Category Archives: Utilitarian Review

Utilitarian Review 7/5/14

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On HU

Our Octavia Butler roundtable continued:

I asked folks to tell me their most and least favorite Butler novels.

I wrote about Octavia Butler as romance novelist, and Laura Kinsale as sci-fi author.

Vom Marlowe reviewed Butler’s Wild Seed.

And then the roundtable took a sort of pause as people didn’t quite have their pieces in…but it will resume next week!

In the meantime,

Adrian Bonenberger examined the movie-making talents of radical Islamic insurgent group ISIS.

Chris Gavaler wrote about the first comic book and the comics artists of Lascaux.

And I provided an index of all my writing on Orange Is the New Black, plus some responses to critics.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wrote about Orange Is the New Black, gender stereotypes, and male representation. This turned into a viral hate read this week, if you missed it.

At Salon I did a list of great double entendre songs.

At Splice Today I wrote about

— the great Al Green song I Can’t Get Next to You; better than Robin Thicke!

—Obama, generic democrat, with maybe slightly less hawk.

At Bitch I wrote about Ariel Schrag’s lovely new novel Adam, about a cis man passing as a trans man.
 
Other Links

Steven Heller on the long-running comics anthology World War 3.

Mary McCarthy on the perils of sex in a hot tub.

Jill Filipovic has a nice piece on the Hobby Lobby decision.
 

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Utilitarian Review 6/28/14

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Star Puzzle by Nora Ezell

 
On HU

Featured Archive Post: Brian Cremins on Matt Levin’s Walking Man and the end of the Comics Buyer’s Guide.

The Giant Squid on his time in the disco-rock quartet the Gay Utopia.

Thirty second hate of Vampire Weekend.

I did a little Orange Is the New Black hate blogging.

I wrote about why HU is a comics blog that keeps writing about things other than comics.

Chris Gavaler on Irma Vep and the first superheroine film.

Our Octavia Butler roundtable kicked off: an ongoing index is here.

Qiana Whitted on ugliness and empathy in Bloodchild and Xenogenesis.

Lysa Rivera on power, change, and marginalization in Butler’s work.

Kailyn Kent imagined how the Xenogenesis series might be turned into a movie.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Esquire I wrote about how Robin Thicke can learn to be less of an asshole by reading romance novels.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

— Seun Kuti and how Fela is everybody’s daddy.

— OITNB, Piper’s privilege, and how white people can end up on the wrong side of institutional racism.

At the Chicago Reader I wrote about:

— black metal band Sargeist and how black metal is roots music.

—a great little exhibit of African-American quilts from Gee’s Bend Alabama.
 
Other Links

Isaac Butler on who is served by the high road.

Pamela Stewart on Mary McCarthy’s new book, “The Scarlet Letter Society”.

Jonathan Bernstein on why George H.W. Bush’s Gulf War was a bad idea too.

Utilitarian Review 6/21/14

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We’re going to start an Octavia Butler Roundtable next week! Be here or miss the apocalyptic tentacle sex, as they say.
 
On HU

Featured Archive Post: me on Octavia Butler and submission in the Xenogenesis trilogy.

Lilli Carré with creepy flower drawings for the Gay Utopia.

Marc-Oliver Frisch on why comics need comics criticism.

Jog on AR Murugadoss, Bollywood’s crass analyst of the popular.

Benjamin Rogers on concertina comics, long film shots, and time dilation.

Roy T. Cook on how to interpret comic book covers, for PencilPanelPage.

Chris Gavaler on Fantomas and the dada of supervillainy.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wrote about:

—Barry Posen’s new book, Restraint, and the moral argument for America to do less.

— a study showing that people harassed online have few legal remedies.

At Salon I wrote about 10 musicians influenced by Dylan who are better than Dylan.

At Splice Today, I

—made fun of Damon Linker for thinking that Hillary’s gaffes matter.

—made fun of NPR for thinking that independent voters are a thing.

I was on HuffPost Live talking about the fact that George Will is an idiot. Hannah Groch-Begley and Jaclyn Friedman were both a lot more articulate than me, but I did start babbling about the connection between misogyny and anti-intellecutalism, causing the host to look at me as if I’d lost my mind.
 
Other Links

Tressie McMillan Cottom with an awesome essay on hick hop, or country rap.

Rachel Riederer on how paying college teachers nothing is not good for students.

Amanda Hess on why having a bunch of white men talk about sexism isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Yasmin Nair on the poor handling of race in the 2nd season of OITNB.

DC excited that Bob Kane is getting a star on Hollywood, fans eager to explain why DC sucks (and Bob Kane too.
 

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Utilitarian Review 6/14/14

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On HU

Featured Archive Post: Jason Overby on every Johnny Ryan parody ever.

Ma Rainey with blues for the Gay Utopia.

Tom Gill on narrative, hint, and symbol in the work of Tsuge.

Michael Carson on Starship Troopers and failing to fight fascism with satire.

Kailyn Kent on Shopgirl, wine, and sin.

Adrielle Mitchell on Hillary Chute’s Out of the Box and comics creators commenting on their own work.

Chris Gavaler on the making of Monte Cristo, novel and sandwhich.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic:

— I wrote about why the Dr. Strange film won’t be as good as Steve Ditko.

