They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with our first MFT repeat guest writer, Jason Ridler, whose latest book, Black Lotus Kiss, comes out August 14th from Nightshade Books!
So what does Jason love this year, compared to last? Spoiler alert: inverting the Mean Girl archetype, art that unfortunately imitates life, the best grit-lit traditions, and improv that truly breaks the mold. Interested? Read on to learn more!
Monday Night Raw: The longest-running continuous drama in television history! Also, wrestling! The WWE is trying to chart new waters and improve their content because . . . well . . . they have yet to find another landmark star like The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin. The results have been pretty cool, most especially in the women’s division, where Alexa Bliss is champ. She takes the Mean Girl archetype, inverts it to make everyone else a bully, and is now facing legitimate badass and MMA crossover sensation Ronda Rousey. The men are having a hard time keeping up with their matches, trash-talk, and shenanigans! And Kevin Owens has established himself as a top-flight character, wrestler, and entertainer by playing the world’s toughest coward!
The Handmaid’s Tale: Also known as America: Live. I studied the book as part of a project on dystopias WAY BACK in the 1990s. Dystopias speak to their eras, and most don’t do a great job of predicting the future (or are we all going into space as numbers, D-503, hero of the masterwork in the genre, We?). Season 2, believe it or not, is better than the first because they get to play outside of the ring that Margaret Atwood created for the book, which was originally published in 1985. We get to the horror show of the colonies. We see Canada (which is surreal since the fucking show is filmed . . . in Canada). We see how resistance works and fails, and only have as much information as June (portrayed by Elisabeth Moss). How I pine for the other horrors of the 1980s: Heavy Metal driving people to suicide, Dungeons & Dragons turning geeks into Satanists, and the number-one threat to civil liberties was Tipper Gore. Watch, wake, repeat.
Gritty Novels: Chad Dundas and Hank Early are my two current favorite writers of gritty novels who are not Megan Abbott. Dundas has written an epic novel of the early days of professional wrestling that deals with race, masculinity, and the appeal and horror of violence in Champion of the World. Early’s series, starting with Heaven’s Crooked Finger, takes the best of grit-lit traditions and applies them to a series character, the result of which is an elevated genre piece akin to a gothic Dennis Lehane novel. Both men are in a dead heat as my current favorite novelist who is not Megan Abbott (whose latest, Give Me Your Hand, is heading to me soon).
Jetzo: Improv is a wonderful art form full of antic, creative, and wild performers and shows. But most improv loses its luster after a few years. There are tons of reasons for this state of affairs, but one symptom is how similar the shows begin to look: four dudes, one woman, lots of smart talk, bad acting, and average laughs. THEN THERE IS JETZO. Take clowning, improv, pro wrestling, Japanese theater, and toss ‘em in a blender for a show unlike any other. Chad Damiani and Juzo Yoshida, plus a musical “uncle,” unveil the story of a father and son from a fishing village in Nagoya, Japan. And every show is INSANE. Music, laughter, drama, the absurd, Jetzo is the reason you should see an improv show. It creates an EXPERIENCE unlike any other that is antic and touching and menacing and more. Jetzo is the shit.
Jason Ridler
is a writer, historian, and improv actor. He is the author of the Brimstone Files, including Hex-Rated and Black Lotus Kiss, as well as the popular history work Mavericks of War, which Pulitzer-Prize winner Richard Rhodes called “that rarest of books, a visceral page-turner which is also a deep examination of an overlooked human resource in war and international affairs — the expert outsider.” Hang out with him on Facebook, or check out his archaic blog, Ridlerville!
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Thanks for joining us again, Jay! Glad we didn’t scare you off the first time, and reading this reminds me that I really need to read Megan Abbott. 🙂