Social Justice
Analysis
Telling an egalitarian story means fighting back against a lifetime of cultural programming, not to mention systematic bias in production, publishing, and marketing. So even when we try to make our stories just, problems we haven’t noticed can sneak their way in. Graded on a … read more »
Storytelling
Prejudice is a part of human society, and some eras were just awful. However, we still want to tell stories in those time periods. The steampunk genre is based largely on Victorian England, a time when being female was enough for people to assume you … read more »
Analysis
We tell the same stories to ourselves over and over. That’s okay; people are comforted by the same themes and drawn to the same conflicts. Unfortunately, we also can repeat tropes just because we never thought critically about them. And when we do that, we … read more »
Roleplaying
A few months ago, I wrote an article about some of the more problematic elements inherent to roleplaying games.* There was a lot of philosophy in that post, which is all well and good, but what about practical solutions? Most of us would like our … read more »
Podcast
Grace joins Oren, Mike, and Chris in discussing how artificial personalities are gendered. They mention computer voices in use today and the explanations given for their gender. They describe female and male robots and AI in science fiction, and how their depiction differs. Read more »
Roleplaying
Roleplaying games take us on marvelous adventures. They provide hours and hours of entertainment with our friends. They let us become active parts of our favorite stories instead of passive observers. Unfortunately, they have a dark side as well. Several dark sides, in fact. We’ve … read more »
Analysis
What could be more straightforward than Outlander, a novel published in 1991 about a character from 1945 going back in time to 1745? This historical fantasy romance blend is so popular, it’s been adapted into a TV series for Starz. Read more »
Analysis
Humans have been retelling old stories for as long as there have been old stories to retell, as the current plethora of Hollywood remakes can attest. On its own, this isn’t a surprise. There are only so many kinds of stories, and it’s much easier … read more »
Storytelling
For as long as we can remember, storytellers have depicted idealized romances that would translate to abusive, unhealthy relationships in real life. Now audiences are starting to catch on, and anyone who wants their story to last has to update old conventions. Read more »
Analysis
If you’re completely unfamiliar with high fantasy literature (in which case, I apologize in advance for the Red Wedding), The Wheel of Time is a series of books first written by Robert Jordan and later finished by Brandon Sanderson after Mr. Jordan passed away. It … read more »
