Utilitarian Review 8/16/14

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Betsy Phillips on the appeal and repulsion of blackface, for both blacks and whites.

Voices from the Archive: Caroline Small on the failures of comics symbolism.

Me on why books don’t make you spiritual.

Ng Suat Tong on Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié’s A Chinese Life, and choosing stability over freedom.

Chris Gavaler on the Leftovers and an apocalypse without answers.

Kate Polak on J.P. Stassen’s Deogratias, Rwanda, and unethical empathy.

Roy T. Cook asks whether some panel layouts are superior to others (part of the PPP roundtable on Groensteen and page layout.)

Alex Buchet on the dangers of translation and the importance of accountability.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Pacific Standard I explain why, in addition to more strong female characters, we need fewer strong male characters.
 
Other Links

Jennifer Williams at Ms. on why Ferguson is a feminist issue.

David Masciotra on the latter-period Elvis.

Nicholas Jackson on why Pacific Standard doesn’t have comments.
 

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Utilitarian Review 8/9/14

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Kate Dacey on a crappy manga about Ghandi.

Chris Gavaler on Lucy and the regin of the superwoman.

I explain why I stopped watching Weeds after its godawful sex trafficking story.

Chris R. Morgan looks back at the Blair Witch project after 15 years.

Osvaldo Oyola on Dan Slott’s Superior Spider-Man and how continuity mucks with identity.

Vom Marlowe with an introduction to the wonderful world of Avengers slash fan fic.

Adrielle Mitchell kicks off a PPP roundtable on Groensteen and narrative by looking at panel shape.

On Spider-Man, identity, morality and Kant.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Comic Book Resources I argued that William Marston would approve of Laverne Cox playing Wonder Woman.

At the Atlantic I argued that Shakespeare was a conservative.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

—how Nicki Minaj and Lana Del Rey are watching you.

—how I was the victim of an IRS phone scam.

— Kira Isabell’s Quarterback“, date rape, and country music history.

London Crockett interviews me about genre in music and literature.

At the Chicago Reader I wrote about Brown Sabbath and the glory of lounge metal.
 
Other Links

Christina Sharpe on racism, urban ethnography, and Alice Goffman’s much-praised, ethically challenged new book.

Roxanne Gay on racism and retail.

Jim Norton on being a john.

Julia Serano on media coverage of trans issues.

On class and getting into elite schools
 

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Brown Sabbath

 

Utilitarian Review 8/2/14

On HU

Featured Archive Post: our Octavia Butler roundtable

Me on Nicki Minaj’s crappy first album.

Nishizaka Hiromi with a manga version of red riding hood, translated by Matt Thorn for the gay utopia.

Kim O’Connor on Tom Spurgeon, tcj.com, and barriers to women in comics crit.

Chris Gavaler with an introduction to the French superhero Atomas.

Alex Buchet with the first ever translation of Pellos’ French superhero comic, Atomas.

Brian Cremins with his first post as a regular for PPP — on Charles Johnson’s single panel cartoons and Thiery Groensteen’s theories of narrative.

Me on Christopher Priest’s Black Panther being trapped by superhero tropes.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Atlantic:

—I interviewed Feminista Jones about street harassment of Black women.

— I reviewed Above the Dreamless Dead, a collection of comics adaptations of World War I Poetry, and talked about the possibility of anti-war art.

At the Awl I interviewed Otrebor aka Botanist about black metal and eco-apocalypse.

At Salon I did a list of the most covered songs. This is my last list for Salon, alas.

At Splice Today I speculate about the next Supreme Court nomination battle and the broken Republican party.
 
Other Links

David Brothers on Marvel’s diversity marketing.

At the Village Voice, Stephanie Zacharek said the Guardians of the Galaxy was mediocre. Marvel true believers spewed sexist bile, because that is what they do.

Andrew O’Hehir thinks about violence and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Margaret Corvid on the pernicious myth of sex trafficking.

Russ Smith on still liking Bob Dylan, albeit not live.
 

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Utilitarian Review 7/25/14

On HU

On Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis and feminist submission.

Me on Ariel Schrag’s Adam and penises.

Ross Campbell, author of Wet Moon, on endings.

Chris Gavaler documents the graffitti of Angouleme.

Ben H. Winters on a career writing mash-ups, funny and otherwise.

