Where Does the Blog Go?

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So, as people have no doubt noticed, the blog has been quieter than in the past. Lots of regulars have moved on, and I haven’t been as active in looking for replacement writers, mostly because I’ve been busy with other work.

One thing I did with the blog in the past was to use it as a way to work on longer term projects—most notably by blogging through every issue of the Marston/Peter Wonder Woman over a couple of years there. I was thinking it might be fun to try something like that again…and maybe see if I could get people to contribute to a crowd-funding patreon for a more focused project (my less focused, pay me to write weekly project crashed and burned in a rather humiliating fashion.) And even if not it would be nice to have something to write regularly that’s less constrained by the vagaries of what people can sell ads against or get folks to click on.

Anyway, I’ve got a number of ideas that might be fun to do, so I thought I’d list some of them and see if anyone had strong feelings about which they’d like to see (presuming anyone’s still reading this blog!) Here are some possibilities:

—essays on feminist sci-fi novels

—or, as a variant, essays on all of Ursula K. Le Guin’s novels

—or essays on all of Gwyneth Jones’ novels

—essays on every episode of the Adam West Batman

—essays on all the Hammer horror films

—essays on every Nicholas Cage film (and maybe ranking them all at the end)

—essays on all of John Carpenter’s films

—essays on all of Philip K. Dick’s novels

—essays on rape/revenge films

—essays on slavery films

—essays on the television series Oz

—Twin Peaks?

I guess (?) I’m leaning towards the Hammer films, just because I’m interested in them and haven’t seen most of them, so this would be an excuse to do that. Though a Twin Peaks rewatch would be fun too (or new watch, since I bailed on the second season.) It would be interesting to do a romance novel project, but I’m not quite sure how to constrain it—I could do Judith Ivory’s novels I guess? Or Jennifer Crusie’s; I’ve been enjoying hers…

Anyway, some of these are obviously more ambitious than others. And maybe it’ll be none of the above (or none at all). But if folks have a preference/interest, let me know. We might do a roundtable or something around it as well, I suppose, if folks felt up to it…
 

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34 thoughts on “Where Does the Blog Go?”

  1. I’m in the middle of re-reading (very slowly — too much other stuff I want to read) all of Philip K. Dick’s novels in chronological order, so that’s something I’d be interested in reading.

    The slavery-on-film project would also be very interesting. At the very least I’m curious what you’d find outside of the well known examples, though I’d guess there’s not too much.

  2. I second the PKD.

    How do you, in fact, recruit? Can’t be easy if you don’t pay, which I assume you don’t.

  3. there’s no pay; mostly I just ask people. But I’ve been asking less people, I think just because I’ve gotten busy elsewhere…thus the fewer people posting.

  6. The Adam West Batman would be fun. I’ve enjoyed your writing on the topic when it’s come up on the site. Philip K. Dick would be good as well…but really any long term focused series like the ones suggested above would be fun to read. Looking forward to it!

  7. I will second feminist sci-fi, Adam West Batman, rape/revenge, slavery, and Oz, in that order.

  9. I think any and all of them are worthwhile, and worth sponsoring, although none of them are in my wheelhouse of interests. But that doesn’t bother me: you know a lot better than I do what you could/should/would write about, and I wouldn’t presume to try to decide it.

  11. I vote Hammer. If you look at what shaped Dungeons and Dragons, after LotR, the two most important influences were Jack Vance and the Hammer Horror movies. This is why we have clerics! Yet they seem forgotten by modern culture.

  14. My votes:
    – Ursula K. Le Guin
    – Adam West Batman
    – rape/revenge films

    – and, of course, anything romance!

    I also bailed on Twin Peaks pretty early on. But my boyfriend at the time was totally into it, and my husband (now) was also totally into it. Which makes me wonder if there is a distinctly nerdy guy element to the show.

  15. Hammer, Batman, PKD, Twin Peaks, in that order.
    Shame you didnt really mean Hammer, the restored 1958 Dracula in blue ray quality blew my mind.

  17. PKD, LeGuin, feminist sci fi, Gwyneth Jones. And either Hammer or Universal, since I have absolutely no idea what either one is and it would be fun to learn.

  18. The story I read is, back in the way proto D&D days, one player had a vampire named “Sir Fang,” who was super powerful. And to defeat Sir Fang, someone built the first cleric, based on the Van Helsing character as presented in the Hammer Dracula movies.

  19. Blogging every episode of batman seems like the sort of project that the author of a monograph on wonder woman could turn into a book

  20. Hah…well, I don’t have any book contracts. I’m thinking about self-publishing at some point, since I don’t have any book projects in mind that I can get anyone to pay me for…

  22. I’m down for a Nic Cage film by film analysis. I think he is a fascinating figure in contemporary Hollywood, equally deserving of praise and mockery, but really hard to pin down.

  23. I’d enjoy reading any of these. Maybe rape revenge & feminist sci fi books & PKD seem the most enticing to me. Twin Peaks & PKD would probably be the ones with the biggest commercial appeal if you were to make a book out of them.

    I’d probably enjoy reading you on every Spielberg film too but I would not want to put you through that.

  24. Out of curiosity: why the interest in Universal horror? Hammer made sense, but Universal seems pretty random; I wouldn’t have thought there was much there, other than James Whale’s endearingly batty Bride of Frankenstein or Invisible Man. Is it a gaze theory thing?

  25. Well, the James Whale films are wonderful, and I like the Dracula…I don’t know, I was curious about them. Are they mostly not supposed to be very good?

  26. They’re mostly terrific, although even at the time there was deal of self-conscious camp to them.

  27. If Universal horror is what you meant, I’m fine with it. Also the Val Lewton horror films at RKO in the 1940s.

    Since queer theory comes up quite often at this site, you might be interested in The Q Guide to Classic Horror Movies by Douglas McEwan

  28. I’m up for any of these. Anyway, I’m a librarian at an academic library now, and I firmly beieve it’s possible to gwt some academic press somewhere to publish a monograph of smart critique on pretty much any pop-cult subject, based on what I see on the shelves and arriving every month. How do you get the contract? Sorry, no idea. Do they make much $$? Almost assuredly not. Still, don’t give up hope!

  29. The problem isn’t getting a publisher; the problem is getting a publisher to pay. It’s difficult to get the time to work on it if I’m not getting paid (since of course I don’t get paid through a university to work on such things.)

  31. Small nitpick of the nerdy kind — Dracula doesn’t appear in Salem’s Lot.

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