literature

While imprisoned for being a “reactionary,” physicist and engineer Zhi Bingyi began devising a system to help computing machines read Chinese characters.

Futurism has failed. It’s time for an alternative. In the era of climate change, tropical futurism reimagines a different relationship to the earth. 

“Let us bake a pie, though we know not which recipe is rated highest.”

You’ve never heard of him, but your favorite writers have, and his mad-drunk prose will knock you sideways.

Are you game? See How Homer, Faulkner, and Ibsen can help.

In the midst of a global pandemic, the genre got a lot more real.

The latest film from Netflix is about fighting back against gentrification and the bourgeoisie—just like Dracula before it.

New movies are few; new TV is fast diminishing. Here are the books we think you should pick up instead. 

Revisiting William Gibson’s 1993 essay on the city-state took me back to my home, where future is past.

Emma Donoghue's new novel, The Pull of the Stars, shows how pandemics—like the 1918 flu—can be woven into history.

Technology can save the world. But discord between humans persists, and it's the kind that kills.

In dark times, we turn to stories in which history might be turned back. But it’s poetry and farce that will lead us through despair.

How did a plan to "aid those that are forced to learn at home” with e-books manage to lose the moral high ground?

Stories about climate disaster have entertained us for years. Now they’re getting more unforgiving and dire.

Both The Witcher and Little Women are told out of chronological order—and the reason why is a lesson for our times.

Why Star Trek and Game of Thrones nerds owe a debt to Jane Austen obsessives.

A glimpse into how technology, once again, is giving birth to new literary forms.

Our favorite fictional characters have always been a boozy bunch. Whether it’s The Dude clutching a White Russian or Jay Gatsby sipping a Gin Rickey, literary and film figures can often be found drink in hand. The clever minds at Pop Chart Lab took notice of this trend and created the aptly named infographic, “The Cocktail Chart of Film & Literature,” an illustrated print that charts 49 iconic fictional characters and their associated libations — recipes included.

There was a time, 20 years ago, when hypertext fiction had its great shining moment. And then it passed. In its place, we saw the rise of a whole different set of forms, from blogs to social networks and crowd-edited encyclopedias.

While illustrated children’s book have long history of being even more special artifacts than most others. A children’s book in beautiful condition, with clean crisp pages in near-mint condition is a sad and troubling thing. Children’s books should belong and be treasured by children, and if that is the case they should look like they have been handled and read and looked at by children.

Remember how I said that Lawrence, Kansas is a secret hub of science fiction and fantasy awesome? Meet Kij Johnson, KU's new fantasy professor, an award-winning writer of fantastic things, and one of the people that makes the city such a great place for geeks. She'll be at Oxford this January for the inaugural Pembroke Lecture in Fantasy Literature. Recently, I sat down with her to chat about her work, her books, grad school, and life in general.

Do you need a bit more silliness in your life? Would you like it to come along with a healthy dose of family devotion, stick-to-it-iveness, and time travel? Then the newest and last book in Dr. Cuthbert's fantastic series of books will satisfy. Third in the Cheeseman family series, No Other Story followed A Whole Nother Story and Another Whole Nother Story to wrap up the story of the Cheeseman family's adventure through time.