Digital Overtone

The bits hit the virtual fan yesterday when the omgwtf-machine was whipped into a frenzy over the announcement, straight (no pun intended) from the mouth of our dear and glorious leader J.K. Rowling, that Dumbledore, beloved imaginary wizard of the Harry Potter-verse, was, to the author's mind, gay. Fans go wild; the religious right goes, well, apeshit.

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No Comments » Posted by Kyle / criticism and culture and fantasy and fiction and literature and religion

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In _Rabelais and His World_, Bakhtin tackles what he considers shortcomings in early 20th-century scholarship on 16th-century French author François Rabelais. The particular value of this book, though, lies not in his reflections on Rabelais _per se_, but on his lucid consideration of the generative function of the grotesque, the history of laughter, and their encounter in the popular context of the marketplace, reflections that remain remarkably relevant to literary criticism today.

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No Comments » Posted by Kyle / criticism and culture and literature and theory

Dear Oprah (and the American people): Shut up about James Frey already. You are all idiots.

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(Election-Day-2006-Spam-The-Last [#8])
Dear President Bush,

America has spoken, but you’re missing half of the message. It’s time to listen up.

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Comments Off Posted by Kyle / culture and personal and politics

(Election Day 2006 Spam #1)
I know you, Young Cynical Guy™. We’ve met. Let me lay the verbal smack down on you share a couple of things that are on my mind. First of all, stop being a prick, okay? Now go vote for Kerry.

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Comments Off Posted by Kyle / culture and politics