Friday, July 10, 2026

The Shape of the Box Office of 2025

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In assessing the 2025 box office my first thought was of how the reality stacked up against my predictions at the end of last year . In part...

Whither the Jane Austen Fandom?

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The term "fandom" is probably most strongly associated with science fiction, where Hugo Gernsback did much to cultivate a self-awa...

Is This Really an Age of Disclosure?

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Hollywood producer Dan Farah's recent documentary The Age of Disclosure takes its name from the view held by some of those who believe ...

Book Review: The Road to Omaha, by Robert Ludlum

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Robert Ludlum's MacKenzie Hawkins-Sam Devereaux novels seemed to me even more off the main track of his work than the novels Ludlum publ...

Of Mack Bolan and Leroy Jethro Gibbs: Thoughts

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The near-total media silence regarding the announced end of Gold Eagle's day as an active book publisher was an indication of just how ...

Top Gun: Maverick, Ready Player One and the Weaponization of Wokeness

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I remember that when the press announced that Top Gun 2 ( Top Gun: Maverick ) was out of the development hell where it had languished for th...

The Whining of Literary Agents

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It has long been routine for the functionaries of Big Publishing to write pieces in which they whine that the hatred that frustrated authors...

What Query Letters Really Ask of Their Recipients

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It seems that those who think about such things conventionally think a "query" letter sent by an author looking for a publisher to...

Blaming the Victim on the Eve of the Web's Maximum Era

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Contrary to the cyber-utopian stupidities championed by market populism -peddling corporate PR hacks , those whose economic function it is ...

Richard Marcinko and the Cult of the Navy SEALs

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A few decades back the U.S. Army's Special Warfare troops popularly known as "Green Berets" after their distinctive headgear w...