#this is about irreverent (2022)

[ethaninthewilde]

just binged a show that has absolutely ZERO fandom presence and no season 2 and i am losing my MIND

[absolutebl]

Top 10 Great BLs That Are REALLY hard to find (but worth tracking down)

You may want to go hunting anyway!

Seven Days

Seven Days: Monday-Thursday

Seven Days: Friday-Sunday

Japan 2015

Never doubt my ability to recommend this show. One of the best live action yaois ever made, with perfectly structured angst, fantastic characters and acting, and no problematic tropes (rare in Japanese BL). The leads have excellent chemistry although it’s low heat there’s still some really cute mutual kisses.

Cherry Magic AKA 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii

Japan 2020

The sweetest fluffiest magical realism BL, packaged as a pinning office romance, very low heat (practically chaste) but the cutest. It’s truly great.

Cherry Magic Thailand

Thai 2024

A soft charming warm hug of a show about crushes and mind reading and self worth, with no-fuss execution from a consummate team and an OG lead pair proving why they remain eternal and deserve to grow up. Look, here’s the thing, Cherry Magic is a great Thai BL in its own right not comparing it to any other iteration. But even when I do compare (and I've seen all the Cherries and read the manga) it still stands. I personally like it slightly better than the Japanese live action, but I think that’s because I just really like Thai BL and I LOVE TayNew. Also all the kissing was both present and better than any other iteration. As it should be from Thailand.

I Feel You Linger in the Air

Thai 2023

IFYLITA is an exquisite BL, from filming techniques to narrative framework (much like Until We Meet Again). Steeped in history and family drama it edges into lakorn (but no as much as To Sir With Love and with way less scenery chewing). This is an elegant and classy BL... from Thailand which normally doesn't even try for classy. The main couple (both as a pair and individuals) were excellent, particularly Bright (Yai) whose eye-work acting style is a personal favorite of mine. Pity about the ending. Oh it wasn’t that sad but it wasn’t good either. This show could easily have earned a 10/10 from me except that it fumbled the… erm… balls in the final quarter. Argh. Whatever.

All about the ecstasy and the agony here.

Restart After Come Back Home AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de

Japan 2020

Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy, grumpy/sunshine. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth the patience, low heat, low angst, and stunning.

Given

Japan 2021

Boy joins band, falls in love with other boy. The singing is terrible, fast forward through that but with the possible exception of the hair styles, this BL could have been made in 2015 and no one would be surprised. As such, it wasn’t ground breaking, but it didn’t disappoint either.

Make a Wish

Thai 2023

A doctor who can see the dead strikes a bargain with a wish-granting irreverent tree angel - naturally they fall in love (from Sammon: Manner of Death & Triage). Stars Fluke Natouch opposite not-Ohm, but who tf cares because Fluke has chemistry with everybody. Once again the Thai afterlife is incredibly bureaucratic but I enjoyed the premise and the unfolding of the story (it’s not predictable but still satisfying and with nice little twist). I like that the doctor is just gay AF - fag hag bestie and all the swagger. The cast is excellent even if the comedic stylings are a bit overblown and tonally off. It had sad parts and did make me cry but is ultimately happy with a great sex scene, good smiley kisses, and all the agency. Definitely recommended.

2 Moons The Ambassador AKA 2 Moons 3

Thai 2022

A Thai pulp that felt like it came out 5 yrs prior, with many of the flaws inherent to that time and studio system, including manufactured angst and convoluted plot, but an ultimately sweet main couple that (as a pairing) feels a bit more modern and satisfying to watch than they started out. This will probably go down in history as one of the few BLs where I genuinely didn’t care about any of the side couples. All that said, I find this show oddly appealing and rewatchable and I have no excuses for that except, I enjoyed it probably more than it deserved. Nostalgia & d**k, it's what's for dinner.

I Want to See Only You AKA Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai

Japan 2022

This is a beautiful well acted piece of cinema, about two boys who are opposite personalities and grew up together. Gifted and serious Sakura pines after outgoing eccentric manic pixie dream boy, Yuma. It is very pretty and this is the kind of atmospheric elegantly performed BL that only really comes from Japan (complete with dead fish kisses - what you though Korea invented them? oh no). If you want something stylish, this is it.

Triage

Thai 2022

BL does Groundhog Day featuring a doctor stuck in a time loop who must save a poor little rich boy from death by seducing the stuffing out of him, then PLOT TWIST, poor little rich boy must do the same for the doctor! Unfortunately... stuffing keeps leaking. I thought the plot was engaging if a little redundant and occasionally exhausting. The pairs were all well done, low heat but with decent chemistry and the support characters were likable (or unlikable, as required). If anything, the romance arc detracted and distracted from the main plot, but that doesn't stop this from being a genuinely good show.

HONORABLE MENTION

Great Men Academy

Thai 2019

Bodyswap involving unicorns turning a teenage girl into a boy makes this questionable as a BL (because, ya know, gender). But the fact remains that James is killer in the lead, and I (who do not like bodyswap) loved this damn show. Look, there is actual plot, hotties at boarding school, "bully the one you love" trope, some weird VR shit, very bad CGI, and yes, the boys end up together... whether they boys or not, so to speak.

Some of these shows may appear on a smaller streaming service, like WeTV, or they may be on a legal platform in your territory. I hope it goes without saying you should check there first.

(source)

This list updated Spring 2024, not responsible for cool stuff that went missing (or was added to a platform) after that date.

It's it last in a series the rest of which are:

[copperbadge]

The Shivadh Romances: Volume II is now available for sale! 

This book collects the fourth, fifth, and sixth books in the series, and is available in epub, paperback, and special-edition hardback. 

Askazer-Shivadlakia is “the little country by the sea” — a coastal micronation perched between France and Italy, with Europe’s only Jewish royal family and a distinctly queer-friendly culture. The irreverent but earnest Shivadh people have recently elected a new king, and there are a lot of changes afoot for the country and its rulers.

