#how to evaluate pop history

[jeannereames]

Would you say that reading popular history is a good entryway into academic history? Not necessarily as a scholar but also as an interested layperson who's interested in the subject

Reading Pop[ular] History

Sure, it is. As is historical fiction … as long as it’s well-done.

That’s the crux. Some pop history is quite good. Some…not so much. The problem for the average layperson is figuring out which is which. Who can I trust? (Near the end are some pragmatic tips to help you answer that question.)

Publishing houses want to sell books. This is different from academic presses. The latter also want to sell books but their (acceptable) profit margins are lower and they make their money via textbooks. Peer-reviewed academic works are published for status/reputation. They don’t expect those books to make money. In fact, academic monographs typically lose money—yes even at the exorbitant prices they charge. This is (one reason) your textbooks cost so much.*

By contrast, the reason (regular) publishers put out pop history IS to make money. Of course they want those books to be well-reviewed, but because it helps sales. So, they’re interested in signing authors they consider to be good writers—people who can spin an engaging (non-fiction) story. That may not be the top experts in the field.

In academia, the focus is on quality ideas, which (alas) may be conveyed in rather turgid, passive-voice prose. Sure, good scholars can also be good writers, but I fear it’s more often the exception than the rule. In Alexander studies, my mentor-advisor, Gene Borza, also happened to be a good writer. So is Beth Carney. So is Ed Anson. One of the best, however, was Peter Green. I may not always agree with his scholarship, but the man could write. He penned not only academic history, but also essays (I highly recommend both In the Shadow of the Parthenon and Classical Bearings), as well as historical fiction. His biography on Alexander is still widely read, and his MONSTER tome Alexander to Actium did what very, very few academic books do: it made money for University of Cal Press. Paul Cartledge (who also wrote a bio on ATG) is another such. I don’t think he’s as good as Peter, but he’s up there in his ability to turn a memorable phrase and get across his ideas to the average reader. It’s why he gets tapped to write books outside his field of specialization. There are a small passel of such academic pop history authors: Adrian Goldsworthy (who also wrote on ATG), James Romm (who wrote on ATG’s Successors), Robin Waterfield, Mary Beard, Michael Grant, etc. All of them are legit scholars who turn out books that aren’t necessarily in their specialization.

By specialization, I mean the field they publish in academically. We all teach classes on topics we wouldn’t dare to publish in for our peers. Pop history is closer to teaching classes, in that regard. For one thing, specializations in academic publishing get quite narrow, and pop history tends to be on broader topics. Take my own current academic book. Sure, a few of you may look forward to a work on Hephaistion (and Krateros), but the average fan of history perusing shelves for their next hit doesn’t even know who they ARE. They won’t pick up a pop history book about them (unless—maybe—the title is “sexy” enough to sell it).

When it comes to pop history, publishers fear that knowing too much about a field interferes with one’s ability to write for a non-specialist audience. That applies to textbooks too. Ergo, publishers sometimes solicit books from “specialist-adjacent” people. Carol Thomas’s Alexander the Great and His World is of that type. Carol is a specialist in Early Iron Age Greece, but she knows/is friends with a number of Macedoniasts as well as Greek archaeologists, so Blackwell invited her to write that book. She approached it with due care and humility. (I remember her preparing for it, asking Gene and others lots of questions.)

Paul Cartledge’s bio of Alexander runs along those lines. His real specialization is Sparta, but he’s written some general books on Greek history that sold well. I don’t know if he was asked to write the ATG book, but it’s made money for Random House. I don’t agree with swathes of it, but his take follows in the footsteps of Green and Bosworth, who are Macedoniasts. It’s far from a bad book, comparatively. Even so, I wouldn’t assign it as a textbook in my ATG class, precisely because I don’t agree with chunks. I’ve been using Lindsay Adams’ Alexander the Great: Legacy of a Conqueror or Brian Bosworth’s (now old) Conquest and Empire: the Reign of Alexander the Great, or Ed Anson’s Alexander the Great: Themes and Issues. Considering Hugh Bowden’s Alexander the Great: a Very Short Introduction too. Part of my choice lies with the fact those four are Macedoniasts and publish in the field, but I wouldn’t use Ian Worthington’s books on ATG, although he’s also a Macedoniast, nor Peter Green’s, nor NGL Hammond’s either. My views differ from theirs as either too negative or (Hammond) overly positive.

Back to my point. Cartledge may not be a Macedoniast but at least he’s a Greek historian and works in the right era. By contrast, Adrian Goldsworthy (Philip and Alexander) is further afield because not only is he not a Macedoniast, he’s a specialist on Rome. What of his book I’ve looked at, I found a bit dated compared to where most current scholarship stands. Yet he’s still a professional historian. Philip Freeman is similar to Goldsworthy. He’s a real scholar, if not a specialist on Alexander. He works in Classical Philology and Celtic Languages. Anthony Everitt isn’t even in Classics, but (European) visual and performing arts. Nonetheless, those authors have written books on significant ancient figures that sold well, so publishers trust they can write a selling nonfiction book.

All that helps to explain why pop history may not necessarily reflect the most recent work in the field.

Also, sometimes an author will go for the “sexy” idea because they think (not without cause) that it’ll sell better/appeal more. They’ll justify it with, “Well, some scholars did say that….” I ran into this excuse a lot when working with the Netflix people. If they wanted to go in a direction I disliked—such as Olympias’s putative involvement in Philip’s death—their reason/excuse was, “Well, the ancient sources say that and other scholars believe it.”

Five Tips to Check the Quality of Your Pop History Book

(all the below assume you don’t have a convenient specialist friend to ask…)

First, look at the publication date. History research can move quickly. If the book is more than 20 years old, it may be stale. Yet copyright date isn’t always the kiss of death; I still recommend Brian Bosworth’s 1988 Conquest and Empire on Alexander. Yes, a few things are out-of-date, but it’s generally an even-handed intro to his career, despite being 35+ years old. Nonetheless, if you know nothing about a field, older books might not be the best place to start.

Second, research the author. Who are they? Are they an academic at all? If their bio just says “historian,” they might have nothing higher than a BA/BS. Assuming they are a professional historian, do they publish academically in the subfield they’re writing about? If not, is it at least in the broader field? If not the broader field, is it adjacent? The further an author’s academic work from the subject matter, the more likely you’re getting either stale or limited research.

Third, watch out for sensationalist language in blurbs—even if the author is a specialist. For instance, the blurb for Ian Worthington’s 2004 Alexander the Great: Man and God, says:

Alexander the Great conquered territories on a superhuman scale and established an empire that stretched from Greece to India. He spread Greek culture and education throughout his empire, and was worshipped as a living god by many of his subjects. But how great is a leader responsible for the deaths on tens of thousands of people? A ruler who prefers constant warring to administering the peace? A man who believed he was a god, who murdered his friends, and recklessly put his soldiers lives at risk? Ian Worthington delves into Alexander's successes and failures, his paranoia, the murders he engineered, his megalomania, and his constant drinking. It presents a king corrupted by power and who, for his own personal ends, sacrificed the empire his father had fought to establish.

Put that puppy down! While authors don’t usually write their own book blurbs, they approve them, and if the first paragraph asks some legit (if harsh) questions, the second paragraph suggests a book with an extreme view. Depending on the subject, it might be justified, but I’m typically suspect of sensationalist history. 😉

Fourth, if you can, flip to the bibliography. How extensive is it? How recent are the entries? Does it include not just monographs (books), but also articles/book chapters? Does it include articles that aren’t in English? Possibly the author was told to submit a limited bibliography, but a thin, mostly book (no/few articles)** biblio more likely suggests the writer lacks the background needed to cover the topic well. (Some pop history books don’t even have a bibliography, which I also consider a red flag.)

Last, read a few reviews, and not on Goodreads or Amazon (although some reviews on those sites are fine). How is the book received, particularly by reviewers who might know a thing or three about the topic? If no reviews are from academics or specialists, steer clear. I don’t care of Oprah likes it. Ha.

The best pop history (in terms of historical accuracy) is rarely the most popular, in terms of sales, for the simple reason that real history is messy and complicated. The casual reader usually wants something simpler. Yet if you’re serious about learning a topic, you do want something messy and complicated! E.g., with nuance.

So yes, pop history can be well-done and a perfectly valid place for the interested-but-discerning non-specialist to begin. If I believed it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be writing on Tumblr. 😉

And who knows, maybe I’ll sit down someday to write my own pop history take on Alexander.

——————

* Color illustrations and higher-quality paper are some others causes for high costs. Paper in general is expensive. But there’s still a mark-up to cover the production-cost losses incurred by purely academic books, most of which are sold to libraries.

** In many fields of history, especially ancient history, cutting edge research appears first in ARTICLE form and may never even make it to a book. Researchers who utilize only books (monographs) are therefore missing a lot.

[taurizzz]

I just read your story of bada breaking up with y/n, and what if a pt2? And y/n grew more popular with her dance videos and was invited of sfw2? And bada is shocked to see her there while y/n is being cold to bada and reserved?

