“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it” – William Pitt the Elder, British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768. Our nations’ leaders are supposed to be paragons of virtue and strength, ever striving to better the populace’s lot in life and aid their country’s economic and social progress. The […]
Continue readingDark Fantasy is a nebulous psuedo-genre of the fantastic. It can cover urban fantasy with rough edges, Lovecraftian horror, epic fantasy with violence and dirt still intact — but it’s all these things and more. It’s any story of the fantastic where things aren’t Tolkien-levels of happy. Were people are complex beings, where there’s no […]
Continue readingFantasy as a genre is often unfairly maligned. While there are plenty of authors who seem to be paid by the word and are only concerned with churning out volume, there are many authors producing fantastic works that transcend genre and often are even worthy of the word literature. While there were many worthy contenders, […]
Continue readingWhen we think of animals that will destroy us, rend us limb from limb, and leave us in a bloody mess, we usually thing of the huge and horrifying. Which means we forget about the real threats: the tiny, the cute, the gorgeous. The animals at which we ooh and aaah over, but are deadly, […]
Continue readingThe life of an author — particularly an author of fiction – is necessarily connected to that which is most dangerous: our consciousness. It is often through the exploratory process of creative literature that we touch the exciting possibilities and subversive consequences of our capacities as a species. Yet for all of the grandiose ways […]
Continue readingBefore everyone had a cell phone and the capacity to record video on the fly, a police beat down was, by sheer chance, caught on tape in Los Angeles on March 3, 1991. Public fury about racism and police brutality erupted when a portion of the video showing several LAPD officers Tasering, kicking, stomping and […]
Continue reading“In the theatre there are 1,500 cameras rolling at the same time- in the cinema, only one,” as quoted by Orson Welles, the prolific director of the most studied film of all time, Citizen Kane. Within the last century cinema has grown from pioneering silent films into orchestrated musicals, “spaghetti westerns” and has taken us […]
Continue readingThose who ask the difficult questions, like “Why are we here?”, “From where do we derive morals?” and “What does it all really mean, when you get right down to it?” have given humanity amazing philosophical insights and ethical guidance. Unfortunately, thinking too much about these issues can sometimes also lead to the brains of […]
Continue readingThe issue of copycat crime is a fascinating one that raises deep questions in the fields of psychology, philosophy, criminology and jurisprudence. Are filmmakers – if not legally, at least morally – responsible for their creations that motivate people to commit crime? Would these people act in such a manner but for the movie? Should […]
Continue readingThis year we set out to come up with a useful and interesting list showcasing 100 of the best blogs on the Internet. This list should give you a good inside track into the vast world of ideas out there on the Internet. It’s impossible to scour the net for all worthy blogs in a […]
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