#it would be fun to explore religion as a theme more in her era

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

sorta metal

[mesaylormoon]

MaXXXine: A Review

We are finally entering a refreshing period of history in which our culture is becoming more open-minded to the idea of exploring sex in pop culture. After decades of treating the topic as taboo, it’s important — and even healthy — to normalize the subject as a part of human exploration and even a device to build relationships in film. Shows like Euphoria have helped push the envelope in regard to showing sex in media and MaXXXine is another entry into the category. It stands out as a surprisingly entertaining piece for anyone familiar or unfamiliar with the series.

Pros:

* The presentation and cinematography in this picture are fantastic. Every frame of the film is dripping with atmosphere. The color palette of muted burgundies, midnight blues, pitch blackness, and grainy visual qualities all give this production a unique, even recognizable look. The scenes that take place at nighttime in the city are especially beautiful and feel as if they were ripped right out of an old Hollywood piece

* Director Ti West expertly commits to three genres in one movie: film noir, murder mystery, and old western. It’s very difficult to find a balance when combining dissonant styles and tones, but the three somehow blend together seamlessly to create a film with a standout visual language, tone, and aesthetic

* Although the costume design and stereotypical lean-in to 1980’s nostalgia is a bit tired, the time period MaXXXine is set in gives the film a very cozy feel and it’s fun to see archival remnants of the era (VHS tapes, video stores)

* Mia Goth’s performance as Maxine is the true X-factor of this movie. The lead actress perfectly depicts the tiredness, ruggedness, frustration, brokenness, and pained complexities of a character the audience has gotten to know over the course of three films. Kevin Bacon is also a fun addition to the cast whose fate is enjoyably fun to watch near the movie’s climax

* I really like the story, conflict, and setup of this third installment. I had no idea what to expect from MaXXXine but was worried that, without knowledge of the last two pictures, I would have trouble following this one. Not only does it work well as a standalone outing, I think the simplicity of the protagonist’s motivations make the movie engaging and easy to follow

* The pacing of the movie works surprisingly well. While it is, for the most part, slow-moving and driven by character interaction, there are just enough action scenes dispersed in between to keep the conflict interesting

Cons:

* Sam Levinson’s thumbprint is very evident in MaXXXine. He is featured as a producer credit and his obsession with excessive sex scenes, over-the-top violence, and messy narrative are on display throughout the movie’s runtime

* While Maxine’s motivations to transition from adult films to Hollywood and apprehend her friends’ killers is well-established, her relationships with the supporting characters are not. Perhaps I can’t appreciate this detail as a result of having not seen the previous installments, but this was a huge flaw that severely hurt the picture’s quality for me

* The reveal of the twist villain is especially weak. It’s interesting to include an antagonist with a personal connection to the heroine, but this is a plot device that, at this point in cinema history, has become a bit overused. Moreover, his reasoning for attempting to ruin the protagonist’s career are not well-established

* A24 has made it a frustrating hook of their filmography to incorporate heavy-handed, obvious themes of anti-religion, and its use in MaXXXine is not very purposeful. One could change this element of the story and not really miss anything

Verdict: This has certainly been a contradictory review of mine, but overall, I enjoyed MaXXXine much more than I thought I would. I’m glad I took a risk on seeing this in theaters. Traditionally, I tend to like lots of A24 releases (as do most movie buffs, due to their above-average quality) but not every film developed by the studio has been a hit for me. (I absolutely hate Lady Bird and I’m not proud to say it was my first A24 viewing). Tangent aside, MaXXXine is a solid mystery movie with a strong visual identity and memorable moments that make it worth more than one sitting.

[somerabbitholes]

Indian Non-Fiction

A list of books on India, almost all of which are by Indian writers; most of them are about history in one way or other but they also involve politics, culture, and religion. (Doesn’t include writing in Indian languages because most of my non-English reading has been limited to fiction). I’ve also added links to online editions for ones I found.

