Yeah, wrt "agenda and apparent inner life" not only was Mary just a retread of Moffat's femme fatale obsession, she didn't even get to explain herself in her own words to John. The writers literally did not allow her to have a voice. I don't think I've ever been that mad at a show before (to be honest, most of the…

"Actuality" is a term that came into English from Aristotelian philosophy. As a concept, it's pretty widespread in modern philosophy through Hegelian and Heideggerian readings of Aristotle. Also, the phrasing "unveil an actuality" is super indicative of Continental philosophy (I swear I've read something in Hegel that…

"Comedy minus tragedy equals time" does have a sign change in it from the original aphorism (original: c=t+T; his is equivalent to: c= -t+T); furthermore, bringing up the sign change as what makes that change funny is itself a joke. It takes the expectation, that Patton Oswald is taking a well-understood aphorism in…

Actually, BMO has been referred to with both feminine and masculine pronouns.

Nope, BMO doesn't have a gender. BMO is referred to as both she and he in many different situations.

Honestly, I think most people who liked the episode got that out of it. It doesn't mean that it's a post-facto justification, where we're intellectualizing it so that we can like it. And again, honestly, it felt to me like a good short film, where those motivations are heavily implied by lots of details. That doesn't…

How do you like the Killing Moon? I enjoyed Jemisin's other trilogy (and I'm a big Bujold fan, so I trust your judgment).

Then stop saying it. If all you're saying is that being nice won't necessarily get you laid—guess what? Everyone already knew that. Furthermore, you're actively saying that women are more attracted to dicks, which I'm actively disagreeing with, by saying that you can neither say something general about what women are…

How to talk to women: talk to them like people. Seriously. The best advice I can give any dude who feels like he can't talk to women is this: strike up conversations with women in every day life where you expect nothing, and talk to them the way you would any other person. You might actually have a nice conversation.…

Guess what: people can be attracted to different things and still find a singular behavior generally repulsive. You're oversimplifying to your own detriment.

Oh thank God for you.

Agreed! The end of the album in particular. I love it when her voice drops to a lower register and just sits there for a while. Really lovely.

On "Flawless" she samples this TED talk: http://www.youtube.com/watc…

Disagree—they're interspersing the Hobbit with the Simarillion.

I still don't understand what this book is about…?

In my mind, at least, there's a distinction between horror and terror, and this show is basically terror in 13 segments. It's like that feeling I get when I wake up from a nightmare and physically can't move for a while. I've never felt that way from any other movies or shows—horrified, yes, and grossed out and deeply…

Right, it's less about moral ambiguity and more about sheer psychological terror that someone could be this evil and powerful without anyone really noticing. This fascination comes from the terror—we feel trapped as an audience with Will and Jack and Alanna like prey being hunted.

I guess we're operating in different circles, then? I tend to think of the people I interact with on tumblr to be fairly social justice oriented, and there's a whole lot of voter suppression, gerrymandering, police brutality, racial profiling, racist sentencing, etc, stuff that shows up on my dashboard in addition to…

I guess to me, I don't think political correctness is at fault, just that the lines of what make something sexist/racist/oppressive are hard to find now. As in, when it comes to appropriating someone else's culture, there are respectful ways and objectifying ways, and I think if some social justice warriors take it…

Honestly, I never read that song as an actual critique of those signifiers, but just as a rumination on the tension between poor teenagers who love pop music singing along with songs concerning wealth signifiers they'll never have access to. I mean, I think that you can point out the disparity without it being an…