Sorry, did you struggle in Literature class? Because developing character traits through symbolism, rather than by baldly listing examples, is pretty much a cornerstone of modern fiction. Sorry if that’s too patronising for you, but it’s true.

It’s not an example of entitlement, it’s a way of showing a character’s entitlement through symbolism, which is not the same thing, just like saying something reminds me of something else is not me saying that those two things are the same. Please try to keep up.

I should probably have more familiarity with the source material before I start talking - I grew up in the right era, but in a household where TV watching was not encouraged, so while I know the shows in question a bit from reruns, I’m not deeply knowledgeable about what they talked about over the course of their runs.

I appreciate this response because it jives with an incident in my own life. I was super into Egyptology as a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on, but I’d never seen a mummy because the Smithsonian didn’t have mummies from their collection on display at all when I was growing up (they have, or had recently,…

I haven’t! I hadn’t read any of Atkinson’s books before (I heard her interviewed on the Guardian Books podcast, which is why I wanted to try something) and I got God in Ruins to start with specifically because the Kindle edition was cheaper on Amazon, so less investment if I didn’t like it. I’ll definitely be reading…

I don’t think the Fresh Prince or Cosby franchises were as much about being black as something like Black-ish, though. They were groundbreaking because they positioned black people within the worlds familiar to white audiences. They were popular in part because they showed black people doing “normal” things. These new…

I wonder if it also has to do with the differences between the current and past issues faced by people of color in other countries - like, NCIS could essentially take place under the auspices of any government with a navy, but shows about black people produced by American studios are, necessarily, about what it means…

A God in Ruins. It’s incredible. I do think that so far the one “bad” character is a little too unbelievably awful for an otherwise realistic piece of fiction (and, since it seems she’s unlikely to get hit by a train before the end, I’m a little worried that there is’t going to be any emotional payoff for me to make…

I’m reading this book right now where there’s this super-awful, entitled character, and at one point we see her sitting on a beach in the 1970's wearing an antique petticoat as a skirt, and the narrator underscores her entitlement by saying that the petticoat used to belong to a shopgirl who died of TB, who would have…

The thing I’m left wondering about is how fucking dumb you have to be to keep that shit in your house (with the pot, even, fucking christ) after you’ve already got people publicly calling for your head. You don’t think maybe you should get rid of it? Lay off the weed and stop restocking from your dealer for a bit?…

Not to mention that the reason why the vast majority of black Americans don’t celebrate being Ghanaian, Zulu, Xhosa-speaking, or whatever other granular-level identity would be comparable, is because they don’t know even one aspect of their deeper-rooted cultural heritage. Because their ancestors were torn from those…

One of my prom outfits (I went to a school so small that prom and homecoming were both open to all 4 years of high school, so there were lots of formal opportunities) included some very cheap black polyester opera-length gloves that must have looked ridiculous, if for no other reason than that the gloves were…

It’s a really great signifier that the speaker is making an argument that is equally dated and ridiculous.

I think you’re confusing RTR’s usual service with their new Unlimited service - Unlimited is just $139 a month, you aren’t paying rental fees on top of that.

It’s just a constant game of “Is he actually having a stroke right now” with this guy.

Also what are we counting as “sex” for the purpose of “sexual partner?” That guy I dry-humped with once in first year definitely had fluids on his shirt, but if it’s not p-in-v, does it not count? What about all my partners who don’t have a p to put in the v (unless the ‘p’ stands for ‘plastic phallus’ or ‘phalanges.’)

Really, it’s very much in keeping with the magazine’s goal of promoting “beautiful orthodoxy,” as long as you ignore the glaringly obvious question of “which one?”

I had a roommate in college who used to watch SATC constantly, while I was trying to study (and talked baby talk to her boyfriend while I was in the room, dear god, her sins were many). All it took was overhearing one scene where a waiter offers an amuse bouche to the table, and the “sultry” one says “I’d like to to…

I love many things on this earth - I love my family. I love my cat. I love getting into bed when I’ve just made it with freshly-laundered sheets that are still warm.

Right? Like, that’s the turning point of Juno, she finds out the fetus has fingernails and she doesn’t want an abortion anymore. If I found out something buried deep in my abdomen had its own fingernails, I would want it out more, not less.