Shaun Duke

New Year’s Resolutions: No More Intentional Misery

Shaun Duke / January 1, 2021

2020 is over. It’s dead. Time killed it. Thank the maker. Bye bye, 2020. Go die in a fire. Now that 2021 is here, it’s time for that magic tradition that many folks following: declaring New Year’s resolutions! I’ve declared these in the past, but there have also been years where I felt disinclined to do much of anything about the new year. But 2020 was an absolutely horrific year for a lot of people, and it exposed a lot of the activities and behaviors that don’t, for me, make life particularly excited. While I can’t control a lot of the miserable activities happening around me, I can make changes (or continue existing changes) that will make life less stressful, more purposeful, and more joyful. That’s why I’ve decided that 2021 is going to be the Year of Deliberately Manifesting Joy, continuing the mission I began in November 2020 with The Joy Factory and extending those actions across the spectrum of my life as much as possible. So what does that mean in New Year’s Resolutions terms?

Book Reviews

Holiday Miracles (or, How I Tried Something New and Learned to Enjoy Christmas Novels)

Shaun Duke / December 31, 2020

I’ve never read a Christmas novel for adults before. In fact, I never considered reading one until I got bored in my local Target and decided to give one a try for the hell of it. And then I spent about a week reading and livetweeting the experience. If you were to ask me why it has taken this long to actually read a book like Jenny Colgan’s Christmas at the Island Hotel, I might have given you the “it’s not my thing” excuse. In many ways, that’s technically true, but given my love of certain types of Christmas movies, it would be technically wrong, too. So the question remains: What did I think of Christmas at the Island Hotel, and did it change my mind about Christmas novels?

Nostalgic Paris: Misery, Imagination, and Nostalgia in Midnight in Paris

Shaun Duke / December 30, 2020

Perhaps the most potent problem of our modern era is its obsession with nostalgia. In its least malignant form, nostalgia becomes an excessive love of art and fashion playfully removed from the socio-political conditions of its creation. In its most malignant form, nostalgia turns people into cult-like fascists who desire a return to a time that never really existed. Most nostalgia travelers rest somewhere between: fantasizing about going back to something that felt more familiar, even at the expense of the present. And then there’s Midnight in Paris (2011), which seems to relish in misery, imagination, and nostalgia at varying points and for varying purposes. What ultimately does the film say about nostalgia, then?

Announcements

The Joy Factory: A Project Primer

Shaun Duke / November 19, 2020

Welp. I did something potentially ridiculous: I started a project called The Joy Factory on Patreon, launched it, and now I’m here to explain what this whole thing is about. Here we go… What is The Joy Factory? The Joy Factory is a Patreon project designed to draw more attention to joyful things, whether it’s stuff I’m doing (TTRPGs and writing) or stuff other people are up to (movies, books, and more). It’s really that simple. OK, well, there’s also some silliness about getting on a space cruise ship called the Joy Factory, but mostly it’s that first thing. To get an idea of the kinds of things I’ll do there, here’s the main description from the page:

