Quill & Slate: December 2017

The Shape of Water 🐠 Film Review

Written by Thelonia

Have you ever wondered what an Amélie & Creature from the Black Lagoon crossover set in 60's Baltimore would look like? Well sit down for a second because if so, I'm going to blow your mind: you don't need to imagine any longer! Warning: may include more fish-man butt than you'd initially think.

All in Good Storytime is an interactive, bookish, book club podcast hosted by Alanna, Katya, and Tia. To join the club, make sure you're following us on Twitter to get updates on what book we're reading and to what chapter we are reading through (or what anime we're watching and what episode we are watching through), and listen to the podcast here or on iTunes (see link below) to join in on the discussion. And don't forget to read along!

In the 24th episode of All in Good Storytime, we finish reading Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. In these chapters, J.D. Vance speeds through undergrad at Ohio State University, attends law school at Yale, and meets his future wife. In this episode, we discuss the numerous ways that J.D. dismisses racial issues including a notable assertion that the white working class didn't dislike Obama because he was black but because he was alien to them due to his fancy education.

We also revisit J.D.'s experience at college with a student who criticized the American military and how this was a missed opportunity for a fruitful conversation between the two of them. Instead of complaining about this uneducated classmate in his memoir, he could have taken the time to share his own personal experiences in the military and how they contradict his assumptions. Or, he could have spent more time in his own memoir proving that those negative assumptions about the American military are false beyond sharing a few sentences on the matter. Finally, we discuss the role of the government and individual accountability in addressing the issues that plague the white working class from fragmented families to substance abuse. We end by discussing Cracker Barrel and how it is an incredible restaurant chain.

Next week we will be reading chapters 1-6 of We Are Okay by Nina LaCour.

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No Improvement Podcast 👯 Episode 41

No Improvement is a sort-of-funny talk show that explores the vast, untapped potential of TV shows, books, films, and more. Quill & Slate blog runners Thelonia and Tia review—and then reimagine—the stories you know and love until you can barely recognize them anymore. Hopefully in a good way. And if not, well, we hope you are still entertained.

In the 41st episode of No Improvement, we discuss the book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, and watch The Room by Tommy Wiseau and The Disaster Artist by James Franco. It's a wild ride.

Next week, finishing up our December month of books, we will be reading One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus.

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No Improvement Podcast 👯 Episode 40

In the 40th episode of No Improvement, we read and discuss the 2016 sci-fi novel The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie, and also have the opportunity to conduct an interview with the author herself! We ask her questions about the book, her other books, and books she would recommend for fans of TASU. Tune in below for our (spoiler-y) discussion of The Abyss Surrounds Us and the interview with author Emily Skrustkie.

Next week, continuing our December month of books, we will be reading The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell, and watching The Room by Tommy Wiseau and The Disaster Artist by James Franco (the recent film based on the book). It's going to be a wild ride.

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All in Good Storytime 📚 Episode 23

In the 23rd episode of All in Good Storytime, we read chapters 6-10 of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. In these chapters, J.D. Vance begins with his family life in complete turmoil. He learns that his big sister Lindsay is actually his half-sister, temporarily moves in with his biological father and is introduced to his church, and then moves in with another of his mother's boyfriends before finally finding stability after moving in with his grandmother. We discuss Mamaw's moral strength and character as specifically seen in her kind yet comical way of handling J.D.'s misguided and short-lived belief that he might be gay.

We question the apparent appropriation of studies on black inner city communities to explain the lives and situations of white hillbillies. Additionally, we examine the complicated situation of some poor people seemingly gaming the system for their benefit while others are left without adequate assistance. We end by giving a preview of J.D.'s life after leaving the Marines and the problems he faces back at college from fellow students who are unsupportive of the American military's involvement in the Middle East.

In two weeks, we will be reading chapters 11 through the end of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance.

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No Improvement Podcast 👯 Episode 39

In the 39th episode of No Improvement, we read and discuss upcoming zombie novel Night of the Victorian Dead by Amber Michelle Cook and talk about what we liked, what we didn't like, and how we would improve it, with as few spoilers as we can manage.

Next week, continuing our December month of books, we will be reading and discussing the 2016 sci-fi novel The Abyss Surrounds Us by (and with!) Emily Skrutskie.

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 😅 Film Review

Written by Thelonia

Could anyone but Frances McDormand have done this? I think the fuck not.