The Rise of the Incidentally Trans Character
The last few years has seen trans characters in mainstream media move from being defined by their transness to being incidentally trans. And that’s important. …
Category: Culture
The Disappearance of the “Queen of Crime”
Have you heard of Agatha Christie’s eleven missing days? It’s a real life mystery that comes up from time to time in popular culture and there’s never been an airtight solution put forward. I don’t know if I have a solution, but I think I know why so many solutions fall short.
Popular Fiction: What Does That Even Mean?
As a term, “popular fiction” has always bothered me. Or, perhaps it’s fairer to say that the term “literature” has always bothered me. Or, perhaps the issue at heart is that these terms are set up to suggest that the two things are in any way different.
Rolling Stone Magazine and the Dangers of Pay-to-Play
Today The Guardian broke the news that Rolling Stone magazine would be giving people the opportunity to write for its website and giving them the chance to “shape the future of culture,” referring to such people as “thought leaders.”
On the surface that sounds a little suspect.
A Brit in America #7 – The Fourth
Faefyx weighs in with a perspective on living as a Brit in America on the Fourth of July, particularly in times when national injustice has become so visible.
A Brit in America #6 – Let Them Eat Cake
The duplicity of the American use of language knows no ends. I’ve ranted on here before about Guinness and tomatoes, and this is certainly in the same vein. However, given not only the magnitude of the disappointment perpetrated by this particular issue, but also the repeated occurrences in which I forget that it is a thing and make the same mistake again, I feel that it requires its own post.
A Brit in America #5 – Protests and Black Lives Matter
I am an immigrant to this country and this morning I woke up to find several messages on my phone from people in other countries checking that I am safe, some from people I have not spoken to in years.
The Virus
I am certain that this post has already been written several times over, but I feel the need to write my own. I’m angry. You should be too.
Podcasts. You Should Listen to Them.
The prevalence of podcasts must seem very strange to the generation that watched interest in radio steadily decline. However, in a lot of ways I …
A Brit in America #3 – Tomato/Tomato is the Least of Our Problems
In language, nuance abounds, but differences can be arbitrary and you can see the truth in the idea: “two nations divded by a common language.”