— bada broke up with y/n but bada is down bad, and will not let y/n go again.

it had been two and a half years since bada broke up with you, and a year since she broke up with howl.

you were doing really well. your name had blown up in the dance world, bada would see your videos everywhere online and would constantly check your instagram to see what you were up to.

it was safe to say that bada missed the fuck out of you. and that she was obsessed.

she watched your videos where you were a backup dancer for some famous artist, learnt the choreographies you made, made choreographies herself to songs she knew you liked.

imagine the tall girl's shock when mnet is showing her and her crew profiles of the other dancers, your face pops up with your name is bold, "Y/n Y/Ln".

her crew gasps, a million thoughts running through each of their minds. they knew the history between you and their leader, yet many of them were also fans of your work... some even attending your dance classes without bada knowing.

for you, your stomach sunk to the ground, tempting you to crawl into a hole for the rest of your days as you learnt that your ex-girlfriend was also going to be on the show.

great. just great, this is exactly what i need :/

bada was excited to see your pretty face after so long. she couldn't contain herself as your crew's name pops up on the big screen, shyly squeezing lusher's hand as you and your crew walk out and down the stairs.

you looked really nice. you looked better than you did two and a half years ago somehow. bada couldn't take her eyes off you, silently begging for you to look at her back.

but you didn't.

you walked straight past, head up, an air of confidence surrounding you as you and your crew make way to your stand... on the opposite side of Bebe.

you kept your eyes on the big screen, watching your evaluation video, not missing bada's stare out of your peripheral.

can she just leave me alone?

once all the crews were introduced, as well as the host and judges, all the dancers were given fifteen minutes to get changed into their dance clothes.

as you made your way to your crew's hideout room, you could hear your name being called. and you didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.

you decide to ignore bada and keep walking behind your crew, until a hand grips your wrist, spinning you around.

your eye level with bada's lips. her pink fluffy lips. the lips that you once loved to kiss so much and couldn't get enough of.

"y/n, hi." bada smiles down at you. you have to look away or your self-control that you've worked on all this time would disappear in a second.

keeping a straight face, you take a step back and cross your arms, "what do you want bada?"

bada wasn't used to the coldness in your tone or the harshness in your eyes. but she couldn't blame you, it was her fault that you've become this way.

"i missed you," bada confesses quietly.

is she serious? is she fucking serious? you scoff, shaking your head in disbelief. tears start welling in your eyes, you struggle to swallow them down.

"how cruel are you, bada lee? you completely destroy my heart out of nowhere, start dating someone else straight away, then i see you for the first time after two and a half years, and you want to tell me you miss me?! you really know how to play with someone's feelings, bada. just leave me alone."

bada knew then and there she was going to spend the rest of her life making it up to you. because even though you told her to leave you alone, the universe had placed you in her life once again and this time, she wasn't going to let you.

"i let you go once, y/n. it was the worst mistake in my life, and i will never make it again."

helloooo,

thank you for your request, i hope i didn’t let you down with how short it is!

if i did, i’m sorry ;-; i really just wanted to end it with simp bada, i didn’t find it right to add in y/n and bada’s reunion arc into this so maybe i’ll write a third part about it… hmm

anyways! hope y’all are having a great day!

lots of love,

j <3

[bluwavez]

WAIT FOR IT: KIM DOWON IS THE FIRST K-POP IDOL TO TAKE ON BROADWAY WITH HAMILTON.

He Wants To Be In The Room Where It Happens. The Kpop Star's Second Debut Of 2016.

When Kim Dowon ranked 7th in The New Wave, his fans deemed it a miracle. While they never doubted his talents, they knew the judges didn't favor him for his age or appearance. Kim, turning twenty-one during the show's run, had been training for five years while focusing on singing, rapping, and dancing; he had begun developing a passion for musical theatre, learning the choreography to Newsies to impress the panel of judges during his trainee evaluations.

Growing up in lower-class New York City, Dowon, English name Dylan, would often sneak into numerous Broadway shows with his friends. "I still feel this way, but I always felt the ticket prices were way too high. I wanted to see Westside Story so bad, and my friend was like, "Why don't we just sneak in?" So that's exactly what we did." Ever since then, Kim's love for musicals has only grown.

When Dowon moved to Korea at age 15 to start his K-pop training, he got to do something he never thought he would ever get to do: Take an acting class. "My mom didn't make a lot of money, and the school I went to didn't have a good arts program. So, I really felt like the closest thing I could get to acting was either sneaking into shows or watching movies. When they told me I could take acting classes as a part of my training, I was like, "Really?!" my eyes got big, and I couldn't stop smiling. It was really exciting for me." Dowon would share during an interview with Cosmopolitan.

After DeepDive's lackluster debut, Dowon would be reached out to by none other than Alexander Hamilton himself — Well, his actor, Lin-Manuel Miranda. "I still have no idea how he got my email. Not my manager's, not my company's, no, my personal Gmail account," Dowon says, "He said he saw the video of me doing an In The Heights cover and wanted me to audition for a musical he was working on. I sent him back something like, "You know I'm in South Korea right now, right?" and he went, "It's nothing we can't work out. Send in an audition tape." and I mean...The rest is history."

Lin-Manuel Miranda would confess that he had watched every performance of Dowon on YouTube. "I don't know if it was his charming good looks or his crazy vocal ability, but I knew this was the guy I needed for Aaron Burr."

Kim Dowon, listed as Dylan Kim on Hamilton's Playbill, would be cast as Aaron Burr two weeks later and head off to New York to prepare for his Broadway debut.

Hamilton premiered on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in previews on July 13, 2016, and opened on August 6, 2016. 

Despite Dowon being the first and only K-pop idol to have a successful Broadway debut, his company was rather silent about it. They announced he would be joining the Hamilton cast and taking a hiatus from the group until the show's run ended, ending their comments on Dowon's Broadway debut despite his achievements during his time in New York. Dowon would open a personal Instagram account a week after the show's massively successful opening, making him the first member of DeepDive to do so. Still, it's not like the people following him knew him for his K-pop group — Oh no, that was Aaron Burr to them.

One of his achievements during his time in Hamilton was winning the 2017 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. He was the first and only artist under Angelico to win a Tony award. However, you wouldn't know this because his company did not acknowledge the achievement. During his acceptance speech, which he did in both English and Korean, he thanked his brothers Jisung, Noah, Woobin, Kiwoo, Woojin, and Finn for remaining by his side during this journey and the entire cast of Hamilton for taking him in during this time of his life.

Dowon gave his last performance in Hamilton on July 9, 2017. Tearfully, he told the crowd he wasn't sure when he would return to the stage, but he hoped they wouldn't forget him or the rest of the cast, whom he addressed as his family.

Dowon would return to Korea and DeepDive on August 17th, 2017. He has not performed in a musical since.

[thepunkwolf1312]

do not interact with the user @/sillylittlekittyx3.

i hate to be apart of drama and things like that but as they get more prominent in the community i just want to warn users about them.

Please do not bully this person as they have mental health issues, just block!

i would appreciate if this post was spread around, but you don't have to.

info under the cut, tw: abuse, lying, manipulation.

Since their name is public and it is not their legal name then i will call them by this name.

Currently they are living in my home for reasons I do not wish to disclose.

I have known them for about 4 months and my current boyfriend of one and a half years, Quinn, and i used to be in a polyam relationship. When we were in this relationship, Quinn made me do things with him that i didn't want to do. my mother made a house rule that we can not go into each other's rooms without mom present for our safety. Quinn did not follow this rule. Not only did he not follow this rule but he would also go into my room, and would not leave unless i gave him what he wanted.

Most of the time what he wanted was physical affection. I will not explain fully but I have a history of sexual trauma and he has a history of sexual agression, even so to the point where he was detained for it.

He has been to a psych ward recently due to hurting himself for attention. I have a past of being in and out of mental hospitals due to depression, so when i say he was faking it all, he was faking.

he was choking himself for attention, and i know this because i tried to commit suicide by hanging before. when i tried to commit suicide for many days after i was coughing up blood, i had marks on my neck, and it was sometimes hard to breath and swallow.

He did not have any of these problems as it was not a real attempt, he was not trying to kill himself, he was faking for attention.

He's done other things for attention as well.

A very common pattern i see in his behavior is that any time i struggle with my *real, diagnosed* issues he will mirror me.

When i got overstimulated in a restaurant, he suddenly pretended to be upset and started hurting himself. When i talked to my mom about toe walking and how walking on my heels makes me feel like they're on fire, he quoted me exactly and started toe walking. another example is when i was talking about my migraines he told me that opiods would help with it. when i said no, that pain meds don't help almost always and that i also don't want hard drugs. he fired back at me and claimed that he always had really bad headaches and that he'd want to take opiods for it. he also claimed that his mother has migraines and that he got it from her.

i know for a fact that these things are untrue as he's had many psychological and physical evaluations, and as he is in my mother's custody i know what he has. when i first met him he would always have seizures. after my mom called him out on it and threatened him he stopped and no longer has seizures or "moments of psychosis".

He not only does this with mental illness but also identity.

when i was talking about being a otherkin, he suddenly identified as a therian and more theriotypes kept popping up every day. when i talked about questioning my gender suddenly he was nonbinary. when i talked about my sexual trauma suddenly he had sexual trauma. when i was having an allergic reaction suddenly he had allergic reactions, which, if you have real allergic reactions its pretty easy to tell when someone is faking them. there was no swelling, rash, throwing up, etc. not only this but also the story about his identity changes every time. he's also lied about being intersex and ethnically jewish. his family did a dna test on him, he is not from jewish descent.

on top of all of that, he will not admit things that he actually struggles with. he has drug, alchohol, and sex addictions. when confronted his history is always different. he says that he doesn't have those problems, and he gets agressive both physically and verbally.

another thing to mention is that i posted a video to this account a while ago when my blog was called "wolf-pup" of me wearing a tail, this video has since been deleted. if you check quinn's account you will see this tail, i will use this as proof of me personally knowing quinn.