History

Pre-, Postcolonial India (+ other assorted history)

Land of Seven Rivers by Sanjeev Sanyal - looks at Indian history through its geography; great if you want an introduction. it’s a small book but has very interesting insights; definitely would recommend. Also check his Ocean of Churn, which looks at Indian history in terms of the Indian Ocean

The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati by Michel Danino - looks into the research and evidence on the existence of the Sarasvati river and makes a case for its existence

Hooghly: The Global History of a River by Robert Ivermee - about Hooghly as a centre of a trans-Asiatic and trans-oceanic commercial network

Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization by Namit Arora - what it says, it’s new and was well-received; it paints a holistic picture to start you off

Modern South India by Rajmohan Gandhi - this one’s new, and I’ve only barely read it. It’s the history of south India from the coming of the Portuguese to modern times and it’s really important because we don’t study about this or even talk about this in mainstream conversations

India Moving by Chinmay Tumbe - on migration within India and how migrants and migrations has shaped history, politics, and policy

The Courtesan, the Mahatma, and the Italian Brahmin by Manu Pillai - a selection of stories (real ones) from Indian history; very engagingly written and very, very interesting stories. Also check other works by Pillai - The Ivory Throne and Rebel Sultans. He also writes a regular column for the Mint

Panipat by Vishwas Patil - (a translation from Marathi) a history of the Battle at Panipat in 1761, which basically created a vacuum for the East India Company to step in and grab power; really expansive and highly detailed

Rama and Ayodhya by Meenakshi Jain - on the Ramayana and its cultural spread across Indian since the ancient times; also about the Ayodhya movement

Decolonizing the Hindu Mind by Koenraad Elst - lays down the ideological and intellectual development of the broad umbrella Hindu revivalist movement; really good starting point to understand the rise and development of a significant chunk of Indian politics in post-independence years; really straightforward work, very clear in its objectives

1962: the War that Wasn’t by Shiv Kunal Verma - on the Sino-Indian conflict in 1962; haven’t read it yet, but it’s supposed to be one of the best ones on the conflict

1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh by Srinath Raghavan - on the creation of Bangladesh; places the history in a Cold War context and includes all stakeholders like the US, China and Russia; has multiple layers to its narrative.The Most Dangerous Place by Srinath Raghavan - on American foreign policy in South Asia right from the earliest times.

Cricket Country by Prashant Kidambi - about how cricket took hold in colonial India and the making of the first all-India cricket team; super excited about this book, I added it to my list too

A Corner of a Foreign Field by Ramchandra Guha - on the growth of cricket in India; takes into account race, caste, and religion in pre- and postcolonial times; looks at how the sport was adapted in local cultures and how it became an expression of resistance

Himalaya: A Human History by Ed Douglas - basically what it says; very thorough and very fresh; about more than India because it takes Himalaya as a unit and so it’s really transnational in its approach

Colonial India

Plassey by Sudeep Chakravarti - a very detailed study of the Battle of Plassey which kicked off the colonial project in India

India’s War: World War II and the Making of Modern South Asia by Srinath Raghavan - on India’s involvement and contribution in World War II

An Era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor - about the economic impact of the British Empire in India; highly elaborate and detailed work on the economic drain in India during colonisation

Goa Inquisition by A. K. Priolkar - about the Portuguese colonisation of Goa and the subsequent evangelical campaign by the Portuguese crown and the Roman church; very, very, thorough and great if you (like me) know nothing about the whole thing

Hicky’s Bengal Gazette by James Otis - on the development and running of India’s first English newspaper; a fun read because honestly the story of the paper is very dramatic and full of political/colonial gossip; also tells you a lot about the early ideas of free press in colonial India

Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse by Meenakshi Jain - about the discourse on sati and the need for reform; reviews the idea of the abolition of sati being a progressive act

Castes of Mind by Nicholas Dirks - about the intersection of caste, race, and colonial knowledge and policy

Politics, Sociology, Commentaries

The Indian Trilogy by V. S. Naipaul - a semi-autobiographical work on the kind of civilisation Naipaul sees India to be; very, very honest; paints a picture of postcolonial India over the years. the trilogy includes An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization, and India: A Million Mutinies Now. I’ve only read the first one; but I’ve heard and read great things about them all

Republic of Caste by Anand Teltumbde - about caste in post-Independence India; looks at political and policy-related developments and their impact on caste dynamics; sort of subaltern history; it is a little difficult to understand if you don’t already have some amount of knowledge on Indian politics; also a very academic work so not exactly easy to read - I’ve only read parts of it myself

Annihilation of Caste by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar - technically a speech that was never delivered because it was thought to be too explosive; argues that caste is rooted in oppression and for the complete destruction of the caste system; an excellent work, although you do need to know about caste in its religious and political terms. Really just read all of his writing (it’s an entire 14 volume set), they’re excellent and far ahead of their time

The Idea of India by Sunil Khilnani - an analysis of sorts of what pre-colonial and colonial society and the freedom struggle mean for the republic and the kind of nation-building that has happened.

