I've been wondering, how many universes can I hold in my head at once? I'm talking about fictional universes, of course. And by universe, I mean a world set apart by its own physics and cosmology. So, realist narratives all occupy the same universe (Sherlock Holmes and Tony Soprano exist in the same universe). But… Continue reading So Many Universes in My Head
Author: Mark Sample
Comic Book Question of the Day
Which offers greater narrative possibilities: The supervillian who never seems to die (or seems to die, but reappears months or years later)? Or the supervillian who dies but whose mantle of villiany is taken up by his progeny?
Review of Shyamalan’s “The Happening”
The Happening is possibly the worst movie I've seen in years, and I'm just desperate to find some inkling of redeeming value in Shyamalan's mess. But I can't. Just a collection of loose thoughts that may help somebody else also trying to justify to themselves their rationale for sitting through this movie: There is the… Continue reading Review of Shyamalan’s “The Happening”
Pop Apocalypse: Shearwater’s “Rooks”
I've always been obsessed with end-of-the-world scenarios, from the original 1968 Planet of the Apes to Cormac McCarthy's 2007 novel, The Road. I've tried to intellectualize my lifelong fascination, even teaching courses on Apocalyptic Literature. But no matter how many fancy words I use in my courses ("a posteriori apocalypticism," "stigmatized knowledge," "escalation ladder"), I… Continue reading Pop Apocalypse: Shearwater’s “Rooks”
Thoughts on Ben Folds’ “Still Fighting It”
My friend Adam over at Random Thoughts Escaping posted the Ben Folds' video of "Still Fighting It," along with some thoughts about fatherhood. I've always loved "Still Fighting It," which got heavy rotation on WXPN when the song came out. I'd never seen the video before. I found it quite touching, despite wanting to resist… Continue reading Thoughts on Ben Folds’ “Still Fighting It”
Long Live Rock: The Tragically Hip
Toledo Zoo Amphitheater, June 1996 The zoo is a crazy place for a rock concert, but for the Tragically Hip, this Depression-era amphitheater was perfect. And this was years before Gord Downie sang about Gus, the polar bear in Central Park (In Between Evolution, 2004). I like to think that the Toledo Zoo was his… Continue reading Long Live Rock: The Tragically Hip
Long Live Rock: Dougie MacLean
The Ark, Ann Arbor, circa 1996 Another concert with Tim, who was in grad school at Michigan by this point. Dougie was fantastic -- The Ark is an intimate venue, and as I remember it, we were sitting just a row or two from the stage. I watched transfixed as Dougie tuned his guitar differently… Continue reading Long Live Rock: Dougie MacLean
“Africanization” Disappears from NYT Headline
I've written before about the way Africa still functions for the news media as a "dark continent" of primitive savagery. So what a sad gift this headline was the other day in the New York Times: "Warming Leads to Water Shortage and 'Africanization' of Spain." I was getting all psyched up to write about this… Continue reading “Africanization” Disappears from NYT Headline
RSS is Forever
One of the interesting features of Twitter is that you can delete a "tweet" you've written and it will retroactively disappear from any of your followers' lists of tweets. This is different from RSS, where, once an RSS reader has collected the post data from a feed, the excerpt (or entire post) in the RSS… Continue reading RSS is Forever
The Heart of Iron Man
Something about David Denby's review of Iron Man in The New Yorker has been bothering me ever since I saw the film for myself. I've finally figured out it has to do with Denby's misreading of the superhero genre, rooted in a disregard -- shared by many critics and moviegoers -- of the source material… Continue reading The Heart of Iron Man
Reading Lists for Fall 2008
My course descriptions for Fall 2008 have been up for a while, but here are the specific reading lists for both classes (cross-posted from my official university site): Reading List for ENGL 343 - Textual Media Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary by N. Katherine Hayles Afternoon: A Story by Michael Joyce Understanding Comics:… Continue reading Reading Lists for Fall 2008
The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones
Continuing on the Indiana Jones theme, I also discovered in my old comic book box the first couple issues of "The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones" (larger image). This was back when the Indy characters had the potential to be a serious franchise -- there was a Young Indiana Jones on television, you had the… Continue reading The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones
Raiders of the Lost Ark Comic Book
In anticipation of the upcoming Indiana Jones movie, I dug through the old comic book box and came up with this, Marvel's "Official Comics Adaptation of the Hit Title" -- the original Raiders of the Lost Ark in comic book form (larger image). You'd think this would be worth some money on eBay, but it… Continue reading Raiders of the Lost Ark Comic Book
A very brief review of The Passively Multiplayer Online Game (PMOG)
The Passively Multiplayer Online Game has been generating a lot of hype lately. Yesterday I installed the necessary Firefox Extension, "played" for a few minutes, and then decided to uninstall the extension and maybe come back to the game once it gets interesting. My main objection to the PMOG is this: It tries to make… Continue reading A very brief review of The Passively Multiplayer Online Game (PMOG)
Summer Reading
That is, Dream Jungle, House of Leaves, The People of Paper, Tropic of Orange, Little Brother, Cloud Atlas: A Novel