On HU

On Thai pop singer Pamela Bowden and why the world’s too big for best of lists.

I concluded our roundtable on the Best Band No One Has Ever Heard Of with a discussion of why some music (and some roundtables) aren’t popular.

I argued that the secrets in Jill Lepore’s Wonder Woman history aren’t actually secrets.

Chris Gavaler on the history of transsexual supervillainy.

Jared Hill on Arthur C. Clarke, prognosticator.

Roy T. Cook wonders if a Batman comic in color is a different comic from the same(?) Batman comic in black and white

Kailyn Kent on how absurdity becomes conservatism in the film Snowpiercer.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic:

—I reported on We Charge Genocide how Chicago’s human rights violations were presented to the UN.

—I said that the new Peanuts film looks like cheery, ugly crap.

— I interviewed Martin Paul Eve about open access to academic work in the humanities.

At Comic Book Resources I argued that diveristy is a superhero tradition.

At the LA Review of Books I wrote about Sergei Lukyanenko’s The Genome and how the fault is in our genre, not our genome.

I got interviewed on the Irish pop culture show the Green Room about spoilers. (I’m towards the beginning of the hour.

At Splice Today

— I interviewed the wonderful psychedelic soul musician Jordannah Elizabeth.

— I point out that Hillary Clinton is really popular and is almost certainly going to win the Democratic nomination.

— I make fun of Paul Krugman’s pop culture writing.
 
Other Links

Laura Hudson with a fantastic piece on Twine and diversity in video games.

Greg Hunter takes down Fukitor at tcj; nice exercise in biting the hand.

Imran Siddiquee on how teen dystopias imagine everything getting worse except racism and sexism.

Emily Witt on Laura Kipnis’ bad book about men behaving badly.