A New India of India: Individual Rights in a Civilisational State by Harsh Madhusudan, Rajeev Mantri - rethinks the “idea of India”; traces cultural and historical legacy in making of modern politics, and explores how individual rights are reconciled with the state’s goals; great thing is that it takes a fresh look at things; perfect to be read after The Idea of India 

10 Judgements that Changed India by Zia Mody - recounts ten most important legal cases and court rulings in India; good starting point at understanding how the law works and its development

Republic of Religion by Abhinav Chandrachud - about secularism and religion in India in light of colonial rule, and its implications in postcolonial India

India Unbound by Gurcharan Das - it’s a history from the Independence to 2000 that focuses largely on the political economy and unpacks the kind of growth we’ve seen; it mixes the personal with the political/economic progress and it’s really easy to get into; best when read with his India Grows at Night

People

Kanshiram by Badri Narayan - a biography of Kanshi Ram, who pretty much laid the foundation of modern Dalit political movement in post-independence India; looks into how the movement developed under Kanshi Ram; a useful insight into both the man as well as early Dalit politics in India

Savarkar by Vikram Sampath - first part of a two-part biography (second part isn’t out yet) on V. D. Savarkar, one of India’s first revolutionary freedom fighter; looks at an insane variety of sources and highly detailed; a must read.

History Men by T. C. A. Raghavan - about the friendship of three of colonial India’s first native historians (Sir Jadunath Sarkar, G. S. Sardesai, Raghubir Sinh) and how they collaborated and supported each other in writing Indian history using scientific methods; also looks at their contributions to Indian history in general

Rammohun Roy by Amiya P. Sen - a biography of colonial India’s first social and religious reformers who reinterpreted Hinduism for modern times; very well-written, great for understanding how early reform worked out

Daughters of the Sun by Ira Mukhoty - about women in the Mughal dynasty. note that it only looks at women connected to and part of the royal household, but an interesting read nonetheless. Her other work, Heroines: Powerful Indian Women in Myth and History is a wonderful book on women in history right from the ancient times; also analyses and explains the changing perceptions of women

R. N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster by Nitin Gokhale - really, really, really interesting book on R. N. Kao and the development of India’s espionage machinery

Art

Indian Art by Partha Mitter - a history, he’s one of the best on Indian art, very useful

The Dance of Shiva by Ananda Coomaraswamy - a collection of essays on Indian artistic tradition in aesthetic and philosophical terms

The Spirit of Indian Painting by B. N. Goswamy - specifically about painting; explores different themes in different regionals tyles; also check other books by Goswamy, he’s kind of a big deal in art history

Indian Painting: the Lesser Known Traditions by Anna Dallapiccola - pretty much what it says; takes into account a ton of styles and traditions that are lumped together ‘folk art’

Cities, Travel etc

The Great Indian Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux - four-month journey from London to India by trains only; explores themes like colonialism, American imperialism, poverty. One of my favourites

The Epic City by Kushanava Chaudhary - memoir on Kolkata as the author explores and re-discovers the city when he comes back to it after staying in the US for most of his life; a lovely book, delves in the history of Kolkata a little in relation to how the city still feels it, how its people are still negotiating with it, and the kind of future the author sees for Kolkata

Bombay, Meri Jaan by Jerry Pinto & Naresh Fernandes - a collection of essays on Mumbai by a wide collection of people from Naipaul to Khushwant Singh to Manto and Salman Rushdie, compiled by Jerry Pinto; one of my favourites on the city

No Full Stops in India by Mark Tully - writings from when Tully was a journalist in India; commentaries on things he witnesses, also includes a fair amount of personal involvement; explores poverty, postcolonial development, religion and culture in post-independence India

Mumbai Fables by Gyan Prakash - a history of Mumbai city; looks at colonisation, industrial development, the regional politics, architecture and art, as well as the underworld/mafia

Banaras by Diana L. Eck - on Varanasi (Banaras), probably India’s holiest city; tells its history from its conception to now; blends religion, mythology, politics, and history. Also check Eck’s India: A Sacred Geography

The City of Djinns by William Dalrymple - semi-autobiography about living in Delhi; looks at the legacies of independence and partition while thinking about its past

The Book of Indian Journeys by Dom Moraes - it’s an anthology of essays and excerpts from works of a bunch of writers on travelling in India, it’s a favourite when I’m travelling

This is not exhaustive and I will keep updating when I find the time. I’ve tried to keep it diverse (and organised) in its content; hope you find something you like :)

[timeagainreviews]

The Doctor with a Thousand Faces

Art by Paul Hanley

When I say the words "Fourteenth Doctor," what springs to mind? Perhaps you may say "Peter Capaldi," if you want to get super technical. Or perhaps, you may be thinking about Jodie Whittaker’s future successor. And to that point, you may already have someone in mind. Whoever he, or she, or they may be, there are key traits that you tend to expect. The Doctor may look and dress different, but they must also possess a certain "Doctoryness," about them.

