We all know the the paradigm of the tortured modern artist and his (occasionally her) self-destructive habits. But not all artful quirks (like Honoré de Balzac’s caffeine addiction, turned into marketing at right) lead to early retirement, as evidenced by Neatorama’s listicle of 4 Writers and Their Strange Obsessions. And though it might not qualify [...]

Looking over this year’s Best Picture nominees at the Oscars, one legendary female character archetype – the phallic mother – looms large in The Reader and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (is Harvey Milk a proxy phallic mother to the gay rights movement in Milk? discuss). We’ll therefore be taking this edition of our [...]