-New in government research: the military gives us Pandora for reading.

-If Guillermo del Toro makes Maleficent, can Selma Blair play the title role? I love the idea of Liz Sherman being able to turn into a dragon.

-Ian McShane will hang out with Snow White.

-I will be highly amused if Dan Snyder sues the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for saying mean things about him to Nikki Finke.

-Why haven’t you listened to Rave On Buddy Holly yet? Start with Cee-Lo’s contribution:

Then bop on over to NPR and stream the rest.

NPR probably doesn’t get enough credit for it, but I’ve always been impressed by the way the organization rebranded itself. Making NPR one of the central destinations for legitimate streaming of new albums and early, comprehensive interviews on new music has been a terrific way to position the organization on the leading edge of cultural consumption — it’s both servicey and makes NPR content more likely to get read. So I’m not surprised, but I am glad, to see that NPR’s ahead of its competitors in another important area: giving due praise to science fiction and fantasy.

This summer, NPR’s trying to identify the 100 best science fiction and fantasy novels out there. I think there’s a debate to be had about combining the genres, but I’m not going to throw down and have it here, especially since they’re establishing at least some guidelines by excluding paranormal romance and YA, with the promise that they’ll devote next summer to the latter. Instead, I’d say get over there and get in comments. This is a nice chance at high — or at least medium — culture acknowledgement of a genre that’s fighting hard for its legitimacy. I want this list to end up as strong as possible so everyone has to recognize. Off the top of my head, though I reserve the right to revise this later, I’d probably say Red Mars, Ender’s Game, The Mists of Avalon, Season of Mists (I am a sucker for anything Miltonian), and Cryptonomicon, if that counts.

My colleague and pal Jeff Spross disagrees with me about Ned Stark’s strategic incompetence. Since this is a magnanimous blog, I’m giving him some space to make his case — but as the picture here illustrates, I’m not giving in.

By Jeff Spross

As a new entrant into the Game of Thrones world — I’ve watched up through the crushing finale “Baelor” and have just begun the first book — I want to lay down a defense of Ned Stark’s decision-making. Alyssa has tagged him as sentimentalist with an over-weening concern for process, a good subject of the law but not a interpreter or strategist of it. Similar critiques have popped up in Vulture’s recaps. I think this is wrong on several levels.

Alyssa and her commenters have already dived into this somewhat, but it’s worth considering the counterfactuals. Had Ned simply told Robert that his children were Jaime’s, the deaths of Cersei and Joffrey would likely have followed, along with civil war against House Lannister. Had Ned informed a third party, how many in King’s Landing could be trusted to not hand Cersei and Joffrey over to Robert themselves, or to not be bought off? As for a coup to put Lord Renly on the throne, how long before that led to civil war as well? Even if your moral assessments are purely utilitarian, it’s not clear Ned’s other options would have panned out any better.

Nor should the role played by stupid, random chance be forgotten. This entire conversation would be rendered moot had it not been for a king’s over-indulgence in wine and one particularly determined wild boar. And then there’s Jorah Mormont’s decision to protect the queen he has been reporting on, Tyrion’s escape thanks to the duel at the Eyrie, and the spectacular manner in which the attempt on Daenery’s life backfires. And on and on it goes.
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Just as Kathryn Bigelow was lucky enough to be working on Kill bin Laden when Osama bin Laden was killed, George Clooney must be thanking Anthony Weiner for providing the year’s requisite political scandal in time to make the long-delayed release of his adaptation of Farragut North, a play about a political scandal now titled The Ides of March, seem spicy and relevant. My concern about The Ides of March is less about whether it will say something unique and clarifying about political sex scandals or male infidelity, which I think it almost certainly won’t, than whether it says something unique and clarifying about political work.

One of the things I’ve found interesting about living in Washington, DC is the alternate regard and disgust for folks who work as high-level staff on political campaigns. Obviously there’s something mercenary about folks who work cycle after cycle, and it’s worse for folks without clear ideology or policy priorities, like Dick Morris and Karl Rove. But there’s also something sentimental about folks who keep looking for the perfect candidate through disillusionment and defeat. All of which is a long way of saying that if you want to understand politics, understanding politicians, the will to run, the insane and necessary disregard for structure and tradition that get in the way of real change that’s the only way you can convince yourself you’ll accomplish anything, is part of the equation. But understanding campaign staff is critically important, too.

