Articles

Recaps

Lanterns: Are You Afraid?

In episode 1, Hal Jordan and his protégé, John Stewart, investigate a shooting in small-town Nebraska.

Features

How Boy Throb and Its Fandom Got Famous—and Got a Visa

Was the boy band’s fame a result of Darshan Magdum’s visa, or was his visa a result of the boy band's fame? Yes.

Excerpt

The Bachelor and the Fantasy of Performance

In Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch The Bachelor, Ilana Masad imagines competing on the show, imaginary straightness and all.

Personal Essays

What Spider-Man Can’t Save

In which our hero contemplates a career writing about superheroes and pop culture—and imagines an ending.

Features

African K-Pop Fans Are Building Their Own Spaces

While the K-pop industry largely ignores them, fans in Kenya and Nigeria create K-pop communities for themselves.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: The Long Table

In episode 7, “The Failures,” Louis has a gruesome reunion with Armand, while Lestat faces judgment from specters of his past.

Features

How Fans Make Fictional Languages Real

Na’vi, Klingon, and other conlangs get more use IRL than they ever have onscreen.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: Sparing the Ambiguity

In episode 6, “Montreal,” Louis and Lestat share a tumultuous night ahead of Lestat’s farewell show.

Features

Heated Rivalry is at the Center of Fanfic’s AI Reckoning

A controversial anonymous document exposing Claude remnants in fics has collided with a fandom culture of production at hyper-speed.

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: The Queen of the Damned

In episode 5, “New York,” Lestat strips back his rock-star facade and confronts his memories of Akasha.

Criticism

Be Gay, Do (Sea) Crimes: Pirate Tropes and Queer Resistance

As Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, pirate stories thrive on “all the old romance, retold exactly in the ancient way.”

Recaps

The Vampire Lestat: Hurtling Towards End Times

In episode 4, “The Devil’s Road,” Lestat’s reality begins to fracture as Armand returns with portents of doom.