Reaching the Edge of Dystopia: Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei

Nihei, 2016 Blame! is a magna series written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei, created between 1997-2003. I first heard about it in 2016, when a student taking my Western Utopias seminar wrote about it for a final paper. However, the student’s vague description of a dystopian, post-singularity world was well-shy of the deeper themes and … Continue reading Reaching the Edge of Dystopia: Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei

What We Could Learn from a Film Version of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian

This summer, I’m teaching an introductory reading course at UC Santa Cruz. One of the first assignments asks students to reflect on the last time a book fucked them up (not the actual assignment wording). The question is really three: when did a book move you to wonder by its aesthetics, or when did it … Continue reading What We Could Learn from a Film Version of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian