Back in the 1990s, my mom did not allow me to watch Disney’s adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because she thought it looked too dark and scary (watching it many years later as an adult, I have to say that she’s not entirely wrong. It’s really not a children’s film at all). Hilariously enough, my parents got me the novel for Christmas a mere few years later, not realizing that this is a Little Mermaid situation in that the Disney adaptation is a […]
Read this book as a statement, not a question. And weep.
Peeps. We’ve been living this nightmare for almost a year now. It feels like ten. I don’t want to relitigate the 2016 election, except to say that I was blue no matter who (thanks to my Throwing Shade podcast for that line!), and I am tired of Hillary Clinton being burned in the town square of public opinion. She is not president of the United States, and she is not running again. And after reading her book, I began to understand the enormity of what […]
Dark high fantasy that just didn’t do it for me.
Many years ago, my sister had told me about the Way of Shadows, a fantasy novel and part of a trilogy that she had read. I was sufficiently intrigued and added it to my TBR. Two CBR Book Exchanges ago, Malin had graciously added it to my book haul and hoped that I would enjoy the reading experience. And, while I admit that this book was not my cup of tea, I am grateful for the experience and the diversity in reading material that she […]
A re-read that was worth the time
At the end of September, I presented a paper on P.D. James’s The Children of Men and technological anxieties. I used two academic metaphors: Michel Foucault’s reading of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon model; and Donna Haraway’s cyborg. I argue that these examine male anxiety and female empowerment, particularly in an age of surveillance. That’s the sparknotes version, because I am fairly certain you don’t want to hear my presentation, but my thoughts on the book instead. Obviously, because I wrote about Children of Men, I had […]