as any other decision would invalidate the whole ranking.

Uncanny Magazine is Kickstarting a fifth year, now with stretch goals to cover launching a vid channel! I love Uncanny Magazine, which has the shiniest special issues ever, so definitely consider kicking in.

Therese Marie Mailhot makes a point about the world “civilized” as adjective vs verb that I absolutely love, in this piece about marginalized groups and the demand for courtesy.

The Queer Eye reboot may be the cure for toxic masculinity. (It’s not.) It’s the porn of emotional labor.

Here’s a story about how a high school teacher took advantage of her student — and why we need better ways to talk about teachers and students.

Why is nothing wheelchair accessible in science fiction? Ace Ratcliff investigates.

How women get punished for society’s fears about children’s independence.

I hope y’all all have a wonderful and amazing weekend! Stay cool, and happy August!

The post Banning Nazis and curing toxic masculinity: A links round-up appeared first on Reading the End.

Uncanny Magazine‘s March/April issue came out (hooray), and I was immediately all in on A. T. Greenblatt’s story “And Yet” (4600 words) which is about a newly minted physicist who comes back to the haunted house from their childhood, hoping to study the parallel universes contained within it.

I cannot describe how pleasing this story was to me, on so many levels. I love that its protagonist uses a cane to get around. I love that it’s about a house that wants things. Two thirds of the way through the story, there’s a shift — I don’t want to call it a twist, because that would be overstating the case — in the reader’s understanding of what motivates the protagonist, which shades back over what we have read thus far. The best kind of — again, is there a word for twist that implies something subtler than twist implies?? — for lack of a better word, twist is the kind where you weren’t expecting it and it is a surprise, but when it’s revealed you’re like, “Oh, of course, I should have realized.” That is what happens in “And Yet.”

Does it turn out well? Yes, extremely! Well, some parts turn out well. Difficult choices must be made, but that is the way of the world.

Was I rooting for the house? Y’all. Let’s get something straight right now. In stories where the house wants something, I am always rooting for the house. (Exception: Helen Oyeyemi’s book White Is for Witching. That house is xenophobic and I do not support its hateful ideology.)

Other stories what I enjoyed this month include “Irregularity,” a creepy little space wars story by Rachel Harrison (7500 words so actually a novelette!); “Unplaces,” by Izzy Wasserstein, in which a woman living in a dystopia annotates her atlas of places that never existed (1750 words); and “Old Habits,” by Nalo Hopkinson, a rather sweet ghost story set in a mall (4400 words). Oh, and an Oregon Trail dystopian fanfic recced by the Not Now I’m Reading podcast, “And Then We Shot the Ox” (3100 words).

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Maddy Myers is great, y’all. Here she is on on-screen queer kisses over at The Mary Sue.

Y’all, you guys, hey everyone, guess what! England is about to get the FIRST EVER Kurdish novel to be translated into English. How cool! How good for the Kurds! I hope it publishes in the US also!

This Natalie Luhrs piece for Uncanny Magazine unpacks what’s so great about romance novels — among other things, it’s that romance takes emotional growth really seriously.

This Sarah Jeong article about the Star Wars prequels makes a pretty good case for its conclusion:

I guess what I’m saying is, maybe if the Galactic Senate hadn’t defunded Planned Parenthood, the Republic wouldn’t have succumbed to an evil fascist dictatorship.

Speaking of Star Wars, I never do this, but I loved this Bodhi Rook-centric fic so much that I’m sharing it here. Even if you don’t read a lot of fanfic, read this one. It’s superb. Hat tip to Rukmini Pande for the rec.

Some book adaptations coming to TV this year. GET PSYCHED.

The Millions has released their glorious, glorious 2017 book preview (through June). TBR lists beware!

Your reminder that writing white supremacy into disciplines of folklore and medievalism was a major strategy of the Nazi regime. (Or: on white nationalism in medieval studies.)

The world has been feeling more than ever like hot garbage this month, but I also read this Twitter thread about C.S. Lewis and Susan, and it meant the world to me. Cf: this excellent point.

I hope you all have an exceptionally fortunate Friday the 13th! If you need something to give you a little boost, maybe try the new Netflix Series of Unfortunate Events, which looks really fun.

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How to not be a dick to women who write comics criticism. (Good news: It ain’t even that hard.)

Yes, Lovecraft was a product of his times. That doesn’t mean we have to be okay with his racism.

A thoughtful response to the recent “I don’t want to be Black Spiderman” issue of the Miles Morales Spiderman comic (by Brian Michael Bendis, a white dude).

I’ve seen a couple of pieces lately arguing that Hamilton uncritically props up the American dream (as in opposition to, one of them really weirdly argued, Ta-Nehisi Coates? it was a strange article), and I think this NK Jemisin post about fantasy in Hamilton does a good job of explaining why that claim is kinda beside the point.

BUT WHAT WILL YOUR MOTHER SAY? The questions women (but not men) who write about sex get asked.

On JK Rowling and appropriation of Native American cultures.

Neila Orr on the myth of upward mobility. For best results, pair this with Gene Demby’s piece about the Republican party turning on its core voters.

Charlie Jane Anders sums up the storytelling lessons she learned from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

And finally, because we live in a world run by a benevolent God, Anne Helen Peterson wrote a piece about Jennifer Garner’s transformation from sexy spy to ultimate soccer mom. Then, as we were basking in the glow of that, she wrote another piece about Sad Affleck. They’re both fire.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

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