Bioparanoria

Walt Disney Studios was never shy about adapting familiar works of literature to the screen in the creation of their animated features, in truth many of their most acclaimed titles have bookly origins. From Hans Christen Anderson to Victor Hugo to A. A. Milne, many a famous writer would posthumously see their iconic prose adapted to cartoon form. Those only vaguely familiar with the history of Disney’s influences might be surprised to find that some films they assumed to be original ideas were in fact adaptations. One, unfortunately, doesn’t hear much said about Dodie Smith’s The Hundred and One Dalmatians or Felix Salten’s Bambi, a Life in the Woods , despite the familiarity most have with these narratives in the cinematic form. But likely the most obscure book to germinate into a Disney classic would be Dumbo. As one can see while watching its bombastic circus sideshow of title cards, the 1941 film states that it is “based on the book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl”. Dumbo was an...

There’s a funny phenomenon we have of adding artificial darkness and mystery to artists, insisting that wild rumors we hear about their sordid private lives are true. Consider the long-running urban legends of Walt Disney freezing himself or of Mr. Rogers being a Korean War sniper. Perhaps when we see a person create genuine innocent art we are intimated and assume that more is at work here, a shadowy side being loosely hidden from public view. In the case of today’s post, we’ll be looking at an unusual hypothesis about Charles Dodgson (1832-1898), better known by his pen name of Lewis Carroll. Carroll was a mathematician but wrote fiction as well. Today the only works of his that are widely known are the Alice in Wonderland books, far from a poor literary legacy. In 1996, a man named Richard Wallace published a book promoting an alarming theory about Carroll being none other than Jack the Ripper, quite a scandalous claim to pin against the creator of the White Rabbit! Wallace’s book, ...

As you might've heard, author J.D. Vance is running for Ohio's 2022 Senate seat as a Republican. He has not been doing hot lately, coming in fourth place in primary polling. This is in spite of such glowing endorsements from the likes of Peter "Actually A Vampire" Thiel, Tucker "The Metric System Is Communist" Carlson, and Josh "Storm The Capitol" Hawley. Vance is the kind of man the populist wing of the GOP backs, hoping to attract the working class with his substanceless culture war rhetoric. Little does he know that placing lipstick on an anti-working pig doesn't make it any more attractive, except to voters who still live in houses coated with lead paint. Hillbilly Elegy, the bestselling book that got everybody gawking at Vance for a few months, and lead to a forgettable film directed by Ron Howard, is a befuddling text in how its author suggests we take on class in America. Few issues bring such strong, passionate emotions to the surface a...