AvidBards
Academic

Understanding Creative Non-Fiction

A note to aspiring writers. “It is a way of looking again and again at itself from all angles in order to see itself most fully.” – Bret Lott on creative nonfiction. An area of publishing that is getting increasingly popular is the field of creative non-fiction (also known as literary non-fiction). From the onset, however, the term itself sounds like an oxymoron. How can non-fiction be literature? Welcome, to the topic of today’s post.  Creative non-fiction (CNF) refers to a piece of writing that uses typical literary styles or techniques (such as figurative language, playing with tenses and/or narrative…

View Post
TV Shows

The Fall: Is it Feminist?

I am definitely late to the game on this one having just finished the BBC, British-Irish series The Fall this week! I knew that I wanted to talk about the series but I was at a loss of what exactly to talk about until I saw the ratings for the show. The three series tense thriller had people falling over themselves to binge watch the first series back in 2013, but by its finale in 2016, reactions to it had shifted. The recent addition of the show on Netflix UK has had many people obsessed (and thoroughly creeped out), bingeing it within a few days, myself included, a change of tune from 2016. So, what happened?

View Post
Academic

Being A Student During Covid-19

5 actionable things you can do to be more productive. It’s said so often, but every now and then it really hits me just how incredibly unprecedented this whole year has really been for our generation. On top of a global pandemic, we are seeing every day the consequences of living in a world that does not and will not change to protect all its citizens. It’s enough to drive anyone into a hole. So how are you meant to keep going when your commitments and responsibilities require you to. My experience of working and being a student during Covid-19…

View Post
Movies

Black Horror: Racial Commentary in ‘Get Out’

American history is dominated by stories of endless violence towards black people. It is by no means an understatement to say that the lives of countless black individuals are faced by horrors that should be unimaginable in this day and age. Their lives mimic the constant state of tension and anticipation of something bad. And it is for this exact reason that the horror genre has been such a great tool for social commentary, specifically of exposing the reality of racism in North America. Jordon Peele’s 2017 horror film Get Out has been praised as one of the most popular…

View Post
Videogames

What the Gender-Bias in Videogames Reveals

It is a common stereotype that women who like to play videogames are considered a ‘lad’s girl’, a girl different from other girls, and a rare discovery. However, statistics show that female gamers are not uncommon. In 2015 a report released by Pew Research Center [1]reported that although findings had shown an equal number of American men and women played videogames, only 3.3% of those games starred female protagonists. In 2019, Statista articulated that 46% of all gamers in the US were female. Nevertheless, every time I tell someone that I enjoy playing videogames, I am met with shock and surprise.…

View Post
TV Shows

Normal People: Accurate Mental Health Representation on the Small Screen

Trigger Warning: The following post includes mention of mental illness and suicide. In 2018, Sally Rooney, author of Conversation With Friends, came out with her highly anticipated second novel. And less than 2 years later it has been adapted into a Hulu/BBC mini-series. This rapid turnover is virtual unheard of in the book industry, where it can be years, even decades before a film or show adaption is considered (e.g. Good Omens, American Gods, Shadowhunters). One reason for this is that most book lovers, myself included very rarely enjoy book adaptations, be they TV shows or movies (though there definitely…

View Post

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Where to next?