“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him:” Shakespeare and the Politics of Interpretation
[5-7 minute read] During my last month writing for Metathesis, I talked about the contemporary desire to find political meaning in Shakespeare’s plays. Then in June, Shakespeare in the Park staged a performance of Julius Caesar in which the actor playing Caesar consciously invoked the image of President Trump, mimicking his vocal affectation and his
Valuing Difference: An Ace on Food, Friendship, and Fluffy Companionship
[5 minute read] (CW: pet death) For a year, two of my colleagues shared an office across from mine. They were best friends, and they stocked their space with craft beer and a reclaimed yellow armchair, squishy and velveteen, and spent their office hours in conversation together. Maybe it was because my own best
Normalizing Difference: Redefining Asexuality
[5 minute read] The problem with asexuality, as I’ve discussed before, is that it is hard to talk about on its own terms — even in a grammatical sense. For example: If you’re homosexual, you can say, “I’m sexually attracted to people of my same gender.” If you’re pansexual, you can say, “I’m sexually attracted
Abnormalizing Difference: Sexual Normativity in Asexual Sherlock Fanfic
[7 minute read] (CW: discussion of sexual violence in fanfic.) Can I tell you a secret? I knew the titular character of BBC’s Sherlock had become one of the mascots of the ace community before I even watched the show — and I defended his reputation as such before I watched it, too, as evidenced in
Misrepresenting Difference: Objectifying Asexuality in Journalism
[10 minute read] The media we consume shapes our implicit biases. It is one factor among many, but I saw it at work among my Fox News-watching relatives during the 2016 election. I saw it at work among rosary-praying priests putting my femininity on a pedestal. I saw it at work after 9/11, when I
How We Talk about Trauma: Gaslight and the Importance of Maintaining a Bi-focal Critical View
[7-10 minute read] Recently, my coursework on Hollywood Melodrama engaged me with reading portions of Helen Hanson’s book, Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film.[1] This text represents an amazing work of scholarship, connecting well-researched critical feminist histories, studies in the formation of literary and filmic genres, and close-readings of the narrative
Scholarship and Affect: Merging Critical and Fan Identities
[7-10 minute read] Take an adventure with me through my affective and critical experiences with a few texts I encountered during my first year and a half of my Ph.D. program: ***** I am sitting in the theatre in the last showing of the night for Star Wars: Rogue One. I have just come from
“What more does the Traveler want of Me?”: Destiny 2, Ghaul, and the Sci-Fi Villain
[7-10 minute read] As its title screen fades to black, Destiny 2 (2017) sets itself up to follow the familiar science fiction trope of moral disambiguation. After destroying the last vestiges of human society on the planet, the new villain of the series – the not so subtly named Ghaul – has just thrown your
Special Edition: How I Misplaced My Faith
[5 minute read] Last month, when teaching a Metathesis post I previously wrote about being a Catholic scholar, I felt like a bit of a fraud. My intention in using this post was to give my students a look at my research on a rare book they had examined for class. However, when one of
Seduction and Devastation
[10 minute read] In my final foray into Hannibal, I will examine the final season and its tragedy and seduction. After the violence of “Mizumono,” the season two finale, Hannibal escapes to Italy, his pursuers scattered and recovering from their injuries. Driven by vivid hallucinations and a grisly murder, Will sails the Atlantic to seek