D.B. Dowd
D.B. Dowd served as project leader for the Society of Fellows at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 2017-19. Dowd’s recent essays include “Everyman, Meet Somebody: Characterization and Melodrama in Rockwell’s Four Freedoms,” a catalogue essay in Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt and The Four Freedoms, (Abbeville Press, 2018) and “Nostalgia Illustrated: N.C. Wyeth, Advertising, and American Cultural History” for the Brandywine Museum retrospective, N.C. Wyeth: New Perspectives (2019). His book A is for Autocrat: A Trumpian Alphabet, Illustrated (Spartan Holiday Books, 2020) won a national gold Addy award from the American Advertising Federation in 2021.
By D.B. Dowd
The Ten Most Notable Science-Fiction Novels of the Past Ten Years
Given how busy we all are, particularly as the pandemic recedes, perhaps we should thank these lists (and their makers) for not wasting our time or abusing our goodwill, but instead helping us hack our way through that ever-growing thicket of anime, books, films, podcasts, manga, radio shows, stage plays, television series, video games, and the endless number of other cultural productions we feel honor-bound to track despite this impulse being a forever-frustrated wish that, to switch metaphors, cultural capital’s always-hungry maw ensures will never be satisfied.
Pharewell, Phil: Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)
On this day, the fortieth anniversary of his untimely death, I come to praise Philip K. Dick, not to bury him.
The Century of Norman Rockwell
On the anniversary of his departure, a tip of the hat to Uncle Norman, whose latter-day appeal to the contemporary MAGA crowd ought not be held against him.
Ringmaster: Peter Jackson’s Hits and Misses and Hits
My esteem for Peter Jackson has limits even if, in my judgment, he remains a remarkable poet-director. Commemorating his birthday calls forth warm feelings and happy memories, but, to understand his artistic strengths, we must also acknowledge his weaknesses.
The Re-Possessed
Ursula K. Le Guin storms the Library of America.
Now Appearing, the Great Cicely Tyson
The woman who began her career as a fashion model for Ebony and Jet magazines, who married (and divorced) jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, and whose love of Black people, especially Black women, made her into an activist for most of her long, long life developed her craft so exactingly that she reigns as one of the greatest artists America has ever produced (or ever will produce).
Remembering Octavia E. Butler
Make no mistake, Octavia E. Butler was among the greatest American authors of the twentieth century. The intervening years have seen Butler’s work reclaimed by literary critics, scholars, and the reading public at large, but the fact remains: She was always terrific, even when too few people affirmed this judgment in the public square.
The New Who: Best of Enemies
Doctor Who, “Resolution” New Year’s Special 2019 Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Wayne Yip Starring Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and Bradley Walsh Guest Starring Daniel Adegboyega, Nicholas Briggs, Nikesh Patel, and Charlotte Ritchie Original Broadcast 1 January 2019 (60 minutes) Doctor Thirteen faces her oldest…