In the case of Outlander, I have come to the sad conclusion that it’s there because many women like it. They like that Jamie is raped. They like that he feels so guilty about it. They were pissed off when season 2 didn’t have more sex scenes. PTSD? Who cares! There’s just all sorts of fucked up shit in Gabaldon’s head…

They’re coming across like white people whining that they can’t use the n-word. Really, guys, are your lives that much less rich without seeing rape on your tv shows?

I don’t have a problem with sexual violence in a story if it doesn’t seem like such a crutch. I’ve read books with rape scenes where the books ended up respectful and moving—an not necessarily because they had a happy ending. With GoT and so many others though, it works more like a crutch. “I need a reason for this…

This is about applying our changing levels of awareness and societal values to our interpretation of historical fiction so that instead of leaving the past behind we bring it with us in a healthy and productive way in order to enrich our intensely important popular smutty television experience in the present day…

I think the thing I find the most unbearable is when people defend the sexual violence in GoT as “just being historically accurate.” He invented a world where dragons are real. When you’re an author, you can invent any world you want. Martin wanted a world where sexual violence is rampant (and socially sanctioned) and…

I am kind of shocked she didn’t just do the eyelid pulling thing. I mean that is Asshole 101 right there.

I bought this when it came out, and at the time found it odd that extended stretches were dedicated to her uncertain long distance romance with a Brooklyn man. Each time the narrative was interrupted to dedicate time to her uncertain romantic footing, I kept wondering if it was a case of her editor forcing her to…

I’m constantly stunned by how publishers market books written by women. Giving them soft, non threatening covers that often have nothing to do with what the story is inside. One I just finished was The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. It’s a brilliant piece of sci-fy, horror. A thrilling, brutal and exiting story about…

I have never been exposed to such culture, either, and I’m having a mind-bending moment trying to imagine that conversation. It’s so difficult for me to imagine not being allowed to see off a friend; and that the act of wishing her well could in itself be a slight subversion seems like it might have been ripped from…

More like Starve, Praise and Love Kim Jong-Un, amiright?

Her account on how her book was marketed and received is upsetting for a lot of reasons, but I feel especially bad that they tried to put her in the same category as the most insipid, naval-gazing book ever.

It is fascinating. I have never been exposed to a social structure devoted to encouraging and supporting lies like the North Koreans have built. I have met individuals who fix truths for themselves that fly in the face of facts, but the top-to -bottom devotion to falsehoods adopted by North Korea is stunning. There is…

Read Thr Orphan Master’s Son a few years bavk and it was FANTASTIC. I worked in a book shop when this came out however and completely ignored it due to the advance marketing of it more as memoir than journalism.

Well this seems like total bullshit. Really shortsighted on her agent and publisher’s part.

This sounds like a fantastic book.

Ah, he should only have to apologize. “My bad, sorry I harassed your throat with my hands. We good?” and then everything’s hunky dory.

I’m well aware of the legality of firearms. I’m also a firm believer that firearms should not be in the hands of people who have committed domestic assaults. Several states have laws that compel the police to confiscate firearms when they respond to a domestic violence call.

And after taking a few classes it only counts as harassment!

I had no idea “criminal obstruction of breathing” is a thing. I would think that obstructing someone’s breathing on purpose would be attempted murder or something.

Jesus Christ. So he beats the hell out of her, chokes her, runs around looking for a gun, blames it on his drinking, and comes away with no record? Am I missing something here? This shit has to stop.