Would Kierkegaard Like Katniss Everdeen? Matthew William Brake Initially, I wasn’t a fan of the Hunger Games. The first time I heard about the series was from a friend (Hi Emma!) who read the books based on a recommendation from someone else. When the first movie came out, I didn’t go see it. I just…
Call for Abstracts Doctor Strange and Philosophy Edited by Mark D. White The Blackwell Philosophy and Popular Culture Series Please circulate and post widely. Apologies for cross posting. To propose ideas for future volumes in the Blackwell series please contact the Series Editor, William Irwin, at williamirwin@kings.edu If you have comments or criticisms for the series,…
Riddler’s Revenge and Reason’s Degeneration By Matthew William Brake I finally bought my copy of the Return to Arkham bundle pack today. The Arkham games are the best Batman video games ever made. The gameplay, the character and environment designs, and the multiple side stories all combine to create the immersive experience of getting to…
Avenged Sevenfold Explores the Polarized Mind on “The Stage” By Ashley Whitaker The music video for Avenged Sevenfold’s song “The Stage” opens with a small audience entering a puppet show, uncertain of what to expect. Soon it becomes clear that the audience has paid to witness graphic depictions of historical atrocities. Laughing at portrayals of…
Batpsyche Arkham Asylum and the Temptation toward Superego By Jack Holloway In the opening of Batman: Arkham Asylum the video game, Batman has arrested the Joker and is escorting him into Arkham Asylum. The Joker is wheeled down the entrance hall and is checked by a doctor. Counterintuitively, he is having a good time, but…
The Flash Season 2, Episode 18 Writing Shortcut or Kantian Ethics? By Matthew William Brake My friends and I have a sacred tradition. Thursday is “Nerd Night.” Let me explain. I am a part of a holy gathering of nerds who come together on Thursdays to binge watch that week’s episodes of the so-called…
How I Met Your Mother, Nietzsche, and Metaphysical Finales By Matthew William Brake I have a really bad habit of coming late to the party with popular TV shows. I discovered how awesome How I Met Your Mother was in late Fall 2015. Years before, I had stumbled upon reruns of it on Lifetime (wait, I…
The Killing Joke and Philosophy By Matthew William Brake Written in 1988 by Alan Moore and drawn by Brian Bolland, The Killing Joke is one of the most iconic Joker stories ever written. Directors Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, not insignificant figures in the history of the Batman movie franchise, were both influenced by it,…
“I Ain’t Gonna Be Part of Your System!” Lonely Island, Bernie Sanders, and Faux-Revolutionaries By Matthew William Brake This has been a wild election season. The Republican Party has allowed the worst caricature of its own populist impulses to become its nominee. And for its part, the Democratic Party has chosen Hillary Clinton—an establishment, left-leaning, and…
The Strange World of Planet Earth: Prophetic Criticism and Ecological Crisis By Jack Holloway “Since the world began, ever-inventive man has constantly pushed forward into the unknown. One by one, the frontiers of science have fallen before him. . . . Now he stands on the threshold of a new age—a terrifying age.” So begins…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 