literature

Last time, I discussed the curious phenomenon of male fantasy authors who create worlds that drastically restrict the roles their female characters can fill and then struggle to work around […]

Even today, many male fantasy authors are blithely willing to include female characters only as subjects for male characters’ heroics and sexual conquests, but even among the better authors, the […]

Last time, I shared our comments about the book’s background and promotional materials.  Today, we jump right in with the book itself.  It begins in The Combs, a dystopian underground […]

Save the Pearls Readthrough (Part I)

Today we begin our readthrough of the extremely wrongheaded YA novel Save the Pearls, which purports to be an anti-racist parable but ends up being offensive to just about everyone. We […]

Last time, I discussed the new film version of Les Misérables and its context in the history of the novel, the musical, and the proliferation of other adaptations.  This time, […]