Leah Wilson's Blog, page 6
April 2, 2021
Meet the Team: Marketing Director Heather Butterfield
Our Meet the Team series spotlights members of the Smart Pop family through a Q&A designed to reveal the depths of our nerdy, pop culture–loving souls. Today, we’re joined by Marketing Director Heather Butterfield.
What do you do at Smart Pop?Hi, I’m the Marketing Director at Smart Pop! Since we’re a small team I get to do a lot of different stuff: I run our social media accounts, update our blog and newsletter, and do all of the big-picture marketing for the imprint. I also write and execute m...
March 26, 2021
Smart Pop Classics: What Is The Matrix?
In the Smart Pop Classics series, we share greatest hits from our throwback essay collections.
This week, media and cultural critic Read Mercer Schuchardt presents the definitive answer to the question “What is the Matrix?” in their piece from our very first Smart Pop book, Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix .
ParableWhile the stated reason for the early release and accelerated postproduction process of The Matrix was to beat the marketing hype that surrounded T...
March 19, 2021
Things We Loved This Week
In this week’s Things We Loved This Week we share (spoiler art)…the things we loved! Read on for our pop culture recommendations.
Some stellar news. Earlier this week, our Star Trek friends shared a sneak peek into our upcoming book on Starfleet, including a gallery of some of the interior spreads on StarTrek.com! We can’t wait to share the whole book with the world on September 7.
A happy little commercial we actually want to watch. Beloved painter Bob Ross is known for his beautiful landscapes...
March 15, 2021
An Excerpt from Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer
If you’re like us, you’re currently rewatching Babylon 5 now that it’s streaming on HBO Max (finally!). And, since you’re like us, you also know that it, along with a host of other books, shows, and films, were created and written by the award-winning J. Michael Straczynski. The Smart Pop team is thrilled to share an excerpt from Straczynski’s new book: Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer (coming in June but available for preorder now).
If you put a bunch of writers in a room and one of them sta...
Meet the Team: Editor-in-Chief Robb Pearlman
Our Meet the Team series spotlights members of the Smart Pop family through a Q&A designed to reveal the depths of our nerdy, pop culture–loving souls. First up is Editor-in-Chief, Robb Pearlman.
What do you do at Smart Pop?I’m the Editor-in-Chief of Smart Pop, which means I’m responsible for putting together the list of books that we publish every year. I get to work with amazing authors, illustrators, agents, studios, production companies, and other creatives to talk about what they’re doing...
The Smart Pop Reboot Is Here!
Smart Pop has been proudly geeking out about pop culture since 2003, and we’re so excited to keep the fanfest going and introduce you to our rebooted and rebranded website, newsletter, and social media platforms. And we’re even more proud to give you a first look at our upcoming lineup of books—each and every one created by fans, for fans.
Steering the Smart Pop ship are Editor-in-Chief Robb Pearlman, a pop culturist and #1 New York Times bestselling author, and me, the voice behind this blog a...
October 16, 2015
Star Wars on Trial: Charge #9
Considering All the Factors Above, Overall, Star Wars Has Been Damaging to Science Fiction Readers, Writers, and Moviegoers You’ve seen the films, read the charges, and carefully analyzed the arguments on both sides. Now it’s up to you to determine the overall impact of Star Wars on science fiction culture.
Discuss this charge in the comments below by drawing from your own Star Wars expertise and utilizing new evidence from The Force Awakens. And be sure to always be respectful of your fello...
Star Wars on Trial: Charge #8
The Plot Holes and Logical Gaps in Star Wars Make It Ill-Suited for an Intelligent Viewer For the Prosecution: Nick Mamatas
For the Defense: Don DeBrandt
Nick Mamatas begins his essay with a few specific complaints: each episode after Episode IV “renders the previous films increasingly nonsensical,” the prequel trilogy makes the original trilogy “entirely incoherent,” and lastly, in general, “science fiction and fantasy films are unbearably stupid.”
Don DeBrandt argues that while Star Wars m...
Star Wars on Trial: Charge #7
Women in Star Wars Are Portrayed as Fundamentally Weak For the Prosecution: Jeanne Cavelos
For the Defense: Bill Spangler
Jeanne Cavelos writes that both Princess Leia and Queen Amidala initially appear to be heroic, compelling characters, however throughout their respective trilogies their power slips away in favor of the male characters’ development. She also writes that many elements of the female characters’ plots are “told, not shown,” as their stories were believed to be “unimportant t...
Star Wars on Trial: Charge #6
Star Wars Pretends to Be Science Fiction, but Is Really Fantasy For the Prosecution: Ken Wharton
For the Defense: Robert A. Metzger
For the Prosecution: Bruce Bethke
For the Defense: Adam Roberts
Ken Wharton begins his essay by distinguishing between fantasy and science fiction. He claims that in real science fiction, asking a series of “whys” will eventually “lead to something we know about the real world.” He then puts forward the idea that the Force (an undefined, magical “energy field,”...