Doctor Who is unique. Very few live-action shows have the ability to change their lead actor while maintaining the same character. Sure, they did it on "Bewtiched," but it never became part of the narrative. You could argue that Twin Peaks achieves this with characters like Laura Palmer returning in the form of Madeline Ferguson and Carrie Page. Or even more recently, American Gods with Media and New Media. But what about before that? What about a time before foreign Gods came to America, or certain Time Lords came to British television? What if the undying hero is part of our fabric as a species?

Within its title, Doctor Who has dared its viewers to ponder the question- "Who is this mysterious stranger?" I would venture to say the answer lies somewhere within the culture of the era. Our concept for who the Doctor is, and what they represent has changed throughout the years. As we change as a culture, our expectations of the hero change. The new gods of our pop culture mythology are still fallible, and therefore, subject to change.

It's a fairly popular fan theory that every one of the Doctors is a response to his or her predecessor. And there are even real-world moments when you can see the showrunners course-correcting a bit of bad writing. The Sixth Doctor was so loathed within the higher ranks at the BBC, that the Seventh Doctor is clearly a conscious response. Where Six was brash, Seven was quiet. While Mel was a screamer, Ace was fierce and brooding. On an even deeper level, because Doctor Who is so unique, you can also apply these course corrections narratively.

The Doctor's incarnations act more as avatars of an overarching hero of great power and intelligence. It would seem as though every regeneration is an opportunity for the Doctor, and us as an audience to ponder the identity of the Doctor. Christianity has God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all aspects of the same one God. What does each of them imply about the other? Is each Doctor informed by an overarching consciousness? Is every aspect made in its image, or is the Doctor the sum of their parts? After all, the Doctor is still alive. We are actively watching the Doctor’s lifetime, which as of yet, is still ongoing.

In the Hindu pantheon, we get gods like Vishnu and Shiva who also take up corporeal form as avatars on earth. Much like the Doctor, these avatars are usually direct responses to their predecessor. Take Vishnu, for example. Vishnu incarnates in several different eras, usually as a response to some great imbalance in the world. But often times, their personalities explore a different aspect of Vishnu overall. As the avatar Rama, he lived so lawfully that, depending on which version of the Ramayana you prefer, cost him the love of his life. In his next incarnation as Krishna, he corrects this by being more anarchic, more bohemian, and much more free-loving. On the other hand, he was also more authoritative, as compared to Rama's gentler nature.

You could compare these two characterisations to the Third and Fourth Doctors. The Third Doctor literally worked with the military while the Fourth Doctor flew in the face of the Brigadier, hanging his feet out of the Jeep like a petulant teenager. While both Doctors have the same authoritarian streak, they're usually found in opposite directions. The Third Doctor's officiousness melts away into warmth, while the Fourth Doctor's charm burns away with his fury. All the while, each of them demands we as viewers continue to ponder the nature of our terrifying friend.

We’ll spend the entirety of the show pondering that nature. Because, as I stated before, the Doctor’s life is ongoing. Much like Vishnu sustaining the universe, Shiva’s dance has not yet ended, Brahma has not yet awakened. The dance of life continues. We can live in the past or the future, but we can never escape the present. Each Doctor stares down the barrel of their own demise. Even we as an audience see each successive Doctor as temporary. Their days are numbered, and no matter how many times you change your hair, your wardrobe, your gender, we all fear the reaper. So we focus on the now, when we’re alive. We focus on our own unique challenges.

Every son of God, it would seem, has their own cross to bear. Each hero meets a greater burden that speaks to the culture of a time. As Jodie Whittaker's Doctor is yoked with the incumbrance of sexism, so too was Colin Baker yoked with censorship. Conservative backlash has often times landed Doctor Who in the hot seat. "The Trial of a Time Lord," is a story arc that directly addressed the real-world accusations of the show's violence. In "Rosa," the Doctor goes toe-to-toe with the embodiment of a nasty internet troll in the form of Krasko.  

It's funny then, to view how this response to popular culture has changed throughout the years. Ben and Polly were practically Bible thumpers compared to the real world culture of hippies that were capturing the hearts and minds of people everywhere in the '60s. In their own way, they're a couple of squares that fly in the face of what was actually "cool," at the time. Even this goes against the mercurial trickster that was the First Doctor, who bit his thumb at your fuddy-duddy schoolmaster in the form of Ian Chesterton. Doctor Who of the '80s seemed like more of a "2000 AD" comic book world, which makes sense when you consider who was Prime Minister at the time.

