Culture Class

Here’s Ancient Solace for ‘Arrested Development’ Fans

As Streamers Drop Content, the Library of Alexandria Offers a Tale of Caution and Hope

The Library of Alexandria’s Lesson for Streaming | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

You log into a streaming service and the show you want to watch is gone.

Best-case scenario: it’s migrated to another major platform, and you already have an account set up there.

Less ideal, it has been folded into a smaller-tier streamer, the kind that offers its content for free, but with so many ads that the show is nearly unwatchable.

Then there’s the bleakest option. The show you’re looking for is gone. You can’t watch it. You can’t buy it (except maybe on used DVD or VHS, if you have a player). …

by Jackie Mansky |

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‘Let Your Loneliness Make You Brave’

Take It From Carly Rae Jepsen (and a Bunch of Scholars): This Ordinary Emotion Can Be a Beautiful Thing

by Jackie Mansky |

Can the 21st century forge a better relationship with loneliness?

It’s a question that feels especially appropriate on Valentine’s Day, the holiday most linked to the lonely-hearted.

Over two decades since Robert …

My Year of Sitcoms

It’s Easy to Be Seduced by the Rosy Glow of These Syndicated Fictions—But They Channel a Reality That Never Really Existed

by Jackie Mansky |

It didn’t start out intentionally. A little 30 Rock to help me get out of bed in the morning. Some New Girl with dinner. A nightcap of Frasier (as others …

Friendsgiving Puts Friendship Back Where It Belongs | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Friendsgiving Puts Friendship Back Where It Belongs

For Centuries, Civilizations Revolved Around Relationships That Our Modern World Too Often Neglects

by Jackie Mansky |

Across the United States, group chats are blowing up. Who’s bringing dessert? A side dish? A casserole? The wine? More wine?

The discourse isn’t necessarily anchored to the fourth Thursday in …

Every Era’s Vampires Require New Blood | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Every Era’s Vampires Require New Blood

A Queer, Multiracial Adaptation of Anne Rice’s Seminal Novel Follows a 200-Year-Old Tradition

by Jackie Mansky |

For all the puffy shirts, brooding glances, and implicit queerness of Interview with the Vampire, the blockbuster 1976 novel by the late Anne Rice that became the 1994 cult classic …

Why Is Fantasy Stuck in the Middle Ages? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Why Is Fantasy Stuck in the Middle Ages?

From the Latest Tolkien Adaptation to the New Thrones Series, a Genre Is Reckoning With Its Most Well-Known Setting

by Jackie Mansky |

The pre-industrial Western landscape of wizards and magic, good and evil, elves and dwarves of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imagination has become a well-worn part of our cultural geography. Amazon’s shiny new …


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