In perusing this year’s biggest movie controversies, we found ourselves discussing matters a good deal less trivial than last year. Make no mistake, there are some tempest-in-teapot situations here: ratings woes, questions of reappropriation and hagiography, and (god help us all) frame rates. But we also grappled with issues of artistic responsibility and racial representation, and with the ongoing question of the very health of the form itself. Join us after the jump for a stroll through the year’s memorable movie controversies, won’t you? … Read More
J.R.R. Tolkien
20 Amazing J.R.R. Tolkien-Inspired Tattoos
If tried to sweet talk your way into a sold-out screening of The Hobbit over the weekend, then you might not be surprised to hear that there are a ton of hardcore J.R.R. Tolkien fans out there. What we imagine might surprise you is how many of those fans, secretly tucked away under all of those layers of winter clothing, have inked permanent tributes to the beloved author on their skin. We’ve scoured the Internet for some of the the most impressive Tolkien-inspired tattoos we could find — not counting the scores of designs that are people’s names or favorite sayings written in Elvish — and picked out 20 of our favorite tributes to Middle Earth for you to peruse after the jump. What do you think Gandalf the White would make of all this? … Read More
The Best Pickup Lines for a Midnight Screening of ‘The Hobbit’
Attention hobbits and elvish princessess: the day has arrived. Peter Jackson’s first installment of The Hobbit opens tomorrow, and many theaters are holding midnight screenings this very night. Now, there’s no better place to meet a fellow geek than at a midnight screening for a nerdy movie (we hope your costume is spot on), but in our experience, it can sometimes be a little difficult to break the ice — even when you know you’ve got something in common. That’s why we’ve compiled this handy list of pickup lines for both guys and girls to use while striking up a conversation in line for the show — or any time thereafter. Yes, most of them are completely groan-worthy, but isn’t that the point of a pickup line? Click through to get a few ideas on how to nab your own precious tonight, and add to our list in the comments! … Read More
The Seven Deadly Sins in Literature
Today marks the release of Jami Attenberg’s The Middlesteins, a portrait of a woman obsessed with food and the efforts (or non-efforts) of her family to get her eating under control. We can say pretty confidently that the book made us never want to overeat again, and we got to thinking about the other books that make us want to give up our vices. After all, any sin you can dream up has probably been written about, usually by someone French. After the jump, find examples of the seven deadly sins in literature (whether actually deadly or just unfortunate). Indulge in a little naughtiness-by-proxy, and then let us know which sinful characters we missed in the comments. … Read More
10 More Scathing Early Reviews of Classic Novels
Well, we can never get enough of poking fun at the unduly critical, can we? Last week, we shared fifteen scathing early reviews of classic novels, and some of you pitched in with some of your own favorites. We took a few of your suggestions, both here and at Metafilter, added a few more of our own, and put together a second list of a few more critics who got it wrong, this time hating on Hemingway, Tolkien, Steinbeck and more. Now don’t get us wrong — everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to judge the past from the future. Click through to read ten more scathing early reviews of books we now consider to be classics, and chuckle over how you know better (or admit that you secretly agree) in the comments. … Read More
J.R.R. Tolkien’s King Arthur Poem to See Publication in 2013
Did you know J.R.R. Tolkien wrote an epic poem about King Arthur? (What’s that, superfans? Yes, of course, we figured you knew.) The Fall of Arthur is an unfinished 200-page chronicle of the legendary ruler’s last days, inspired by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Thomas Malory’s King Arthur stories. Previously unpublished, the poem predates The Hobbit… Read More
10 Literary Authors Who Illustrated Their Own Work
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, and as a result, we’ve been blessed with all manner of new Hobbit-related media coming to fruition. Inspired by the recently published compendium of Tolkien’s artwork, The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, we decided to track down a few other literary authors who created illustrations for their works, whether published or unpublished.… Read More
The First Edition Covers of 25 Classic Books
We try not to judge books by their covers — both proverbially and literally — but sometimes we just can’t help it. After all, the cover is your first impression of a book, and can inform the way you approach it. Plus, at least in our experience, any avid reader who carries a book wherever she goes has memories and feelings attached to it that can be instantly dredged up by a peek at the cover art. But of course, most book covers change over the years, whether minimally, correcting for modern fonts and colors, or maximally, going through radical change after radical change, each generation connecting (or not connecting) to a different design. With that in mind, after the jump, we’ve collected a few first edition covers of classic books, some of which may be familiar to you — a certain blue masterpiece will perhaps never fall out of favor — though some have been replaced by much more iconic imagery or fallen out of favor. Click through to reminisce over (or discover) 25 covers of classic books, and let us know if we missed your favorite in the comments. … Read More
Guessing Game: ‘The Lord of the Rings’ as Written by Other Famous Authors
We’re of the firm belief that J.R.R. Tolkien’s much-beloved fantasy epic couldn’t have been written by anyone else — but, well, what if it had been? This week, Metafilter pointed us towards Alison Brooks’s Alternative Authors’ Versions of Lord of the Rings, wherein Brooks rewrites sections of Tolkien’s classic as it might have come out in the hands of other famous writers. But can you guess which ones? Click through to read five of Brooks’s passages and see if you can detect which writer she is embodying, and then head on over to Changing the Times to see the entire set. … Read More
What Your Favorite YA Series Says About You
This week, NPR published their list of the 100 Best YA Novels of all time — as nominated by their readers and then selected by a panel of judges. While we have our reservations about the ranking (Twilight before Earthsea?), the poll reminded us of the fact that no matter how many serious books grace their shelves, every devoted reader has at least one favorite YA series from their childhood (or, um, more recently than that) that they still think is pretty great. After all, of the 100 entries on NPR’s list, almost half of them weren’t novels at all, but rather series of novels at least three books long. So in case you’re wondering what that lingering affinity for Weetzie Bat means for your life on a grand scale, or wondering what strangers on the train think when they see you reading Vampire Academy, we’re here to help. Click through to find out what your favorite YA series says about you, and let us know if we’ve got you pegged — or if we’re totally off the mark — in the comments. … Read More
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