TLDR; they are manipulative. abusive physically, sexually, and mentally. he in general just isn't a safe person to be around.

[qqueenofhades]

as a starting history major i wanna ask how do you read/evaluate academic history papers/books? i'm trying to avoid just blindly agreeing with whatever the author is writing because it seems correct. how can you tell what is good scholarship and what is more shaky?

This is a great question for you as a freshman history major to ask (many of my toiling colleagues and I can attest that we wish more of you would!) and shows that you're already taking initiative and investment in your studies and want to be the best prepared you can. So truly -- thank you! Us on the faculty/staff/administrative end of academia can feel as if we are pouring into an empty bucket at times, and it's always gratifying to hear otherwise. We really appreciate it.

As a college freshman and/or underclassman (or so I'm assuming) your first job is learning how to collect basic information from the things you read, collate and cite them accurately, and make them converse intelligently with each other in an entry-level piece of academic writing (such as an essay responding to an assigned prompt). So before you have to worry about understanding complex nuance and granular-level fact-checking, the first step is just getting comfortable with academic forms, styles, and conventions. There's an occasional anti-intellectual strand of thinking that pops up on Tumblr, basically insisting that everyone everywhere should be able to understand everything in fifth-grade words and if not then it's Elitist Gatekeeping, but this is a symptom of TikTok brainrot where people's brains have been literally rewired to only process spoon-fed chunks of incredibly simplistic (and uh, often wrong) information, and literally can't parse anything longer, even if it's written in accessible language. Yes, many academics are not necessarily great writers, but you also have to let go of the mindset that you can speed-read once and understand everything. You will need to slow down, take your time, and make a note of concepts that are confusing or that you want to double-check, words you need to look up, and things that make you say "hmm I should look into that more," whether because you're interested or they seem questionable. I always read academic texts or papers (I prefer hard copy, because I am Fucking Old) with a pen in hand, because if I don't, I often feel like I didn't read it at all.

Basically, this is an interactive process between you and the text, and requires you to develop a different kind of reading mentality than just buzzing through a novel or fanfic for pleasure. You have to expect that it will take time and that if you regularly skive off the readings, you won't be prepared for class, your professors will be annoyed, and you won't be able to write good essays, because you haven't engaged with the material. In your case, it sounds like that will be less of a problem, because you are eager to know how to do it right, but I can tell you from my experience that nothing frustrates us more than students who just won't do the reading (and you know, use ChatGPT to write their essays) because then what are you even DOING here? What do you want to get out of this? Why are you wasting your precious tuition money like this? Yes, you probably have to fill a requirement, but STILL. It's disrespectful to your teacher, who has invested a lot of effort in being here to help you with this and doesn't want you to just quit because it looks hard, and your peers, and to you. So anyway, /Captain Holt voice/ apparently that's a trigger for me. Basically, if you learn nothing else from this ask: please do the reading. Even if it's only to admit you need more help or want to talk about this concept in class or otherwise take advantage of all the structures that are in fact there to help you understand it! Thankee.

Likewise, because you're an underclassman, you have an advantage in that your teacher will select the class readings for you ahead of time. That means you will be receiving things that a professional has already checked, decided are useful and trustworthy, and you don't have to do independent research and vetting yourself (that will come if you decide for some godforsaken reason to pursue graduate and/or doctoral study). So you don't need to spend tons of extra time and effort deciding if the sources given to you in class are reliable on a basic and functional level; your professor has already done the work for you to make sure that they are. Your job is now to read those sources, keep a record of what they say (hence the aforementioned pen or other way to make quick notes) and figure out how to put them together in an essay. For example, if Author A cites Factor A as, say, the main cause of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and Author B insists that Factor B was in fact more critical, what is your best approach to reconciling that information? You would search in the rest of those texts to see what else they say in support of their position, and you would probably end up with a qualified statement to the effect of, "While Author A argues A, Author B thinks B, representing the lack of consensus and the difficulty in attributing one single cause to an event as complicated as the fall of Rome." (And then because you're smart, you would go on to mention Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire and show that you are aware of the further context.) All of which is true! Historians do that all the time! You don't need to select THE RIGHT ANSWER and vigorously discredit all other theories, ever, and we tend to look suspiciously on people who do (cough cough Philippa Langley).

In other words, we are certainly not expecting you as a freshman, and even as a more advanced student, to be able to pick out ONE ANSWER from the material. We just want to see evidence that you have in fact read it, are able to evaluate and place theories side by side and possibly make a judgment as to which one you find more compelling, and also to properly cite where you got that information. We've seen a lot recently about plagiarism and that being the pretext on which Harvard president Claudine Gay was forced to resign (which is a whole other can of worms, but never mind). A lot of professors think that saying "Don't Do Plagiarism" is enough, but then don't explain what it is and the different forms it can take. It's not just a matter of copying verbatim chunks of someone else's work (or you know, ALL OF IT, like certain recently discredited YouTube scumbags) and acting like it's your own. If you are relying substantially on someone else's work, whether in their wording, arguments, conclusions, structure, or anything else, even if you've changed some of the words (yep, still plagiarism!), that needs to be cited appropriately according to the relevant style guide. Direct quotes from anyone need to go in quotation marks or indented blocks and have the author cited immediately afterward. History usually uses Chicago, MLA, or MHRA, and you can find cheat sheets for how to do that online. It's a pretty simple and straightforward style, and your professor will be extra impressed.

If you're expected to do an independent project or a senior research thesis, as some undergraduate history students do, then it will come when you have already had three years of experience in reading, evaluating, and writing historical scholarship, you will probably have a faculty member assigned to you for one-on-one mentoring and personalized feedback sessions, and they will be able to provide suggestions and support for useful sources. So even then, you still don't have to do it entirely on your own. They'll probably also be MORE than happy to debate with you which ones are good and which ones are suspect, because it's all a part of developing your ability to flex that muscle for yourself. (And as noted, faculty members Will Have Strong Opinions.) That likewise doesn't mean you just have to copy whatever they say (at least if you have a good teacher who wants you to think for yourself and not just be a mini-clone of their pet theories), but it means that by the time you reach that stage, you will have been prepared enough to feel confident in taking more steps on your own. I think not enough people realize that studying history (or anything, really) isn't just throwing you out there and being like "tough luck sucker, do it all yourself."

That's why academia is so collaborative, why plenty of historians with doctorates and tenure will still have to say "I don't know, let me get back to you" when someone asks them a question at a conference, and you don't have to fear that if you don't have The One Right Answer, you will be immediately exposed as a fraud and thrown out. History as a discipline is also moving away from the 19th-century German approach that attempted to systematize it as a singular social science with One Right Answer, and to focus more on multiple perspectives and incomplete answers. That's why the goal is not necessarily to know everything (which alas, is impossible), but to make better sense of what we can know and search for ways in which the existing record is flawed and needs to be revised, expanded, or reworked with new perspectives (which have existed all this time, but haven't been privileged by the white male western academy for the obvious reasons). And that work is fun and important! I don't want you to be scared of getting to that point, because someone will be there to support you the whole way and by the time you do, it will make sense to you in a way it probably doesn't right now, just because it's a new skill and like any new skill, it takes a long time to learn and to be able to apply confidently, consistently, and at a high level. And plenty of us who do it as a career still often have to say "I don't know, let me ask Dr. So-and-so who specializes in this," so yeah. It's a process of becoming comfortable with both learning how to answer what we can, and to ask others for help with that, and it never really ends. Which is the fun part. There's so much more to do.

Good luck!

[backboneofthevees]

VELVETTE HEADCANNONS!

Not my usual post, but I thought I'd share! Have fun reading :)

♡ (if it wasn't obvious enough) She's a lesbian! I love the little girl-liker third wheel to a mlm couple (vox and val) her and the other vees have going on, plus the velvette x verosika art i see is ALWAYS so beautiful!

♡ referring to this post below:

She owns corsets (yet doesnt use them much because LOOK AT THAT WAIST), and one or two have definitely been stolen....by both of her male conterparts.

♡ She sews! Not ALL the time, since she's busy doing things like running shows and doing photoshoots, but I feel like it'd be a little something nice to do in her free time. Blasting some music while tailoring a new coat or something.

♡ She only wears the same colors. I know this is a little obvious from the few outfit changes she has in the show, but imagine it. A large walk-in closet filled with ONLY pink, purple, white and black. (And perhaps a singular green christmas sweater.) They're not ALL just dresses and jackets, she has pants and t-shirts too. She just likes to dress femme and throws in a masc/more casual outfit from time to time.

♡ She has a diverse music taste. I might me self-projecting here a bit, but I think it'd be pretty cute to see hee listening to different types of music. Like listening to something metal/punk when wearing an 'emo' outfit (one thst consists of mostly black) or some pop/r&b when dressing up in her normal dress-and-tights- combo. It helps her get in the mood.

♡ She has a close relationship with Vox and Valentino. This is also shown in the actual show, seeing how docile they are around eachother, but I imagine the boys and Vel having a brother-sistertjust generally close relationship, like Val and Vel would talk shit and go shopping one day or Vox and Vel talking about the shoots they're doing/planning on doing and having their nails done together. (Painting Vox's claws or sharpening them since he doesn't really have nails.)