The Twelve Points of Caleb Canto introduces Caleb, a young trans music teacher who accidentally enters Eurovision on behalf of The Ask, and his rival and new friend -- or maybe more -- Buck Haverd, the ambitious bad-boy competitor from the UK. Dinner At The Palace is the first collection of Shivadh short stories, spanning everything from Michaelis meeting his destiny in 1978 to Gregory and Eddie going cryptid-hunting in 2022. The Royals and the Ramblers tells the story of Gregory and Eddie's three royal weddings, and introduces Eddie's sister Monday, who is helping the kings have a royal heir and may or may not have a thing going on with Georgie, the palace head of security. And then there's Joan, the headstrong orphan who could use a couple of dads....

Read all three in a single volume! 

Buy in ePub | Buy in Paperback | Buy in Hardback

Or if you’re interested in reading each novel individually, you can learn more about them and find purchase links here. 

[starcrossed591]

CDrama Year in Review 2023

I'm still very much a CDrama beginner--I just started watching them in the summer of 2022--but since this is the first year I got into them in earnest, I figured I might as well do a year in review a la @dangermousie (whose lists I have found incredibly helpful in deciding which CDramas I really, really need to go back and watch as part of my CDrama education--so thank you!). So, without further adieu, here is my ranking of 2023 CDramas, in order of least enjoyed to most enjoyed*.

(See also: KDrama Year in Review 2023)

*Disclaimer: *not* a measure of objective quality

10. Royal Rumours: This drama was not great? Meng Zi Yi and Jeremy Tsui were fun, but the story started out messy and got messier. For some reason I still finished it, I think because I had a lingering cold and it was all my brain could handle at the time *shrug*

9. Gone with the Rain: I actually really enjoyed this one! The pacing was inconsistent, but Zhang Nan was fun as the irreverent Mo Xi, and we love a grizzled general. Special shout to the teacher who was not actually evil, just a sad lesbian whose gf disappeared on her

8. Love You Seven Times: Intriguing concept, not a strong enough FL to carry it through. The reincarnation stuff really worked for me at first, especially in their first mortal tribulation (as people, not CGI animals), but I got tired of it pretty quickly. I admit, the gifs of Ding Yu Xi as a sexy cat demon *did* pull me back in, but not enough for me to actually finish the thing, alas

7. Destined/Chang Feng Du: Started out really strong, and then stalled out on me. I think I only got up to about episode 22 or so, after their epic desert crossing and new start in a new state--they lost all narrative momentum for me there. I stopped watching and then just...didn't start again. I do, however, remain a big Bai Jing Ting fan, and will be keeping on eye out for whatever he does next

6. Hidden Love: (Contemporary) Age gap romances are hit or miss for me, but Zhao Lu Si absolutely stole/carried the show for me in this one. Although more fun imo when the main couple are in the the will-they-won't-they phase than in the family melodrama after they get together, still the only contemporary CDrama to get me to give it a go this year--and I'm glad I did

5. My Journey to You: Featuring my favorite murder girlies Esther Yu as Yun Wei Shan and Lu Yu Xiao as Shanguan Qian! Gorgeous costumes and sets, sweeping cinematography, and plot that kept me on the edge of my seat. Full disclosure, I have not actually watched the last two episodes because I got busy and then saw weird chatter about them, so I have no comment on the allegedly weird ending

4. Till the End of the Moon: Look, I know the ending wasn't ideal, but for the majority of its run, this drama owned my entire soul. It also introduced me to Bai Lu as Li Su Su, who inspired my first actual tumblr post (that wasn't a reblog) because I was so obsessed with her. And everyone knows that Tantai Jin is the CDrama ML of the year. 10/10, no regrets at letting it take over my life (and the OST my Spotify) from April to May of this year

3. The Story of Kunning Palace: More Bai Lu is always a good thing, and she's extra fun here as the transmigrated former evil empress and totally-over-your-nonsense Xiang Xue Ning here. The reverse haremness of it all totally shows why Bai Lu is the chemistry queen, especially with the princess (Liu Xie Ning) and cranky, morally grey, would-fail-gym-class strategist Xie Wie (Zhang Ling He). So glad this drama made it out of the CDrama vault and didn't languish indefinitely in censorship hell

2. A Journey to Love: Finished this one two days ago as of this writing and am still not normal about it. Ren Ruyi (Liu Shi Shi) and Ning Yuan Zhou (Liu Yu Ning) lead an exceptionally strong ensemble cast in this wuxia that explores the complicated relationships between love, duty, loyalty, loneliness, and companionship. Ruyi and Yuan Zhou are far and away one of my fave OTPs of the year, but just as compelling are the relationships between friends/brothers/fellow assassins Yu Shisan, Yuan Lu (ugh my heart), Qian Zhou, and Sun Lang. This drama definitely has one of the strongest ensemble casts of the year. And the character growth of Yang Ying from little princess abandoned in the cold palace to who she becomes by the end will stick with me for a long time. Plus another 10/10 OST!

1. Lost You Forever S1: I'm not normally a reverse harem girl, but the longing, loss, and hard resolve portrayed to perfection by Yang Zi as Xiao Yao really did it for me here. This whole drama struck an emotional chord for me, and where TTEOTM consumed my soul, LYF took over my heart. Xiao Yao's relationships with her power hungry, overprotective cousin Cang Xuan; hot snake demon Xiang Liu/playboy archery shufu Feng Feng Bei; and perfectly devoted Tushan Jing are all equally compelling to me, and while I may know who she ends up with in the end, who I *think* she should be with changes based on who's on screen at any given time. And A'Nian, my favorite bratty princess who really just needs some strong parenting, holds a special place in my heart. I know we may never get S2, and even if we do, censorship means it probably won't be what the drama makers are capable of, but I'm so glad for this little piece of absolute perfection. And, again, a top notch OST!

