I Hear a New Worldby Alan Moore I love Alan Moore. I love him so much that I still think about his comic books and “book” books on a regular basis. I even love interviews of him talking about his books or society in general. So, I wanted to love I Hear a New World. At the very least I wanted to like it. But, that was hard for me to do. I didn’t exactly love The Great When and...
The Odysseyby HomerTranslated by Emily Wilson Everyone’s got Odyssey FEVER! Say what you will about Christopher Nolan, but he has a way of peaking an audience’s interest in any random historical topic: Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, and now the Odyssey. We’re all a bunch of philistines anyway, so if he’s getting us to learn about something to make us more cultured, God bless him. Turns out of Nolan cares about a topic, suddenly EVERYONE cares. The problem, of course, is that Nolan’s...
We Are the Clashby Mark Andersen, Ralph Heibutzki My love of the Clash runs deep. So deep that it extends to Cut the Crap. The problem here is that Cut the Crap is not a great album, but I like it, warts and all. It’s truly perplexing to think how a band who’s made such meaningful music could have such a misfire. People refer to Cut the Crap era Clash as Clash Mark 2, as a way to dismiss the...
Nomadby Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, and Steve Coogan I don’t know how exactly I became such an Alan Partridge fan. I like Steve Coogan and especially his Trip series with Rob Brydon. I guess I just had a thirst for more Coogan and Alan Partridge was a deep well to drink from. The more I drank, the more I enjoyed it and the more I kept drinking. Sure, a fan would watch the TV shows, the specials, and maybe even...
The Great Whenby Alan Moore You know, it’s never a good idea to raise expectations TOO much. Alan Moore is great. I’m a fan of his. I think Watchmen is amazing. I think From Hell is amazing. I like him so much that I read the entirety of his book Jerusalem. It was unlike anything I’d ever read before and I still think about it many years later. I know he’s great, but why on earth would you start the...
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte We’ve all got Wuthering Heights FEVER! What’s-her-name Emerald Something is finally (FINALLY) adapting Emily Bronte’s popular book for the big screen for the 5th time and this one is finally going to be THE ONE! It’s gonna look the coolest! Cooler than any Zach Snyder movie. It’s gonna have the dopest cast: Frankestein and the naked woman from Wolf of Wall Street who’s now a serious actress. It’s gonna have music by Charlie XCX: someone...
Israel/PalestineHow to End the War of 1948 By Tanya Reinhart The history of the Israel/Palestine conflict is a history of how the Palestinians have failed: failed to foresee what was coming, failure to prepare, failure to unify in the face of adversity, and failure to negotiate. There are countless discussions of what happened in a broad sense, but for a more specific, small-picture analysis of the threats facing Palestine and the diplomacy used to confront it, Tanya Reinhart’s Israel/Palestine book...
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917–2017by Rashid Khalidi It’s funny how caught up we can get in our lives where we don’t make an effort to learn more about the things that interest us. How’s that for an opening sentence? And I don’t necessarily mean it in a reprimanding way. If anything, I’m reprimanding myself. I think we would all benefit from learning more about the Israel/Palestine conflict. I’ve certainly been interested,...
Lord of the Fliesby William Golding I just finished this and I just gotta talk about it. I’ve always known about the Lord of the Flies allegory: a group of kids are stranded on an island and try to keep order in spite of their tribal inclinations. I think the Simpsons did it in the Camp Krusty episode. That reveal of Bart wearing the tribal head dress to the camera always struck me. So, how could I resist an old,...
Innumeracyby John Allen Paulos I was never a good student in high school, I just couldn’t pay attention. How would math, or history, or English help me beat the second racing level in Battletoads? I had priorities elsewhere, I guess. Do I feel bad about it? Of course I do. But not as bad as I do for the people I met when I moved to the US. Boy, the very idea of math scares them. I’ve always been a...