Me on how Bob Dylan and John Porcellino will get you with twee nostalgia.

Michael A. Johnson on surrealism, history, and Rutu Modan’s clear line.

Kailyn Kent on “Under The Skin” and failing to get inside the mind of the spider lady.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At NPR I did a commentary on masculinity and virginity.

At the LA Review of Books I wrote about Octavia Butler, Gone With the Wind, and how a utopia for some can be a hell for someone else, depending on where you’re standing.

At the Atlantic I

—tried to quantify how many women read superhero comics.

—wrote about the genius of casting Beyoncé as Christian Grey in the 50 Shades movie.

At Splice Today

—I write about Iggy Azalea, racial appropriation and class solidarity.

— I listed the worst Beatles songs

At the Chicago Reader I briefly wrote about Insect Ark and emo goth drone for metalheads

I was on WCEH’s World’s Finest radio show talking about sci-fi and genre. (download the Hooded Utilitarian show from itunes at the link.)
 
Other Links

Mark Stricherz on what happened to Dinesh D’Souza.

Kim O’Connor interviews Hillary Chute.

Jessica Lahey on a 6th grader who stole a scientist’s research.

C.T. May explains why Thomas Frank’s complaints about Obama are silly.

Maya Mikdashi on how Palestinian men are seen as always, already dangerous.
 

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Utilitarian Review 7/19/14

On HU

Featured Archive Post: Ng Suat Tong on Asumiko Nakamura’s Utsubora and pornography.

Me on 12 Years a Slave as torture porn.

Me on Nightjohn and slavery as educational uplift.

Chris Gavaler on apes, men, and (no) women.

Charles Reece on Octavia Butler and the virtues of species suicide.

Rahawa Haile on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and not necessarily rooting for the humans.

Qiana Whitted talked about Ross Campbell’s Wet Moon and ending comics series.

Kate Polak and I talked about violence and sexual violence in Garth Ennis’ “The Boys”
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

Bert Stabler posted this video directed by him and Matt Steinke to which I contributed the vocals of the evil plant brain thing.

At the Atlantic:

—I interviewed genocide scholar Adam Jones about misandry and discrimination against men.

—I interviewed Tressie McMillan Cottom about country rap, hick hop, race, and class.

At Salon I wrote about Gene Yuen Lang and Sonny Liew’s comic The Shadow Hero, and superheroes as assimilation fantasies.

At Esquire I wrote about:

the female Thor and why making legacy characters more diverse is a good thing.

black Captain America and what it means for a black superhero to enforce law and order.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

—how the Rolling Stones have sucked for a really long time, and wondered if that mattered to their World’s Greatest Band TM status.

—how the problem with Columbus is not cultural appropriation but cutting off people’s hands and raping 10 year olds

—copyright and Dream Another Dream, a new kickstarter funded collection of Winsor McCay tributes.

At the Chicago Reader I wrote briefly about Soundgarden and rock nostalgia for rock nostalgia.
 
Other Links

Osvaldo Oyola on the impossibility of the black superhero.

John McWhorter on cultural appropriation, or not.

On Slavoj Zizek plagiarism, and the logistic of superstar scholarship.

Julianne Ross on confused MRA memes.

Noah Gittell on nudity in OITNB.

Elias Light makes the case for Paul McCartney’s solo recordings. Interesting, if not convincing.
 
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Utilitarian Review 7/12/14

On HU

Robert Jones, Jr. on giving up on mainstream comics.

Matt Thorn with a brief note on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Octavia Butler as uncomfortable foremother.

A.Y. Daring on wound as identity in Kindred.

Julian Chambliss looks at what scholars study when they study Octavia Butler.

Me on Octavia Butler’s mediocre prose and why it matters.

Chris Gavaler on how Fantax shows that the French know their way around super-hero violence.

I think we’ve got a couple more Octavia Butler posts next week, but then that’s it, and we’ll be back to regular old posting!
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Salon I have 19 songs that show that Jimi Hendrix was not a token.

At the Atlantic I argue that Elvis invented nothing and stole nothing.

At Splice Today I write about the great conservative novel, Gone With the Wind.
 
Other Links

Jeet Heer on Harold Gray and the limits of conservative anti-racism.

Armond White on the mediocrity of Roger Ebert.

Elias Leight on new albums by Joe and Trey Songz.
 
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Utilitarian Review 7/5/14

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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