The Death of The F*ck: Neopuritanism and Commercial Fiction
How readers with presumably progressive politics are increasingly aligning with the far right on the moralization of sex.
Michel Houellebecq and the Birth of the Incel
“The idea gradually dawned on me that all these people – men or women – were not in the least deranged; they were simply lacking in love.”
Building Our Own Palace of Dreams: The 1981 Novel that Envisioned the Modern Surveillance State
A novel that stands above 1984 and Brave New World in prescience.
Representation and Refraction: Gender and The Triple Goddess in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman
For trans women of a certain generation, The Sandman left a lingering uneasiness.
Lore Done Right: Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds
Lore becomes more powerful when there's less of it.
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and ChatGPT: How Snobbery Can Save Us From the Literary Robot Apocalypse
Readers, critics, and editors have to demand better.
Bringing Sherlock Holmes to the 21st Century (or The Adventure of Japan Having All the Fun)
The best Sherlock Holmes stories of the last two decades have come from Japan.
Someone You Can Worldbuild a Nest In: John Wiswell, Fictional Worlds, and Limitations
Worldbuilding discussions in genre fiction frequently miss the point.
Interpreting the Abyss: An Ode to Christopher Manson’s MAZE
The labyrinth inside an 80s puzzle book will never be solved, never die, and never let go of its victims.