I’m kind of a sucker for the American dream. America is the land of possibilities, of glitter and glamour, of making wishes come true, of starting at the bottom and going all the way up. In America, you can be anything, and everything is beautiful and amazing.
Continue reading “This Is America”I’d been sitting on the idea of this article for quite some time, unable to find the drive to put it onto paper, but when news of Dutch politician Kees van der Staaij’s signature on the now infamous Nashville Statement exploded like wildfire across Dutch news sites earlier this month, my slumbering brain finally whipped itself into shape. For anyone unfamiliar with the event: the Nashville Statement is a document outlining a set of conservative Christian doctrine stances relating to gender, sexuality and marriage, written by The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, in – as the name suggests – Nashville, US. The relevance of this document within Dutch society was of course largely non-existent until its translation into Dutch at the beginning of this year and consequent signing by a significant group of Dutchmen and women, which caused a thunderstorm of outrage on media platforms across the country, both from secular and religious sources.
I too felt an upsurge of exasperation at this news, and while this was not great for my heart so soon after the holiday season, it proved ideal for this article – indignation is as good a writer’s incentive as there ever was.
Disclaimer: This article contains mild spoilers for the Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch
On December 28th 2018 Netflix released a new episode of its hit-series Black Mirror. The episode, Bandersnatch, has an interactive format. Throughout the narrative, viewers are offered choices, and each combination of decisions leads the protagonist on a different path. You can use your remote control to select on of the offered options, or your mouse, touchpad or touchscreen if you are on a laptop or mobile device. As you select your choice, a thin white line at the bottom of the screen shows you how much time you have left to make your decision. Continue reading “Bandersnatch: A Review”
I cracked my phone last week. Not to weird flex, but it was my second time cracking a phone. My first one was this old pink ‘LG touch screen something’ ten years ago. Again, not to weird flex, but I was shook when I found my phone cracked. It happened on my bed, of all places, and I suspect it was my laptop’s doing. I still don’t understand how I cracked my phone. And actually, I’m still waiting for the moment I will wake up and see my phone isn’t cracked.
Everyone who knows me knows this: raccoons are my spirit animal. I love trash. I like collecting knick-knacks, I save my movie tickets, and I absolutely love bad entertainment. I can’t count the amount of times my mom came into the living room and asked me why I keep watching garbage–or as she collectively called bad television–The Kardash. Why she could never get the title of the Kardashian’s famous reality tv-show right is beyond me, but I digress.
Continue reading “I am a raccoon: why I love trash television”“The truth is in the whole” might be some of Hegel’s most cited words, and although this phrase has inspired lots of philosophy, art and theory that followed, it seems like current younger generations, particularly known as millennials, didn’t quite get the memo. Apart from infamously taking pictures of nicely arranged dishes until they go cold, stereotypically acting like Wi-Fi is more of a primary need than water, and worshipping Steve Jobs like he created the planet earth instead of the Iphone, millennials are also widely known for their lack of goals and direction. The internet is full of articles, interviews and statistics pointing out this particular problem. Bosses and managers complain more and more frequently about the difficulties in having millennials as employees; mental health issues, like depression and burn-outs, are widely referred to as being epidemic, and switching between studies or jobs is becoming closer and closer to being the rule, rather than an exception. Continue reading “Losing the ‘we’ in TV”
The Writer’s Block Editorial Board wishes you a lovely New Year’s Eve and all the best for 2019.
In the new year, we would love to receive your short stories, poetry, essays or photography. You can always submit stuff at submissions@writersblockmagazine.com
Here’s a song to get you in the New Year’s spirit.