Not only is the Doctor's personality explored throughout these incarnations, but the symbolism surrounding the Doctor as well. The name "Doctor," itself has been explored to some depth within the show. What does being a doctor mean to the Doctor? A doctor is a person who can bring us hope. They can also bring us dreadful news. Some of us don't like seeing the doctor because death seems to follow them around. The Doctor also carries a tool as opposed to a weapon. We're given the impression that the Doctor is a person who wants to fix things. Even psychic paper is a symbol for the Doctor's anarchic streak. "Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" Psychic paper plays to that devilish side in all of us that wants backstage access and lies on our résumé.  The symbolism of the TARDIS has also changed over the years. Modern perceptions of the police may taint the image of a police box in the same way modern perceptions of America may taint the image of Captain America. However, I would like to think that both Cap and the Doctor represent the potential of what these things could become. The Doctor is what a good cop should be.

People say Doctor Who shouldn't be political, but from a historical standpoint, that's impossible. It's always had the same character, fighting for freedom from unjust capitalism, to totalitarianism, to unimaginable callousness. The Doctor has never asked what a person's sexuality was before saving their life because the Doctor is an actual hero. The Doctor doesn't have to agree with your lifestyle to agree that life is precious. What kind of Doctor would they be if they went around allowing someone to die? That's no kind of Doctor at all. This is why Doctors sometimes need people around to kick them in the ass when they're being total kumquats.

Whether we call them assistants, or companions, or friends, the Doctor's fellow travellers remain cyphers for the audience, though some more than others. While on the other hand, it would seem as though the Doctor represents something deeper, something more conceptual. Like a doctrine passed from leader to leader. "Never cowardly, never cruel." Keeping humans around to keep the leader in check. We the viewer have this abstraction of our greater self, playing companion to the strangeness that is this existence. We love these stories because they’re our history, our world, and our trajectory. Past, present, and future. They're embedded in our religions and in our myths. So we keep the tradition of storytelling alive so that we might never forget these elements within ourselves. And to remember that no matter how bad things get, to appreciate being alive now.

Hello friends! For those of you who may be wondering, yes I have posted this article already. However, I wasn't completely happy with it, so I retooled it a bit. Sometimes you gotta do that! I've been up to rather a lot since we last talked. I went to see Andrew Cartmell speak in Leeds a few weeks ago, and that was great fun. He had so many wonderful insights into his era. We're still working on K9, but things have been a bit slow because of my pal's schedule. I've still got plans to write an Eighth Doctor article, but I decided to put it off for the time being. I'd like to go a little deeper into his audios and books now that I've finished his comics. I've also got articles planned for Doctor Who in video games, Doctor Who canon, and I might start doing profiles for villains I love.Speaking of profiles, I may also start interviewing some of my favourite Whovians. I know so many avid fans of the show with their own wonderful perspectives, that I wanted to incorporate them somehow! On the Twin Peaks front, I was thinking about sharing a series of comics I've been working on. Each comic explores a different theme in the show. I've also been toying with the idea of writing about other shows. Speaking of which, who all watched Good Omens? I loved it. What did you think?

[ollyarchive]

LET IT BURN: YEARS & YEARS

With Years & Years’ second album ‘Palo Santo’, Olly Alexander is smouldering away all negative energy and shaping communities from the dancefloor.

By El Hunt on 27th April 2018

Years & Years’ ringleader Olly Alexander - clad in a magnificent pair of PVC overalls; his second costume change of the day - is currently milling around an East London photo studio, thoughtfully munching on cookies, and discussing Mariah Carey in great detail. The megastar pop icon has hit the news this same week after speaking publicly about her bipolar disorder diagnosis for the first time, and Olly’s quick to commend her bravery in letting down her barriers. “I think it would be nice to believe that pop stars and famous people are just incredibly happy and fabulous; that they move glitteringly through the world, and that everything they touch turns gold,” he reasons. “But it’s a fantasy. Actually, I think vulnerability - and being able to be vulnerable - is a sign of real strength.”

