“The Only Way Forward Is Back” – Nostalgia, Grief and Television in WandaVision
WandaVision, one of the newest installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), abandoned the cinema altogether to bring two of the Avengers, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) to the small screen in a 7-episode miniseries airing weekly between January and March 2021 on streaming platform Disney+. The series is set after Vision died at the hands of ubervillain Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), a fact viewers could not be sure of until several episodes into the series. It opens in medias res, dropping us directly into a world that feels both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time – recognizable to those who are well-versed in American sitcoms, but jarring to those expecting the MCU’s signature superhero fare. Episode one is shot in black and white, on a 4:3 frame ratio, and in front of a live studio audience, casting Wanda in the role of a […]
Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic by Richard A. McKay
Richard A. McKay’s Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic is a social history of the early days of the AIDS crisis in North America built around the harmful myth of the “patient zero”. The book contextualizes the story of Gaétan Dugas, the French-Canadian flight attendant who was vilified as the origin of the disease. In a larger history of scapegoating in times of epidemic, McKay’s book delves into Dugas’s personal life as well as the role played by Randy Shilts’ And The Band Played On (1987), the first popular account of the crisis.
Queer Clout – Chicago and the Rise of Gay Politics by Timothy Stewart-Winter
Timothy Stewart-Winter’s Queer Clout: Chicago and the Rise of Gay Politics traces the history of the gay rights movement in the ‘Windy City’. Beginning in the post-war years, it provides a chronological account of decades of gays and lesbians fighting against police brutality, workplace discrimination, or AIDS, and for political representation up until the 1990s – all along following a red thread of the titular ‘clout’ and how it was gained.