And far too often in our political pop culture, staff are sidelined in favor of an obsessive focus on the candidate or elected official, as if ultimate power really lies with them. What Primary Colors gets right is that uneasy space between the things campaign staff control and the things that they don’t, a candidate who will deliver a killer line on queue during a debate but won’t stop fooling around, what it’s like to build campaigns out of string, spit, old ladies, and kids taking a break from college. And I think that’s why In The Loop and The Thick of It work as well as they do—there’s something delightful about ripping the veneer off politics and revealing the scabrousness and naivete in the clockwork. Same with State of Play: one of the best moments in the serial is when the unfailingly polite press secretary, after getting punched in the face, sneers at the MP who’s slugged him, “I wouldn’t have the arrogance to represent a constituency.”

There are very good people playing Clooney’s staff in The Ides of March, most importantly Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman as communications director and campaign manager respectively. It’s more a question of what they’re going to have them do in those positions. If they are, respectively, an idealist who has his illusions shattered and a Hard-Bitten Veteran, I am going to be very bored.

Stephen Bannon’s doing everything he can to promote The Undefeated, his Sarah Palin documentary — including trying to start buzz by forcing viewers to vote to get the movie to their local theaters. The interesting thing will be less where the movie gets screened than the total number of votes cast overall, which I’d be rather surprised if Bannon ever released. I’m not particularly interested in Sarah Palin. But I am interested in the convergence between our politics and our entertainment, between methods of fandom and means of demonstrating political support.

In the age of Obama, he of preternatural control, of the tight haircut, of the perfect wife and beautiful daughters, there’s something fascinating about the disintegration of the Republican field into the cast of a roommates show like The Real World. Palin and Michele Bachmann are the pretty, popular girls with boyfriends back home, Donald Trump is the guy convinced of his own greatness who is headed for a fall, Mitt Romney is the religious virgin seduced by the camera, Gary Johnson is the politicized stoner. There’s something fast, loose, and out of control about this crowd, a mesmerizing messiness.

Reality television is irritating, but so far, it seems as if it’s here to stay, and if it’s capable of evolving. Individual shows may come and go, but as a means for sorting people into categories, and for evaluating those people, it’s a resilient rubric. I generally expect that someone rational will emerge out of the maelstrom of Iowa and New Hampshire. But I dont’ think this is the last time we’ll see a lot of outrageous candidates get taken seriously, even if it’s just for a minute. Dennis Kucinich just made his runs for president a couple of cycles too early.

Obviously, Megan Fox is not exactly a pure feminist ideal, and it’s pretty stupid to say of a director you’re working with on a lucrative franchise (if you want to continue working on that franchise), “He’s like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is.” Still, I’m less than charmed to learn that Steven Spielberg urged Bay to fire Fox over the incident, rather than having her in for a talk, or whatever. This is the same Steven Spielberg, of course, who has made precisely one movie with a female main character who doesn’t share lead duties with a dude. And, you know, not everyone has to make their life’s work making movies with female leads or nurturing young actresses or breaking down Hollywood’s gender barriers. But maybe when you’re one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, you don’t have to use that clout to land all over young actresses, either.

At the end of the day, Megan Fox may not have been a pro on the Transformers set, and she may have been a jerk in the press. But Alex Pettyfer can behave like a spoiled brat on multiple pictures and in negotiations, and there can be allegations that he’s a slightly scary control freak, and he’s fine to the extent that he’s the star of Steven Soderbergh’s next movie. Fox is not the ideal spokeswoman for feminism in Hollywood, she’s the kind of unideal victim Gloria Allred specializes in. But crying a lack of professionalism is a pretty good way to defang critics who are saying things that cut to the heart of your flaws. Or to distract folks from the likely awfulness of the movie you’re about to foist on American audiences.

Either way, maybe Steven Spielberg should consider using his powers for a greater good than saving Michael Bay from having people say mean things about him in the press.

