A Hufflepuffian Protagonist
Newt Scamander is an unexpectedly interesting hero. He is even more interesting when compared with Harry Potter. It may seem like an unwarranted comparison. Harry Potter was a child in children’s movies. Newt Scamander is an adult in an adult movie. They may share a universe, but they’re fundamentally different …
Carrie Fisher: Drowned in Moonlight, Strangled by Her Own Bra
I didn’t really realize how much I wanted a brunette princess from Disney until they released Beauty and the Beast in 1991. Hey, yes, a Disney movie featuring a girl with brown hair like me? AND she’s a huge reader? AND she snarks away Gaston like she’s swatting a fly? Excellent, …
Here comes the General, Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher has meant different things to me over the years. When I was 13, and lying in a hospital bed in my parents’ living room, recovering from a massive surgery to my hips, she was kicking ass and shooting baddies. She was a diplomat and a Princess. She had …
Harry Potter and the Consequences of Overthinking Children’s Literature
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve spent much more time lately thinking about Harry Potter than is typically considered healthy for a grown man. Over the past few months, I’ve rewatched the movies, played the Lego games, read most of the books, listened to podcasts, and spent a …
In Defense of Fanfiction – A Convert’s Tale
Fanfiction has a pretty bad reputation. Part of it is earned, but a lot of it is just because it sits pretty far down the list on Maslow’s hierarchy of nerds. Nerds have a pervasive inferiority complex so we spend a lot of time distinguishing ourselves from our perceived lessers …
Your Steampunk Ain’t Punk
With Dishonored 2 coming out today, there’s an opportunity to interrogate its genre. Fact: I love steampunk, but it ain’t any kind of punk. It inherits the suffix from an actual punk genre of speculative fiction, but masquerades in its punkness. It’s as punk as white bread in a walnut-stained breadbox with …
The Science Behind the Sideshow
Have you ever wanted to know how someone walks barefoot on broken glass? What ’embouchure’ means and why it’s important in fire-eating? Wondered what it would feel like to stand on someone else’s head? Well, I’ve got a show for you! But you’ve got to come to Chicago this winter.
The making of Obi Wan Tenobi
Have you ever had a clever idea that has spun terribly out of control? That happened to me this year.It started with a tiny seed, and a bit of opportunity. I have wanted to make a replica sonic screwdriver for some time. I’ve also wanted to make a lightsaber for …