scarr

mid-year media update

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favorites followed by dislikes

Spring and Summer, German 17th century, Samuel H. Kress Collection
Spring and Summer, German 17th century, Samuel H. Kress Collection

books

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (obviously)

Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohmmed El-Kurd

Unrepentant Whore: The Collected Works of Scarlot Harlot by Carol Leigh

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights by Molly Smith and Juno Mac

Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire

Secrets by Sheila Holland

films

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelle (1975, dir. Chantal Akerman)

The Leopard (1963, dir. Luchino Visconti)

Rocco and His Brothers (1960, dir. Luchino Visconti)

A Farewell to Arms (1932, dir. Frank Borzage)

Harakiri (1962, dir. Masaki Kobayashi)

Written on the Wind (1956, dir. Douglas Sirk; saw on 35mm at The Hollywood Theatre with intro by Todd Haynes)

Hard Truths (2024, dir. Mike Leigh)

Working Girls (1986, dir. Lizzie Borden)

War and Peace Part IV: Pierre Bezukhov (1967, dir. Sergei Bondarchuk)

articles / posts

the sex wars (continued). – by Raechel Anne Jolie *exhausted sigh* anti-sex work arguments are boring, dangerous, & usually smell like rich people.

a grrrl on “Girl on Girl” – by Raechel Anne Jolie thoughts on Sophie Gilbert’s new book, a plea for pleasure, & yes, Sabrina Carpenter’s album cover

What to do about the decline of the humanities. Stop complaining and just read the best books that you can and talk about them.

Media Literacy Is Not Good Enough – by sam bodrojan a personal holistic theory of criticism

Unremarkable Obstinate Tremors – by sam bodrojan on being young and sober, still

romance discoursing (#2) – by Sanjana – scratch paper talking about how we talk about romance

Bride to the King – by Chels – The Loose Cravat

Actually, Romance Novel Print Sales are Down …compared to romance print sales from the last 40 years

Emma from Restorative Romance has revisited her Bodice Ripper and Marital Rape Laws project; as of June 2025, there are five posts in this series:

Story Basics #3: Scenes – by Brandon – sweater weather where all the stuff happens

Uber’s Bastards – by Edward Ongweso Jr – The Tech Bubble On the ride-hail model and the gig economy’s metastasis.

Rescuing our recipes: Preserving Palestinian culture in times of war As Palestine is witnessing another Nakba, what is the fate of its gastronomy?

There is Only Shame • Protean Magazine the necessity for anti-Zionist Jews to face the truth: a neat bifurcation of Judaism and Zionism is neither possible nor politically useful.

You Can’t Have Sex in Your Skims | HALOSCOPE Kim Kardashian’s new “ultimate butt” shapewear promises the perfect body – by covering your real body in foam and nylon. But when did we take the “sex” out of “sexy”?

In Praise of Excess: Queer Maximalism in the Films of Joel Schumacher by Alejandra Martinez

Longing & Lust in Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Challengers’ and ‘Queer’ I Am Queer; I Am Embodied: Longing and Lust in Challengers and Queer

The Magnificence of Tony Todd – by Angelica Jade Bastién In honor of the actor’s passing I wrote about his tremendous and remarkably different performances in “Candyman” (1992) and the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” 1995 episode “The Visitor”.

Michael Mann on ‘Heat 2’ and the Redemption of ‘Thief’

To Live and Die for Authenticity: How Friedkin Made One of the Best Films of the Eighties • Cinephilia & Beyond

in memoriam – David Lynch

The Evil That Men Do – by Peter Raleigh – Long Library

Why So Many Sex Workers Love David Lynch | Autostraddle

Max Nelson, Women in Trouble — Sidecar

Nothing Will Die, Especially Not David Lynch

Laura Dern’s letter to David Lynch: You wove L.A. into our dreams – Los Angeles Times

I did not like it

too many SWERFs on substack (and everywhere else)

any source writing about romance with links to purchase books.

media pieces about the death of historical romance – there were so many that repeated the same things without actually accounting for how or even if historical romance is dying. I’m not saying sales are not down – I’m asking sincerely where are the numbers and was historical romance ever really the highest earner of all the romance subgenres?

this blurb about Beau Crusoe by Carla Kelly from The New York Times:1

screenshot of the New York Times romance section blurb for Carla Kelly's Beau Crusoe, "This book may be slim, but so is a razor blade. Our heroine is a botanical illustrator during the Regency, and our hero is celebrated adenurer, lauded for surviving after a shipwrek. But while society swoons over such thrilling exploits, our hero is haunted by them. Why? Because he survived by eating his shipmates. That's right, this romance hero is a cannibal, and he's not OK about it. Bold and bright and unforgettable. if your read it nd love it try a book by karen harbaugh, jeannie lin or bronwy scott.

I hate everything about this review except the final sentence. This review, to me, is everything I hate about how people write and talk about romance and more broadly, why you can’t watch any film in a theater without loser fucks laughing at disturbing scenes. Haha traumatic experiences are so FUNNY!! Of course, this review blew up all over romancelandia and everyone laughed about the cannibalism of it all without considering the TRAUMA of it all. Beau Crusoe actually is bold romance that does not shy away from things humans do to survive and how that can follow you for the rest of your life. It’s thorny, not easy to sit with; Kelly (imo) makes some big missteps but that doesn’t change how impressed I was with the book. Anyway, fuck this review and fuck the New York Times.

*I hit post before including books or films I didn’t like!

films

I rewatched movies I don’t like but enjoy watching (Girl, It’s Complicated, Mallrats) but I did not watch anything I really dislike (yet!).

books

I Want You Back by Lorelei James

The Merchant Match by Jenna Bigelow

A Tempest of Desire by Lorraine Heath

  1. I only saw a screenshots of this blurb, so I don’t know how the other books in this “article” were blurbbed. ↩︎