—I provided a short history of male feminism

At Salon:

—I listed great gospel singers and the secular artists they influenced

—I talk about the film Eden and why people are eager to believe that transparent exploitation dreck tells us the truth about trafficking.

At the Center for Digital Ethics I wrote about the ethics of tweeting prostitution stings.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

— pitching stories and how to get rejected while trying pretty hard.

—asking kids if they need saving before you save them from heatstroke.
 
Other Links

Kathleen Hale with the best essay about YA ever.

Nancy Leong on harassment and the responsibility to moderate comments.

Conor Fridersdorf on why we should put MLK on the 20 dollar bill.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown on doubts about Chong Kim’s sex trafficking story.

Nicky Smith on boring Jeff Tweedy and his boring songs.

Jason Diamond on Ariel Schrag’s new novel Adam.
 

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Utilitarian Review 6/7/14

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On HU

Featured Archive Post: Mette Ivie Harrison on Bella as a Mormon goddess in Twilight.

Me on how shirtless Henry Cavill will seduce you to the good.

Julia Serano on why gender isn’t performance.

Nora Olsen on the history of YA.

Virgin talks to virgin, a discussion of male and female virginity.

Rahawa Haile on Godzilla, the emotionally reticent engine that could.

Michael A. Johnson on empathy and iconicity in comics.

Orion Martin on figuring out how to get from panel to panel in comics.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic

— I argue that OITNB is unadventurous sexually and politically compared to the exploitation film Caged Heat.

— I esplain why men should be feminists.

—I argued that YA books can be complex by talking about Stacey Donovan’s Dive

— I interviewed Judy Y. Chu about her book When Boys Become Boys, gender, and childhood development.

At Salon:

—I had a list of musicians who were still making decent music after 40 years.

—I talked about She-Hulk and the problems with hoping for more female superheroes.

I had two really fun pieces on Splice Today. I wrote about:

—the new album by Bok Bok and how it’s just a future past projection of Prince, James Brown, and Louis Jordan

—how my ten year old decided to start sleeping with us again.
 
Other Links

Osvaldo Oyala with a two-part essay on the X-Men Days of Future Past: Part One;
Part Two.

Interesting Huffpost Live conversation on the YesAllWomen hashtag and minority women

Melissa Gira Grant on Somaly Mam and prostitution rescue fantasies.
 

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Utilitarian Review 5/31/14

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You can preorder my Wonder Woman book for 20% off! Bondage, cross-dressing, pink ectoplasmic goo…what are you waiting for?

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Subdee on Saint Young Men, hipster Jeuss and hipster Buddha.

Joy Putney on the Wicked Witch of the West as superhero.

Tyler Wenger on Superman and Christ.

R.M. Rhodes on Vasari, Kandinsky, narrative art and comics.

Isaac Butler on Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” and 9/11.

Robert Stanley Martin has an exhaustive history of Steve Gerber’s struggles with Marvel over legal control of Howard the Duck. You can find documents relating to the post here.

Qiana Whitted on Joel Christian Gill’s Strange Fruit and the representation of racist speech in comics.

Chris Gavaler on poet Tim Seibles, Blade, and race.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I had a post about the Elliot Rodger shootings and building masculinity on misogyny.

I was interviewed about the essay on HuffPost Live and also on Take Two.

Also at the Atlantic I wrote about the Great Greene Heist and how we need more diverse mediocre children’s books as well as more diverse great ones.

At Salon I have a list to prove that 2000s R&B was the greatest music ever.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

— how the Orange is the New Black TV show jettisons the memoir’s political commitment for cheap thrills.

— the cover of the Great Green Heist and seeing and not seeing race.

At the Chicago Reader

— I preview the CAKE Chicago Comics Expo, which is happening right now as you read this.

— I have a brief review of orchestral indie folksters Mother Falcon.
 
Other Links

Mary McCarthy on living out her stripper fantasies, very briefly.

Amanda Hess on how misogyny is bad for everyone.

Eloise James on the stigma against romance novels.

Jonathan Bernstein on why ideological political parties are a bad thing.
 

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Utilitarian Review 5/24/14

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On HU

Featured Archive Post: Nadim Damluji on imperialism and Mickey Mouse in Egypt.

Vom Marlowe with a Weiss Kreutz slash gender-swapping pregnancy fan fic for the gay utopia.

Hiba Ganta on femininism and Indian culture.

Isaac Butler on white peopel enslaved in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling.

Jones, One of the Jones Boys on Jack Kirby, touching, and the X-Men.

Me on wanting to be the one you’re with in 16 Candles and Nora Olsen’s Frenemy of the People.

Frank Bramlett looks at representations of Michael Sam in editorial cartoons.

Chris Gavaler on Tarzan and eugenics.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I argue that critics of critics should be criticized.

At Splice Today I sneer at William Giraldi’s stupid article about 50 Shades of Grey.

At Salon I have a list of white covers of R&B before Elvis.

At the Chicago Reader I previewed a nice looking show of emerging artists in Chicago.
 
Other Links

Elias Leight on Nikki Lane, Sturgill Simpson, and contemporary country.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on the case for reparations.

Amanda Hess on 28 things that have been described as porn for women.

Professor Crunk on Beyonce and bell hooks.
 

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