Posts by author
Michelle Vider
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Marriage Equality: A Rumpus Roundup
On June 26th, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that states must allow same-sex couples to marry and that they must recognize marriages performed in other states. The ruling ends the bans against same-sex marriage that existed in…
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A Postcard from History
Jessica B. Harris writes about her collection of historic postcards and the unique slice-of-life perspective offered by the 19th century postcard form. Harris has cultivated her postcard collection for decades with a focus on “depicting Africans in their homeland and…
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Our Words, Possessed by Fans
In the driest language possible, I would say that fan fiction successfully undermines the traditional American heteronormative dynamic in ways that can’t be undone. In wetter language, fan fiction sexualizes. It’s transgressive because it suggests the possibility of the erotic.…
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The Giving Word
miser: “A wretch covetous to extremity,” according to Samuel Johnson, “who in wealth makes himself miserable by the fear of poverty.” ninjo: 人情 Japanese for human compassion, as compared with social obligations (see giri). noblesse oblige: literally, “noble rank entails…
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Fantastic Matriarchs and Where to Find Them
Given the current debate within SF about politics in genre and whether it is desirable, [Sylvia] Townsend Warner is a peculiarly apposite subject. A lesbian, a feminist, and an active member of the British Communist Party, her work from the…
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Repeat the Past, Break the Future
A god does not intervene. A mortal dies. Things happen repeatedly, then suddenly they differ. That rhythm of action, which combines repetition with asymmetry, is the rhythm of Homeric narrative and of the Homeric style. And it is designed to…
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Crafting a Metaphor
One thing you learn very quickly as a metaphor designer is that your language and your culture’s resources aren’t infinite. Nor are they as versatile as you might hope. The richness of the semantic resources that a designer can muster…
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Exploring a Megalibrary
At Atlas Obscura’s Places index, a contributor shares photos and the history of Mexico City’s Biblioteca Vasconcelos, a “megalibrary” that combines five separate (and disparately designed) library-sized collections within one building.
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Contingent Justice
LARB’s Marginalia Review of Books recently published a series of essays on the future of tenure. While addressing the academic labor crisis, the series digs deeply into our wider national labor crisis and the effects of abandoning permanent employment for…
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The Quest for Literary Immortality
In Those Who Write for Immortality, [Heather] Jackson includes a checklist of factors relevant to literary survival. Did the writer have family and friends to ensure that her work stayed in print? When was her biography written, and by whom?…
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The Fantasy of Genre
Kazuo Ishiguro and Neil Gaiman discuss genre and its role in the evolution of stories. The interview is part of a special Gaiman and Amanda Palmer collaboration issue at the New Statesman.
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Otherwise Known as Judy the Great
Jami Attenberg: I feel like I could talk to you about vaginas all day, Judy. Is there anything you wish you could change about publishing? Is there anything where you think, god they’ve been doing this forever, why can’t they…