I don't have cable right now so I'm rewatching old shows and movies. A lot of them are animated. Such is my way. I'd like to have a nobler reason for rewatching them--something like when James 
Let's say you're the newly-sentient internet. How would you decipher
the meaning of all the bits and bytes whizzing past you? And what about
the real world outside your electronic realm?
Former Comics Editor, Guy Leshinski
has very kindly given us permission to reprint a prophetic interview
with Bryan Lee O'Malley in 2005. Will Bryan Lee O'Malley attain the
Holy Grail of cartoonists? As Bryan says, "We'll see..."
Results tagged “fairy tales” from The Cultural Gutter
Don't Let The Sheepinator Fool You
Does
being amused by turning non-ovine creatures into sheep make you a bad
person? It
doesn’t seem like a serious question, but appearances can fool you.
Especially, according to Plato, if you are a fool. I think it’s safe to
say that there would have been no video games in the Republic.
Continue reading...
All That Fairy Tale Nonsense
One
of the many criticisms levelled at romance novels is that they’re a
poor model for women when it comes to real-life relationships. All
that fairy tale nonsense, detractors say, will make women want the
wrong things from their partners. I could list a dozen things wrong
with that assumption, but I’ll limit myself to three.
Continue reading...
The Mysterious Specimen Cases of Alex CF
A severed dragon head, a monkey's paw, a vampire pharaoh and an interdimensional cat are all specimens collected and mounted by artist Alex CF. Cryptids, oddities and mythical monsters presented with retro-Victorian naturalism. (thanks, Ariel!)
Gutter Poetry
Check out Gutter editor Chris Szego's "Four Years Later" at Strange Horizons.
The Fine Art of Dreamthieving
Michael Moorcock’s latest, and last, fantasy trilogy winds different strands of his fiction together intointertwining, virtually meta-fictional narratives reflecting on mythic and heroic archetypes and the power of stories to create new realities. If you like Moorcock, you will enjoy these books. If you don’t like Moorcock, they probably won’t change your mind. And if you’ve never read Moorcock, these could be a magnificent introduction to his writing or they could completely turn you off; maybe both. Either way, they are heady stuff.
Continue reading...
Sanctuary
It's a dream every geek, freak, dork, spazz, nerdy girl, artsy fartsy dilettante, re-enactor, socially challenged misfit and misanthrope has had: Sanctuary. A place where you're left alone. A place where embarrassing quirks, interests and personal oddities aren't just tolerated, but embraced. And many have tried to build their own sanctuaries from pillow forts to teenage rooms to basements to dorms to studios, each with its freak flag flying.
Continue reading...
Smooth Meets Convoluted
When I talk about a book, I often feel like I'm comparing it to some ideal (and non-existent) book, with features that get checked off on my list. Like a formula, or like a conformist's view of art. But should every book resemble every other book? The answer is no, obviously, and somewhere in between the two extremes is a way of judging books on their qualities, yet not cramming them into a cookie-cutter.
I thought of this because of two wildly different books I read recently: East by Edith Pattou and Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones, two YA fantasies. Each are enormously frustrating books in their own way, but that might be a mark in their favour. For one thing, they're not Harry Potter clones.
Continue reading...
Retold
Familiar tales, like Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid or The Snow Queen, have been reused and retold countless times. Sometimes the result is a mindless rip-off, and sometimes the familiarity of the structure lets a writer riff on the story in creative and surprising ways. It's a constant cycle, always fascinating but at times out of fashion.
Here are two award-winning revisions of The Snow Queen, one that slyly takes the story at face value, and a second that expands it into the basis for a galactic civilization, written by Eileen Kernaghan and Joan D. Vinge respectively and with the same title.
Continue reading...
Don't Let The Sheepinator Fool You
Does
being amused by turning non-ovine creatures into sheep make you a bad
person? It
doesn’t seem like a serious question, but appearances can fool you.
Especially, according to Plato, if you are a fool. I think it’s safe to
say that there would have been no video games in the Republic.
All That Fairy Tale Nonsense
One
of the many criticisms levelled at romance novels is that they’re a
poor model for women when it comes to real-life relationships. All
that fairy tale nonsense, detractors say, will make women want the
wrong things from their partners. I could list a dozen things wrong
with that assumption, but I’ll limit myself to three.
The Mysterious Specimen Cases of Alex CF
A severed dragon head, a monkey's paw, a vampire pharaoh and an interdimensional cat are all specimens collected and mounted by artist Alex CF. Cryptids, oddities and mythical monsters presented with retro-Victorian naturalism. (thanks, Ariel!)Gutter Poetry
Check out Gutter editor Chris Szego's "Four Years Later" at Strange Horizons.The Fine Art of Dreamthieving
Michael Moorcock’s latest, and last, fantasy trilogy winds different strands of his fiction together intointertwining, virtually meta-fictional narratives reflecting on mythic and heroic archetypes and the power of stories to create new realities. If you like Moorcock, you will enjoy these books. If you don’t like Moorcock, they probably won’t change your mind. And if you’ve never read Moorcock, these could be a magnificent introduction to his writing or they could completely turn you off; maybe both. Either way, they are heady stuff.
Sanctuary
It's a dream every geek, freak, dork, spazz, nerdy girl, artsy fartsy dilettante, re-enactor, socially challenged misfit and misanthrope has had: Sanctuary. A place where you're left alone. A place where embarrassing quirks, interests and personal oddities aren't just tolerated, but embraced. And many have tried to build their own sanctuaries from pillow forts to teenage rooms to basements to dorms to studios, each with its freak flag flying.
Smooth Meets Convoluted
When I talk about a book, I often feel like I'm comparing it to some ideal (and non-existent) book, with features that get checked off on my list. Like a formula, or like a conformist's view of art. But should every book resemble every other book? The answer is no, obviously, and somewhere in between the two extremes is a way of judging books on their qualities, yet not cramming them into a cookie-cutter.
I thought of this because of two wildly different books I read recently: East by Edith Pattou and Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones, two YA fantasies. Each are enormously frustrating books in their own way, but that might be a mark in their favour. For one thing, they're not Harry Potter clones.
Continue reading...Retold
Familiar tales, like Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid or The Snow Queen, have been reused and retold countless times. Sometimes the result is a mindless rip-off, and sometimes the familiarity of the structure lets a writer riff on the story in creative and surprising ways. It's a constant cycle, always fascinating but at times out of fashion.
Here are two award-winning revisions of The Snow Queen, one that slyly takes the story at face value, and a second that expands it into the basis for a galactic civilization, written by Eileen Kernaghan and Joan D. Vinge respectively and with the same title.
Continue reading...