You sense that Olly Alexander lives by these same words as he navigates the landscape of being a pop star in 2018. In the three years following Years & Years’ rapid rise to the highest echelons of the charts, Olly has gradually morphed into something of a public figure, too. A prominent spokesperson on mental health and LGBT activism in particular, Olly dedicated the band’s landmark Glastonbury show in 2016 - which took place roughly a year on from the release of their debut album ‘Communion’ - to pride, promising to “shove a rainbow in fear’s face” in an emotional speech to the assembled crowds. A year later, Olly took a camera crew back to his unassuming hometown for a moving BBC documentary titled ‘Growing Up Gay’, and was very honest in discussing his experiences with bullying, eating disorders, and anxiety. ‘Palo Santo’ - Years & Years’ second album - is a continuation of this, combining ridiculously overblown, brilliantly lavish sci-fi landscapes and gigantic pop ambition with an amped-up sense of honesty, and a space-reclaiming edge that defies the presence of negative energy. Today, Olly observes that one of his chief goals as an artist is to write the songs that would’ve lifted him up as a teenager still searching for a community.

After spending several years moving around the country living next to a variety of theme parks - the singer was born in Blackpool, where he lived next door to the Pleasure Beach, before moving down the road from both Alton Towers and Staffordshire’s Drayton Manor - Olly Alexander and his mum settled into rural Gloucestershire life when he was thirteen. Trading in the garish Blackpool illuminations for the distant glimmer of the Severn Bridge, it was a drastic change in pace .“It always gets described as sleepy, Coleford,” Olly grins, having swapped his neon-orange PVC vest and chain necklace (another of today’s outfits) for something a little more practical. Up until it became the hometown of Years & Years’ frontman, the small market town boasted a ukulele expert as one of its most famous residents, and was perhaps best known for being the location of the world’s only Ribena production plant. It wasn’t exactly the epicentre of queer culture for a teenager searching for a community, especially given that the nearest gay bar - Flamingos - was thirty miles away in Bristol, and located the other side of a toll bridge.

“I was actually too scared to go to Flamingos,” Olly remembers, laughing. “I love that as a name for a gay bar. Flamingos!” he announces, with grand intonation. ”[Coleford] was never a place that felt connected to anything queer when I was growing up.”

“I did like growing up around trees and fields, pretending I was a fairy,” he adds, chirpily. “I enjoyed getting that experience.”

“Being able to be vulnerable is a sign of real strength.”

Rather than heading to the now-closed Flamingos (R.I.P), Olly surrounded himself with a sea of pop bangers growing up instead, worshipping at the altar of Christina, Britney and TLC. And speaking of worship, he also remembers taking notice of another prominent community in the town: the church next door to his house. Though organised religion wasn’t his bag, the strange rituals - decorating an orange for Christingle, reciting the Lord’s Prayer at his local Church of England primary school - proved intriguing. Later in life, he’d grow to view songwriting as a cathartic and mysterious kind of healing ritual, as well as noticing odd parallels between a church’s sense of belonging, and the celebratory freedom that exists in a space filled with dancing, thrashing bodies, and filthy, sexy pop.

As Years & Years were starting to etch out the first strokes of ‘Palo Santo’ at the beginning of last year, Olly explains he was “newly single”, and reading a lot of books in his spare time. Besides taking on the mammoth task of conquering David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, he also picked up Andrew Holleran’s cult novel Dancer From the Dance; set amongst New York City’s LGBT disco scene in the 1970’s. As well as being flamboyant and fun - presenting a campy, fabulous surface world that’s soundtracked by The Marvelettes and Sister Sledge - it’s also a heartbreaking read, documenting the “psycho-sexual drama” of desire, and touching on both loneliness and immense inequality. It’s a double-edged sword that also exists in ‘Palo Santo’.

“It talks a lot about how the club is like a church; a church for gay people to go and dance, and I was like, yes!” Olly says, excitedly. “This is putting into words how I’ve been feeling for so long, and what I’ve been trying to communicate in music. It really inspired me to write a lot,” he says. One song on ‘Palo Santo’ directly credits the book as an influence. ‘I breathe the rituals of the dancer’s dance,’ Olly sings on ‘Sanctify’.

“When I see dancers, their body is their medium,” Olly notes. “The art is their body. What an amazing embodiment of creativity, to literally be your limbs and your expression and movement! I’ve always been enchanted by dance,” he says. “Plus, I think a pop video should have dance in it, too. It’s a prerequisite! A bit of choreography! You want that fantasy moment where everybody’s going to burst into dance. Some choreo! I just think, if you can’t do that in a pop video, where can you?”

Such considerations rule on ‘Palo Santo’, an album that pushes every last bold facet of pop to the maximum extreme. Set in a high-concept, futuristic world which plays on traces of real life to sneaky, allegorical effect, it also sees Years & Years more fearless than ever. One pulsing highlight, ‘Hallelujah’ dives straight onto the dancefloor to find healing in letting loose, while Olly’s current favourite ‘Lucky Escape’ confronts the more unlikeable aspects of our own emotions. “It’s such a petty song!” he reasons. “I was quite sick when I recorded the vocal for it, and I can really hear when I listen to the song that I’m not feeling very well. I don’t like the person that’s saying those words in a way, but it’s an honest reflection of what I was feeling at the time. I’m proud to put that on there.”

