Re: Robb, I don’t think his death was a subversion of expectations, but the facts that he is almost entirely separated from the point of view characters in A Clash of Kings and because of that his greatest military successes are learned because they end up making life more difficult for his sisters (Joffrey takes on…

Not Tyrion, Varys. He has the mindset most suited for democracy.

My ideal ending is there is some kind of Magna Carta and formation of a parliament with a very de-powered monarchy. Varys for Prime Minister

I really like the idea that all or most of the prophesies in this series turn out to be false.

I’m not sure. I was thinking of how too few people talk about Der Ring des Nibelungen’s influence on modern fantasy even though it is (arguably) the original modern fantasy, probably because of the Nazi associations. So I was trying to thing of how GoT/ASOFAI relates to Der Ring and it struck me, what if all the…

It’s a real testament to how perverse what has been considered acceptable is that the harassment, which sadly wouldn’t be too far from the type of scene that air on a CBS procedural, isn’t considered notable, but Eliza Dushku using word that can’t be aired on broadcast TV was. Until someone else saw it. 

Yes, there is a real “where does this culture come from?” aspect of this story. Did Weatherly believe his behavior was okay because he had been playing a variation of it for so long, or does that kind of role exist because men like Weatherly want to justify treating women like that?

As someone who’s been fascinated with Ann Nocenti for years I’m thrilled to see The Seeds on this list. And yes, it’s worth it.

I didn’t realize that’s what led to Lessing finally winning, but her unexcited response to the prize was really memorable

This is intriguing. I had taken break from Atwood for about a decade and been catching up on her recent work since, reading the MADADDAM trilogy, The Heart Goes Last and the Angel Catbird comics over the past two year. Her recent work is really embracing the sci-fi aspects that she was more hesitant about in The…

I have to say, before I read this article and I first heard of that this was an incident I thought he was comparing anti-vaxers to (non-black) people who use the N word. As someone pro-autism rights and pro vaccine I’m kind of relieved to clarify his target. It still a mess. 

I am in some ways more interested in hearing what the Johnson and Benioff/Weis spin off are about than Episode IX. I have my doubts that things can be wrapped up, (especially because of Carrie Fisher’s death). But I am curious what that would look like. (And if parts of the TLJ were setting up a spinoff)

In theory, I don’t mind Freddy Kruger as a pedophile. In practice, having all his victims with repressed memories and PTSD made it hard to build momentum or audience involvement.

Last week I read Lind Hirschman’s Sisters in Law about the careers of Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A lot of it was about how the failure of the ERA to pass in the 1970s shaped their legal strategies. However, by the end it emphasized how fragile many of those victories were. I would be thrilled if we…

Yes and no. I agree with the video that fictions should stop using crime as it was seen in the 1980s and early to define what the collapse of society looks like. And just having massive ads on buildings is less concerning that what we actually have with targeted ads online.

After hearing Linda Hirshman’s appearance on the second season of Slow Burn and a recent Washington Post column reflecting on the legacy of Sandra Day O’Connor, I’ve started reading her book Sisters In Law. It’s fascinating.

Will this include his two time costar Jane Wyman?

I had never heard of this, but it sound amazing.

I’d argue that Wonder Woman is the second most prominent utopia fiction of the twentieth century, even though folding her into a shared DC Universe pretty much ends the ability of her stories to function as such.

I started Banks’s Culture novels recently, after Amazon announced that they would be making them a TV series. Thus far I’ve only read Consider Phlebus and The Player of Games, both of which largely take place outside of The Culture, and more or less have the effect of challenging why it’s so hard to imagine Utopia. I…