1,203 words
Twitter is done. After the suspension of then-sitting President Trump and successive ban waves, it’s obvious that Right-wingers have no future on the platform. What began as Left and Right competing for audiences on Twitter has ended with Twitter itself flexing its soy-infused muscles to purge all but a small and carefully curated number of high-profile (more…)
3,706 words
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) is a wonderful film designed and directed by Wes Anderson. It was his first stop-motion animation, and its success led to its even wilder spiritual successor Isle of Dogs, an important landmark in Japanophile cinema. Around the time of its release, Fantastic Mr. Fox stood alongside other unusual works like Rango (2011), Chicken Run (2000), Up (2009), and Where the Wild Things Are (2009), all released in a period of scintillating creativity in the animated film industry.
This period began in 1996 with the release of Toy Story and ended in 2012 with the release of the first Avengers film, (more…)
2,727 words
Children of Earth, or more accurately “Children of Britain,” was the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood’s third outing. Torchwood dropped the Doctor and asked what happens when he’s not around to save the day, a not-unreasonable question given the astonishing frequency the Earth is attacked by aliens. Being a BBC show, it’s always Britain that gets attacked first and hardest, and a “Time Rift” in Cardiff keeps vomiting out beasties for the Torchwood team to tackle. (more…)
2,021 words
Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave was an exhibition of Hokusai’s works mounted by the British Museum in the summer of 2017. This ambitious event sought to contextualize Hokusai’s famous In the Hollow of The Wave, better known as “The Great Wave,” (more…)
4,208 words
Yomawari: Night Alone is a survival horror videogame from Nippon Ichi Software, released in fall 2015 in Japan before being rapidly localized into English in 2016. It has enjoyed commercial success across multiple platforms (PC, Nintendo Switch, and PS Vita) and spawned a sequel, Midnight Shadows. The player character is a little girl with a red bow drawn in simple anime style; a sort of Minnie Mouse from a more mature world. (more…)
Banana Yoshimoto and Yukio Mishima.
2,725 words
Banana Yoshimoto
Kitchen
Translated by Megan Backus
London: Faber and Faber, 1993
Yukio Mishima
Thirst for Love
Translated by Alfred H. Marks
New York: Random House, 1999 (more…)
4,306 words
Porco Rosso is one of the more famous Studio Ghibli films, released in 1992. It is the midpoint of an unofficial Miyazaki trilogy examining flight as a method of personal and national liberation, beginning with 1989’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, and concluding with 2013’s The Wind Rises. Porco Rosso is the strongest of the three, being bright, bold, and easy to follow whilst touching on more serious themes than its premise might suggest. (more…)
2,663 words
“In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, there is only WAR . . .” tells us the strap line of the world’s most popular miniature wargame. In the 41st Millennium, mankind has collapsed after a Dark Age of Technology and an Age of Strife, and is set upon by nefarious, merciless alien races. Humanity is struggling against a primordial force of the universe — Chaos — that corrupts and deforms men into inhuman monsters.
2,058 words
Tito Perdue
The Node
Charleston, W.V.: Nine-Banded Books, 2011
The Node is Tito Perdue’s debut in speculative science fiction. It is a tour de force of postmodern storytelling, examining the extremes of white fragility and resilience, apathy and defiance through the travels of an unnamed narrator: “Our boy.” (more…)
3,496 words
Blade Runner 2049 is a deep and interesting film fueled by visual spectacle and cleverly-handled ambiguity. The film’s dialogue is sparse and carefully weighted, and the intricate plot resolves itself fairly satisfactorily (even though the film takes its sweet time getting there). Nonetheless, it fails to live up to its predecessor. It struggles to make headway with the theological commentary of the original – lines about Replicants being “angels” are unjustified, and are thankfully marginal. (more…)
2,858 words
Aquaman was perhaps the closest thing to a fulfillment of Kantbot’s promise that Trump would raise Thule, and Atlantis. In order to give Aquaman a saleable “mythic resonance,” it unavoidably has to draw on Greco-Roman mythology and showcase what is bemoaningly called White Male Power. Whilst a 2018 film, Aquaman seems to belong to the late ‘90s in its casting and racial attitudes, and the screenplay has all sorts of lines that describe an interplay of Aryan and Judaic values.
1,231 words
Kemono Friends is a clever twelve-episode anime that revolves around an adventurer, Kaban, and her attempts to find out where she belongs in the mysterious, sprawling and derelict “Japari Park.” Airing January through March 2017, it’s since become a surprise hit and amassed a cult following thanks to its effective storytelling and “strange deepness” that makes it more compelling than first impressions may suggest.
3,924 words
Quotes from the Naked Lunch film are unreferenced. Quotes from the text have a chapter reference, as page references are different between the various published editions and formats.
