The end of 2017 is nigh. And with it, the top ten lists, the retrospectives, the predictions. Rather than the Top Books Published in 2017 or the Best Films of the Year or anything like this, here's my list of opinions, ideas, and arguments that I have not already written about in 2017 and would …
Tag: Kurt Vonnegut
Sick of Reboots, Sequels, and Extended Universes? Blame Classic Literature
Don't blame Michael Bay or Marvel for all the sequels, reboots, and extended universes. Blame William Shakespeare, Alexandre Dumas, and Mark Twain.
The Beginner’s Guide to Kurt Vonnegut: How to Finally Start Reading Vonnegut’s Novels
There has never been a better time to start reading Kurt Vonnegut. To begin with, today is his 94th birthday. Second, we appear to be living inside one of his novels, with an egocentric billionaire slouching toward the White House, the National Anthem at the center of controversy, and our entire existence increasingly descending into a parody of …
What Would Kurt Vonnegut Say About the 2016 Election?
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 …
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What Should Mr. Robot Pay Homage to in Season Two?
The critically-acclaimed, award-winning cable series Mr. Robot is notable for a number of reasons, with a big twist: in the final two episodes, you realize you've been watching a ten hour unlicensed Fight Club reboot. One could say that the twist is "Elliot was Mr. Robot all along!" just like the twist in Fight Club is …
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Why Everyone Should Calm Down and Take Vonnegut’s Approach to Talking about Big Game Hunting
People love to shame these days. They also love to shame the shamers. And with the tendency for the internet to get hysterical about anything that seems worthy of hysteria, we have turned our outrage to the recent poaching of a beautiful and famous African lion, named Cecil. The entire world appears to be dividing …