Happy Labor Day weekend, Americans! I’ve been having a rough weekend. My childhood dog, Charlemagne, passed away on Saturday, so I’m mostly just dealing with that and catching up on my sleep.
Links
Jonathan Demme’s next concert film will be about Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 World Experience Tour. Nice!
Michael Paterniti’s “The Last Meal” follows him and his girlfriend as they reconstruct the last meal of French president François Mitterrand—which includes the illegal eating of ortolans. Hannibal’s food designer, Janice Poon, offhandedly linked to this while discussing the show’s ortolan scene, and it is so up a Hannibal fan’s alley it’s not funny. It’s the kind of writing that makes your eyes contract and your breathing slow down. (Warning, though: ableist language in the opening paragraphs.)
Speaking of Hannibal, it is—SOB!—tragically in our rearview mirror at the moment, so let’s round up the tributes, hot takes, and more:
- The Hannibal Compendium is a tumblr dedicated to cataloging references the show made to the books, usually by pulling a book quote and showing how it was used. Given Fuller’s deft remix of the books, it’s fascinating.
- Matt Zoller Seitz at Vulture talks about how transformative the show was and the true meaning of “a novel for television.”
- Cleolinda Jones draws parallels between the finale’s stinger and the film Hannibal (which significantly rewrote the original book’s ending).
- Andrew Kuhar made some Friends-style credits for the show.
- Leah Scnhelbach at Tor.com offers a post-mortem on why Hannibal was one of the greatest television shows of all time.
- Here’s pretty much everything Bryan Fuller has said about the possible season four.
- Brandon Nowalk at the A.V. Club talks about Hannibal and Mr. Robot as self-destructive television shows, which is a really fascinating way to look at them.
The amazing Jess Plummer writes about A Goofy Movie, which she adores.
Genevieve Valentine runs down the red carpet of the VMAs.
Jam of the Week: Melanie Martinez’s “Pity Party.” It reassures me that we’re still building alternative kids the way we used to, and might even be doing them better: Martinez treats Crybaby as a conceptual album and even directed the music video above.
Tatiana Maslany, Gina Rodriguez, and Olivia Cooke are all up for the same role in Star Wars: Episode VIII. I have a solution: PUT THEM ALL IN THE MOVIE SO WE CAN AVOID THIS SOPHIE’S CHOICE.
Kate Elliott points out the male gaze in narrative perspective in “The Omniscient Breasts.”
Amandla Stenberg is part of the creative team for Stranger Comics’ Niobe: She is Life! Huzzah!
Aaron Sorkin is writing a Lucille Ball biopic and Cate Blanchett is starring in it. I would be delighted to see Blanchett do more comedy, so count me in.
Sady Doyle explains the actual point of “political correctness” in comedy: being aware that your words do influence people.
Simone Missick will be playing Misty Knight in Netflix’s Luke Cage. SCREAM! How fantastic!
Everybody is going to be in The Avengers: Civil War except for the Hulk. Boooooo.
Speaking of the Hulk, Amadeus Cho will be the (totally awesome) Hulk now. And, hearteningly, it’s the first title in Marvel history to have a Korean-American character written and draw by a Korean-American creative team! Woohoo!
Acquisitions
Books
Purchased: None
Added: A History of Glitter and Blood by Hannah Moskowitz (via The Book Smugglers), Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite (via tumblr)
Films
Purchased: None
Added: Dragon Blade (via io9)
The Literary Omnivore 
Oh Clare! I am so, so sorry about the dog. What a sad thing. I send you many hugs and good thoughts.
An excellent collection of links, as ever. The NYTimes article is infuriating to read. Have I said that I want us to reach the same place with transgender actors that we’re at with deaf actors? Where it’s just generally agreed that non-deaf actors simply aren’t to play deaf characters in films and TV? (Am I being hugely naive about this? I admit I am mainly thinking of Switched at Birth.)
Thank you so much, Jenny. ❤
Yes, you have, and that makes perfect sense. I have seen deaf parts played by deaf actors—there's a pretty good Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Loud as a Whisper,” that focuses on a deaf and mute negotiator who actively utilizes through two communication styles (telepathy and then sign language). And that happened because a deaf actor approached production with the character concept.
I do remember there being some discussion about a sighted actor playing a blind character when Daredevil dropped.