Fave Drama: Lost You Forever, by just a hair over A Journey to Love. See above.

Least Fave Drama: Royal Rumours--truly why did I finish this, what was past me thinking

Biggest Disappointment: 2023 is also the year I read Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir, my very first CNovel! But then I didn't even bother checking out its adaptation, Romance of a Twin Flower, because it got rid of everything that made the novel such an addicting read, including a brilliant, strategic, ice cold FL and an ML who actually kind of sucked at the beginning, only to grow on you very, very slowly over time. I'm grateful that the chatter around the drama is what brought the novel to my attention, but other than that, hard pass.

Favorite Male Character: Lots of good ones this year, but I'm gonna go with Cang Xuan (Zhang Wan Yi) from Lost You Forever. The conflict he faces between getting enough power to protect the people he loves the most and that power making him incompatible with those loved ones is so compelling, and his yearning for Xiao Yao even when she's right in front of him is wrenching. Full disclosure, I also just really love the sound of his voice

Favorite Female Character: This could easily have gone to Li Susu (TTEOTM), Xiao Yao (LYF), or Ren Ruyi (AJTL), but I'm gonna go with Bai Lu's Xiang Xue Ning in The Story of Kunning Palace. Something I really loved about this character was just how jaded Xue Ning really was, even in her second go round at life. Yeah, she wants to make amends for the harm done in her previous rise to power, but that has hardly turned her into a good--or even pleasant--person. Instead, she's incredibly skeptical and still plays most things ice cold, especially with her family. As a bonus, we got plenty of Bai Lu's fantastic side eye as she basically had to do high school all over again when she gets called into the palace despite her very best efforts not to be.

Favorite Ship: Ren Ruyi and Yuan Zhao from A Journey to Love have got to be it. They balance each other out so well, and over the course of the drama, learn to communicate effectively with each other whenever they have a problem. They also recognize that not all problems can be solved by ~love~, which makes their relationship even more compelling when they decide to prioritize each other in a way that respects what the other wants from life.

Favorite Secondary Ship: Little princess Yang Ying and Yuan Lu absolutely broke stole my heart in A Journey to Love. Doomed love even more than the main OTP, these two's youthful romance was such much fun to watch, especially as they egged their respective mentors on in their own romance. Yang Ying's recognition that her first love did not have to be her only love is also something I always love to see, even as it broke my heart that (spoiler) she and Yuan Lu never really had a chance at an HEA. Their relationship really exemplified a key theme of this drama: that you should love the people you love while they're still with you because tomorrow is never promised.

Non-2023 Dramas that I Watched: Two non-2023 dramas I watched that deserve a special shout out are Love and Redemption and The Sword and the Brocade. Love and Redemption prepared me to really appreciate the big swings that Till the End of the Moon took, and The Sword and the Brocade went a little way to filling the Story of Ming Lan shaped hole in my heart. The Sword and the Brocade also had absolutely searing critique of the concubine system, even as it featured one of the most genuinely good-hearted FLs I've seen. Would recommend both!

Most Looking Forward To: Yes, I'm a sucker and the censors (not to mention the characters) will probably break my heart, but I'm still crossing my fingers that Lost You Forever S2 will live up to the promise of part one. See above: still a CDrama beginner, have not yet had all the optimism knocked out of me. Sue me.

[mmmmalo]

Pinned 2024

Hi I'm mmmmalo, I write about Homestuck and post doodles.

In the summer of 2022 I posted the essay Slurquest, which proposed that much of Homestuck is provocatively structured around racist/homophobic anxieties of black/gay people taking over America. The bulk of the essay consisted of seeking out slur-based wordplay, hence the name.

Even now, most of my writing is an attempt to navigate Homestuck's ironic engagement with hate rhetoric and political paranoia. My #homestuck commentary tag is a meandering hodgepodge, but here's the last half-year of interpretation in brief:

Anti-Semitic and anti-feminist motifs can be united under the banner of the once common appellation "feminazi".

Thus, Vriska countering a misogynist barb by insulting "philistines" (a cognate of Palestine) suggests a complementary engagement with anti-Islamic rhetoric.

Distorted references to turbans and veils mingle with irreverent depictions of Muslim practices, in service of crafting a picture of religious authority that is simultaneously gay and homophobic.

I'm currently working on a longer piece putting the above in dialogue with Hussie's visual novel Psycholonials, which I hope will by some measure answer the question of what purpose all the byzantine obscenity serves. But this is where we are for now

[wellhalesbells]

Best of 2024 - Q1(ish)

✨✨ I forgot I told myself I was going to start doing this this year. A few people I follow do kind of a 'best of' thing and since I forget everything that happens almost immediately I thought: hey, that's a good idea for you, you should do that. So here I am with it sorta on time-ish \o/ ✨✨

Books

The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden. I tend to go into books with very little to no idea of what they're about (on purpose) so absolutely everything here was a surprise in the very best way. If I could've directed it, I would've directed it in exactly this way!

Voyage of the Damned, Frances White. This was such a lovely surprise?? I'm really enjoying these cross-genre books and this has to be the one that absolutely nailed both the best. It's a fantasy murder mystery and both are very involved - the world-building is excellent and the murder mystery is fun and terrifying in the best way!

Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt. I love books that like people, that prize connection, and that want to build community. Basically books that remind me that people are generally good and willing to try and that's this! Plus: octopus!

Empire of the Damned, Jay Kristoff. Empire of the Vampire was one of my favorite reads in 2022 (when I read it) and the sequel definitely lived up to its predecessor. The story is so compelling and the characters are so impossible not to fall in love with. Happily, this did not suffer from middle book syndrome: so much happened and so much moved forward.

