Abigail Nussbaum

Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 30, 2024 at 17:04 UTC

🚨 New Critical Friends podcast now up!

Join @actuallyaisha.bsky.social and me to consider genre's critical boundaries - how can we define them, to what ends?

We mention Isabella Hammad and vv ganeshananthan, JRR Tolkien and @vajra.me, The New Yorker & more.

strangehorizons.com/podcasts/cri...

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 30, 2024 at 21:47 UTC

If you ask me, it's the greatest single game of the last decade, and a stunning work of worldbuilding and storytelling to boot. And I don't think it's that difficult, as a game. The next step is always pretty clearly signposted, and there aren't really wrong choices, just less interesting ones.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 30, 2024 at 14:17 UTC

(The comic, by the way, is really bad. All the indifferent dialogue from the book matched with equally indifferent art. Pretty embarrassing Hugo nomination even before you consider that Paul B. Rainey's transcendent Why Don't You Love Me? was left off the ballot.)

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 30, 2024 at 14:16 UTC

I came pretty late to this book, and boy, for something that both SFF fandom and mainstream culture fell head over heels for not very long ago, it sure has a bunch of rancid ideas!

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 30, 2024 at 14:14 UTC

Reading the Hugo-nominated Three-Body Problem graphic novel adaptation, and I'd really like to know why we never had a conversation about how this story, in all its incarnations (though the show and comic are more explicit), pushes the idea that environmentalism = advocating for species suicide.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 30, 2024 at 12:14 UTC

Haven't watched yet, but given that one "he" is Lestat, who commonly introduces himself as "Hi, I'm Lestat, and I would do such a thing", another is Armand, whom fandom has dubbed history's greatest monster (which he is, but still), I'm assuming "he" is Louis. And he would totally do such a thing.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 14:41 UTC

New blog post: my (very spoilery) thoughts on the haunting I Saw the TV Glow, a film that in its first half seems mired in references and "remember when"s, and then finds itself in the most unexpected, heartbreaking way possible.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 16:18 UTC

Not yet, no, but I’m looking forward to it.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 16:13 UTC

I suspect it’s a niche association compared to Buffy and the others, but yes, that’s the first place mind went when I first heard about the movie.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 14:41 UTC

New blog post: my (very spoilery) thoughts on the haunting I Saw the TV Glow, a film that in its first half seems mired in references and "remember when"s, and then finds itself in the most unexpected, heartbreaking way possible.

1 replies 6 reposts 14 likes

Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 27, 2024 at 08:41 UTC

חברים שלי באנגליה ממש עושים ביזנס מפיצוי על רכבות מאחרות/מבוטלות, אז אולי שווה לבדוק את זה.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 19:04 UTC

Sol on The Acolyte: I am a jedi master, strong in the ways of the force, preternaturally serene and in tune to the secret currents of the universe. Me: can you tell that an evil twin has switched places with a good twin? Sol: lol no that's impossible

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 17:04 UTC

It's really saddening, but there is simply no technical way to make a video file from 1997 look good in a 3D environment from 2024. And the alternative - to reshoot the same scenes with new actors - has its own drawbacks, though I think I might have preferred it.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 16:56 UTC

No, I don't think I've even heard of it. Sounds interesting.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 16:52 UTC

The one disappointment - which you pretty much knew was coming - is that the FMV performances from the original game couldn't be ported over. Instead you get the old voice performances with 3D-animated characters. It's not as good, but probably the best you could hope for.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 26, 2024 at 16:50 UTC

So obviously I bought the remastered Riven within hours of its release. So far, two comments: 1. It looks absolutely gorgeous, somehow preserving the original game's visual depth while switching formats to full-3D movement 2. They have changed the puzzles! How is this allowed?!

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 15:04 UTC

New blog post: on Kaliane Bradley's engrossing-yet-disquieting debut The Ministry of Time, in which a frothy time-traveling romcom reveals something darker beneath the surface.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 23, 2024 at 15:04 UTC

New blog post: on Kaliane Bradley's engrossing-yet-disquieting debut The Ministry of Time, in which a frothy time-traveling romcom reveals something darker beneath the surface.

2 replies 5 reposts 30 likes

Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 22, 2024 at 20:23 UTC

Well, if the show is going to plagiarize MCU plotlines, they should expect to get MCU nitpicking.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 21, 2024 at 08:19 UTC

Leader of political party prefers own party to opposition, news at 11.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 20, 2024 at 16:49 UTC

טוב, עם כמות הזמן שלוקח לי להגיע הביתה, גם הלילה שלי בסכנה.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 20, 2024 at 16:13 UTC

אז הקיצר, אנשים שלא עובדים דופקים את הערב לאנשים שכן.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 06:03 UTC

Did you know that there is a whole category of shoes for women designed for just this purpose?

