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Does NASA Use Emoji?
Amazon Releases Fourteen Pilots
Amazon, which recently entered the world of original broadcast content, has subverted television’s traditional “pilot season” by forgoing a staggered release schedule in favor of plunking all fourteen of its pilots onto its website at once. The idea is for audiences to watch the eight comedies and six animated shows for free, and then help the company decide which options are the most promising for long term development. Just a tip: Alpha House features appearances from John Goodman and Bill Murray.
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Nor Poetry
Pop quiz! What out-of-print book is more sought after by inquiring readers than any other? (Here’s a hint, before you click through and find out the depressing answer: the book is not a work of fiction.)
Challenging the Able-Bodied Gaze
"I hate the idea that you must write every day because I really can’t do that. Sometimes the aching bones in my body will not allow it." Electric Literature interviews three writers—Keah Brown, Esmé Weijun Wang, and Jillian Weise—about disability, publishing, and accessibility. From our archives: Wang's 2016 Year in Reading entry.
“Call Me” – Ishmael
Another phone-related book project: Call Me Ishmael, a site that collects stories about reading and life via voicemail messages. The instructions are simple: call Ishmael at 774-325-0503 and leave him a message "about a book you love and a story you have lived." Several of these messages are transcribed and posted online every week but, if we're being honest, we appreciate this project for the pun as much as for the stories.
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The Commitment-phobe’s Genre
The essay is more than just a literary genre but a lifestyle, and it's dominating American society, Christy Wampole argues. “The genre and its spirit provide an alternative to the dogmatic thinking that dominates much of social and political life in contemporary America,” she writes.
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Pro-Life Was Progressive
Recommended Reading: This review, though it is really much more than that, of Daniel Williams' Defenders of the Unborn. Williams' book takes a detailed look at the history of anti-abortion activism before Roe v. Wade, but more generally it seeks to complicate our entire definition of activism in the context of the pro-life/pro-choice debate.
Man’s Best Friend Is Racist
“‘Oh,’ she said, ‘a lot of dogs don’t like black people but they’re fine with everyone else.’ ... Was this just a workplace microaggression, or are these dogs actually racist? I found myself grappling with the idea that not only do actual humans hate me for being black; dogs could also hate me for reasons that are out of my control.” Kelly Mays McDonald on how we have weaponized dogs in The Awl.
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