I, like many others, saw Project Hail Mary last week. It was one of my favorite books of 2021, so I had followed the development of the movie closely. It was both a wonderful movie in its own right, and, I feel, a good adaptation. It fell well within all the parameters that I’m looking… Continue reading Project Hail Mary and the Covert Pretension of Sci-Fi Readers
Who is Venom? What is the Venom symbiote’s “name?” Why even ask this question? Why do we care? Because the fandom community around this character has very strong opinions around who and what “Venom” is. There’s a hostile undercurrent in regards to nomenclature that claims, with certainty, that only the bonded host and symbiote as… Continue reading You Can Call the Symbiote Venom: A Textual Analysis
So, like, I’m white, y’all. Like…so white I’ve got sun damage in my eyes through my skin despite wearing sunscreen every time I go out. Whatever layering hyperbolic declaration of my European ancestry is most amusing, pretend I wrote it.It’s also the least interesting part about me.If the cursory ancestry provided by my parents is… Continue reading White Racists are Just…Boring: Racism as a Function of Identity
With the recent addition of Deadpool to Marvel Rivals, my various queer comic subreddits have raised the question “is Deadpool ACTUALLY pansexual?” meaning is it “canonical.” Is it “in the comics?” And this raises the question of how do we do character analysis within an expansive, multi-contributor lore? The first two obvious and interconnected hurdles… Continue reading Deadpool Needs to Kiss a Dude for Real: The Shifty Nature of Canon
In the current climate of ICE raids on American citizens on American soil, there’s an ineffable split of opinion among the common man. One sort of refrain that rises up from a certain group is “if you don’t do anything wrong, you don’t have anything to fear from the law.” Objectively, observably, this is not… Continue reading The Cult of Compliance
I was raised Southern Baptist Convention, so, duh, that came with an Evangelical Christmas. I was also lower middle class, growing up. So there was always a roof over our head, food on the table, new clothes each school year. Extracurriculars stretched the budget, but there was usually room. But our cars were used, a… Continue reading Recontextualizing Christmas
Originally written for VN Game Den in December 2021 Oh no. You’ve done it.The conversation had been pleasant enough when you all sat down for a holiday dinner with the family. Then Aunt Sheryl (because isn’t it always Aunt Sheryl?) turns to you and asks what seems like an innocent question. “What have you been… Continue reading How to Talk to Your Family About Visual Novels
My grandmother passed a couple of months ago, preceded by my grandfather in 2007. Over the past decade as she’s moved in with different daughters, the family has been collectively downsizing her belongings and spreading them out to whoever would most benefit from them.I have two bookshelves that are designed to hold mass market paperbacks… Continue reading The Erosion of Identity in the Rise of Corporate Decor
I was part of the cast and the technical directore for a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast for just under three years, fifteen years ago. The cast I was on did a performance literally every Saturday night at midnight, and I was at almost every show during that time. Yeah, I was kind of insane,… Continue reading I used to be on a Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadowcast
So we’re in the middle of an organized boycott of Disney products because of their response to government pressure to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air. Great cool. Kimmel’s back on the air as I write this, so it looks like it might have worked. But honestly, who knows! Yay government overreach! In those exact… Continue reading Media Piracy Isn’t Inherently Revolutionary, You Weirdos
Pixels and Pins Studio 