Utilitarian Review 7/16/16

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Fecund Horror

My ebook, Fecund Horror, is out! Please consider buying a copy if you haven’t, so I can write more and then you can buy those and then I can write more, like an aesthetic ponzi scheme, but without the ethical problems.

Matthew Brady put together this great list of every movie I mention in the book, to whet your appetite.

And Phil Sandifer said nice things about the book. “I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the book, which takes the tired “trashy exploitation films have something interesting to say” angle and finds fresh new life in it, suggesting that the genre works by “looking wrong” at the world, and that this is a generative and, well, fecund angle to take. It’s a delightfully odd collection, hitting obvious things like I Spit On Your Grave and also totally weird things – the title essay culminates in an enthusiastic paen to the subversive potential of a piece of erotica about wasps that lay mind-controlling eggs in people’s brains.”

On HU

Chris Gavaler on Kirby layouts vs. Steranko layouts.

Jimmy Johnson on a Law and Order episode that doesn’t suck.

Petar Duric on Attack on Titan, Saga, and a better American war canon.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Random Nerds I wrote about the joys of writing exploitaiton ebooks.

At Patreon, for $2/month subscribers I wrote about how Keanu Reeves is perfect as Jonathan Harker in Coppola’s Dracula, precisely because he is such a stiff.

At the Chronicle I wrote about why most academics will always be bad writers.

At PLayboy I argued that more black women police officers might reduce the number of police shootings.

At TNR I wrote about why police aren’t at the forefront of the gun control movement.

At the Guardian I wrote about Frank Cho, William Marston, and whether Wonder Woman should be sexy.

At Quartz I wrote about

β€”the sexual assault charges against both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

β€”the new Ghostbusters, which is less sexist and better than the first.

At Splice Today I wrote about

β€” the documentary Pervert Park, and how treating sexual offenders as monsters doesn’t help victims.

β€”the Great McGinty and the dream of unambitious politicians.

For the Chicago Reader I wrote a brief piece about the music of singer/songwriter/indie genius Mobley.
 
Other Links

This open letter about conflicts on the left over racism and sexism has been circulated a lot.

Brianna Wellen on the fact that Pitchfork doesn’t book many female-led acts.