Utilitarian Review 5/17/14

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Noah Berlatsky

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Chris Gavaler’s students review Spider-Man 2.

Me on why it’s not morally wrong to send your kid to private school.

Ng Suat Tong on the subversive blandness and bland subversion of Ms. Marvel.

Sean Michael Robinson on Depeche Mode, Doré and the denigration of craft.

Sarah Shoker on the economics of fantasy and why nerds like stuff.

Roy T. Cook asks if Tong of the Fantastic Four is transgendered.

Kailyn Kent on why suggestions of lighting for wine are stupid.

Utilitarians Everywhere

I contributed a piece to the Orange Is the New Black roundtable at Public Books, which really kicks the series satisfyingly. My piece is on the way that the series uses hoary lesbian tropes from the 1950 prison film Caged.

At the Chicago Reader I did a short review of Edie Fake’s wonderful Memory Palaces, which he’ll be reading from at Quimby’s tomorrow.

At the Atlantic I wrote about how Beyoncé critiques bell hooks.

At Salon I wrote about:

— the 12 greatest albumsof the 90s.

—how twitter has enabled sex worker speech.

—Comic Book Resources’ decision to revamp their comments in the light of sexist abuse.

At Splice Today I wrote about

—Liberals for the Republican establishment

— why mainstream sites cover Game of Thrones even though no one watches it.

At the Dissolve I wrote about the mediocre documentary Next Year in Jerusalem, about nursing home patients visiting Israel.

Other Links

Rob Liefeld…what more can you say?

Dani Paradis on a camp for children to express whatever gender they want.

Jonathan Bernstein on why campaign finance reform isn’t worth the candle.

Linda Holmes on romance fiction and women’s health.

Utilitarian Review 5/10/14

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Noah Berlatsky

News

Rutgers put up a prepub page for my book! You can see the cover and everything (or just look up above there)!

Check it out!

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Robert Stanley Martin on Brassai’s photography.

I wrote about why I like Piss Christ.

A brief thread on overrated and underratd photography, strongly suggesting that nobody cares about photography much.

Kailyn Kent on wine labels for male insecurity.

Chris Gavaler argues the world is ready for superheroines kicking butt on the big screen.

Me on Ms. Marvel, female superheroes, and aggression (or the lack thereof.)

Adrielle Mitchell on Luke Pearson’s Everything We Miss, time, space, and loss.

Erotic artist Michael Manning on Beardsley and the gay utopia.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wrote about why I still like Star Wars. (It’s the dirty robots.)

At Salon:

— you say rockist, I say poptimist, let’s call the whole thing off

— I wrote about The Bechdel Test and shaming women’s genre works.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

— how having the U.S. pay attention to Nigeria isn’t necessarily in the best interest of Nigeria.

— Myra Greene’s book My White Friends and the invisibility of whiteness.

At the Center for Digital Ethics I wrote about the Ethics of Ride Sharing, of all things.

Other Links

Michael Carson on taking the war out of war literature.

Zeynep Tufecki on Nigeria and the politics of attention.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on how racism was deployed against Bill Clinton (and Lincoln, for that matter).

Kathleen Geier on conservative family trees and the cult of victimhood.

Nobody watches Game of Thrones.

Tracy Q. Loxley on underreporting sexual harassment.

Utilitarian Review 5/3/14

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Noah Berlatsky

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Andrea Tang on Iron Man 3, Olympus Has Fallen, and the new yellow peril.

Paul Nudd with Love-Chutney drawings for the Gay Utopia.

Alexander Hamilton was an authoritarian thug.

Ng Suat Tong with a lengthy consideration of Nijigahara Holograph.

Chris Gavaler on Phillip Pullman and Spring-heeled Jack.

I talk about Octavia Butler’s Fledglin, Lacan, and amnesia.

Michael A. Johnson talks about the ethical implications of covering war via photograph and comic (from PPP.)

