Monthly Archives: June 2011

A Quick Linkdump about Gender, Marriage and Smurfs

I have to get up early, because I have to take my Dad to the airport, so here’s just a quick linkdump: The discussion on the invisibility of women in science fiction is still going strong with an SF Signal … Continue reading

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Darkness, Light and Assumptions of Quality

The New York Times profiles Amanda Hocking. Apparently, this is their way of acknowledging her success, since Amanda Hocking’s books are still excluded from the New York Times bestseller list, though other self-published e-books have been included in the list. … Continue reading

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The Curse of Quality Drama

Rumours of a potential Star Wars live action series have been flowing around for a while now, but apparently the rumours are consolidating. Alyssa Rosenberg at ThinkProgress and Ta-Nehisi Coates at the Atlantic have information (a little) and speculation (a … Continue reading

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Linkdump for a Crappy Thursday

I had an awful day at school today, including an altercation with a grumpy cleaning lady whom the whole school (students and teachers alike) hates and a kid trying to nick my watch. And had the gall to tell me … Continue reading

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How to kill a fictional character without losing your audience

I’d been noticing an uptick of hits on my Game of Thrones related posts in the past few days. And a lot of people googled for things like “is game of thrones depressing” (yes) and “does game of thrones have … Continue reading

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Speculative fiction by women – and what exactly are the neighbours hiding in their garden anyway?

Even though I didn’t have school today – Pentecost holidays, hurray – I’m awfully tired. First of all, my sleep this morning was cut short by an infernal noise that turned out to be my stupid neighbours from across the … Continue reading

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YA goes dark, Salman Rushdie goes TV, Haruki Murakami goes anti-nuclear, some thoughts on urban fantasy and a headline from a parallel universe

The long Pentecost/Whitsun weekend, though I still have one more day of school holidays. I also have links for you: Yesterday, an airship, more precisely the Goodyear blimp, caught fire and crashed in Hessen. This would seem like a news … Continue reading

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Chavs, Reality TV and Class Prejudice

A few days ago, I linked to this discussion of the British slang term “chav” at the Guardian. Now the Guardian has a follow-up article, in which Suzanne Moore says that it’s not the term “chav” itself that’s the problem … Continue reading

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A Pentecost Linkdump

Today is Pentecost or Whitsun weekend, which is a public holiday in Germany. Well, tomorrow, i.e. Monday is a public holiday and those of us working in school like yours truly get Tuesday off as well. So hurray for a … Continue reading

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The Cross Cultural Appeal of Teen Movies

At the Atlantic, Alan Siegel argues that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off isn’t such a great film as many believe and predictably is accused of lacking a sense of humour by the Ferrisphiles in the comments. I largely agree with Siegel, … Continue reading

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