A large chunk of my book marketing information, lately, comes in the form of one of the big social media sites. BookTok, BookStagram, BookTube here and there. So it’s hard for me to gauge whether this problem persists in other places where books are talked about. I imagine it does, as I see its ramifications… Continue reading Why Do We Actually Need Romantasy?
I’ll make two strong statements regarding how we label our favorite books: 1. Genres are made up marketing terms. 2. Genres are an integral element in how we navigate the the reading and literary landscape. The nature of language where all things are made up, in the end, makes both these things true and addressable… Continue reading Dune is a Science Fiction Novel and You’re NOT ALLOWED to Fight About It
For the uninitiated, there’s a well-known fantasy series called the Wheel of Time. It’s a fourteen book saga begun by Robert Jordan and ended by Brandon Sanderson on Jordan’s passing. It’s considered a modern classic in fantasy circles. Those same groups will argue up one side and down the other about the overall quality of… Continue reading Half the Wheel of Time Books are Bad, Yet We Still Recommend Them
Japanese visual novels are set in Japan with Japanese characters...because they're made by Japanese studios in Japan for Japanese people.
But the people who took Harry Potter that seriously? No no no no we weren't THOSE Christians who saw Satan in everything secular. We understood nuance. We were reasonable. We weren't the crazy Christians.
My mom's homophobic, even if she doesn't realize it. But not...like...a Homophobe, you know what I mean? She's a “love the sinner, hate the sin” homophobe. A “marriage is between man and a woman, but if they want a civil union, that's okay” homophobe. A “I use my one lesbian friend as a rhetorical shield… Continue reading In Which the Mother of a Queer Person Continues to Fail at Irony
So it's the middle of summer. Here, in Texas, that of course means we're just in phase 1 of a multi-phase summer process. My personal summer began right at the end of spring, however. When I bought a pair of shorts.
“Okay, so they're alchemists, alright? And they're brothers and one of them had his soul bound to a suit of armor...are you following?”
Oh, Ashe, so you've got something poignant and insightful to say about the human condition and how the footprint of an inter-social ... No. I just finished Mass Effect.
And it's really a very fascinating thing, isn't it? That even in settings that present us with a sort of infinite biological possibility, we still hinge on human-centric interactions in regards to gender and sexuality, particularly ones with heteronormative bents.
Pixels and Pins Studio 