Criticism

“It’s Ghostbusters but with women.” “It’s like Star Wars for black people” “The first Marvel movie with an Asian lead.” There’s a motif in pop culture where you take something successful, rotate out one of the parts, and re-release. This is slightly more sophisticated than the other prevailing design philosophy…

As a Black woman often grappling with racism in my own work, I know intimately how writing about these experiences also means finding a way to set oneself apart from other narratives. How thrilled I was then to encounter Tajja Isen’s debut essay collection, Some of My Best Friends, which…

or, it’s nearly the middle of 2022 but i didn’t have this newsletter in 2021 so you’re getting my 2021 year in review now — in 2021 i read ninety books, which sounds impressive until you remember i was literally just a depressed little sock laying in bed all day every day. (for context, i am now medicated again, and i’ve only read 17 books so far this year. but don’t worry: i got my…

What do you do when someone doesn’t like your work, opinions, or you? — Last year, I received two very different pieces of criticism in one day. The first piece of criticism was given to me at work. I’d handled a delicate conversation by email. I should have handled it by phone. I was reprimanded and advised to communicate verbally in the future. In…

PIERRE ALEXANDRE DE LOOZ “Strata-gies” is, in one sense, a how-to. A purposeful device for making moves. A tricky invention that can upend things. Strata-gies pulls a known word apart just enough for us to see how it is put together. This is how etymology works. It pries open the…

An opinion on the power of movies and how focusing on criticism and perfection can detract from their true meaning. — Written by Gaia Crans *Disclaimer: Includes spoiler of “Titanic” (But if you still haven’t seen “Titanic,” you really need to watch it) The overwhelming aroma of buttered popcorn fills the air as your eyes scan the dim room for an empty seat among the rows that are all-too-quickly filling up with a wide assortment of people.

Welcome back to The Medium is the Massage, in our last chat (past articles here (1) and here (2). A link to a free pdf of the text is at the end of the article) we started a discussion of how the permanence and spread of electronic media may be…