“I’ve always been enchanted by dance.”

Over the past three years, Olly says, he has started to realise that pushing his own boundaries reaps creative rewards. “Putting yourself in an uncomfortable position - in terms of the creative process - it usually means you’re going to get something worthwhile,” he adds. “I really had to get past the levels of pettiness…. sometimes it made me laugh. I’d be writing a song when I was so angry at my ex boyfriend. I would never want to present this to the world, where I’m just this bitter ex who’s still hung up on him!’ Olly admits. “[But] actually, sometimes we are hung up! It’s an ugly, but also truthful and beautiful, side to our humanity. I had to be okay with it.”

Another standout track called ‘Rendezvous’, meanwhile, contains hints of Jennifer Lopez’s euro-banger ‘On the Floor’ (“it does!” Olly exclaims in agreement) and explores hook-up culture, along with unpacking his immediate feelings as a relationship draws to a close. “After a relationship you think, maybe the things they did weren’t as well intentioned as I thought they were?” Olly says. “I was in my petty, angry phase. I have had a lot of experiences with guys where the sex has felt like this depressing inevitability. We’re gonna meet up, and we’re going to have sex. That’ll kind of be it, and then onto the next person. What’s happening in that interaction, and what happens in that interaction when it’s someone you want more from?” he asks, pausing. “I also just really wanted to write a song called ‘Rendezvous’!” he adds. “I think I’d smoked a really big joint before I wrote that song, so there’s that, too. Beyonce would have a song called ‘Rendezvous’ and she’d kill it! She has ‘Deja Vu’, of course. Britney loves a French moment, too. With stuff like that, you just need conviction.”

Conviction is a world that springs to mind easily when you’re talking to Olly Alexander. As well as his commitment to sharing his own experiences with unwavering honesty, this new era of the group feels like a step onwards from the anonymous throngs of bodies that once grabbed at Olly way back when the band released their video for ‘King’. Performing solo gyrating routines for a panel of extra-terrestrial judges as Years & Years returned with ‘Sanctify’ - a bit like a filthier Strictly Come Dancing if it were set in an alternate universe - it’s the very definition of conviction. And with his bandmates Emre Turkmen and Mikey Goldsworthy also taking on a slightly different role this time around - acting as behind the scenes production wizards and, as Olly puts it, “his musical husbands” - there’s a sense that he’s also careful when it comes to handling his newfound platform responsibly.

“What is the point of a pop star in 2018? What should they be saying?”

“What is the point of a pop star in 2018?” Olly asks nobody in particular. “What should they be saying?”

Heading into ‘Palo Santo’ with the aim of creating a record that tackles the intricacies of belonging in a world that feels increasingly dangerous and fragmented, the band crafted an entire fictional landscape to explore the darker grit. “It felt too monumental, hard or depressing to set everything in our real world,” he reasons. “I thought a lot about where I could make a place where we take out all the rules surrounding gender identity and sexuality. I thought, well, why don’t we just have everybody be androids?” Olly laughs.

“I’ve always loved artists that take people to their mad world with them, like Bowie, Prince, Gaga. I thought, I want to do something like that, and go as big as possible,” he concludes with resolve.

In ‘Palo Santo’, Years & Years have done just that, flinging open the doors on a vastly ambitious universe that ignites life’s bullshit in a blaze of euphoria. Infiltrating the mainstream with dagger-edged pop - and doing it in fantastical, glittering style - Olly Alexander might just be the most important pop star we have in 2018.

[ununniliad]

Book Review: The Further Adventures of Superman

The Further Adventures of Superman is an anthology of Superman stories that came out in 1993 - just after he'd died in the comics, and right on the heels of the premiere of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. It's especially interesting here, because it acts as a sampler of examples of what the wider culture was thinking about Superman when there was no movie around - hadn't been for a while, wouldn't be for even longer.

There are two different trends in this volume that are especially interesting to note. The first is that many of the stories are themed around religion and spirituality, gods and devils. It doesn't feel like an editorial edict - the stories come at the subject from many different directions, and a couple leave it out entirely; it's fascinating that this seems to just have been what was on everyone's mind.