♡ She's a little nerdy. I'm not talking about book-nerd, more likke a genuinely-invested-in-fashion-and-knows-about-its-history nerd. Like she'll read up on magazines or articles about how the kitten heel came to be or fun facts about the creator of a specific clothing brand she likes. She doesn't bring it up often, more of a random thing she'll drop into a conversation to keep it going. Also, since she's on her phone all the time, I think she'd be a little bit of a tech wiz like Vox. Like he'll give her a prototype for a new V-Phone and ask her about any bugs or special features. She'll evaluate it and Vox would give her his credit card for a day as a thank you.

♡ She has a major sweet tooth. I'm not saying she's constantly eating candy, given her figure and those crisp pearly whites, but whenever she's going out she'll get a milkshake or perhaps a little sweet treat at a local bakery. Not nicely, but still.

♡ Her full name, when she was still alive, was Veronica Barbie Hernandez, hinting at a latina/mexcian background. Her friends usually called her by her middle name or just Barb, since she had (and still does) such an affliction for having cute outfits and wearing pink. (I might draw her aswell as the rest of the vee's as humans, who knows)

♡ She has a doll body. This is a bit of a short one, but since she's based of a doll like Vox is a TV and Valentino is a moth, she has a plastic-y, smooth doll body. Specifically a ball-jointed doll body. (She can also pop off her limbs and/or head with little to no pain, using it to scare the boys during halloween or whenever she feels like it.)

♡ She's in her early 30s-late 20s, Vox and Val being around 30-40.

♡ She has 2 cats, one white cat named PomPom, and one tabby cat named Spike.

♡ Her favorite musicals are Heathers and Hairspray. (heathers fans hmu)

♡ Despite being known as 'the girly one', she grew up with 2 brothers. Both are dead and are running around somewhere in Hell, probably.

♡ She helps pick out outfits for the boys, despite them wearing (like almost every other male character) suit-like attire. She LOVES trying on dresses with Val, though.

♡ She goes out often. To shop, get food, get drunk, or to just walk around town and blog for her live feed. God forbid you bump into her though, especially if she's holding a drink (or just anything that could spill on her/something expensive she bought dropping onto the ground). She'll EXPLODE.

That's all for now! Feel free to ask for more or just anything else <3

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #70: 2019

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Lil Nas X, Post Malone and Swae Lee, Halsey, Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Marshmello, Ariana Grande, Khalid, Travis Scott, Jonas Brothers. End description]

More information about this blog here

And here we are with the final full decade featured on this blog. All throughout the 2010's retrospectives, we have been focusing a lot on how streaming and internet culture in general is shaping pop music. Now, that can be seen more than ever. Especially with the number one song this year, Lil Nas X's Old Town Road -- one of the first viral TikTok songs we'll be seeing. Old Town Road isn't just notable for how it took off through meme culture or how TikTok would soon come to be one of the main forces behind pop success, but the track was also controversial for how it blurred the lines between genres. Not through aesthetic or sound (which is nothing new), but through marketing. After reaching number nineteen on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the magazine disqualified the song from counting as the genre. It should be mentioned that country circles have a history of drawing clear lines around what counts as their genre. There was a time when many country music tastemakers considered artists like Johnny Cash or John Denver to be too rock or pop for country. In fact during the 1975 CMAs, Charlie Rich burned John Denver's card after announcing him as the winner. And if it even needs to be said, this tension is even more noticeable when you factor race into the mix. Especially when you factor in how country being classified as a "white" genre was a marketing strategy less than a hundred years ago. Here's an article that went more in depth on the issue in response to the Old Town Road debate.

“Determining which chart a song lives on is an ongoing process that depends on a number of factors, most notably the song’s musical composition, but also how the song is marketed and promoted, the musical history of the artist, airplay the song receives, and how the song is platformed on streaming services.” - a representative from Billboard for Rolling Stone

Obviously, this is a lot of discourse and debate to drop onto a short TikTok meme song. But since this blog is essentially about how music is marketed, I couldn't not bring it up. Because Old Town Road wasn't controversial just because it was a song that used both country and rap influences (country had been incorporating more hip-hop production into their sound all decade), but it was largely controversial because Lil Nas X wasn't a country artist. This is a concept I touched on briefly during the rise of nu metal, but the definition of a genre can change depending on whether you're evaluating the sound as music or as marketing. And if you're in the world of marketing, the definition of "country music" is "music performed by country artists within the country music industry". But with the internet making it more possible than ever for people outside the industry to gain pop success, the lines are allowed to become even more blurred.

Unlike the start of the decade, the pop music now is much more low-key and moody. The popularity of trap lends well to a darker sound, and even pop tracks like Billie Eilish's Bad Guy and Ariana Grande's 7 Rings are taking influence from this production style. Lo-fi music and "bedroom pop" are now becoming the go-to sound. More production styles that encourage more individual, introspective listening. Music that sounds like it could have been produced by one person in their bedroom. And maybe the timing was just right. Because soon, most people would have to make their music out of their bedrooms.

See you all in 2020.

[dlstmxkakwldrlarchive]

Genie Music K-pop Exploration Team's listening session — O (Circle) PICK by Kim Yoon-ha, Kim Young-dae part i

source x

YOUNG: Who is it today?

YOON: Today, like Woojin, I brought the work of an artist who released a solo album. However, this artist has already released solo works

YOUNG: He did

YOON: He's the main vocal of a group we're really familiar with

YOUNG: Yes

YOON: Who is it?

YOUNG: ONEW. LEE JIN/KI LEE JIN/KI. Our Jinki.

YOON: We prepared ONEW's new album Circle. This is his first full lenght album in..?

YOUNG: He debuted in 2007 or 2008?

YOON: 2008

YOUNG: Then it's his first after 15 years?

YOON: In the meantime, he released two mini albums, the solo debut was a bit late. After releasing his first mini album in 2018, he only released a japanese album, another EP and now his first album.

YOUNG: As the main vocalist of one of the greatest groups in K-POP history there weren't many releases so it's pretty meaningful that it's first album in 15 years

[...]

YOUNG: A little curiosity. What is the difference from a mini album and a full lenght album?

YOON: I think it depends on the times, based on 2023 KPOP standards, 'mini' showcases chapters organized like 'this is me' and 'this is me'

YOUNG: That's right, a mini is a sampler menu in a restaurant: this restaraunt is good at this and that. If it's like this a regular [album] is a full course

YOON: Yeah, it's eating the main dish [...] Basically the ingredients are the same but it's inevitable that the point is what flavor and what kind of eye candy you show them. Onew released two mini albums called VOICE and DICE: VOICE is a calm album filled with ballad-like songs while DICE is very refreshing, it's onew's colorful side. What album would you think is the real ONEW? With that feeling, I think this album, 'Circle' , is an answer and a question.

[...]

YOUNG: Let's go with the general evaluation

YOON: How was it?

YOUNG: For me, this recent talk about SME incident. Hybe and Kakao...There are things like that, right? If you like SME music or your favorite artist is under their agency, what we're curious about is how SME music will change after lsm, will it change? Critics are flaggergasted about this, right? Opinions are divided, it'll be similiar, it'll change... I don't own this CD and I haven't seen it in person but lsm isn't in charge

YOON: Oh

YOUNG: So in a way this is the first album without LSM..? Kind of like that, I don't know exactly. [...] is this the grand post lsm era?

[note: lsm place as executive producer for this album was taken by onew himself he revealed it in hot tracks circle fansign event x]

YOON: I didn't feel much of change, compared to the existing sm sound [...] commenters are saying 'uh but it changed a bit'

YOUNG: We'll know when the number of cases increases!

YOON: I thought it was an album where I focused on the voice of the singer

YOUNG: Yes

YOON: While listening to it, we also check things like 'oh, this music is this kind of genre' and 'this kind of songwriter in this is essential' but the more i listen to this album, the more i think 'oh, this person wanted to express his voice like this' or 'this person can sing with this voice'. I think the most important part of this album is the fun of finding things like that

YOUNG: It's one of the two [things to find]. 'Which song penetraded through this voice and showed its presence' or 'or, did you really use it in that direction by collecting only the songs that are really optimized for this voice?' But i think it's both

[...] Of course, his voice is unique. to be honest, Onew's voice

YOON: If you hear the first note, you'll know that it's SHINee's Onew

YOUNG: Right. that's a very gentle voice

YOON: The more I listen to it, the more I think it's the result of Onew's obsession with his voice

O (Circle) PICK - O (Circle), Cough, Rain On Me, Caramel & Anywhere

YOON: In that sense, the song that really obsessed me was the first song, O (Circle)

YOUNG: To add a bit of exeggeration, the image of this album, should I say it's a sound effect? Should I call it tone? I think 70-80% of the colors that I feel when i think of the album are decided here

YOON: I think so too. As soon as I listened to this song, I got to listen the whole album

about O (Circle)

[...] YOON: You mentioned the first part and I think that the most of it was very anomalous and completely different. As soon you hear that sound, in a science fiction movie, you know? The feeling of trascending time and space

YOUNG: Like a warp

YOON:Yes, that kind of part. That part starts with Onew's voice, as soon as I hear the sound, it's like changing time and space

YOUNG: You're coming out strong from the start, a voice that changes time and space?

YOON: I've told you that before and I think that feeling came straight to me, I thought 'Wow that's good'. But honestly it's not that easy to approach, right?