Naked Lunch is David Cronenberg’s 1991 adaptation of William Burroughs’ novel of the same name. It is likely as close to a direct adaptation of the novel as possible, given that Naked Lunch is a postmodern piece of fiction with many asides and no clear narrative structure. (more…)
2,605 words
Endgame is an undeniably popular film. Concluding a twenty-two film run of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies featuring home comic book names like Iron Man, Spiderman, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, and Guardians of the Galaxy, Endgame has the accumulated attention of multiple franchises supporting its monumental box office numbers. It is the largest-grossing superhero film of all time and is the capstone on the MCU cinematic project. (more…)
2,488 words
Daft Punk’s Electroma is a 2007 science fiction drama written and directed by the famous electronic house music duo, Daft Punk (Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter), who wear iconic robot outfits as part of their act. Daft Punk formed in 1993 and found success through their 1997 debut album Homework, 2001’s Discovery, and the critically mixed 2005 Human After All. Electroma, released in 2006, is an elaboration on Human After All‘s themes of technology and personal authenticity. (more…)
2,498 words
“When I was little, this was a large village. And that was not too many years ago; now, there’s not so much as a single shadow. The destruction of an entire people can come about very easily!”[1]
Lao She’s Cat Country is one of the finest pieces of literature I’ve read. Written in 1932 in the long shadow of the Bolshevik Revolution and foreshadowing the Maoist terror that would wrack China, (more…)
2,414 words
Rakka is a science fiction short film from director Neil Blomkamp. After being propelled to fame by District 9, Blomkamp went on to make Elysium, a less well-received and overtly preachy movie that has rightly drawn the ire of White Nationalists; both Gregory Hood and Kevin MacDonald have ably covered its breathtakingly arrogant subtext and narrative shortcomings. Following up Elysium with the poorly reviewed Chappie, a multiculturalist movie about rappers and a police robot, (more…)
3,103 words
“This pain, this sadness! This desperation! You know nothing about it!”
(Major story spoilers ahead.)
NieR: Automata is a critically acclaimed 2017 JRPG from renowned director Yoko Taro, and is an indirect sequel to his previous NieR and Drakenguard games. The game is a niche action-adventure gem, balancing engrossing narrative with tense, challenging combat. (more…)
2,597 words
Michael Crichton
State of Fear
New York: HarperCollins, 2004
State of Fear is a 2004 techno-thriller by Michael Crichton, who also authored The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Prey, Next, and other science fiction and speculative novels. Crichton’s formula was to make heavy use of established science and extrapolate into “What if?” scenarios, constructing fast-paced thriller plots hinging on the scientific fads of the day. (more…)
3,795 words
The Day of the Triffids is a 1951 novel by the English science fiction writer John Wyndham. Prior to serving in the Second World War, Wyndham wrote short stories for pulp magazines, and The Day of the Triffids was his first book, published when he was 48. It launched his short but illustrious career as a science-fiction horror writer whose premises were simple enough that they could be easily grasped, yet were boldly original. (more…)
2,355 words
Mortal Engines is an action-adventure yarn spanning four books by teen fiction author Philip Reeve, first published in 2001. With the recent box-office flop of the movie adaptation, it’s an opportune time to share some thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of this enduringly popular quartet. I first read Mortal Engines and its sequels (Predator’s Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain) in my mid-teens, and haven’t picked them up since, so the following is entirely from a decade’s worth of offhand contemplation.
1,335 words
The Monolith Deathcult are a three-piece extreme Death Metal band formed and led by Dutch high-school history teacher, Michiel Dekker. TMDC is a one-band musical vanguard for the coming inevitable National Populist cultural explosion of the European New Right. (more…)
3,148 words
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (more frequently Gurren Lagann) is a 2007 fantasy adventure by Gainax. It’s an explosive, white-knuckle roller-coaster ride of mecha action, as well as featuring stunning dialogue and character design. (more…)
2,275 words
Aggretsuko, or Aggressive Retsuko, is a 2017 Netflix anime that has garnered notable fanfare, praise, and controversy from critics and audiences. When I say “critics,” of course that means the establishment organs of liberal NPCthink who have been falling over themselves to gush about the goodness of the ridiculous, hysterical anti-male tropes in this bizarre musical comedy. (more…)
1,839 words
Girls’ Last Tour (2017)
Directed by Takaharu Ozaki
Written by Tsukumizu
Girls’ Last Tour is a short (twelve episodes, manga-based) slice of life/adventure anime. Unlike the cutesy and safe setting of contemporary Japan common to the genre, Girls’ Last Tour is a post-apocalyptic journey through an industrial wasteland. (more…)
2,269 words
Robert Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers is a genre-defining classic of science fiction. First published in 1959, Heinlein’s work is audacious in propounding aristocratic militarism, will-to-power, social inequality, and contempt for liberal and mercantile values. Starship Troopers describes the path of a young man, Johnny Rico, from uncertain recruit to achieving the rank of Field Officer in an interstellar war against the “Bugs,” a species of giant arachnids. (more…)
1,357 words
Chuck Palahniuk
Adjustment Day: A Novel
New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2018
Adjustment Day is Chuck Palahniuk’s love letter to the Alt Right, describing millennial men joining forces to rub out modernity and its masters in a violent revolution, fragmenting the United States into independent homelands: Blacktopia, Gaysia, and Caucasia. (more…)
3,147 words
Brazil is a 1985 genre-defining science fiction film from acclaimed director and writer Terry Gilliam. It has won numerous awards and is regarded as a cult classic and one of the best science fiction films ever made. (more…)
2,151 words
Part 2 of “Skateboarding & White Identity”; Part 1 here
Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity is the right book written by the wrong person. It is a comprehensive ethnographic study of a community of Skateboarders, well contextualized with thorough historical research, and in these aspects represents a valuable bridge between the distinct worlds of social thought and Skateboarding as a sport. (more…)
