Posted in Literature Other media The Orient

After Nasu: The consumption of myth as data

Our search for the Nasu copycats means it is time to expand the conversation beyond just him. We came looking for a genre, but what does that even mean?

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Posted in Literature Other media The Orient

The rise of Kinoko Nasu: A cultural autopsy

Fate/stay night and Kinoko Nasu feel like a whole genre on their own. But why aren’t there more Nasu copycats?

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Posted in Literature

The Mass Death Theory of Mystery Fiction: Explained

Kiyoshi Kasai’s mass death theory of mystery fiction. Explained directly in one link.

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Posted in Book reviews Culture and sexuality Literature Politics and current affairs The Orient Wider issues and society

Catch-up: Nine book reviews

Nine book reviews to catch up on what I’ve been reading and enjoying while taking a bit of a break from blogging.

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Posted in Book reviews Literature The Orient

Tsukumojuuku and Symbolic Realities

Tsukumojuuku by Outarou Maijou succeeds in crafting something that seems authentically confessional out of deconstruction and metatext.

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Posted in Book reviews Literature The Orient

Fiction and the world: Our Sekai Breakdown

To be direct about it, Our Broken World (Sekai vol. 1) is my favourite novel ever written. Here is a review.

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Posted in Film and television

Glass Onion: Chewing on the layers

To cut right to the chase, Glass Onion is less original than Knives Out. However, it finds some stable qualities that allow it to stand up to its predecessor.

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Posted in Book reviews Literature

Despair: Russian anti-mystery

Nabokov’s Despair takes the form of a mystery novel, inverts it, and stuffs its insides with the aesthetics and logic of artistic, modernist fiction. In this sense, it might well be the first true “anti-mystery”.

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Posted in The Orient

Fake metafiction: THE Umineko review

Metafiction attempts to erase the existence of its author, the authority of its fictional world, who is even analogous to God. What about Umineko?

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Posted in Literature The Orient

Who cares who killed X? You should.

Using shinhonkaku mysteries as a case study to expand on why genres matter for contemporary literature.

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