Amy S. Li While the personalities and embodiments of these fantastical monsters vary from film to film, what ties them together is del Toro’s understanding of their potential to instill fear, but more importantly, to inspire love and empathy amongst humans.
Tag Archives: popular culture
From Job to Kevin: Scripture and Scripturalists in the Leftovers
Jill Marshall People do things with texts, in fictional worlds and in the real world.
Humor is Not Just Entertainment: 7 Questions for David Feltmate
David Feltmate Popular culture scholarship is actually quite difficult, but people seem to think it is easy. It is not enough to just watch TV or listen to music, you really have to dig into the significance of the material and its social importance.
7 Questions for André M. Carrington
André Carrington Ritual, pilgrimage, and ecstasy are not only metaphors when it comes to people’s devotion to cultural texts—these terms are really useful in theories of the practice of making genre traditions.
Maybe It’s Colbert’s Fault
Stephanie Brehm Supporters claim Trump does not mean everything he said on the campaign trail; that he will not do half of the abhorrent things he spewed. But do they believe that in part because our comedians, the funny, ironic truth-tellers were for so long invested in perpetuating truthiness?
7 Questions for Amir Hussain
Amir Hussain I’ve always been fascinated by the life and work of Hank Williams Sr. . . the most underrated American theologian of the 20th century.
Staking Monsters: Killing the Racist Trope in Horror and Reality
Kelly J. Baker How do we create monsters? And ultimately, how do we destroy them?
Fashionable Intolerance
Kelly Baker A couple of months ago, I started watching the first season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix. In the premiere episode, Kimmy and the three other “mole ladies” are rescued by a SWAT team from an underground bunker.
Accelerating the Contradictions with the Coen Brothers
Mark Hulsether “Would that it were so simple.”
On Bonnaroo’s 15th: The Sacred and the Psychedelic Tradition
Scott Muir While 65% of the 655 individuals I surveyed at 10 such festivals report that they rarely or never “attend religious or spiritual services/gatherings,” participants overwhelmingly affirm the notion that these festivals are themselves sacred social events.