Nonfiction

From pygmies to puppets: what to do with Roald Dahl’s enslaved Oompa-Loompas in modern adaptations?

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Reading Time: 5 minutes There is a troubling aspect to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In the first edition, the Oompa-Loompas are black pygmies who Wonka imports from “the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle” and enslaves in his factory.

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Of Vice and Theremin

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Reading Time: 6 minutes It is hard to judge the effect that last year’s unequivocal confirmation of real UFO footage— captured by real navy pilots—has had on the common man or woman. But this new bill surely proves that the topic of UFOs has moved beyond the eye-rolling phase of the alien debate. Or does it?

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The Robots in Our Lives: The subtle side of Artificial Intelligence

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Reading Time: 3 minutes When’s the last time you asked a robot to do something for you? I can tell you I do it almost constantly. My most consulted robot lives in a mainframe somewhere in the great Google warehouse in the sky. At least, I like to think so. Artificial intelligence has been a theme in science fiction

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Wheel of Time series has awkward start

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Reading Time: 9 minutes The debut episode of The Wheel of Time has some strong characters and thrilling imagery, though clumsy storytelling and some awkward tonal choices overall results in this series stumbling out of the gate. Reliance, perhaps overly so, on aging fantasy-genre tropes in order to appeal to a mass-audience leaves the series still searching for its own identity.

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