Recent Features

When to start laughing: Homicidal hillbillies and absurd horror-comedies

Sometimes life is uncooperative. The consequences extend from our highest functions to the lowest corners of the cultural gutter. Here, friends, is the result of my non-compliant life situation: a list of things that make me think of other things, loosely organized around the theme of absurd horror-comedies! I’ll start with Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, the movie that started this chain of thought by making me laugh so hard my abs hurt, and move on through a strange and wondrous list of parodies, oddities, and the assorted flotsam that floated to the surface of my mind like the ever-useful “Better not tell you now” message in a Magic 8 Ball. All hail stream of consciousness! Continue reading…

Category: Screen

Becoming Human

Every April at the Gutter, the editors switch things up. This week Comics Editor Carol writes about tv. ‘Ware ye spoilers!

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like for everything inside me that’s denied and unknown to be revealed, but I’ll never know. I live my life in hiding. My survival depends on it.”–Dexter

On the tv show Dexter, Dexter Morgan believes he is a monster pretending to be human. And while Dexter constructs an elaborate performance of being normal, he also yearns for human connection and acceptance. He’s serial killer who’s trying to be good. And the show slyly uses those contradictions to create empathy. Continue reading…

Category: Screen

Revealed by the Twentieth Repetition

Or the thirtieth or the fortieth! What happens to your experience of a genre work, ordinarily somewhat disposable, when you read or watch or listen to it multiple times?

Most of the time, your brain turns to mush, or you tune out altogether, or every little thing about it becomes an irritant. But what if you pick the best works of art as a starting point and manage to stay away from the dreck?

Category: Science-Fiction

Who’s Your Doctor?

Every April, the Gutter switches things up. This month, Romance editor Chris talks about television.

Confession time: Until 2003, I had no idea what Dr. Who was.

I mean, I knew there’d been a television show with that name. My Nana used to watch it occasionally. I had vague childhood memories of the freaky/cool tunnel special effect thingie during the opening credits, and I could recognize the theme music. But I thought – when I thought about it at all – that it had been a show about a doctor (played by Tom Baker) whose last name happened to be Who.

[This wouldn’t require a mea culpa confession, except that for the last dozen years, I’ve spent my days managing a SFF bookstore. Yeah. Way to miss an active and vocal cordon of Fandom. Hey: I read. I just don’t watch a lot of TV.]

Category: Screen

Whedon, at Length

James Schellenberg
Posted August 9, 2007

What has Joss Whedon been up to these days? Comic books, development hell (in the movies), and regaining an even keel: “I’ve had more luck than any 10 guys I know. I’ve been able to tell my story more than a few times, and that’s the greatest gift.”

Category: Notes

Comments

Of Note Elsewhere

Lonely serial killer and film smarty Harry S. Plinkett reviews the Star Wars prequels: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. Trenchant analysis aside, current favorite segments are his love advice to Anakin and “Citizen Vader”–starts here and continues. (Trigger warning for those sensitive to ladies held captive in basements even for comedic purposes that turn out largely alright in the end).

In 1978, Elmore Leonard followed Detroit Homicide’s murder felony unit, Squad 7 and wrote a story about it for The Detroit News Sunday Magazine. (Thanks, @booksadventures)

John Scalzi and Dr. NerdLove use gaming to understand being a guy in the real world. In writing about “straight white male” as the lowest difficulty setting in life, Scalzi builds on a Luke McKinney article in Cracked. Dr. NerdLove is a little less explicitly game-centric in his “Virgins, Victims and Player Haters: Adventures in the Manosphere.” My favorite line? Scalzi’s: “The player who plays on the “Gay Minority Female” setting? Hardcore.”

Junaid Chundrigar made a charming and funny series of shorts about Marvel heroes. (Thanks, Mark!)

At Bollywood Journal, Beth Watkins takes a look at rare Bollywood cinema showcards being displayed in Toronto.

Enjoy full-on awesomeness as The Raid is recreated in stop-motion animation. (Thanks, Colin!)

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Recent Features

When to start laughing: Homicidal hillbillies and absurd horror-comedies

Becoming Human

Revealed by the Twentieth Repetition

Who’s Your Doctor?

Whedon, at Length

Comments

Of Note Elsewhere

Spilling into Twitter

The Book!

Obsessive?

Weekly Notifications

Search the Gutter

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The Cultural Gutter

dumpster diving of the brain

See All Categories

Recent Features

When to start laughing: Homicidal hillbillies and absurd horror-comedies

Becoming Human

Revealed by the Twentieth Repetition

Who’s Your Doctor?

Whedon, at Length

Comments

Of Note Elsewhere

Spilling into Twitter

The Book!

Obsessive?

Weekly Notifications

Search the Gutter

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