Dinner on Monster Island, Tania de Rozario. I took this out at the library on a whim - it was available and it had a cool cover so I was in. I learned so much. I knew next to nothing about Singapore so everything to do with that blew my mind and Tania de Rozario's voice is wonderful, not to mention she connects so much of her life and surroundings to horror movies and that is a touchstone that I have in spades.

I should also special mention Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, which I adored.... though it did completely ruin the movie for me (which I had also never seen and watched a few days later), haha. Sophie is the catalyst for absolutely every single thing that happens in the book and Howl is useless and dramatic without her and to see her be so very ineffectual in the film (and have things that happened because of her be taken away from her) while Howl was so powerful was like.... wha??? It was beautiful animation but... yeah. And Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which was so enjoyable! It has that irreverent, this-might-as-well happen humor that I love in fantasies.

Comics/Mangas/Manhwas/Etc.

On of Off, Vols. 1-3, by A1. Um. Can I just say that I love when one of the characters in a queer couple is a big huge dude? I don't know, a few years ago a switch got flipped in my head and size difference is now VERY MUCH A THING for me. I don't really want a small dude, I just want a big huge dude and a normal-sized man. (Or a big huge woman and a normal-sized woman - see Cosmoknights, which.... I'm realizing now probably had something to do with the switch and its aforementioned flippiness) Voila! I also like when the big huge dude is like: I'm not really that into it and then falls hardcore in love and has a dramatic: "What in the actual fuck just happened?" moment. This and The Dangerous Convenience Store have that exact dynamic and I cannot stress enough I could read it 100,000 more times and not get tired of it.

Saga, Volume 11, by Brian K. Vaughan. Just bring back Marko. Like, just do it. Every time it teases me with it, I want it more. Bring him back, gimme, I want. I remain in love with this series but, crap, does it just want to rip my heart out every chance it gets.

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Volume 4, Kazuki Irodori. This is my shit. It's a fantasy world that a completely ordinary corporate worker is sucked into and he ends up entirely reorganizing the structure of their accounting department so it a) actually functions and b) is accountable (ha). However, he has no resistance to "magicules" and the best way to acclimate him to all the magic that constantly surrounds him is for him to have sex with a very attractive soldier. Like, that's just brilliant writing is what that is, no notes. I love it, it wins all the things. (It's based on a novel that they only just began releasing in English and the comic is the superior version for me at this moment in time.)

Cherry Magic!, Vols. 9-10, by Yuu Toyota. I cannot believe I'm still so invested despite the fact that the original hook for this manga has disappeared and it's essentially just a very domestic, slice of life story now but it's just so nice to see them both happy and married and together?? So the original plot of this was there's essentially some old wives' tale that if you're a virgin at thirty you get magic powers. Cue Adachi turning thirty and he can suddenly read people's minds when he touches them and finds out through this power that his coworker, Kurosawa, is in love with him. It's a really cute, fun series and I am happy for it to go on forever. (Also, they made an anime out of it this year and it's stupid cute. There is also a live action series that I haven't watched yet.)

Therapy Game Restart, Vols. 1-3, by Meguru Hinohara. So, Minato is pile of endless insecurities in a trenchcoat and Shizuma is his confused but calm partner and it turns out I am really into that? Consistently surprised by how much I am into that but I am, in fact, into that.

Special mention to The Third Ending by Chobom - I really hope this is getting an official printing at some point because I am in love with it and I will buy the fuck out it (the fact that it's behind a digital paywall right now is the only reason this isn't number one). It is so exactly, specifically to my tastes it's ridiculous. So the idea here is Joon confesses his feelings to Yoonseul in high school, when he doesn't know him too well but likes what he sees, and Yoonseul turns him down a little harshly (he was mad at someone else and was a little less careful with his words than he would've been otherwise). Yoonseul starts having bad days on nights when he dreams of that memory and the two meet again and start hanging out so Yoonseul can assuage his conscience. They become really close friends and they end up drunkenly kissing, Yoonseul knows it's a mistake and Joon overhears him talking about it to a friend and how much he regrets it. Joon confesses his feelings again and Yoonseul, again, turns him down because he can't imagine anything physical happening between them. That should be the end of it. Except, very slowly, Yoonseul realizes he is completely in love with Joon and he's fucked this thing up to high heaven. Cue my absolute FAVORITEST dynamic - the chasee becoming the chaser.

TV

Fisk (s1-2), Netflix. This is an Australian comedy about probate lawyers and if you're on the fence about it watch the episode with the Popovitches (season 1, episode 3). I very nearly peed my pants.

Only Murders in the Building (s3), Hulu. Okay, I'm a big fan of musicals and it's not a love I indulge very often so when I do watch them, I tend to get way too into them. (Yes, I bought this album immediately.) I adored this season and I adored Howard - making him a series regular was ingenious.

The Righteous Gemstones (s3), Max. This season was so good. This show in general is so freaking good but I really loved this season. This family is so genuinely fucked up but to get to the last episode and have them rise to the occasion and figure out their brand of love was so satisfying. And I do adore that they tried to copy other functional families they saw before realizing that was just never going to work for them.

Mr. Villain's Day Off (s1), Crunchyroll. Okay, I love this manga and the show is so exactly this manga. Like, I've reblogged a ton of shot for shot comparisons so when I say 'same,' I mean 'same.' The entire idea is this monstrous alien bent on destroying the world enshrines his days off with reverence and diligence - he's just a normal guy, obsessed with pandas, who's only evil at work, thank you very much. It's just so silly and weirdly heart-warming?

Girls5Eva (s3), Netflix. There's something about Renee Elise Goldsberry for me that is magnetic. I love everything about her, I love getting to watch her do comedy, I love hearing her sing, I love her character. Also, the singing? I've mentioned how I am weak for the singing, yes?? (Yes, I have these albums too.)

