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Literary Roles of Benedict Cumberbatch

Editor's Note: To finish out 2018, we're revisiting some of our favorite blog posts from the past year. This post was originally published on 7/18/18. 

We all know that Benedict Cumberbatch made his mark playing literary great Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock, but how many other literary Cumberbatch roles can you name? While we could spend literally his entire birthday coming up with literary misspellings of his name and other bookish memes, we’d rather celebrate the literary roles that decorate his IMDB page.

Posted by Danielle Mohlman

What If Fictional Archeologists Acted Like Actual Archeologists?

Editor's Note: To finish out 2018, we're revisiting some of our favorite blog posts from the past year. This post was originally published on 3/13/18. 


The adventurer-archeologist is a common story trope, traipsing through jungles and lost tombs in sexy outfits, firing guns and flashing whips, with a quip for every occasion. They’re ready for anything—except, apparently, the actual business of archeology. Here’s a peek at what it would be like if these action heroes acted like their real-world counterparts.

Posted by Jadzia Axelrod

Kill Your Darlings: 101 Pieces of Advice for Writers & Serial Killers

Editor's Note: To finish out 2018, we're revisiting some of our favorite blog posts from the past year. This post was originally published on 6/21/18. 


Murder and writing so often go hand in hand. How much difference is there really between the red-inked remains of a harshly-edited manuscript and the blood-red remains of what once was a human being? Here are 101 kernels of advice for both the writer and the serial killer, ready to be taken to heart, as if slammed there by a very sharp knife. Go forth and create masterpieces of life’s very blood!

Posted by Jadzia Axelrod

Pop Culture/Literary BFFs Who Go Together Like PB&J

Editor's Note: To finish out 2018, we're revisiting some of our favorite blog posts from the past year. This post was originally published on 4/3/18. 


They say best friends are never more than a phone call away. But It’s 2018, so we should probably revise that to “never more than a FaceTime, Snapchat, or VR sesh away.” Even then, these fancy new methods of keeping in touch really only apply if you exist in the same dimension as your bestie, which to be frank, might not always be the case. Before passing away, Stephen Hawking co-published a final paper on the possibility of a multiverse, prompting us to wonder, can we really even say who our true best friends are? For all we know, they might not even exist in the same time or space. We tested the theory, and sure enough, in the case of these pop culture and literary icons, their perfect matches weren’t even found in the same story, let alone universe.

Posted by J. B. Kish

Devilishly Good Characters in Pop Culture

Frozen yogurt, anyone? Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Do you think you are a good person? If hit series The Good Place has it right, your deeds on Earth might land you in a magical place where everything is catered to your deepest desires, and you get to meet your one true soul mate…or, if you aren’t quite worthy of all that, you might end up being tortured by Ted Danson! A devil pretending to be an angel, Danson’s Michael is a brilliant addition to the award-winning series, perfectly executing his diabolical plan to torment his victims by having them drive each other crazy in a fake "heaven." The show is sharp, funny, and eminently relatable as four people examine their wicked (and not-so-wicked) ways, and Michael is far from the only devil character that we want to watch again and again.

Posted by Rose Moore

Other Literary Siblings Who Could Use a Visit from Mary Poppins

Image by Aline Dassel from Pixabay 

Mary Poppins Returns is finally in theaters this week and you know how we feel about Lin-Manuel Miranda. But you might not know how we feel about the practically perfect in every way woman of the hour herself: Mary Poppins. (Spoiler alert: we love her.) And while we’re very happy that she answered Jane and Michael Banks’ advertisement all those years ago, we’ve started wondering what some of our other favorite literary siblings might learn from the nanny’s teachings. Well today, we’re going to find out.

Posted by Danielle Mohlman