Last week, Paulie asked me in comments on my post about Miss Representation, “Say I’m a stereotypical guy looking to watch/read something new. What stuff written by or starring women am I likely to enjoy?” Here, in no particular order, are 18 things that I think would appeal to men. I’ve omitted classics because I assume you know. All of these, for me, pass Ta-Nehisi’s test in that these are not things you should watch or read out of obligation, but because they’re very good. Got more suggestions? Toss ‘em in comments.

1. Prime Suspect: Helen Mirren is so universally understood to be an amazing actresses, a salty dame, and a foxy lady, that it’s difficult to think about a time when she wasn’t a phenomenon in the U.S. as well as in the U.K. But if you want to understand Mirren’s general awesomeness, it’s worth checking out her seven-season run as DCI Jane Tennison, during which Mirren puts away serial killers, works with immigrant communities, challenges institutional sexism, has affairs and an abortion, and acknowledges her drinking problem. In other words, she’s an actual person rather than a saint, a living illustration of the costs of breaking gender barriers in the working world. And she’s funny, too.

2. Anything Barbara Stanwyck: The woman was tougher than most of the guys she was on-screen with, even in a dress so tight she couldn’t run in it, even in heels that she broke strategically as a way to get back to a mark’s stateroom on a cruise ship. “I love him because he’s a kind of a guy that gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk,” she declared in Ball of Fire. “I need him like the axe needs the turkey,” she glowered about Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve. Stanwyck is the apotheosis of the idea women can be equal — even superior — to men with an entirely different toolkit. Read this profile and critical reassessment of her by David Denby. Then rent The Lady Eve and prepare to die laughing during the mirror scene.

3. Emma Thompson and Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility: Jane Austen is, indeed awesome, but Emma Thompson is the only woman who possibly could have improved upon her, turning Sense and Sensibility into a pitch-perfect examination of why women get emotionally attached too quickly, or don’t explain why they’re thinking — and how social pressure, particularly when it comes to class and money, leads men into bad decisions. The movie is sharp, very funny, and quite moving. Yeah, it’s Austen and it’s understated, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s boring.
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So the United Federation of Planets didn’t give up on space travel, saves the whales, and has figured out a sustainable entitlement system?

Man, I want to live in the future.

On yesterday’s post about what a Muslim archetype might look like in American popular culture, Marcus Richards wisely noted that there was something a little odd about the ideas we were coming up with: “It surprises me that no one has suggested this hypothetical character should be a woman. The female perspective is a huge elephant in the room for Western culture in approaching Muslims, and it feels like we need to come to terms with that in order to approach any positive stereotypes.” He’s right, of course, though I think part of the reason folks were trying to come up with positive images of Muslim men is that Islamophobia’s largely centered around ideas about the behavior of Muslim men.

So of course it was immediately after writing this that two Muslim-related bits of pop culture news crossed my desk. First, a writeup of Janaza, an Iraqi black metal musician from Iraq who is, to put it mildly, not a fan of Islam:

I’m not the world’s biggest black metal fan (I’m more of an Isis kinda gal), and I think Janaza is unlikely to go mainstream. But it still would be interesting to see a conversation about Islam and its role in society get played out in music, between black metal and taqwacore.

Second, a Malaysian television station is spinning off an American Idol-style show that pits aspiring imams against each other and creating a version for women. Given that Morocco just graduated its first class of female preachers in 2006 and wouldn’t even give them full imam status, and that debates are still underway about the legitimacy of women serving as judges in Kenyan courts and interpreting Islamic law, a contest like this that asserts women’s rights to teach the Koran and sets it up as an admirable thing seems pretty cool.

In a networked world, Muslims in American popular culture won’t only be seen by Americans, and will be received very differently by folks in different countries and in different Islamic traditions. We’re obviously not going to come up with something that will affirm everyone’s beliefs and leave everyone feeling happy and comfortable. But even so, we should look abroad for inspiration as we think about getting more images of Muslims into American popular culture: American Islamophobia may be a specific phenomenon, but the cure for it might well be international, from people who have more experience creating Muslim characters than American writers and producers do.