Minx (Starz) was also really, really good but I wish it hadn't been canceled prematurely! It definitely wasn't finished, y'know, and it was so unfortunate to end it with Doug on the wrong side of things - I want to see the resolution, dammit!

Movies

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). I haven't laughed at a movie like this in a long time. I've watched it twice so far this year; I went home two weeks ago and made my dad watch it with me and tears were streaming down our faces by the end. Pedro Pascal should never not be doing comedy because he was made for it.

Bottoms (2023). This is so exactly my sense of humor? The ridiculousness of this was just *chef's kiss* Also more Ayo Edibiri in everything.

Talk to Me (2022). I had been waiting for this movie to get onto some streaming platform so I could watch it and I think the best compliment I could give it is that I wanted to watch it again the next day. Great horror, great resolution!

John Wick 4. I expected this to feel so long and bloated and yet it didn't at all. I was invested the whole time and I think it helps that I watch action films, like, once every three years so these feel like fun little treats more than anything.

Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid. There's a joke in here that I relate to so hard it's almost embarrassing. Talking about ordering coffee, he goes: "If you could just do whatever you think it is and if it's wrong, I won't even tell you, how about that, I will walk out of here as if that's exactly what I ordered. I will go outside, I will throw it away, and go try again at a different Starbucks." That is exactly how I would handle that and this entire special is filled with that. I giggled so hard.

Also, special mention to Taylor Tomlinson's specials Look at You and Have It All. I love how honest she is on stage and how open she is with her audience. It's rare to have that and I think it feels so special because it is.

See you all again in Q2 (ish, probably, lbr) *salutes*

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Reframing Narratives With Ecocriticism, With Dr Jenny Kerber

In this episode, Ariel discusses the topic of ecocriticism with Dr Jenny Kerber, Associate Professor of English at Wilfrid Laurier University.

What is ecocriticism? Why is it important, especially for environmental activists and solarpunks, as a narrative reframing device? Solarpunks work very closely with speculation and imagination and as architects of the narratives by which we live our lives, it helps to have tools like ecocriticism at our disposal.

Join Ariel and Dr. Kerber to think through terms like “wilderness” and “nature” and “the Anthropocene”. How do we hold on to hope, despite critical engagement with the dark side of our environmental narratives? 

References:

A bit more about the WLU Land Acknowledgement

Dr Kerber’s profile at Wilfrid Laurier U

“The Trouble with Wilderness” by William Cronon

 Elizabeth May

Kerber, Jenny. "Tracing One Warm Line: Climate Stories and Silences in Northwest Passage Tourism." Journal of Canadian Studies 55.4 (July 2022): 271-303.

Timothy Clark, The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment

Kate Soper, What is Nature? Culture, Politics and the Non-Human

David Huebert's Chemical Valley

Lord Byron's "Darkness"

Don McKay, Vis à Vis: Field Notes on Poetry and Wilderness

Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age

Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland, Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures

[demisexualnathanvuornos]

Funny thing happened as I was checking Lucas Bryant's imdb page, as one does. Suddenly there was a new/old entry. Apparently he was in two episodes of a show in Australia in 2022.

He was in a show called Irreverent, an Australian one season show with Colin Donnell which is a remake/version of the sitcom Impastor with Michael Rosenbaum around 2016. I've watched one ep of that show (2x1) because an actor I like was supposed to be on it (she wasn't). Impastor was a straight up comedy with a Lutheran joke I still think about. So I thought I'd check this new imdb info out and the show. This time imdb was right.

So I checked Irreverent 1x4 which Lucas is credited for and sure enough he is right there from the start of the episode. It's a flashback where main character's shitty father (Lucas) almost let's him drown. Very different start than I expected based on Impastor. The rest of the show is an hour long comedy so the scene feels even weirder in context. Lucas is also briefly in 1x6. It's a very different role than the ones he usually does. The show aired on Peacock but can be found elsewhere.

Again, as someone who checks Lucas' imdb page quite regularly, it's weird I haven't heard anything about this in the year and a half since this would have aired in Australia/USA. It's odd that he did promo work for Five More Minutes Moments Like These without mentioning that he did some acting in Australia. He must not update his imdb much.

[roskirambles]

(Archive) Honorable mention: Cool World (1992)

Originally posted: January 10th, 2022 Ralph Bakshi, the champion of underground animation. Throughout his career he has always fought to push animation in other directions than the kid oriented market of the American mainstream with films like Fritz the Cat. Unafraid to go raunchy, gritty irreverent and just plain dark, his work is characterized for focusing less on technical perfection and more on trying to do something new and daring. Which makes the case of this film such a tragic loss.

Originally pitched as a flat out erotic horror film involving the daughter of a human comic book artist and the living incarnation of one of his characters, executive meddling(from both the producer and lead actress Kim Basinger) befuddled almost everything this movie was aiming for. The desire to make it something more family friendly led to a movie that isn't fully adult oriented yet isn't really appropriate for children either. Murder, sexuality and vice are still rampant, just not as overtly explicit, and in a clumsy attempt to cash on the success of Roger Rabbit (something Bakshi wasn't interested in doing) they got a young Brad Pitt to interpret a cop dating a cartoon girl while trying to stop another one from bedding a human, since that's the one forbidden crime in the cartoon world.

If the plot sounds like a mess… it's because it is. So what's worthwhile here? That despite the butchering of Bakshi's vision, there's still something enthralling about this thwarted experiment. While a film like Roger Rabbit presents an inviting cartoon world, everything here is twisted, both literally and metaphorically. It feels less like Looney Tunes and more like a Tijuana Bible.

It's underground, grungy aesthetic combined with some shreds of potential the mangled plot still has, while unable to tell a striking tale on it's own, do fuel the imagination of what could've been and show the possibilities the premise of two different worlds clashing actually offer. Such a bloody shame.