The other trend is even more curious: the majority of these stories seem to have been written about Superman as he was in the 1970s! Some of them use explicit elements of '70s Superman comics, like Clark Kent working for WGBS instead of the Daily Planet, or the use of 'Kal-El' as a 'true' identity. Others use explicit elements from Superman: The Movie - at least one talks about the twenty-eight galaxies that baby Kal-El's starship wandered through. Yet others are simply about combining the planet-juggling levels of power the character had back then with the heated melodrama of the era.

It feels like most of the writers here hadn't read a Superman comic for ten to twenty years, and were working off of memory; many of these writers are reliable licensed fiction writers, not particularly known for superhero fiction, so that may even be true. Either way, it's weirdly consistent, and I've got to wonder if it's a reflection of how, in the '80s, comics turned towards specialty shops and away from general audiences.

In any case. Why don't we try out some capsule summaries, see how that goes?

The Riddle of Superman's Mask: This story was written by Will Murray, the writer who created Squirrel Girl, and like SG herself, it's trying to combine the fun weirdness of the Silver Age (in the form of a 'what fantastic thing happened to Superman to make him act so weird?' mystery) with the emotional depth of later eras. It doesn't quite work, but it's an interesting try.

Apparitions: By the redoubtable Diane Duane, this story brings Superman face-to-face with several of her recurring tropes - the heat death of the universe, the immanent presence of divinity, the truly alien mixed with the truly kind. And the investigation of that divinity, that alien-ness, and how they may intersect is the meat of the story. The ending feels slightly unsatisfying, in a way that it kind of has to be in this space, but the journey is interesting.

Lucifer Over Lancaster: This one actually explores a pretty similar space to the last story, but not as well, in my opinion - it has a more judgmental Superman and a more judgmental tone that clashes with the message of tolerance and love of the alien, as well as a fair bit of gore and death that doesn't quite feel earned. But it has some neat psychic visions, if you're up for that.

Dateline: Metropolis: Possibly the least fantastic of the stories in this volume, this is a straightforward "what Lois is up to while Clark's having an adventure" story. In this case, she's pursuing the idea that up-and-coming businessman Roger Gunn is, in fact... Superman! And it's... ehhh. There's some good Lois, but the moments in which she's dense, and especially her reaction to the idea of knowing Superman's secret ("I'll have to stop writing important news articles in order to not out him! Oh well, maybe being his girlfriend would make up for that")... ehhhhh.

Mine Enemy Grows Older: Easily the most fantastic of the stories in this volume, going into the outright cosmic - Superman and Lex Luthor in the year 900,000 AD, and the stakes are nothing less than apotheosis - transformation into a literal god. I originally read this anthology as a kid, and this story blew my mind - and unlike many similar stories that, on adult readings, turned out to have wonderful concepts but mediocre execution, it really does hold up. Worth it.

Forget Me Not: It's funny, but this one feels kind of like a riposte to the "lesson" of Superman II - Superman tries to break up with Lois For Her Own Good, but discovers via supernatural shenanigans how important she is to both his sides. The writing is adequate, but with some nice flourishes. Not bad.

Deja Vu All Over Again: A weird-ass story, with a bunch of interesting bits that simply do not come together. In theory, it's about Superman's compassion fatigue and his alienation from humanity, as seen through cosmic events on the day of Krypton's destruction; really, it's a meandering story with cosmic bits that sets Big Things up but doesn't really follow through. Odd.

Excerpt From the Diary of Dr. Morris Finkelstein: It's not funny, but at least it's short.

I Now Pronounce You Superman and Wife: You might expect a regressive, heteronormative viewpoint from a story with that title... and you'd be absolutely right. Packed with toxic jealousy culture, showing marriage as a disturbing, mechanical affair of control, it manages to be a throwback of remarkable fidelity to the worst and most sexist stories of the '50s and '60s. Yeesh.

Warrior of the Final Dawn: The writing here is just okay, but the theme is strong - the death of Krypton reaching forward to try to take Superman it its grasp from beyond the grave. Notably, this story is the only one in the volume to use the comics-contemporary setup of Lex Luthor as the powerful head of LexCorp, but it also calls out things like the Bottle City of Kandor and the city of Kryptonopolis in ways which belong to the older, pre-Crisis comics.

Prologue/Epilogue: An odd little framing device that doesn't really add anything, but doesn't hurt anything either. Inoffensive.

Overall, the stories in this volume average out to "okay". But it's an interesting sampler, and the best of these - "Mine Enemy Grows Older" and "Apparitions" - are, I would say, worth the price of admission alone. As well, examining the trends in this story - the throwbacks to older ways of viewing Superman, the focus on a plane higher than humanity - make some of the odd choices we saw in Superman Returns feel less odd.