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 06:02 UTC

I've seen at least one person say that they thought their ignorance of Buffy was a positive in watching the movie, because it freed them from the weight of constant recognition. And as someone who found that referentiality a bit wearying I can see their point, though I still agree with you more.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 17, 2024 at 21:43 UTC

The Fall Guy is a silly confection and at least a 1/2hr too long, but I do appreciate that it's a Love Letter to Cinema focused not on the magic of filmmaking, or an auteur's vision, but on hundreds of ordinary workaday people doing ridiculous things with total seriousness in order to make a movie.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 17, 2024 at 18:58 UTC

Anyway, saw the S2 premiere, and here's my review: there is more intrigue, simmering emotion, furious currents of barely-suppressed enmity, and roiling plots and counter-plots in any random scene of Interview With the Vampire than in a whole episode of this stultifying show.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 17, 2024 at 17:50 UTC

True, the confluence of events also included dragons. I should have included that.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 17, 2024 at 17:44 UTC

This is an insult to Rings of Power, and that's saying something.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 17, 2024 at 17:41 UTC

There were a bunch of annoying people, and through a confluence of bad decisions, ill-fated marriages, and convenient deaths they ended up sorted into two equally unworthy groups vying for the same doomed throne. There, bam, I summed it up for you.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 17, 2024 at 17:38 UTC

All those "remind yourself what happened in the first season of House of the Dragon" articles are seriously overstating the eventfulness of the first season of House of the Dragon.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 15:37 UTC

Over at @lawgunsmoney.bsky.social, some thoughts on how the term "AI" is increasingly being used to describe all algorithmic tools, new and preexisting, as a way of obscuring the fact that LLM-based text and image generators are effectively useless. With examples from my own workplace.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 17:07 UTC

I guess to me the bigger problem is what the definition of "rake" is. You can sleep around without threatening violence to women who piss you off.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 17:06 UTC

It's really weird to me, given Bridgerton's success, that no one is trying to adapt her. I guess she's not as hot and heavy as the more modern stuff, but surely that could be added in?

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 16:54 UTC

I genuinely would like to know why these books are the ones Rhimes decided to adapt, out of the extremely broad world of Regency romance. Sure, they were bestsellers, but outside the Romance bubble they had zero name recognition before the show. Why not pick something actually good?

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 16:52 UTC

I read a bunch of Georgette Heyer earlier this year, and it's shocking how even those books - written 50-80 years ago by an arch-conservative - do not go to the well of "heroine fears for her safety from the man she will eventually marry" as often as a still-popular series published in the 2000s.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 16:50 UTC

I mean, I did not think Bridgerton, the show, had great gender politics, but at the very least it does not ground its romances in the implied (and sometimes stated!) threat of violence as often as these books do.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 16:47 UTC

Picked up a couple of Bridgerton books from the library just to see what they're like. Going by plot description, I picked The Viscount Who Loved Me (Kate and Anthony, basis for S2) and An Offer From a Gentleman (Benedict, presumably basis for S4). ...wow, these books really aren't good.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 15:37 UTC

Over at @lawgunsmoney.bsky.social, some thoughts on how the term "AI" is increasingly being used to describe all algorithmic tools, new and preexisting, as a way of obscuring the fact that LLM-based text and image generators are effectively useless. With examples from my own workplace.

3 replies 63 reposts 113 likes

Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 14:37 UTC

לא יכולה לחשוב על דוגמה אחת שבה זה נגמר בטוב.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 16, 2024 at 11:53 UTC

ברוב המדינות המערביות הפיכה צבאית היא לא משהו שיכול ממש לקרות, וטוב שכך. או אם לומר זאת אחרת, אם הגעת למצב שהארגון החברתי שלך הוא כזה שהפיכה צבאית היא דבר אפשרי במדינה שלך, את במצב גרוע כבר די הרבה זמן, ואולי אף לא היית באמת דמוקרטיה.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 20:59 UTC

Getting back on my obviously pointless "nitpicking Bridgerton facts" train, but there is no way in hell that Penelope made 10K in 1817 money off the Whistledown paper. That would be like making millions from blogging.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 18:26 UTC

Other recent novellas that might suit: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill, The Navigating Fox by Chrisopher Rowe, Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden, Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell, The Butcher in the Forest by Premee Mohamed.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 18:19 UTC

If novellas are an option, you might enjoy Nghi Vo's Singing Hills cycle, a sequence of linked stories about a monk who travels a fantasy world collecting stories. Starts with Empress of Salt and Fortune.

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Abigail Nussbaum @abigailnussbaum.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 14, 2024 at 18:18 UTC

Don't know if it's got an audio edition yet, but I've been reading Ann Leckie's collected stories, Lake of Souls, and one thing that really impresses me about them is the inventiveness and richness of the worldbuilding. Plus stories set in the world of the Imperial Radch and Raven Tower books.

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