THIS! Luke posited the idea that Jedi aren’t relevant anymore and the Force didn’t belong to the Jedi (tho the Force isn’t the Sith’s either). Yet he later realizes that the Jedi are still needed as heroes, BUT they CAN grow from their mistakes. Hence his quote: “And I will not be The Last Jedi.”

As an American living abroad, I never pretend not to be American, partly because (frankly) most of the Europeans I see around me act much worse than the Americans I know do.

The first time I read DULUTH, I didn’t like it at all. Now I’m on my third (?) reading and find that I kind of love it. It’s not MYRA, but nothing is.

Late 2025 really is my time to promote. With WAKE UP DEAD MAN doing the religion-and-classical-detection thing, now’s a good time to see how Ellery Queen tackled similar questions: mcfarlandbooks.com/product/god-...

Since STRANGER THINGS 5 has dropped, here’s a repost promoting my book on small-town fiction. I’ve not started the new season yet, but here’s a bit about KINGS ROW

Haha, yes, the STRANGER THINGS kids are old now. You (plural) are indeed very clever.

I need everybody to read this and understand what’s going on. These are spouses of US citizens in the country legally. They have entry clearance and green cards, they’ve passed background checks and have no criminal records. ICE is taking them anyway. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

I’ve finally finished the Arlong Park arc of ONE PIECE.

My prediction for STRANGER THINGS final season: a lot of people will be disappointed, a lot of fan fiction will get written, and in two years that fan fiction will get turned into conventionally-published stuff that takes booktube by storm.

I’m in this post and I don’t like it.

I did a PhD on the uses of Antichrist preaching as a form of propaganda and people ask me, "how is that useful?"

I’ve got my usual Gore Vidal picks, but I also want a really trashy soap opera about the FDR administration.

Make travel more fun and I might consider dressing up for it. Until then, I pay my money and you get what you get.

Again, it’s maybe the least sin of these fascists, but it’s remarkable how absolutely pedestrian their artistic taste is.

(Some) Fans: “It will be unsatisfactory if they just give Will a random new love interest!” Me: “Based on *everything I’ve seen* that’s exactly why I expect them to do that” Hope I’m wrong. We’ll find out soon, I guess.

One thing that’s really undersold popularly about the Sherlock Holmes stories is that they’re fundamentally fantasies.

Thanks for mentioning it! I have some Nosferatu stuff in the first 6 minutes of the latest episode: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hniW...

Update: It was The Banquet (2006), released in the United States as Legend of the Black Scorpion.

I’m not joking when I say you’ll appreciate the show in general way more if you know a bit about KINGS ROW.

Since everyone is gearing up for the finale of STRANGER THINGS, it’s a good time to check out part of the show’s ancestry. Fortunately, I happen to have written a book on the subject: mcfarlandbooks.com/product/amer...

narrator: 50 years ago... me: [nods] in 1945 narrator: in 1975... me: what

To put a finer point on it: this will be a better show if it reveals at the end that it’s secretly been a Will-Mike love story all along, but I don’t think (based on a couple of viewings) that it’s really that solidly conceived.

Oh no we’re ranking STAR WARS again on here.

Bunch of teenagers on the internet. We need to get them off.

I’ve seen people suggesting that PLURIBUS is a critique of American individualism, which is kind of complicated by the fact that one of the people who stubbornly refuse to join is in Paraguay.

Another way to put this is that, in spite of the stereotyping, it’s nice to see a small-town narrative dealing with native *presence* rather than native *absence*.

Finished my watch-through of STRANGER THINGS season 4. I feel like I rag on this show a lot, so let me say I *do* enjoy it for what it is.

It’s been years since I’ve had biscuits and gravy, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to have them again, so I’m mostly just envious, here.

Time to catch up with WELCOME TO DERRY.

I owe an apology to everyone who told me to read Nella Larsen’s PASSING years ago. I dragged my feet, am only getting to it now, and it’s so very good.

Has Smith missed the last *twenty years*?!

I love turkey, but it’s just me and my partner so for Thanksgiving I’m probably making coq au vin instead.

Ran into another “Dickens was paid by the word” comment on reddit and just…bit my tongue and scampered off

"the entire second season is grounded by internal drama within a polycule of French theater queers in post war Paris being explained to a terminally catty Anthony Bourdain clone" sounds good here's millions of dollars get at it

it's truly fascinating to live in a time in which anti LGBT violence is rising again and somehow Interview With A Vampire, the gayest show ever filmed, is on the air and wildly popular

Fantastic and very informative. @tvaziri.com is a great teacher.

One of the things that makes the Stone movie a masterpiece is that it’s absolute nonsense based on lies and it is absolutely compelling *even if you know it’s nonsense based on lies*

Can't help feeling the movie would have landed slightly differently if Kevin Costner had turned to the camera and explained Garrison's actual theory, that JFK was killed by the gay community because homosexual men get an erotic thrill from murder.

Gearing up to record an episode on SIDDHARTHA/ZACHARIAH by listening to this song: youtu.be/qOVxNppbvBc?...

Saroyan’s THE HUMAN COMEDY (1943) makes a similar claim in a striking scene set in a schoolyard.

Rewatching some of Capra's Why We Fight docs, so I can touch on them briefly in the book, and it's striking how deeply they commit to the idea of America's strength coming from its place as a pluralist society where many diverse kinds of people come together to accomplish great things.

I do note that he slipped in “telling China’s stories to the world” there at the end.

Interesting interview about Chinese animation: youtu.be/dce2XqZRKXY?...

Seeing those pictures of DJT and ZM make me feel…sorry for the old bastard, in a way I’ve never felt before. He could have been a good person, if he wasn’t so rich and had maybe one person in his life who wasn’t toxic. Ok, back to hating him.

He found the picture in the vaults. He put it up. bsky.app/profile/bryg...

Thinking a lot lately about the simple fact that college allows people to spend about 15 weeks immersed in a disciplinary conversation with an expert in that field. And what a special thing that is.

What To Know About ‘Pluribus’ https://theonion.com/what-to-know-about-pluribus/

I’ve reached the Arlong Park arc of the ONE PIECE anime, which I think means I’ve almost caught up to where the live action got in its first season.

I’m not convinced that Grok isn’t just Elon Musk in a trench coat.

I went on a rant about this to my students this week and it’s kind of disheartening that they all got That Look that you reserve for a parent going on a tear about video games or something.