The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2023
by Erin K. Wagner
In what has become a holiday movie, through unknown manipulations of nostalgia and music, Julie Andrews (or Maria), as optimistic au pair, assures her charges (and us) that recalling our favorite things will help ward us against the dog bites and bee stings of the world. In light of this, I provide a list of the favorite media I consumed this year.
(I realize there is a theme here—of posthuman structural analyses—sharpened by my pedagogical emphases this year.)
Books & Shorts
Between editing my own work and reading for lessons, I did not read as many books as I had hoped this year. That said, here are some that I really enjoyed—or that provided blueprints for the future.
LaValle, Victor. “Ark of Light” in Lightspeed (2020).
I taught this for the first time in my class this semester. A very short story, with relatively anonymous characters, the narrative touches on immigration and marginalization. It forefronts, however, unquenched hope and faith for a better future.
Le Guin, Ursula K. The Dispossessed. Harper & Row, 1974.
I am conflicted about this book. There is a depiction of sexual assault (tw) that the book does not seem to fully grapple with. But the assault is of a piece with the book’s overall warning: that to possess items or people leaves yourself possessed, not free to pursue a society of true equity. A fascinating inquiry into nonauthoritarian socialism that reads almost like a treatise for the future. Like much of Le Guin’s work, it is truly haunting.
Martine, Arkady. A Desolation Called Peace. Tor, 2021.
A year of duologies! I finally had a chance to read the sequel to Martine’s fabulous A Memory Called Empire. Though this book was less poignant imho, it was a riveting posthumanist and postcolonialist examination of identity.
Parry, H.G. A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians and A Radical Act of Free Magic. Orbit (2021 & 2022).
A duology that swept me right up into the childhood joy of reading (one more page!). An alternate history of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars that questions the interplay of power and freedom. With vampires. And spellcasting.
Pratchett, Terry. Going Postal. Doubleday, 2004.
I have almost finished my first read-through of Pratchett’s Discworld (which I’ve mentioned in previous lists). I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to the delightful adventures, starting with Going Postal, of the entrepreneurial Moist Lipwig. A skewering of modern bureaucracy.
Robinson, Kim Stanley. The Ministry for the Future. Orbit, 2020.
Another treatise. A book of thought experiments, per Le Guin’s description of science fiction, that is intended to jumpstart real and radical change to save our environment.
Yoachim, Caroline M. “Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relays Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0” in Lightspeed (2016).
A choose-your-own-adventure story that questions the reality of free-will? Why, yes, I don’t mind if I do. Fun and piercing at the same time.
TV & Movies
What can I say? I really like the screen. These are the movies and TV that really stuck with me.
Archer, Jim, dir. Brian and Charles. Focus Features, 2022.
A truly ridiculous premise with a DIY look that gut-punches you in the most lovable way.
Brest, Martin, dir. Beverly Hills Cop. Paramount, 1984.
I have long thought that cop movies of the 80s dealt in more nuanced ways with intersectional identities than the 90s and 2000s. This movie is one such example.
Coscarelli, Don. Bubba Ho-Tep. Vitagraph Films, 2002.
This movie is by no means perfect (or feminist). But it gets under your (mummified) skin and delivers a powerful message on how our society handles the concept of aging and the welfare of the aged.
Dos Santos, Joaquim, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, dirs. Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse. Sony, 2023.
I’m not a huge fan of animated movies, so it often takes some arm-twisting to get me to watch one. But even I loved this film. It’s gorgeous—and I hope the studio recognizes the need to value the labor that goes into creations like these.
Gerwig, Grega, dir. Barbie. Warner Bros., 2023.
I admit it. I fell for it. It really hits you over the head with some of its messaging—but this belies the nuanced analysis running underneath as well. The performances, the look, the songs: perfect for what ails you.
Gilligan, Vince and Peter Gould. Better Call Saul. AMC, 2015-2022.
Visually, this series could not be more different from Barbie, especially in the black and white of the final season. But the last season also forefronts the viewpoint and empowerment of Kim, the counterweight to the titular Saul.
