Columns

The Enduring Fictional Legacy Of The Illuminati, America's Favorite Conspiracy Theory

July 8th, 2018

Perhaps more so than any other era in history, present-day America lives under a pall of conspiracy theories run wild. We all know the big ones: the CIA (possibly in cahoots with LBJ) orchestrated JFK's assassination; the Bush administration secretly planned and executed the September 11th attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (a belief colloquially known as the exclamation, "9/11 was an inside job!"); and most recently, Hillary Clinton and various high-profile Democrats ran a child prostitution ring out of a D.C.

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23 Books that Prove America Ain't So Bad

July 3rd, 2018

This has been the hardest column I’ve ever had to introduce. And I wrote a column about the “child sewer orgy” in Stephen King’s It. If I may, a short story. Pete’s not in a great place. I’m calling myself “Pete” for a minute here. Let’s just go with it. Pete’s in a long-distance relationship. Really long-distance. And it sucks.

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The Fowlest of Influences

July 2nd, 2018

Every day, outside my window, high in the snags of an aging pine grove, I listen as a pileated woodpecker chisels away. Its rapid series of hammering taps match my keyboard strokes as we both labor to subsist. A bird that drills with its head into solid wood for lodging and a meal of carpenter ants seems to possess a skill set similar to the freelance writer: patience, commitment, and a dash of non compos mentis. cRaZy, as I call him, is at it from morning to night.

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The Psychogeography of Crime Fiction

June 28th, 2018

Discussing the psychogeography of crime fiction is complicated. First, because there are a plethora of geographies in which crime narratives take place, so the writing has to take into account the multiplicity and diversity of said geographies. Second, because the correlation between geographies and sociopolitical/racial elements—as well as identity politics—is so deeply rooted that leaving them out of the equation is impossible, but dwelling on them too much makes for a long, boring conversation that can move away from its main argument.

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Thanos: Marvel's Greatest Movie Villain

June 27th, 2018

There was a time, not so long ago, when Thanos the Mad Titan was one of Marvel’s more obscure villains, known only to faithful readers. He wasn’t even the most powerful, being soundly defeated by the Avengers when he had the Cosmic Cube, and even the first time he gathered the Infinity Gems. When he finally created the Infinity Gauntlet, it took a multi-issue crossover saga involving nearly every hero in the universe to defeat him. This made Thanos a force to be reckoned with, and earned him the begrudging respect one pays to an existential threat.

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7 Books on Dinosaurs You Need to Read Before Seeing 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'

June 25th, 2018

Are you ready for a fact that might blow your mind? George Washington died in 1799, and the scientific proof of dinosaurs didn’t emerge until 1841. That means that Washington passed away (tragically) never knowing that dinosaurs even existed.

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The Sinful Virtues of Marginalia and Highlighting in Books

June 19th, 2018

Five years ago, I was with my wife and daughter passing through Knoxville, Tennessee, when I stopped at a McKay's used bookstore (an essential oasis for bibliophiles). Unbeknownst to me, I was at the beginning of my education in Saul Bellow—a literary staple—when I picked up a copy of Herzog (1964), rated by Time as one of the 100 best novels in the English language. One can hardly disagree with page after page of poetry as Mr. Bellow unveils Moses E. Herzog's midlife crisis via mental letters he never ends up sending.

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31 Ways To Remove Phones From Your Fiction

June 18th, 2018

There’s this saying about how there’s more than one way to skin a cat. It’s a pretty weird saying. Why is there enough cat-skinning going on that people get huffy about the multiple ways of doing it? Who is this person who's like, “Hey, just because that’s one of the five PRIMARY ways to remove a cat’s skin doesn’t mean it’s the ONLY way”?

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Summer and Beyond: Upcoming Books That Should Be On Your Radar

June 14th, 2018

I've read some truly outstanding books this year, but when I look at what's on the horizon, it's easy to think the best of what 2018 has to offer is yet to come. This is by no means a complete list, but these titles should definitely be on your radar. There is a lot of greatness here, so let's get to it.

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8 Recently Published Books That Are Feminist AF

June 13th, 2018

Header image by Markus Spiske The Trump era! It's been a fun time for ladyfolk, marked by abortion restrictions and gag rules, gun violence at the hands of incels, and one horrific revelation of sexual abuse/harassment after another.

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