RIP, Iain Banks
Writer Iain Banks has died. The Guardian has an obituary. Neil Gaiman remembers Banks and the BBC gathers remembrances. Here, Banks talks with University Lecturer in Creative Writing Derek Neale.
Why Does Mars Need Women?
Diane Dooley writes about Mars’ need for women and ways to subvert it.
The Good Outnumber You: A Look at Heroism in Storytelling
When I was a mere lad, I picked up a battered newsstand copy of Power Man and Iron Fist. I had grown up with superheroes in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Incredible Hulk, and The Herculoids on the television, but my comics reading prior to that issue […]
Kurosawa Week At Trailers From Hell
This week Trailers from Hell celebrates the films of Akira Kurosawa. First up, director Brian Trenchard-Smith discusses Rashomon (1950) in just over the time it takes to play the trailer.
“Uncanny Avengers, X-Men, Rick Remender, and Oppression Comix”
“[T]he X-Men are a lot of things to a lot of people, but one of the most important things they are—I’m talking top two, right after “sexy people with cool powers”—is an oppression metaphor. You cannot escape this. It is built into the X-Men’s DNA….The oppression metaphor is […]
Catharsis denied: when fiery doom is an anti-climax
When I was about 12, my parents took me to see a stage version of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings performed with life-sized puppets. As Frodo was agonizing over pitching his precious ring into the fiery pit of Mount Doom, Sam, exhausted from the epic journey but […]
The Cultural Gutter 