YOUNG: Some people might think 'it's not the sound I expected'

YOON: It's a song that's actually pitchy or contemplative rathar than pop

YOUNG: Yes, so I thought that the atmosphere of this song... its core is Onew's rich voice who floats on the mood and atmosphere rather than the melody or anything like that [...] There's no meeting, the lyrics are all floating around. The image itself. When time goes quickly, the seasons go like this, it's kind of like the clock goes backwards when the time goes back, Onew's voice feels like that. [...] If you think of the theme of this song, we think that time is going foward with renewal because we're crossing the calendar but there's a cyclical time structure where we can come back and find a common ground, right? I think we're moving foward while turning around? What he's [Onew] trying to say is tha we look alike and go against each other. It's exquisite that those parts are expressed in a floating sound unknown to us, like you mentioned earlier

YOON: It's very attractive, I found it very attractive. On the other hand, it's not easy to write lyrics for a song like this, it has all the sounds. I don't talk about lyrics that much but I really want to talk about it in this song. Kim Eana wrote them for this song! When the song starts, they give us words to the melody and the beat of 'nana-nana-nana-(sun cloud wind)', the words continue to throw nouns, and of course, there's a message afterwards but the words continue to contain the image of the sound we talked about, it plays a role in making it separate from the reality. So if there's a sentence, we keep thinking of the narrative but if we throw a word like this, we start to imagine it, right? The chemistry between them is really good

YOUNG: In terms of generation, Kim Eana is a lyricist who's both old and new school? These days, there's a way to make impact with your lyrics in k-pop, there's a new style but Kim Eana is not really that style, she stuck with, I think, a strange sound that we can't exactly say is a trendy k-pop song

YOON: It's not a song that can lead in terms of trend but Onew's voice is a actually a bit trendy in terms of sound. Since it's close to an alternative R&B sound, I think it's a song that creates a strange appreciation by adding lyrics that emphasizes the taste of korean words, it's a song with a high level of completion. Everytime I listen to it, I think about it. [...] It's one of my three favorite songs.

[...]

about 'Cough' and 'Rain On me'

YOON: Before we came in we talked about the album and said "1, 2 and 3 punches are the best"

YOUNG: I think the beginning [of the album] was done not until the end but it got the upper head and completed the big frame?

YOON: The songs after O (Circle) that created the atmosphere are 'Cough' and 'Rain On Me', they're slightly warm, aren't they? For me O (Circle) feels rich and dreamy but it makes me feel lonely emotionally, 'Cough' melts my heart. It's like when the snow melts in winter and it becomes spring? It's a perfect song to listen to this weather these days

YOUNG: To me, 'O (Circle)' is close to the sky. I mean, if it's more of a philosophical and contemplative thing in the world of metaphysics then 'Cough' and 'Rain On Me' feel like they're on the ground

YOON: 'Rain On Me' isn't a heavy rain either, it's a spring rain: it's like a sprout is going to come out after the rain stops. These two songs go really well with this spring vibe. 'Cough' has a moist feeling while 'Rain On me' has a rain theme but it feels a bit dry, I liked the twist

YOUNG: There are a lot of reasons for that dry feeling, the singing style... but also it's just Sam Kim's style [note: 'rain on me' composer & lyricist]. All the songs he made are like this, his style is kind of dry and the music itself has a lot of echo and there isn't much of dynamic in general. The music is stretching out? There's nothing cute about it.(YOON: Yes, it's very calm) I think 'Cough' is a bit cuter?

YOON: It's lovely to me

YOUNG: Cuter and more lovely

YOON: That's right. The strings spread in the chorus and then he goes back to his voice and guitar. It just ends dryly and I realized that's where Sam Kim and Onew meet

YOUNG: First of all, a guitar should be dongdongdongdangdongdongdang, here is just dreungdreungdreung and Onew fills in the middle with a warm voice

YOON: It feels warm but a bit rough, that charm is really amazing

about Caramel

YOUNG: I'm dancing right now because of the next song. Isn't it something that anyone can dance to? (laughs) In a way track number one, two and three are too calm. 'Cough' is cute but slow, this is the first track to raise the groove

YOON: In terms of sound 'Caramel''s role is connecting the front part [of the album], it also raises the tempo slightly. Also, Giriboy featured and took part in the work

YOUNG: "More, more, more, more into space" ['Caramel' lyrics] This is the only part where you get excited while listening to it, it goes up at that moment. 'Rain On Me' remains stuck on the ground while, I really like the expression of walking, in 'Caramel' you start walking faster

YOON: Yeah and also it's a bit witty the, how do we call it? A mouth trumpet? Lip trumpet? Louis Armstrong did a great job!! I think you can listen to 'Caramel' while walking lightly in a spring day, it's a representative pop track

YOUNG: It's cozy, but it doesn't have that cozy feeling in slow songs. I'm sure people who will listen to it will relate to it. It feels like a breeze, like a blanket? It feels like a breeze and a blanket. I really like that feeling. I really like the voice Onew uses, he's so talented. I love his song with Lee Jin-ah, 'Starry Night' is always in my top playlist

YOON: I really like that feeling. [...] If you look at the album as a whole, this kind of song was necessary as bridge, the previous three songs we discussed before penetrate the album emotions but from the heavy part to the end [of the album], it goes more to pop and k-pop route. I think this song needed to play that role. It's also good to meet Onew's skilled vocals. The lip trumpet that we mentioned earlier is a small skill but it's an advantage of this song, you can meet Onew, a skilled vocalist who sings naturally to a beat, soul and rhytm that you haven't seen in k-pop tracks

YOUNG: His pronunciation is so good. 'Sweet like caramel' It melts...

YOON: That's right, that's right! It's like it's melting into something...

YOUNG: When I first heard it, I thought it stood out? I thought it might break the album's emotional line but when I heard it for the third time, I was happy the song came out and that's the advantage of a full-lenght album. I rarely change my mind when it comes to mini. (YOON: the songs are few...). Since there's no flow. That's the fun part of a full album.

YOON: Giriboy's feature helped

about 'Anywhere'

YOUNG: SO, where are we going? Let's go somwhere else? Are we going to 'Anywhere'?

YOON: 'Anywhere'!! Yes, that's right. I choose it as one of my top two songs in the album. I like it because it feels like the middle of the album, after 'Caramel', which brought some of the rhythm, this songs explodes with a slight change of temperature. I think it's a song that makes you feel comfortable, I like this album section. If it's a full lenght album, there are a lot of songs and of course we care a lot about the songs' flow. Tracks one, two and three, as we said before, came with a dark and luxurious vibe, with Giriboy's help we came into 'Caramel' rhythmically and then in 'Anywhere'... there was a lot of emphasis on things like rough but cozy acoustic sounds in the first part but here, it naturally leads rhytm and cools down [the album's vibe]? Do you know the pop-like feeling? I like that feeling

YOUNG: Uh, sure. It has a bit of city vibe. I feel like I'm staring straight at lights at night and I gradually lose focus without even realizing it or like if you keep looking at the surroudings reflectively while driving, there's a dreaminess that you feel when you pass a line and feel nothing.

YOON: It has a bit of speed

YOUNG: With a sense of speed, the beat goes like this 'I'm not going anywhere', the sound is all around me

YOON: The notes are actually that low? [note: youngdae was singing]

YOUNG: No, it doesn't have a crescendo, it doesn't sound like it, but it feels like he's praising you. It's a city pop style, it has a good vibe

[ghostbustermelanieking]

i've never really considered myself a theater kid (mostly because i've never involved myself in productions outside of like elementary school) but this is an inaccurate self evaluation, i think. anyways, i coincidentally got to see wicked twice onstage (once on broadway), and the constant bombardment of advertisements led me to see the movie last night. and i had a surprising amount of thoughts! below the cut, bc there are some spoilers (for the movie and for both halves of the musical)

i should start by saying that i really did enjoy this adaptation a lot, way more than i would have guessed months or years ago, and that's pretty cool. in my mind, the extended run time works to flesh out some things that felt rushed in the original musical, and just to build the world more, and i really enjoy it. in some ways, i think this movie is closer to what little kid me was envisioning when i read the wikipedia synopsis

i frickin loved the shout outs to the original wizard of oz, like the title plates (which i MISSED the opening title but i've seen pics), or the bike elphaba rides, etc. i've probably missed a lot from this story bc i've only ever seen these characters as vague shapes through nosebleed seats, but listening to the soundtrack before going to see the movie helped me pick up on a lot of easter eggs in the lyrics i'd either forgotten or never noticed (holy fuck the wizard and i kills me 😭)

my favorite song from this musical since i saw it in 2019 has been what is this feeling, i don't know why i ever doubted myself

i love how they did the green elixir part of the opening song, but i'm shocked spotify just like. put jeff goldblum's name in the track listing, like we're not supposed to know that yet. they went through the trouble of only releasing half the soundtrack for lack of spoilers, but then they spoil elphaba's father in the credits??

this was basically me internally the entire fucking movie

in every fucking scene, but particularly when they hold hands, and when elphaba yells let her go its me you want! during defying gravity, and the fucking dance scene ahhhghgdhgh

obviously i ship the hell out of elphaba/glinda, it's so obvious, but i do admittedly have a real soft spot for fiyero/elphaba. i vibe with it, particularly the way they frame it in this movie

the solution is a three way

admittedly glinda is an interesting and frustrating character, and i'm curious to see how i'll feel seeing part 2. my memories of the stage musical are so fuzzy bc it's been years. i feel like i'm consistently so frustrated with glinda's limitations when it comes to elphaba and her cause, and i know that opening scene is her acting, for a reason, but it leaves a weird taste in my mouth without the second half to wrap it up. perhaps that is the point?