Gilroy, Tony, creator. Andor (s1) on Disney + (2022).
I have admired the Star Wars prequel Rogue One as the best of the movies released after the original series. This TV series is a notch even above that. Quiet, dark, and desperate, this series focuses on the real cost and sacrifice of rebellion and the real evil of bureaucratic annihilation. There isn’t much of the force here, but it is a forceful series.
Goldstein, Jonathan and John Francis Daley, dirs. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Paramount, 2023.
I think we’ve already watched this movie four times (?) in order to share it with friends and family. It is fun, fun, fun.
Hernandez, Tara and Damon Lindelof. Mrs. Davis. Peacock, 2023.
This show is really weird. Like, it’s weird and then it gets weirder. But its commentary on the “threat” of AI is extremely relevant and forces us to remember that even stories about AI are really about people.
Johnson, Rian, creator. Poker Face (s1) on Peacock (2023).
Oft compared to Columbo, Poker Face is a feminist take on the detective show with a truly beguiling performance by Natasha Lyonne. It also acknowledges the wider structures that drive us to act.
Judkins, Rafe, dev. The Wheel of Time (s2) on Amazon Prime (2023).
With a higher budget and a year’s experience under the actors’ belts, this season of Wheel of Time surpassed the first striking out from the source-text to complicate definitions of good and evil and to center the women’s experiences outside of Rand.
Kasdan, Jonathan, dev. Willow (s1) on Disney + (2022).
A truly fun extension of the Willow movie that seems to have been cut short. It plays with the gender-inversion of classic fantasy tropes and questions the savior narrative.
Manzoor, Nida, dir. Polite Society. Focus Features, 2023.
An updated look at the romance conventions encouraged by modern renditions of Austen. Enjoyable fight choreographies and a speculative plot-turn that is truly surprising.
Mazin, Craig and Neil Druckmann, creators. Last of Us (s1) on HBO (2023).
I’ll admit it. I cried with the rest of America. More than once. And I don’t cry easily. There has been some controversy around the series, but I read the violence of the series as a critique (if the paradox is possible).
McQuarrie, Christopher. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Pt. 1. Paramount, 2023.
Often box-office hits, the Mission Impossible franchise is, I think, still underrated in terms of how solid its cinematography and storytelling is. Its presentation of women wavers between savior and saved, but I think the most recent additions have introduced some truly strong characters. The series, as a whole, grapples with the age-old philosophical problem: save the one or the many?
Nolan, Christopher, dir. Oppenheimer. Universal, 2023.
There are valid criticisms of this film. But its harsh send-up of toxic masculinity (intended or not) as the foundation of many truly horrific events in history is still worth watching.
Polley, Sarah. Women Talking. United Artists, 2022.
A quiet, and quietly disturbing film, that does not need to fully visualize assault in order to critique it (a criticism I often have of films on this topic). This centers on the women and their engagement with a fundamental religious worldview that is far from simple.
Stahelski, Chad, dir. John Wick: Chapter 4. Lionsgate, 2023.
I’m a sucker for these films. They transcend many action films, I think, not merely in terms of cinematography and choreography, but in their embrace of a speculative underworld that reimagines the violence of our society (and its purpose).
Wilson, Hugh, creator. WKRP in Cincinnati. CBS, 1978-1982.
I indulge in old sitcoms as a comfort blanket for the mind. Borrowed nostalgia, as it were. This is one that truly seems ahead of its time and grapples with some real issues occasionally (not always perfectly).
Podcasts
Hobbes, Michael and Peter Shamshiri, hosts. If Books Could Kill.
One of my new favorite podcasts. The hosts take the bestselling self-help tomes and societal commentaries of the last thirty years or so and point out the logical flaws of these too-easy analyses and grifts. With the sharp and unforgiving wit I’ve come to expect from Hobbes and Shamshiri (who is also a host on 5-4, a podcast on the Supreme Court that I’ve added to my regular listening queue).
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