Enslaved, abandoned, bloodied, shackled, but never conquered. This is Cora, a slave picking cotton in antebellum Georgia, an escapee disappearing into assumed identities, a free woman emerging in the far north. Colson Whitehead uses historical, pre-Civil War America as a backdrop for Cora’s story, but his plot hinges on a highly-fictional version of the...
It’s nearly impossible to fault Benedict Cumberbatch — but it’s becoming increasingly easy to criticize Marvel Studios, LLC, as it continues to make the same superhero movie over and over again. Marvel’s latest film, “Doctor Strange,” features Cumberbatch in the lead role alongside Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. While the acting was...
After World War II, U.S. Army Airman Walter M. Miller, Jr., feared that the world would explode. In his novel, it already had. “A Canticle for Leibowitz,” Miller’s only novel, was published in 1959 amid fears of nuclear holocaust. Today, this classic work of science fiction brings us face to face with the darker...
Nestled on the street corners of every self-respecting American city, coffee shops adorned with the famed coffee brand’s green and white siren welcome hordes of customers where, seated by Starbucks fireplaces and soaking in faint strains of jazz, they enjoy not just coffee, but a cultural experience. Yet the coffee giant’s popular drinks and...
In the third episode of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” Congressman Frank Underwood (D-SC) learns that voters in his hometown are rebelling against him. A 17-year-old girl has died in a car crash while driving past a distracting peach-shaped water tower. The town blames Underwood’s failure to remove the peach for the accident, and the...