Author: JK Gravier

In The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain describes laughter as the great weapon humanity possesses against the power of the tyrant: “Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the… Continue reading When satire loses the plot →

When I was an undergrad, I heard many lectures about different kinds of knowledge. One distinction that always stuck with me was between normal discovery and revolution. Normal discovery describes work that is done within preexisting paradigms to develop or substantiate established theories. In a revolutionary phase, however, anomalies that challenge those prevailing theories will… Continue reading What’s beneath a national identity →

Reflections are important: they tell us who we are. But, what happens when we don’t recognize ourselves in the reflection?  My sense is that, typically, we try to change who we are to match what we’re seeing. And that this can have consequences. Case in point: Fight Club. I saw Fight Club when it premiered… Continue reading Fight Club, January 2021 →

Much has been written about the damage the Q conspiracy has done to individuals, families, even nations. Little has been said, however, about how difficult it has made the task of the novelist—specifically, the novelist who writes novels featuring vampires. The Q phenomenon is complex, and there are many variants. Most basically, however, it presupposes… Continue reading Qanon and the novelist →

Warning: spoilers galore Stories, among other uses, help us to navigate reality: to make sense of complicated situations and to understand people not like ourselves.  And because stories are written within a culture and at particular junctures of time, they’re also shaped by their relationship to historical events and political movements. This brings us to… Continue reading The Valhalla Murders and the crisis in conspiracy theory →

One general truism about science fiction is that aliens provide an indication about how society feels about itself.  In periods of triumphalism, when we are confident in our future, aliens are typically threatening, and humanity is vindicated by its ability to defeat their menace (Independence Day would be a paradigmatic example).  As a corollary, when… Continue reading Midsommar and the case for cults →

With the Covid pandemic, my local drive-in screened a number of older movies last summer. It was a great opportunity to watch some classics again and to catch a few movies I may have missed. One of these films was the first Iron Man (2008). An issue that struck me forcefully on this viewing is… Continue reading Iron Man and the cult of the individual →