i really can only kind of remember the stage version -- there's like certain moments that pop out to scratch my brain every now and then, but also probably a lot i forget. the movie helps to pad out the story and make parts of the musical feel less rushed -- more on that later -- but there's some things i'm uncertain as to whether or not they're additions; can any fans of the stage production help me out?

i'm 90% sure elphaba not being intended to stay at the school is something they added (i love that explanation as to why she and nessa were starting at the same time), but i'm not positive

i also feel like that first scene of glinda and elphaba in the room was an addition, but also unsure?

the scene where fiyero runs into elphaba in the forest?

did elphaba get glinda in with morrible in the original musical or did the movie add that?

i know the oz history segue in one short day is an addition, but where did they discuss the grimmerie in the original musical? i do not remember its introduction

i feel like the guards going after glinda and elphaba saying it's me it's me is an addition, but i can't be sure (part of me hopes it is, because in my heart it's a tribute to sarah fier, but it probably isn't)

most of the additions were excellent. i loved the setting switch to a secret animal meeting in something bad. i love the addition of the bear nanny to elphaba's backstory. i love that they actually include a chase scene before defying gravity, bc i cannot for the life of me fill in how elphaba gets to sing defying gravity in the stage production

also i've seen other people scream about the choice to have elphaba fall and take her childhood self's hand before she flies, but i'll add to it. i fucking loved that

now for the things i wasn't as big a fan of

some of the song/montage sequences went on for what felt like way too long for me. particularly defying gravity (i hate to say it, but my god, i was like lmfao how have the guards not caught them??) i love most of the sequence and i'm not even sure where the cuts would be made, but i've seen someone joke that the last song played for like 30 minutes and that is kind of what it felt like

the idina/kristen cameo (ALSO spoiled by spotify!!) made me smile so much, buuut it did feel like their moment dragged on a little too long. and this is a stupid thing to complain about, since it's in every fucking trailer, but i wish idina hadn't done the little defying gravity moment because it felt like taking away from cynthia's moment at the end, at least in my mind

like maybe it would've worked if they'd made the joke in the 2nd part? idk

even though the length is not an issue to me, i do wonder why we didn't get more time in the middle part where elphaba and glinda are just close friends. it feels like everything between popular and the train scene was more focused on fiyero and the girls, which like... it's important, for sure, but i was hoping the run time would add just some more meat to the friendship (like i'm fully invested ofc but there's a little voice inside me going "shit, this is a big turn around; i need more of this and the why." like that little moment before popular where elphaba flinches away and doesn't want to be vulnerable? her stepping away when glinda calls her beautiful at the end of popular? i wanted a little more of that lonely girl uncertainty)

i am still surprised i had this many thoughts, but what are you gonna do? i really enjoyed the movie and a year is too long

[anjumbai]

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis – Thoughts

“… and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.”

First of all, this is one huge book. I was skeptical of whether I should really even pick this up, will this put me in another reading slump and yada yada. Surprisingly, I managed to finish it in a very short time. The narration style and dialogues are something I found to be absolutely hilarious. Bret Easton is very crafty with the dialogues he constructs and I don’t understand how he comes up with such elaborate and funny conversations. Honestly, I’d research a little bit more about the book and the writer but there is no network in my country as I’m writing this. So yeah, giving it to you raw.

Can I talk about the movie first? I’ll talk about the movie first. I love Christian Bale. He’s one of my favorite actors, a master at his craft and worthy of respect for his diverse set of roles. His dedication to play a role is unmatched. He starred as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and I’m glad I watched the movie first. The book is written in first person narrated by our P&P executive, working in murders and executions, Patrick Bateman. And every time I imagine a scenery with this guy, pop, it’s Christian Bale’s goofy ass acting popping up in my head and I absolutely love it. Somebody said while working with Bale that during the shoot of the film, he thought that Bale was deliberately acting horrible. He couldn’t understand why and when the movie came out, his doubts were gone. He seemed like the perfect sociopath, trying his best to fit in while being absolutely horrible at it. His deliberate bad acting just made the character Bateman come to life. It was bad acting to the point it was amazing acting. I don’t know, 10/10 for Christian Bale.

Let’s start off with the contents of the book. The book is a series of narration of the events happening in Bateman’s life and his mind by Bateman himself. There are often whole chapters dedicated to Bateman naming designer and luxury brands, describing popular music bands and their history and what their songs mean, there was even a whole chapter dedicated to his panic attacks; considering he is always high on Xanax, Velium or some other drug. Pages and pages worth of creative and witty dialogue, callbacks or just the total unhinged way of how Patrick treats everyone else when he is on bloodthirst mode. So much to highlight. So much to highlight, cause all of it is just so funny. Something like- “What is this continuing inability you have to evaluate this situation rationally?” when Patrick is being harassed by his fellow gay co-worker(who thinks Patrick loves him cause that one time he was trying to strangle him but dude thought wow Patricks in love with me) is just comedic. Or something like – “Patrick, why aren’t you looking at me?” “I’m ignoring you, Luis.” Just makes me laugh out loud. And of course, the movie. Lines from the movie written out in the book and you’re just sitting there Leonardo DiCaprio-ing all over. “He said the thing.”

All jokes aside, it was also a very clever critique of the free market. All the characters are extremely self-centered to the point of obsessive narcissism, where Pat just takes it up a notch. I don’t need to describe some of the scenes from the movie or the book because I can’t. It’s just not possible, the things Bret writes in the book, to put in a review. If you do wanna see an uncensored review, do pull up your Platinum AmEx card and sign up for my patron, where you’ll find exclusive content. Seriously, if you don’t have a Platinum AmEx card you might as well just be gutter garbage. Did I tell you that Patrick just gave me a face care routine that’ll set me back thousands of dollars but it’ll make me feel, quote, “I feel like shit but look great”?

Overall, my thoughts are all over the place and there’s nothing in particular I want to say about this book. It’s just the day to day life of a psychopath who commits heinous and gorey acts of crime, murder and what not. The book is basically him trying to fit in society while also maintaining his bloodlust. The lines “My nightly bloodlust overflowed into my days and I had to leave the city. My mask of sanity was a victim of impending slippage” sums up the book pretty well. He doesn’t necessarily leave the city all the time but rather he leaves his “I work in finance” façade behind and goes full on Ted Bundy all over the city. Graphic and gorey descriptions of his murder, torture, assault is just horrifying to even imagine. The very fact that someone thought all of this and put it in a book is gut-wrenching alone but let’s just say that the book tries to put some heartfelt moments too. Sentences like “I just want to be loved” are spoken out loud by Patrick after he, pretty graphically, cooks a part of a human body for his dinner. Words are written but not said out loud when Patrick feels love from someone. Genuine, heartfelt love that doesn’t want fame or money or anything else from Patrick, unlike every other girl he has slept with. “yet she weakens me, it’s almost as if she’s making the decision about who I am, and in my own stubborn, willful way I can admit to feeling a pang, something tightening inside, and before I can stop it I find myself almost dazzled and moved that I might have the capacity to accept, though not return, her love.” A slight attempt at humanizing a monster, I’d say. Not very successful. And I found it funny that even until the end of the book, I couldn’t tell most characters apart from one another. Just like in the movie, and I think the movie captured that essence pretty well.

Most of what you can know about the story is summed up pretty well in the movie, except that the book delves into much more comedy and, of course, gore. The movie ends at a better note in my opinion, simply because the part where the movie ends is just one of the few final chapters of the book. The movie couldn’t have done well with what the book offered as its ending and well done to the script writers for that. The book is hilarious, graphic and just a really funny mockery of materialism. It’s definitely worth a read but it does drag on without a proper goal or anything. But did I still enjoy it a lot? Yes, I did. 8/10. Hilarious and witty.

Now you know what to do when life is getting you down. Just tell yourself “You’ve got a negative attitude. That’s what’s stopping you. You need to get your act together.” Wise words, honestly.

Big ideas, guy stuff, boy meets the world, boy gets it.

[jeannereames]

Hello Dr. Reames! When you decide to read a history book on your free time - and a book completely unrelated to your area of expertise - but you know nothing about said topic, you're only interested in learning about it. How do you choose which book you'll read?

FANTASTIC question. Thank you for asking it.

Let’s Talk How to Evaluate the Quality of a Book NOT on/in Your Specialization or Field

I’m going to start with some general bullet points of advice with discussion. Then I’ll give a concrete example of a book (or set of them) that I decided not to buy after a little rummaging.

The Basics

(These may seem obvious, but a lot of folks ignore them, like they skip over reading the introduction. Always read the book’s introduction!)

Who’s the author?

Most books have, on the back cover or inside, a note about the author. Also, google the person. Do they have a professional degree or some form of special training/ experience (e.g., say, they worked on a dig)? If they’re a professor, where do they teach? (But don’t put too much on that; the state of academia today means highly respected scholars could end up in Podunk Mississippi just to find a job.)

What type of book is it and who’s the intended audience?