[susandsnell]

🔥 Batman comics in general

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Oooh! I do think a lot of my saltier Batman comics opinions aren't exactly unpopular in nature (too much grimdark and never in the right direction, the misogyny, Killing Joke was a mistake, BruceBabs was a mistake, stop misusing Rogues), so I'll try to bring up some less-discussed ones! (Or at least ones I see discussed less, lol.)

Batfam is conceptually good, but nobody is handling it well. As I've previously expressed, Batfam content constantly oscillates between "Bruce is an abusive kidnapper of traumatized children he trains into child soldiers despite having the means to have them live in luxury, does not provide with love or positive reinforcement, and regularly pits against each other" and some of the most facile, cringey, early 2010s Tumblr conception of found-family to be seen, when I think it's more dramatically effective to find a happy medium between the two. A loving superhero found family with its share of dysfunction, hurts, and mistakes and appropriate nuance being brought to these conflicts is apparently too much to ask for (as is writers remembering Robin(s) and Batgirl literally exist as kid appeal characters).

Likewise, canon Harlivy is seldom handled well. As I said on Twitter the other day, "corporate Pride ate Harlivy". Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy's relationship, both back when it was subtextual and later on as it became Harley's main ship in iterations where she's able to get out of her abusive relationship with the Joker was groundbreaking and important. It was absolutely crucial to middle school me. But somewhere along the way, people lost the plot that they are indeed villainesses (whose queerness was meant to make them more endearing/sympathetic/relatable, but not change this status), and it fell prey to the respectability politics traps that plague just too many sapphic ships once they go canon. In order to be 'good representation', their villainy extends to 'haha RANDOM' irreverent chaos, and their personality gets boiled down to the shallow archetypes of 'chaotic and perky' Harley and 'snarky and sexy' Ivy. Their relationship to one another is 100% fluff, because God knows any nuance, tension, flaws, or friction between two master criminal characters with canonically tragic histories can't possibly be allowed. Because of the misogynistic expectations of Women Being Soft And Good coupled with the homophobic respectability politics of being as toothless, soft, and desexualized as possible to appear nonthreatening, sapphic ships are held to such unfair standards wherein the slightest conflict will be termed abusive and bad representation, and as such, they're written cardboard-flat, and unfortunately, this has befallen Harlivy in most canons where they're together. Even if it's realistically exploring things like recovery for either lady, because that's messy, and complicated, and nonlinear, and who wants that when you can have a memeable 'be gay do crimes'? Oh, but don't worry. Sometimes they will be sexually active - for the titillation of straight men. In-universe. (Don't get me started on the Harley Quinn show...) And poor Selina gets roped into third-wheeling/cheerleading the most boring possible version of them too often...

A lot of the most popular/famous titles are not the better ones. (Not you, Long Halloween, you're a delight and everyone loves you.) Everything that's there to say about The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns has been said better by people smarter and better-versed in comics than me, but Batman: Hush is just contrivance upon contrivance, everyone and their mother is tired of the shit-billion stories about Joker fridging yet another person, and perhaps my most unpopular opinion is that Batman: Year One is entirely overrated. I like the noir atmosphere, the truly corrupted Gotham it gives us, and the sweet triumvirate between Gordon, Harvey, and Bruce, but seeing adaptations like The Batman (2022) and even The Dark Knight (yes, I'm saying something nice about Nolanverse for once lolol) take these elements and do so much more with them really highlights the weaknesses in this story. There's some really good origin/character work for Bruce becoming Batman and the psychology behind it, but past that, not a whole lot happens beyond a very thin and confusing police corruption plot, and everyone is just too damn mean for the sake of the grimdark setting. Bruce injures an already exploited child in the red-light district and sexually harasses the Gordons to throw them off his trail for being Batman, and the latter is played for laughs. Jim cheats on his pregnant wife with a coworker half his age and both women are portrayed as stereotypically in these roles as humanly possible. Selina Kyle is...there, to be angry and sexualized and not much else. It just feels like a lot of buildup without much payoff.

Lastly, and jumping off the above, I'm taking away the Gordon family from writers until they've learned to play nicely with them. I don't know what it is about Jim Gordon that makes writers - men in particular - work through justifying their weird issues about women, but my God, the poor man has been character assassinated to hell and back. (Everyone has in comics, but it's always in the same way with Gordon that properly grosses me out.) If he's not cheating on his housewife with a much younger coworker he's presented as oh-so-noble for not outright workplace harassing, he's neglectful, abusive, or otherwise aggressive to his loved ones in ways that are almost always justified or excused narratively because he's 'dealing with a lot' or xyz past trauma. He's frequently made into a mouthpiece for misogyny, calling women "bitches" in the Arkham series and making other such delightful comments, fetishizing Harlivy (in the Harley Quinn show!), or putting down Barbara's capabilities. If he's written to be struggling with addiction, it's always played as a joke. And for Barbara's part, since The Killing Joke, she's always such a favoured writers' punching bag/doll to put in uncomfortable relationships, often having her talents, skills and intelligence undermined in favour of portraying her as a sex-crazed, overemotional disaster who's in it for the thrills until she is narratively punished in some gendered way. I don't get it! I'm all for what makes characters tick or challenging them or giving them flaws or new horrific situations to work through, but why is it always the same tired, offensive hows and wherefores for the Gordon family? Let them rest!

[copperbadge]

Coming Soon!

All right, we're doing this! The day of the full solar eclipse, April 8th, I'll be putting the second omnibus volume of The Shivadh Romances up for sale.

Askazer-Shivadlakia is “the little country by the sea” — a coastal micronation perched between France and Italy, with Europe’s only Jewish royal family and a distinctly queer-friendly culture. The irreverent but earnest Shivadh people have recently elected a new king, and there are a lot of changes afoot for the country and its rulers. (Want to know more? There's a page here with plot summaries and sales links for the series.)

