An ongoing exploration of the dark and gritty reboot
It's no secret that I'm a pretty big Moby-Dick fan. Or, if it was a secret to you, then this might be the first thing you've read by me. Which is cool, if that's the case (thanks!). Anyway, in honor of Moby-Dick's 166th birthday, here are nine reasons that you finally need to read it. …
Continue reading 9 Reasons to Start Reading Moby-Dick on its 166th Birthday
The big week is here: Moon Landing Week! Or at least, it eventually will be known as Moon Landing Week. For now, we know that this upcoming Thursday (July 20th) is the 48th anniversary of the Moon Landing... or perhaps we don't. Perhaps you just learned that now. In honor of this year's Moon Landing …
Continue reading Ten Ways to Celebrate #MoonLandingDay and Moon Landing Week 2017
You may wonder—or perhaps you may not—why this blog displays no ads. Nothing encouraging you to go to other sites, nothing in this margins, nothing at the bottom of the page. You will not be nudged toward fantasy sports, discount shopping, weight loss remedies, or ways to make extra money by working at home. I do not …
I've received a number of questions about The Moonborn: or, Moby-Dick on the Moon, my novel that came out on Monday, November 14th. While I love getting questions about it, I decided to put together this list for people who might have questions and would like an easy answer. Note that there are no spoilers, …
Continue reading Twelve Questions and Answers About The Moonborn (with No Spoilers)
Or, When Did We Start Living in a Fictional Satire? I've compared recent events—and, in particular, this presidential election—to many things: Armageddon, Alien, every Batman story, and almost every '90s action movie. But there is one painful metaphor that I have not explored: the 2016 election appears to have been written by writer and satirist Kurt Vonnegut. I first …
Continue reading What Would Kurt Vonnegut Say About the 2016 Election?
You may have noticed this blog's recent lowered activity. Nothing new since early August, with only a handful of new posts since the beginning of summer. What is the deal, you may ask. Where is your latest needless fan theory? Where is my latest exhaustive Batman dissection? How have you still not reacted to the most …
Continue reading The Short Story I Wrote Inspired by Wes Anderson and Carlos Castaneda
A week ago yesterday - on Wednesday, November 25 - I came across a deal on Amazon: a free digital download of the SD version of the David Foster Wallace biopic The End of the Tour. The deal materialized as part of Black Friday Week, the manic celebration of capitalism that has eclipsed Thanksgiving during …
Continue reading Happy Black Friday 2015 from David Foster Wallace
I haven't had anything to say about trigger warnings until now. I had been leaning on the side of "not necessary" or "too coddling," as most of the media I consume had been framing them in this way. But I'm surprised to say that I think I've had a change of heart, inspired partially by this …
Continue reading Why Are Trigger Warnings Less Accepted Than Spoiler Alerts?
In a previous post, I've argued that no one should call a show good or bad until the end is known. Which means, now that the end is known, we can decide if True Detective's second season was good or bad. People love complaining about how confusing the plot of this season was. And I won't …
Continue reading What Would Faulkner Say About True Detective Season Two?
People love pretending that there is a new novel by Harper Lee, available in stores now. But we all know there isn't. I'm not going to go into all the details of it, because there are enough articles that already do, but basically: it's likely that Harper Lee is being exploited, her supposed new novel is really …
Continue reading Why Harper Lee’s “New Novel” is the Literary Equivalent of Greedo Shooting First