Webcomics are part of my morning ritual. The first thing I do when I open my browser, before even checking e-mail or facebook, is check for new installments. Over the years, various webcomics have come and gone, but one in particular has been a fixture for years and years: Jeph Jacques’ Questionable Content. Lees verder
Categorie archief: English
The things we do to ourselves
Last Sunday, I watched a woman practically rub her lips off with steel wool, before cutting off what was left with a pair of scissors.
Up until a few years ago, I almost never watched horror. Because I’m too easily manipulated – sitting next to me during a movie with jump scares is, according to the boyfriend, hugely entertaining. Because I don’t much enjoy being scared – the world is scary enough as it is, after all. Because, admittedly, I felt a bit smug about being the type of person who could simply not bear to watch horny teenagers get ripped to pieces.
On being just a little fucked up.
I haven’t written about GIRLS since its pilot, about a year ago. I was reluctant to like the show, then, bristled against it’s assumptions about “my generation”, resenting it for not representing my very specific situation better, and was a little jealous in a way I couldn’t quite articulate. But I kept watching. And somewhere in the course of the second season, I started to truly love it.
Many moments this season made me consider writing. Lees verder
Downton Abbey season 3: Masculinity in crisis
Warning: this post contains significant spoilers for seasons 1 & 2 of DOWNTON ABBEY, including the season 2 Christmas special. It also contains mild spoilers for the 3rd season and its Christmas special. Proceed at your own risk.
In season 3 of DOWNTON ABBEY, the Earl of Grantham tells his mother, his wife, and two of his daughters to do something. He is stupefied when one by one, taking their cue from each other, all four say no.
Anna Karenina, life and theater
Just after a crucial event in ANNA KARENINA (Joe Wright, 2012), Anna’s stuffy bureaucrat husband Karenin (Jude Law) reflects on the debate about horse racing. It’s dangerous, he says, but it might be worth it for the spectacle. It’s hard not to see in his words a thesis statement for this latest film version of Tolstoy’s adulterous tale. The first half-hour especially has much in common with a horse race, hurtling forward at a break-neck pace, defying inertia and gravity alike, but seemingly always on the verge of a perilous fall. It’s exhilarating but you know it could stumble at any time. Lees verder
Panpopticon 