In the US, the ePub will be available for $3.99, the paperback will be $24.99, and the hardback will be $34.99. Internationally, there's some variance in price of course based on local currency, but the print cost and profit margin are about the same, so you're not paying much more or less, comparatively, than the American prices. The print versions can also serve as a paperweight, doorstop, or murder weapon, so it's really a deal if you think of it that way.

The paperback and hardback are only available through Lulu; the ePub should be available through Amazon as well, but I get a much bigger cut if you buy through Lulu, so that's where I'm linking.

The Twelve Points of Caleb Canto introduces Caleb, a young trans music teacher who accidentally enters Eurovision on behalf of The Ask, and his rival and new friend -- or maybe more -- Buck Haverd, the ambitious bad-boy competitor from the UK. Dinner At The Palace is the first collection of Shivadh short stories, spanning everything from Michaelis meeting his destiny in 1978 to Gregory and Eddie going cryptid-hunting in 2022. The Royals and the Ramblers tells the story of Gregory and Eddie's three weddings, and introduces Eddie's sister Monday, who is helping the kings have a royal heir and may or may not have a thing going on with Georgie, the palace head of security. And then there's Joan, the headstrong orphan who could use a couple of dads....

Read all three in a single volume, starting April 8th!

[katie5000]

For the character meme: Legato, please? :D

@goldenteaset Okay! Here we go:

FIRST IMPRESSION: Okay, so when I finally watched '98 Trigun properly (in 2022 haha), I actually thought Legato was kind of an edgelord and had fun dunking on him. There was still something a little bit intriguing about him, though, and as I started to read Trimax, my opinion of him began to change.

IMPRESSION NOW: There are so many layers to this man. He's crazy, he's passionate, he's tormented, he's devoted, he's cunning, he's predatory, he's lived through Hell, and he's beautiful.

FAVORITE MOMENT: Idk really, he has a lot of good ones.

IDEA FOR A STORY: I was thinking about the "What if Vash rescued Legato" AU trope, and thought that Vash could rescue Legato instead of Knives, but then as Legato grows up the two men become increasingly at odds over how Legato's rescue was handled (Vash spared the men, in Vash fashion), causing Legato to eventually run off one night without a word to seek revenge upon (read: murder) the men who wronged him. Vash would be in the middle of searching for Legato when he'd begin to hear rumors about the massacre of an entire settlement... of course, Vash would be dismayed because he'd realize what happened and why.

UNPOPULAR OPINION: I don't think Legato's relationship with Knives is supposed to be a sexual one. I really don't think Legato would ever approach Knives in such a way - to do so would be irreverent and disrespectful at best, since Knives is basically like a god from Legato's POV.

FAVORITE RELATIONSHIP: I'm not super into shipping Legato with anyone (besides myself haha), but nonetheless, I kind of like Legato x Vash - I think it's because with their dynamic, Legato is usually the one who's in control or dominant.

FAVORITE HEADCANON: I have a headcanon for '98 Legato in which he's illiterate/can't read but nonetheless likes to buy books now and then (particularly science fiction novels) because he likes the artwork on the covers.

[thebanishedreader]

Book Bans in California

As of June 2023

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Banned from libraries and classrooms as of September 2022.

Synopsis from BookTrust.org

"Following her previous book Being a Boy, young adult author and former PSHCE teacher Juno Dawson offers up a funny, frank look at all things LGBT in this intelligently-written non-fiction book. 

Including testimonials from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, this is an accessible and inclusive take on what it's like to grow up LGBT, addressing all the worries and anxieties young people may have about this topic - whether or not they are questioning their own sexuality. Dawson writes responsibly and sensitively about her subject, but has plenty of fun along the way - and Spike Gerrell's irreverent illustrations add an extra dose of humour too.

A fantastic book for classrooms and school libraries, This Book is Gay is a must-read for teachers and parents, as well as teens themselves."

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell's (UK)

Statistics Source: Pen America

Support the American Library Association!

[mariacallous]

Thousands of mourners gathered in Moscow on Friday for the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, despite an ominous warning from the Kremlin that anyone participating in unsanctioned gatherings could face arrest. 

Crowds of people, many clutching red carnations, gathered amid a heavy police presence to pay their respects to the Kremlin foe, with some chanting “Putin is a killer” and “you weren’t afraid, we aren’t afraid.” 

More than 400 people have been detained in dozens of cities across Russia for participating in memorials in the two weeks since Navalny’s sudden and still unexplained death in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic Circle, according to OVD-Info, which monitors politically motivated arrests in Russia. At least 115 people were detained on Friday, according to the group. 

Navalny, who was 47 years old, was buried in Borisovo cemetery in his childhood neighborhood in southeast Moscow. The casket of the Putin critic, who was known for his irreverent sense of humor, was lowered into the ground to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” followed by the theme tune from his favorite film, Terminator 2.

Navalny’s sudden death has fueled concerns about the well-being of hundreds of other prisoners in Russia.

“If they could kill Navalny, they could kill anybody else,” said Grigory Vaypan, a senior lawyer at Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights group. 

There are currently 679 people serving sentences on politically motivated charges, according to Memorial, although the actual number is likely much higher, Vaypan said.

“This number is the absolute minimum. It’s the most conservative assessment that we can get,” he said. 

Despite the international outcry over Navalny’s death, Moscow’s crackdown on dissent shows little sign of abating.

On Feb. 27, Oleg Orlov, chairman of Memorial, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Two days later, a court in Sverdlovsk rejected the appeal of a Russian American, Ksenia Karelina, who was detained on treason charges earlier this year for donating just over $50 to a Ukrainian charity.

The Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent has gathered pace throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 24 years in power, escalating dramatically in the wake of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The number of people in prison on politically motivated charges has increased 15-fold over the past decade, Vaypan said, with arrests surging further still since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

In 2022, more than 21,000 people were penalized for publicly opposing the war and faced detention and heavy fines, according to Amnesty International. 

Shortly after the invasion, Putin signed a new law that prohibits the “discreditation” of the Russian Armed Forces and the dissemination of so-called fake news about the country’s military. The law has been used widely to target critics of the war. 

Last year, a court in Moscow sentenced 63-year-old railway worker Mikhail Simonov to seven years in prison for making anti-war statements on the Russian social media platform VKontakte. “While killing children and women, we sing songs on Channel One [Russian state TV],” Simonov wrote. “We, Russia, have become godless. Forgive us, Lord,” Simonov wrote in a post.

“The approach is to target one person to create a chilling effect for another 1,000 or 10,000 people,” Vaypan said, of the haphazard way the law has been applied. “No one ever knows who is going to be targeted for what and who is going to be let off the hook,” he said. 

The length of sentences has also increased dramatically in recent years. In 2023, dissident and Washington Post columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for condemning the war in Ukraine. Natalia Arno, president of the Free Russia Foundation, described the sentence as reminiscent of those handed down to dissidents in the Stalin era. 

With Navalny dead, Kara-Murza, a dual British-Russian citizen, is now the most prominent Kremlin critic imprisoned in Russia. “We understand that Kara-Murza is next, and he is very high on Putin’s target list,” said Arno, a friend of the jailed Putin foe.

Kara-Murza has survived two near-fatal poisoning attempts that have left him with lingering health issues and amplified concerns about his well-being in the Russian prison system, where health care is notoriously poor. 

Conditions in Russian prisons are equally grim. A 2021 State Department report described the country’s detention centers and penal colonies as “often harsh and life threatening,” noting that food and sanitation standards were low while overcrowding and abuse were rife.

A striking number of Russia’s political prisoners have been convicted on religious grounds. Their cases receive significantly less attention both within Russia and abroad. Almost two-thirds of the people considered political prisoners by Memorial have been persecuted because of their religious beliefs. 

Many are adherents of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international Islamist political organization that Russia deemed a terror group in 2003. 

As with other politically motivated cases, Hizb ut-Tahrir followers were previously sentenced to two- to three-year prison terms, said Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the Sova Center, a Moscow-based think tank that studies nationalism and racism, but in recent years they have been handed down sentences of up to 24 years. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses, which Russia labeled an extremist group in 2017, have also borne the brunt of an inexplicable and punishing crackdown.

Since 2017, there have been over 2,000 raids on Jehovah’s Witnesses, with 794 people facing charges, according to Jarrod Lopes, a spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States. Many of those facing charges are older adults; the trial of the oldest, 85-year-old Yuriy Yuskov, began in January.

On Thursday, a 52-year-old man in the Russian city of Tolyatti, Aleksandr Chagan, was handed an eight-year sentence for his membership in the church.

“We’ve noticed that the Russian authorities haven’t slowed down in religious persecutions. If anything, lately, things have continued to escalate,” Lopes said.

[mercerislandbooks]

Book Notes: In the Lives of Puppets

Those of you who have had the pleasure of coming to our bookstore in person may have noticed squares of cream-colored cardstock crammed full of scribbled writing, fluttering about on the shelves and attached to books via bright orange strings. These are our recommendation cards. When we love a book so much that we need everyone to know about it, we write a recommendation card. This is what happened when I finished Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune, shortly followed by The House in the Cerulean Sea, both of which became two of my favorite reads from 2022. As his new book draws close to its release day (Tuesday, April 25), I knew I had to share what a delight it was with all of you.

In the Lives of Puppets is a futuristic Pinocchio retelling with robots. One of the things I love most about TJ Klune's adult novels is the eclectic mix of characters finding a home and a family in one another, characters who are real and quirky and heartfelt. In the Lives of Puppets is no different.

There is a house in the woods. In this house lives a family. An odd, pieced together sort of family, but a family nonetheless. Giovanni Lawson, inventor and android. Nurse Ratched, a caring nurse robot with a sadistic streak. Rambo, a small vacuum full of love and in need of attention. And Victor Lawson, Giovanni's human son. Their life in the woods is small, but good. Giovanni tinkers while Victor leads Nurse Ratched and Rambo on hunts through the Scrap Yards. It is on one of these hunts that they find HAP, an android in terrible condition. When Victor brings HAP home to be fixed up, he unknowingly kick-starts a chain of events that will dredge up Giovanni's dark past and lead to the destruction of their small world as he knows it. Populated with quirky characters and small kindnesses, this book left me itching to dive back into a reread.

With all of the important hallmarks of a proper Pinocchio retelling—the Blue Fairy, a circus (of sorts), a great big whale, and, of course, a wooden puppet—this book was both not what I was expecting and more. A warm hug in trying times, it is full of compassion, understanding, and forgiveness (while often being hilariously irreverent). In the Lives of Puppets comes out on April 25, 2023 and is available to preorder here. TJ Klune's other books are also available in paperback and are just as delightful. We will have copies of In the Lives of Puppets on its release day, and you can expect a recommendation card to show up shortly after. Happy reading!

—Becca

[tyhulse]

(left) A woodcut of Puck from 1629, when he was a sexual yet strangely moralizing figure who taught people about housework but had a large penis. At this time fairies were largely ambiguous figures, being both maintainers of culture norms and yet often depicted as crude and irreverent figures of salacious comedy. (Right) Puck by Joshua Reynolds 1789. Overtime fairies began being depicted as more childish and whimsical, even if many in the countryside still feared them.

Check out my Artists Guide to Fairies and Fairy Tales

http://fairies.zeluna.net/2022/12/fairy-tales-and-fantasy-for-artists-p2.html