Columns

LURID: Dread And Circuses

September 20th, 2013

LURID: vivid in shocking detail; sensational, horrible in savagery or violence, or, a guide to the merits of the kind of Bad Books you never want your co-workers to know you're reading.

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5 Video Games that Would Have Made Better Novels

September 19th, 2013

Image of Penguin-style covers for games by James Bit We’ve debated whether movie adaptations are better than books for too long. It’s time to look farther afield for frivolous controversy. I almost proposed that we rank novel adaptations of video games, but then I got scared. I mean, movie buffs and literary types are vicious enough in their own right, but gamers are a different species entirely.

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How Writing Has Helped Me Survive Depression

September 19th, 2013

This article started when I missed a deadline for a post here at LitReactor last month. I told the powers that be that, "Crippling depression hit me and I took a week-long hiatus from life. (How's that for honesty?)" And the powers responded by asking me if I'd be willing to talk about depression in one of my next articles.

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Respecting Ideals: Reading vs Watching

September 18th, 2013

A while back, blogger Anil Dash wrote a controversial piece that lit up the blogosphere like a smartphone screen in a movie theater. The essay, entitled “Shushers: Wrong about Movies, Wrong about the World”, basically asserted that people who don’t want their theater-going experience ruined are wrongheaded, Draconian individuals who don’t understand how the world works.

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Footnotes: The Old Sport of Gatsby's America

September 18th, 2013

Footnotes is a look at how specific novels were shaped by the culture of their time and how those novels shaped the culture – and are still shaping it.

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12 Unpublished Novels We Wish We Could Read

September 17th, 2013

Starting in 2015, fans of J.D. Salinger will be treated to a treasure trove of previously unreleased work, including new stories about the Glass family and a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. In the wake of exploding heads and spontaneous bowel evacuations prompted by that announcement, I got to thinkin': What other famous authors have work that's never seen the light of publication? Work their fans would kill to get their ink-stained mitts on, regardless of quality?

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It's Made Of SCIENCE: Multiple Personalities

September 17th, 2013

The suspense hangs thick in the air. Of your ten characters, only two remain, staring each other down. Each knows he didn't kill the other eight. Each knows the other must be responsible. The lights flash, and only one is left standing. Trigger montage. Flashbacks, hidden clues, offhand comments. No, it can't be... Yes. The last man has multiple personalities, and has been the killer all along!

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Dystropia: Why The Sassy Gay Friend Isn't Progressive

September 16th, 2013

Somewhere situated between Easter Island and Papua New Guinea, perfectly pinned on a straight line between the Great Pyramid and the Nazca Lines lies the Isle of Dystropia, the place where every cliché and worn-out convention sticks out like rubble in the sand. Pawing through the debris, you'll find the trope that may just make or break your story. Each installment, we'll explore a different literary platitude, examining it for its various strengths and weaknesses. Set sail for Dystropia, where you might just learn something about your writing and yourself.

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Guess The Plot: A Reawakening and a Reboot

September 13th, 2013

Guess The Plot is an original feature first conceived and run by Jon Korn. Go here for previous installments. It’s the triumphant return of Guess the Plot! Prepare for unspeakably strange, inscrutable, and inappropriate book covers combined with wild speculation about the words hidden behind them. You’ll like it whether you … like it or not. Maybe that tagline needs work.

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Anno Dracula: Appropriation of Characters

September 13th, 2013

Image via Hypnogoria I own up to it.  I wouldn’t have been able to write Anno Dracula if Bram Stoker hadn’t written Dracula first.  Indeed, the Anno Dracula series wouldn’t be possible without a great many previous authors, screenwriters, actors and artists who created characters, situations, institutions and conventions, which became mulch for my own imagination. 

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