"Variable standards of beauty"—exactly.

To look more white, of course! (/irony)

Well, since we're talking about different cultural ideas about beauty, "global popularity pole along race lines" seems perfectly apt.

Sure—but there are obviously other factors at play. I don't see many white girls getting eye surgery to look asian or tanning themselves black (as opposed to light brown), despite the fact those are uniquely non-white characteristics.

There is another answer actually: if white culture has little or no impact on the beauty standards of other cultures, I guess we can conclude that white people are just naturally the most attractive race (since those other races are surgically altering their appearances in ways that, just coincidentally, tend towards…

Not quite that straightforward. Ideal female beauty in Heian Japan involved having small eyes, round faces, and black teeth.

That's where we differ - I LOVE that "Tiger, Tiger" cover ("Doomsday Book" is pretty bad though). And their comment on it pretty much exemplifies the banality of the site - is the old "heh, a 5 year old could draw that" line really the best they can do? Even dumber when you consider that said artist - Alan Aldridge -…

Not a fan of that site. They don't like surrealism or abstraction (for instance the beautifully weird "English Assassin" cover currently at the top of their page and the "Foundation" cover further down), yet they're equally contemptuous of pulp styles. It frequently seems like they just really, really, dislike science…

Thanks for your detailed response, that makes a lot of sense.

Smugness does seem to be a house style across the Gawker network, whatever they're writing about.

Read the first volume as a kid, so reading it again would be pretty much a new experience. A lot of people say the series decreased in quality in the latter books (but then I've read people saying the same thing about "World of Tiers," which I strongly disagree with). What do you think?

I'm a big Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, but the fact is the quality of the Barsoom and Venus stories drops as the series progress. Still, it'll be a sad day when I realise I've empties out his back catalogue.

Yep, I agree. Though the end of Corum's cycle irks me, Moorcock is at the top of my list alongside Philip Jose Farmer and (shameface) Lin Carter in his "Green Star" mode.

I've been working my way through Philip Jose Farmer's "World of Tiers" series over the past few months, absolutely love it. Such a great idea - artificial 'pocket universes' where the laws of physics can be altered to enable all kinds of bizarre realities. Immense ziggurat-shaped worlds, worlds where the landscape…

While I dislike China Melville for his flashy, impressionistic writing style, I've never had that problem with Wolff. I don't even find his style that complicated. Guess it's what you're used to.

I had that one too!. As I recall the standard Han figure looked a bit weird: way too skinny and grumpy looking. The Endor version was a lot more buff.

Time to show Cordwainer Smith some love. My vote's for "A Planet Named Shayol," simultaneously one of the most horrific and most beautiful stories ever.

Low level spoiler: The Games in this film take place a year after the events in the first movie, during which time Catniss has had plenty of access to food due to her status as a victor.

Just saw that for the first time last week. One of the best scenes ever.

Anyone know what Melting Fake Face Guy around 1.48 and BalloonDude at 1.53 are from?