Category Archives: Popular Culture

Harry Potter as Complex Event

I’m editing a long section of my manuscript that argues for seeing European colonialism in Africa, and specifically indirect rule, as an emergent, complex-system kind of institution. There are some really overt explanatory and causal arguments that come with this … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Books, Popular Culture | 23 Comments

Go Ahead and Talk

Further discussion of Harry Potter in the comments. Don’t read if you want to avoid spoilers. Good reading about the book at Russell Arben Fox’s blog and Unfogged. Any mysteries, oddities, etc. you want cleared up? Let’s work on that, … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Popular Culture | 40 Comments

Liveblogging Harry Potter (No Major or Direct Spoilers)

Creepy. Plus: he’s bad! Please, Rowling, you aren’t going to do something that cliched are you? The eye had better not be what I think it is. Hey, he’s kind of nice for once. Sort of sweet. Wow, big action … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Popular Culture | 24 Comments

Why Does the Martian Manhunter Suck?

I have to take a break here from the war-related posts: they are getting a bit heavy, I’m sounding too much like a caricature of some think-tank armchair general. Over at Comics Should Be Good, Bill Reed asks why the … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 15 Comments

I Want a Plush Doll of Anton Ego

I’ve seen very few of the big films this summer. For some reason, they all turn me off, even when I liked previous films in the franchise. Ratatouille, on the other hand, is fantastic. Whatever Brad Bird wants to make … Continue reading

Posted in Food, Popular Culture | 4 Comments

Sex and Violence

An interesting response to my comments on Schechter’s book at Withywindle’s blog makes me think a bit more about the representation of violence in mass culture. Withywindle suggests that there is a difference between violence for violence’s sake and violence … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 3 Comments

Savage Pastimes

When I started studying the history of debates over children’s television, I was struck at how the principal critics of kidvid in the 1970s and 1980s set the terms of their declension narrative. For them, Saturday morning television was destroying … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Popular Culture, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves | 10 Comments

Phew.

I was sure I was going to end up as Simon on this quiz. Your results:You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 65% Wash (Ship Pilot) 65% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 60% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 60% Kaylee Frye … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 4 Comments

FROOOOSTING!

As long as we’re talking about 300, check this out. (Via Penny Arcade.)

Posted in Popular Culture | 1 Comment

I Do So Swear

Bitch Ph.D nails the problem with a recently reported study on the relationship between day care and “disruptive behavior”: first, that “disruptive behavior” is (like “antisocial behavior” and a number of other synonymous terms) very much an eye-of-the-beholder category, but … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Popular Culture | 4 Comments