Is it an academic book meant for other specialists? A book intended for use as a textbook? Something marketed to general audiences: “pop” history, or creative non-fiction? These may all be well-done. Yet if I’m wanting to learn about a topic I’m not familiar with, I specifically seek out a textbook, as they're geared to teach the topic to non-specialists. They won’t go down a research rabbit hole. Specifically in ancient history, those “Companion to…” collections are great, as you get multiple experts weighing in on what they know the most about. And they're intended for interested readers but not specialists in that particular topic. Also they’re curated by an editor who IS a specialist, so you know the chosen authors are respected in the field.

When was it written?

If the publication date is 50 years ago, it’s been superseded. It might be out of date even if it’s 20 years ago—or 10. But newer is not necessarily better.

What press published it?

Princeton, Cambridge, Brill/DeGruyter, Berkeley, Peeters, Harvard, Chicago. Any would be a good sign. But the University of Oklahoma does not mean it’s a bad book. (Beth Carney’s important first monograph on Macedonian women came from UOk.) University presses can corner the market on a particular topic: Univ. of Nebraska does a LOT of native history. Also, it may not be a university press at all. Routledge is perfectly respectable, as are Bloomsbury and Penguin. For local histories or something niche, you may get publication by a historical society, not a major press at all. (I picked up a perfectly fine book about ghost stories in the city of Savannah done by the local historical society.) BUT IF IT’S SELF-PUBLISHED, that’s a big ol’ Red Flag.

Going a Little Deeper

Ask somebody you know, who IS a specialist in the field, if they’ve read the book and what they think

Depending on your personal circle, this may not be possible.

Find a review (or three)

I regularly teach my undergrads (and grad students) to look for reviews.

Look at the bibliography

Probably more important for academic books, but how long is the biblio? Yes, topics can have more or fewer publications, but it should go on for some pages. Also, is it all in just one language? Some fields may tend that way (much American history), but a well-done monograph in, say, Greek or Roman history should not be monolingual in the research.

Actually check (don’t ignore) footnotes

They tell stories. Again, this largely pertains to academic books, but you can find fun (and occasionally catty) scholarly quarrels in them. Very early in my reading on Alexander, I became fascinated by the back-and-forth in footnotes between the “Three Bs” (Badian, Borza, and Bosworth) plus Green and Hammond. BUT some red flags: 1) the author disproportionately citing themself, especially if it’s because 2) the author seems to have quarrels with a large number of colleagues. Maybe the author is just original! But sometimes that tells you their conclusions are questionable. Use your common sense.

Now, for a concrete example … as some of you know, I have American indigenous ancestry, specifically Peoria-Miami (Myaamia). While I know some things about our tribe, I’m far from an expert. On our Facebook page, one of the other members recently dropped mention of a series on the early history of Indiana, and the conflicts between settlers and natives during the French-Indian Wars—including St. Clare’s Defeat, effected by the Myaamia and led by Little Turtle (Mihshihkinaahkwa), the worst defeat [proportionally] ever suffered by American troops.

I thought, Oh, cool, maybe I should pick these up and read them in my “copious” spare time. E.g., probably years from now.

I followed the provided link, and immediately thought, This doesn’t look good. Page ran on forever, not well organized, and I had to hunt for info about the author. Although he was a retired schoolteacher, he didn’t seem to have any specific training in doing historical research; I don’t think he was even a history major in college (probably did education). Additionally, the book-covers and purchasing info made it clear all the books were self-published, and the provided text snippets contained grammar errors.

Yeah, I left that page bookless. Maybe the info in them was perfectly fine and he just couldn’t find a publisher who wanted creative non-fiction about an event most people have never heard of led by a chief with a name most can’t pronounce…. But I’m going to bet the research matched the grammar: slap-dash.

Now, that was a relatively easy one to figure out; I spent all of 10 minutes on the page. (And no, I’m not naming the author nor linking to the books, as this is an example, not an attempt to humiliate the person.) But it gives you some idea how I evaluate books in a field very far from my own specialty.

———————

* Although that said, they’re starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with new topics for Yet Another “Companion to….” Some I’ve seen would be better just sold as a collection on X topic, not “Companion to….”

[unpluggedfinancial]

How to Vet Crypto Services: Ensuring Safety and Reliability

In the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrencies, ensuring the safety and reliability of the services you use is paramount. With numerous platforms and services popping up, it's easy to fall prey to scams or unreliable providers. This guide will help you navigate the process of vetting crypto services to safeguard your investments.

Understand the Service

First, identify the type of service you're evaluating. Is it an exchange, a wallet, a DeFi platform, or another kind of service? Each type has its own set of standards and requirements. Research the service's reputation by looking for reviews and feedback from reputable sources. Platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and specialized crypto forums can provide insights into the experiences of other users. A reliable service will be transparent about its team, location, and regulatory status. Check the "About Us" section on their website and verify the information provided.

Security Measures

Ensure the service employs up-to-date encryption and robust security protocols. This includes secure SSL connections and advanced security measures to protect your data. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) should be a standard feature for any credible service, adding an extra layer of security to your account. For exchanges, verify that they store the majority of funds in cold storage, significantly reducing the risk of hacks.

Regulation and Compliance

Check if the service is licensed and regulated by relevant authorities. Regulatory compliance is a strong indicator of a service's legitimacy. Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies are essential for regulatory compliance. These policies help prevent fraudulent activities and ensure the service is operating within legal boundaries.

User Experience and Customer Support

The platform should be user-friendly and intuitive. A complex interface can lead to mistakes and a poor user experience. Test the responsiveness and helpfulness of their customer service. A reliable service will offer prompt and effective support.

Financial Stability

Research the service’s financial backers and funding sources. Well-funded services with reputable backers are generally more reliable. Some services offer insurance for user funds in case of breaches. This added security can provide peace of mind.

Community Feedback

Engage with the community on platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and specialized crypto forums. Community feedback can provide valuable insights into the reliability of the service. Review sites like Trustpilot or industry-specific review sites can offer additional perspectives on the service's performance.

Red Flags to Watch Out For

Be wary of services that withhold crucial information. Transparency is key to building trust. Avoid services that promise guaranteed returns or seem too good to be true. These are often signs of scams. Pay attention to any negative news or past incidents involving the service. A history of issues can be a major red flag.

Conclusion

Vetting crypto services is a critical step in safeguarding your investments. By conducting thorough research and being vigilant about potential red flags, you can avoid unreliable providers and make informed decisions.

Take Action Towards Financial Independence

If this article has sparked your interest in the transformative potential of Bitcoin, there's so much more to explore! Dive deeper into the world of financial independence and revolutionize your understanding of money by following my blog and subscribing to my YouTube channel.

🌐 Blog: Unplugged Financial Blog Stay updated with insightful articles, detailed analyses, and practical advice on navigating the evolving financial landscape. Learn about the history of money, the flaws in our current financial systems, and how Bitcoin can offer a path to a more secure and independent financial future.

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👍 Like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated with our latest content. Whether you're a seasoned investor, a curious newcomer, or someone concerned about the future of your financial health, our community is here to support you on your journey to financial independence.

Let’s learn about the Bitcoin Revolution together. Your financial freedom starts now!

[slimetutorialanalysis]

5. Musical Theatre and Stigmatization

Musical theatre, as a genre, is subject to stigmatization on multiple fronts. Firstly, there is the association with "popular" theatre, leading it to be seen as "low brow" compared to more prestigious theatre. Additionally, musical theatre demographics tend to lean young and feminine, both of which, especially when intersecting, face a lot of dismissal for their taste in art and culture.

Scholar Matt Hills discusses these phenomena in his articles “Implicit Fandom in the Fields of Theatre, Art, and Literature: Studying “Fans” Beyond Fan Discourses,” and “Popular Theatre and Its ›Invisible‹ Fans: Fandom as External/Internal to the Theatrical Field,” respectively, and the following analysis is based on those texts.

5.1 Musical Theatre as Low-Brow

Hills explains how, "in Mike Savage’s Social Class in the 21st Century[,] 'there are two modes of cultural capital, one which we term 'highbrow' and the other 'emerging''" Also sometimes referred to as "autonomous-autonomous" and "heteronomous-autonomous" modes, the distinction between them is that the former is universally seen as timeless and respectable (think Shakespeare), and while the latter is recognized for its cultural significance and impact, it is ultimately dismissed for being too commercialized.

"According to Savage’s data, 'highbrow' cultural capital is historically established and sanctioned in the education system, but 'it is also an ageing [sic] mode of cultural capital' which can be contrasted with 'emerging' cultural capital displayed by younger people and legitimated through their social media usage rather than through the educational system" (Hills).

Musical theatre falls under the "emerging" category of theatre despite being a long-established art form. This is mainly due to the commercial aspect of it and the seemingly endless rotation of new shows, especially those which handle topics more appealing to younger audiences (such as high school, the internet, and LGBTQ+ issues) and whose composition borrows from pop and R&B styles as opposed to the traditional Sondheim sound.

Therefore, it is no surprise that musical theatre has taken to fandom spaces, largely occupied by enjoyers of other "heteronomous-autonomous" media such as television. With its market appeal to a younger audience and its exclusion from "high-brow" theatre, fan culture develops in online niches.

5.2 Anti-Fandom Sentiment

"[Joli] Jensen (1992) also argued that modes of engagement have been assumed to distinguish 'fans' and 'aficionados': where fandom involves 'an ascription of excess, and emotional display,' the affinity of an arts patron 'is deemed to involve rational evaluation, and is displayed in more measured ways,' such as applause after a play. These cultural assumptions 'are based in status (and thus class) distinctions'" (Hills).