Sean Michael Robinson on Rhinestone Cowboys, Deacon Blues, and small dreams.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Salon I

— Lised the 10 most overrated albums of the 1990s.

—wrote about how there are basically no women in the original Star Wars.

At the Dissolve I reviewed the documentary Documented about Jose Antonio Vargas’ experience as an undocumented immigrant.

At Splice Today I wrote about

— Esme Patterson asking Elvis Costello what the hell is wrong with him.

— how Batman, Sarah Palin and everybody else loves torture.

Other Links

Amazon is deleting the wish lists of sex workers because Amazon is run by arbitrary puritanical assholes.

Relatedly, Spike on trying to publish porn comics.

Also relatedly, the DOJ is closing porn star’s bank accounts because our government is run by arbitrary puritanical assholes.

Dana Schwartz on gender in Star Wars.

Isaac Butler on why your Star Wars books still count.

Mary McCarthy on jeans drama.

Utilitarian Review 4/12/14

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Noah Berlatsky

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Jog on Bollywood sci-fi.

Bert Stabler on Christianity, the gay utopia, and why V for Vendetta is no good.

Me on R. Fiore, Walt Kelly, and why our idols can’t be racist. (a response to R. Fiore’s piece at TCJ.)

Kailyn Kent on chianti in Robocop.

Chris Gavaler on allegorical drones in Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Brian Cremins on Walt Kelly and imagining the South in Connecticut. (a response to R. Fiore’s piece at TCJ.)

Frank Bramlett for PPP asks, how do questions get answered in comics?

Sean Michael Robinson on trying, and failing, to create a graphic novel.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic I wrote about why we need to stop comparing the NSA to 1984.

At Salon I had a list of Michael Jackson covers.Libertarians for free speech, except the free speech to tell the Mozilla CEO to get lost.

—Squarepusher collaborating with Japanese robots.

Other Links

A survey on sexual harassment in comics.

Tracy Q. Loxley on contraception and the the ACA.

Jonathan Bernstein on how Rand Paul’s campaign is like Jesse Jackson’s.

Utilitarian Review 4/5/14

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Noah Berlatsky

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Matthias Wivel on racism and free speech articles in Scandinavia.

Ariel Schrag‘s “Wandering Hands” — Gay Utopia cartoons.

Who is the most overrated 20th century novelist? Hemingway! (we talk about most underrated too.

Chris Gavaler finally unmasks the Joker.

I wrote about YA dystopias and historical romances.

Subdee reviews Noah and the not totally awful apocalypse.

Roy T. Cook wonders if She-Hulk doesn’t superhero, is she still in a superhero comic?

Chris Gavaler on Native American schools and supeheroes.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Salon:

— I asked, ““why should we care about Wonder Woman?” (and reviewed Tim Hanley’s excellent new WW book.)

— I listed 12 great Beyonce mash-ups, from Nirvana to Abba.

At the Atlantic I wrote about James Baldwin’s The Devil Finds Work, the greatest piece of film criticism ever.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

— Carlene Carter‘s lovely new album, and how she makes more sense as she ages.

— Jonathan Chait telling non-white people of the world to give thanks

— the Rumsfeld bullshit and why we love it.

At the Reader I reviewed an amazing show on the visual culture of Chinese opera.

At Salon Sean McElwee argues that only privileged people get to be writers. He uses a piece I wrote a bit back as a launching pad, and somewhat distorts it to do so, but overall it’s a good piece.

And at Reason I was quoted in this article by Elizabeth Nolan Brown, talking about sex work and Katha Pollitt.

Other Links

Monika Bartyzel explaining to Hollywood why it sucks for not making female superhero movies.

There was an interesting conversation on twitter about race and rock music. (I joined in a bit.)

Nic Subtirelu on the linguistics of “bossy”.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on his origin story.

R. Fiore wrote a piece on Walt Kelly’s relationship with race that I disagree with fairly strongly. There are good comments from David Brothers, Sarah Horrocks, Jeet Heer, Brian Cremins and others though. (I left a comment or two as well.)