Announcements

My Worldcon / ConZealand Schedule

Shaun Duke / July 25, 2020

Things have been extraordinarily busy in the Duke compound. I’m buying a house. I finished an online college argument course. And now I find myself prepping for a whole semester of virtual classes. Thus, I have no posted much here in the last few weeks. The good news? I’ve got a ConZealand schedule to share. To add things to your ConZealand schedule, you can find all my items here in Grenadine. I’ve also included the list below w/ U.S. times. There are panels, like Skiffy and Fanty Show shenanigans, and more. So please come! Here’s the schedule: “Magical Realism in Genre” — Tuesday (7/28) at 6 PM EST / 5 PM CST / 3 PM PST (10 AM on 7/29 in NZ)Magic realism has highlighted inner life when confronted with harsh reality, with a turn of a kaleidoscope,. Given the how magic realism works within interstitial spaces of ordinary life, can it slip into genres that already require a suspension of disbelief? (w/ Eli K.P. William, Silvia Brown, and *hopefully* Libia Brenda) “Recent SF and Fantasy on TV: Beyond the Usual Suspects” — Wednesday (7/29) at 5 PM EST / 4 PM CST / 2 PM PST (9 AM on 7/30 in NZ)Talk of SF and fantasy on TV and streaming services often centers on Star Trek, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones and the Expanse. But there is so much more. Westworld. Stranger Things. Counterpart. The Good Place. The DC and Marvel Universe Shows. Star Wars (The Clone Wars, The Madalorian). The Witcher. What’s really good? (w/ Juliana Rew, Stina Leicht, Christine Taylor-Butler, and possibly another) “The Golden Age of SF Movies: SF Films of the 1950s and Early 1960s” — Wednesday (7/29) at 12 AM EST / 11 PM CST / 9 PM PST (4 PM on 7/30 in NZ)Soon after World War II, as the Cold War introduced chilling new threats to the world’s peace of mind — Hollywood (and Tokyo) launched an avalanche of SF and monster-related movies. Was this a golden age? Or were these flicks mostly cheap shockers that kept recycling variations on the theme of “Monster Attacks!”? (w/ Dr. Bradford Lyau, Mallory O’Meara, and Ion “The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcast (LIVE)” — Thursday (7/30) at 4 PM EST / 3 PM CST / 1 PM PST (8 AM on 7/31 in NZ)Join us for a discussion of the Netflix film The Old Guard & comic book adaptations. (w/ Jen Zink and Alasdair Stuart) “History and SF” — Thursday (7/30) at 9 PM EST / 8 PM CST / 6 PM PST (1 PM on 7/31 in NZ)Phil Klass (William Tenn) once said that the real science of science fiction is history. Many great SF works get much of their strength because the history — implicit or explicit — behind the story feels real. How do writers manage this? How can real history be made to work in a story? What are some examples? (w/ Arkady Martine, Dr. Farah Mendlesohn, Claire Bartlett, and Ada Palmer) “Kaffeeklatsch: Shaun Duke and Jen Zink” — Friday (7/31) at 10 PM EST / 9 PM CST / 7 PM PST (2 PM on 8/1 in NZ)In which Jen and I will sit in a Zoom meeting to talk about podcasting, nerdery, and whatever else you want to pester us with. Come hang with us! We might have beer…for us. Sorry. We can’t share over video… And there you have it. My schedule. I hope to see y’all there!

Book Reviews

How to Be a Conservative Rabbit Tale: On Polly Horvath’s Mr. and Mrs. Bunny–Detectives Extraordinaire

Shaun Duke / June 20, 2020

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I requested a review copy of Polly Horvath’s then-new children’s novel, Mr and Mrs. Bunny–Detectives Extraordinaire (2012). The quirky premise — a pair of rabbits taking on the role of detectives (duh) — gave me some strong The Rescuers vibes, and being a bit of a closet animal fantasy nerd, I figured it was up my alley. And then I promptly forgot about it until now. You’re free to call me a monster. The story splits its time between Madeline, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, and the Grand Poobah, who is mostly there to be the menacing villain. For Madeline, island life with her extreme hippy parents, Mildred and Flo, is no picnic, especially when it comes to her education and desire to fit in with “normal society.” But when her parents are kidnapped by what appears to be a car full of foxes and she discovers a note demanding to know the whereabouts of her code-breaking uncle, she must set out to save them. Enter Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, a couple of country bunnies who move to a more bustling bunny valley and decide to try their hand at being detectives, which they do by simply wearing fedoras. When they stumble upon Madeline, who can curiously understand them, they set out in their clunky way to help her find her parents and put an end to whatever the foxes are really planning. And meanwhile still, the Grand Poobah, the leader of the foxes, just wants someone to decode a set of coded recipe cards so he can make bank in his rabbit and rabbit by-products facctory. Hi-jinks ensue.