When the pilot of The Good Place—a breezy comedy about what it means to be a good person in the afterlife—first aired last September, a large portion of America, including me, was gearing for the end of a long and draining election season with relatively high hopes. By the time the season finale aired in…
The REadWind: Empress of the World
The REadWind series gets contributors to re-read the books they haven’t read in years and self-reflect. The goal is to explore how the contributors’ growth as a person plays a role in their experience in revisiting the book. Do they still like/hate it? How has it changed? Why?
Going Back to Sci-Fi Roots with The OA
When The OA debuted this past December, it was heavily measured against fellow Netflix original show Stranger Things (which premiered only five months earlier). The comparison between the two programs is not unjustified; both are science fiction shows that deal with the concept of alternate dimensions and feature doctors experimenting on unwilling test subjects. Stripped of all…
WarGames: The Only Winning Move Is Still Not to Play
WarGames is a late 20th century film that puts the lie to adults scoffing that teens care about nothing other than food, fooling around, and enjoying the latest pop culture fads. Surprise, surprise: teens don’t want to die in a nuclear holocaust either. Teens are as capable of empathy, love, regret, guilt and fear as any adult —…
A Whistle Stop History of Fanfiction: Part Two
Last time on Holly’s Whistle Stop History of Fanfiction, I discussed the idea that a lot of what is often considered classic literature in fact sprung from fanfiction, stories about existing characters, or people, with a few tweaks and name changes. Which is all very well, but I’m sure some of you are there saying…
The Bard’s Tale: Pub Songs in Skyrim and Dragon Age: Inquisition
Music is a major part of any video game, but confines itself to either sweeping orchestral harmonies that accompany you on your grand video game journeys, electronic music, and occasionally the hits of days gone by (like the radio in Fallout) or random pop or rock hits. The best of the latter curate their playlists…
A Whistle-Stop History of Fanfiction
Welcome to a Whistle-stop History of Fanfiction. Love it or loath it, many of us nerds know about fanfiction. It’s a huge part of modern fandom that ranges all the way from 200 word flash fiction to epic multi-chapter novels, but when did fanfiction start being part of the way we view fandom, and what…
Mass Effect: Perfect Digital Romances
Given the impending release of Mass Effect: Andromeda and my longtime devotion to the original trilogy, I’ve been thinking a lot about my experience with the Mass Effect series lately. My two playthroughs differed wildly; I was all about the rookie mistakes the first time through (RIP, Wrex), and though my Shepard was a more…
The 100 Has a White Feminism Problem
“From the ashes, we will rise” is the tagline of the new and current season of CW’s The 100. It’s catchy, pithy, and fits in well with the show’s whole radiation nuisance that’s always hovering in the background of every season. But while radiation is certainly an upcoming threat, another issue has begun to rear…
Video Game Pole Dancing is (Mostly) Bad
Video game sexiness has come a long way since the days of the original Leisure Suit Larry, but its depictions of pole dancing are largely stagnant. Dead-eyed women walk around poles in heels, their faces void of expression, as if the people animating them have no concept for what “sexy” is other than that it…
To an Earth of Green Purity: Technology and Environmentalism in Miyazaki’s Films
“I don’t understand,” I said one Friday evening as I stuffed crinkle-cut potato chips and French onion dip into my mouth and watched Princess Mononoke with my roommate during my first winter away from home at university. “Why are the animals so big?” I protested. “Why’s everybody yelling all the time? Ashitaka! San!” We laughed at…
Otherworlds and Underworlds: Filthy Futures in Roadside Picnic and Neuromancer
More often than not, science fiction depicting the future on Earth conjures up spick-and-span cityscapes: gleaming streets and towers, an ordered and efficient environment, and hidden danger disguised as benign societal mechanisms. What’s seen less often are chaotic, dirty, bucket-of-bolts futures where menace lurks around every corner and people spill out, swearing, from grungy dives….
