Epic Stories, the Decline of Empires, and America

This afternoon I went to a talk by Noah Richler about his book What We Talk About When We Talk About War. He provided a taxonomy of different kinds of stories (myths, epic tales, and novels). He associated each of these types of story with the form a society might take at various times.

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I Like Big Books

In honour of the start of research time: From here.

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The Representation of Women and Historical Accuracy

One common reason given for the absence of female characters in video games that are set in the past is that the portrayal is supposed to be historically accurate (see for examples these discussions at the Border House). This great post by Juliet McKenna suggest that excuse is not legitimate. McKenna notes that much of ‘history’ [...]

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Open Letter to Professors and TAs who are Grading Papers

Re: Please refrain from writing “who cares?” “so what?” and other similar statements when grading student papers. The writing centre gets busy at this time of year as the term draws to a close and essays and assignments are nearing their due date. Many students are coming in with earlier assignments to seek advice on [...]

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