It is telling that the assumptions are classist (and by proxy, ageist), especially considering the soaring price of theatre tickets, even for musical theatre. Anti-fandom sentiment, however, is also rooted in sexism. Hills writes: "This 'theatre snobbery' is at least partly gendered and directed against allegedly excessively emotional fangirls (Garside 2015)." Women, especially young women, face immense scrutiny when they engage with theatre or film due to their cultural perception as "shallow" and "emotional." Their cultural interests are often ridiculed or dismissed until someone with more social capital co-signs the media's merit. Compare, for instance, the perception of The Beatles in the 1960s and present-day, and you may find that what is now The Greatest Rock Group in History was once just a group of mop-headed teen heartthrobs.

Featured in Hills' article “Popular Theatre and Its ›Invisible‹ Fans: Fandom as External/Internal to the Theatrical Field” is an excerpt from Stacy Wolf's exploration of the sexist treatment of Wicked and its female fans by critics. She wrote:

"When Wicked opened in October 2003, critics who did not like the show used girls’ fandom to justify their own negative appraisal, arguing that girls, who could not distinguish between good and bad theatre, were the obvious intended audience for the silly show. [...] [I]n 2006, with the musical’s popularity [...] growing, [...] critics, who then claimed to appreciate the show, [...] stressed the musical’s 'universal appeal' and disavowed any notable relevance to girls’ lives."

This is just one of many examples of the constant dismissal faced by fans of musical theatre. Accusations that these shows are purely commercially-driven spectacles, or that they have minimal literary value, miss out on all the details which attract fandom, and those most often missing details are those who are the least likely to find themselves or their interests addressed in musical theatre. It is, ultimately, an art form for the underdog and the outcast, be it due to gender, race, sexuality, class, or age. It is incredibly ironic that it is those demographics who are the least likely to have the means to attend a show in person. The stigmatization of musical theatre is a reflection of a larger systemic issue: one which disenfranchises the fans who care the most about shows and ultimately results in online fandom being the only safe space for fans, new and old, to interact with each other and share a connection through their favourite media (most often not experienced live, but rather via a bootleg recording).

<<<First <<Prev Next>>

[dr-smita-goel-homeopathy-clinic]

*Dr. Smita Goel Homeopathy Clinic*

www.thehomeopathyclinic.co.in

A chalazion is a slowly developing lump that forms due to blockage and swelling of an oil gland in the eyelid. A chalazion is generally not an infection.

A chalazion often starts out as a very small red, tender, swollen area of the eyelid. In a few days, it may change to a painless slow-growing lump the size of a pea.

A chalazion is often confused with a stye (or hordeolum), which is an infection of an oil gland in the eyelid. A stye produces a red, swollen, painful lump on the edge or the inside of the eyelid and usually occurs closer to the surface of the eyelid than chalazia. Left untreated, a stye can result in the formation of a chalazion.

Do not attempt to squeeze or drain the chalazion yourself. You may need treatment for proper healing.

Characteristics of a chalazion:

Painless bump or lump in the upper eyelid or, less frequently, in the lower eyelid

Caused by a thickening of the fluid in the oil glands (meibomian glands) of the eyelid

Tearing and mild irritation may result as the obstructed glands are needed for healthy tears

Blurred vision, if the chalazion is large enough to press against the eyeball

More common in adults than children; most frequently occurs in people aged 30-50

Disappears without treatment within several weeks to a month, although they often recur

Risk factors include:

Acne rosacea

Chronic blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids, often from excess bacteria)

Seborrhea

Tuberculosis

Viral infection

Rarely, they may be an indication of an infection or skin cancer

How is a chalazion diagnosed?

A chalazion is best diagnosed by your eye doctor, who can advise you on treatment options. Necessary testing might include:

Patient history to determine symptoms and the presence of any general health problems that may be contributing to the eye problem.

External examination of the eye, including lid structure, skin texture and eyelash appearance.

Evaluation of the lid margins, base of the eyelashes and oil gland openings using bright light and magnification

The good news is that many chalazia require minimal medical treatment and clear up on their own in a few weeks to a month.

Apply warm compresses to the eyelid for 10 to 15 minutes 4 to 6 times a day for several days. The warm compresses may help soften the hardened oil that is blocking the ducts and allow drainage and healing.

You can create a warm compress by dipping a clean soft cloth in warm water and then wringing it out (although you may prefer a commercially available reusable heat mask). Remoisten the cloth frequently to keep it wet and warm.

You can also gently massage the external eyelids several minutes each day to help promote drainage. Once the chalazion drains on its own, keep the area clean, and keep your hands away from your eyes.

If the chalazion does not drain and heal within a month, contact your eye doctor. Again, do not attempt to squeeze or "pop" the chalazion, as you may inadvertently do more damage.

[negrowhat]

Are you having fun because I am!!!

HIStory3 edition

Make Our Days Count or Trapped

😃

Lmaooooo Anon are we moots? I feel like I know you.

Without a doubt, HIStory 3 is the best installment of the HIStory franchise to date.

Trapped was like the blueprint for the Mafia x Cop pairing in BLs for me. Like even KP drew inspo from that series and we all know how KP popped off last year. Tang Yi and Shao Fei were searching for the same answers it seemed and it was brilliant the way they came together and beautiful. I hate that Tang Yi went to jail in the end and we have gotten zero sequel with him being released. Chris and Jake have both expressed that they would LOVE to do a sequel and yet NOTHING. He's just doomed to be incarcerated for all eternity.

MODC pissed me off so much lmao. The old bully falls for his victim trope in full affect. I HATED Hao Ting the first time I watched that series. Xi Gu was trying to mind his own business and get perfect grades so he could go to uni on a full ride and then here comes Hao Ting's messy and loud ass with his annoying comrades making his life hell. Then it goes too far and Hao Ting makes Xi Gu cry and he feels like the POS he is and re-evaluates his entire life in that moment. It was a love story I didn't think would I would find so amazing, but Hao Ting really did a 180 and went from bully to full-on simp almost instantly. Even with Xi Gu's hurtful death I loved this series.

What's more, we've seen Wayne and Chunchih in damn near every Taiwanese BL since then and I'm just sitting here IMPATIENTLY waiting for the day we are gifted a new series with them, they've literally been inseparable for years. ALSO CAN I JUST SAY HOW ABSOLUTELY PISSED I WAS THAT WAYNE AND CHUNCHIH WERE AT THE FIILMING FOR LU ZHI GANG'S AND SUN BO XIANG'S WEDDING BUT DIDN'T APPEAR IN THE EP!? Trolling us.

I choose MODC.

[jaynedolluk]

BOOKS OF 2023

I'm so late posting this but I'm determined to get it done. These are some of the books I read/enjoyed in 2023. I still have a massive to-read pile so not all these books actually came out in 2023 (tho' most of them did)

I don’t tend to read that many novels/fiction – I think the only one I read this year was Queen K. by Sarah Thomas about a tutor to a rich oligarch’s family. Also got the books of the scripts for Succession Seasons 3 & 4.

I tend to read a lot of memoirs. This year I read ones by Paris Hilton (which was surprisingly good), Hadley Freeman (which also talks about anorexia in general), Michelle Tea (which talked about her experiences of pregnancy in the context of being a queer woman), Ava Cherry and the latest one by Boy George.

Also Anita Bhagwandas’ book Ugly which looks at various beauty standards and how they affect us all + I really liked it. Plus Grace Dent did a book based on her podcast called Comfort Eating which looks at the favourite comfort foods of various celebrities (including recipes) combined with a bit of her own memoir.

I got a new book on Marilyn Monroe by Richard Barrios which examines her acting roles and re-evaluates her as an actor.

Read Claire Dederer’s book, Monsters, which looks at how we respond to problematic artists/creators. It raised some really interesting questions and personally I don’t think there are any easy answers. Another interesting book I came across was Creative Not Famous: The Small Potato Manifesto by Ayun Halliday which I thought offered some really good advice.

I’m keen on history especially books that look at cultural/social history. I found this fascinating book called Queer Blues which looks at the early blues musicians who explored sexuality/gender. Also another book I really recommend is I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records by Audrey Golden – one thing I really liked about it was the range of women they spoke to, so not just musicians but the security staff and DJs from the Hacienda. Read We Peaked At Paper which was about the UK fanzine scene.

In terms of more general history I got David Mitchell’s book, Unruly, which is his personal take on the history of the British monarchy up to Elizabeth I with plenty of sarcasm and general observations of the concept of monarchy.

I love the format of oral histories in books. This year I read Reach For the Stars (about the pop stars of the late 90s/early 00s), Faster Than a Cannonball (looking at various aspects of the nineties), and Don’t F&&K It Up (about the first ten years of RuPaul’s Drag Race).

I also read a lot of books on music. This year I read two of the new releases on goth music/culture – The Art of Darkness by John Robb and Season of the Witch by Cathi Unsworth (which I preferred especially the book/film recommendations and the gothmothers/gothfathers sections).

Read Parachute Women by Elizabeth Winder which re-evaluates the legacy of some of the women linked with the Rolling Stones – (Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Bianca Jagger and Marsha Hunt). I felt like it concentrated more on Anita & Marianne and it would have been nice to expand the book to cover the likes of Jo Wood, Jerry Hall and Mandy Smith but overall I loved the book.

It also ties in with one of my other areas of interest, feminism. I read Toxic by Sarah Ditum which looks at how various female celebrities were treated by the popular media in the late 90s/early 00s such as Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse.