A past that never was: historical poaching in Game of Thrones fans’ Tumblr practices

This article explores the textual and historical poaching practices by Tumblr fans of the novels A Song of Ice and Fire and the television adaption Game of Thrones, a pseudo-historical fantasy series. Fans critique both the text (novels and TV show) and other fans’ interpretations of the text, as well as parallel real-world history with the world and characters of the series. Tensions arise around the “historical accuracy” of the novels and show, along with the role that dominant narratives and cultural norms play in interpreting a past that never was through the lens of a real-world past. Fantasy and history intersect in layered ways and are used by fans to support a variety of textual points of view. Issues of violence, presentism, colonialism, gender, and “historical truths” are argued in relation to the ahistoricism or historicism of the novels/show.     

Working practices in Thai independent film production and distribution 1

Abstract

In the late 1990s, independent Thai films became a new burgeoning industry, with the beginnings of international recognition. Taking three case studies, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mysterious Object at Noon (), Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Voodoo Girls (2003 Thunska, Pansittivorakul. 2004. Personal interview, 19 February [Google Scholar]) and Aditya Assarat and Mingmongkol Sonakul’s Ma‐mee/ Three Friends (), I argue that the digital format for DVD/VCDs is paving the way for independent filmmakers/producers to participate in the art film market abroad and to cut production costs. Following the economics of money flows makes it clear that ‘independent film’ in Thailand is less about economic independence than a type of branding and packaging of aesthetics and content. While film, economically, is never outside the workings of capital, the content and style of the three film projects considered here seek to break out of the conventions set by the commercial Thai film narrative style.     

‘The Most Respectable Looking of Revolutionaries’

Abstract

New political histories of late nineteenth-century British political culture have closely analysed the role of language and rhetoric in popular politics. The focus on the content of political messages has meant that the ways such messages were communicated has often been overlooked, as have the varied forms of political communication in the period. This article follows on from recent work that has sought to examine the place of material and visual culture in popular politics in the period. In particular, it focuses on the links between dress, class and politics. It suggests that visual, along with material, forms of political communication remained important and that they illuminate the political culture of the period.     

Sultans' Paradise: The Royal Necropolis of Shāla,Rabat

The following study concerns Shāla, which was the necropolis of the Marīnid rulers from 683/1284 to 752/1351. The Islamic buildings on the site have rarely received scholarly attention, although these edifices – despite their delapidated condition – are among the most important constructed by the dynasty. One of my main aims is to re-establish the buildings' chronological sequence, using the written and archaeological evidence, including publications about the site written in Arabic, which have hardly been considered so far. I also address the meaning and aims behind structure erected for each founder, which, in my view, have been misinterpreted by previous scholarship. In summary, this article attempts to revise our knowledge about the site.     

The politics of media policy: how political?

This article reviews three recently published books which make an important contribution, in their different ways, to our understanding of major media policy issues in the digital era. They are all concerned with the core issue of how well media policy serves the public interest. They exemplify different approaches to the study of media policy with regard to how political they are in their content. The first two draw strongly on political science. The first might be best described as critically engaged and has an ideologically sensitive perspective on media policy in the United Kingdom and the United States. The second adopts a policy studies approach to examine the introduction of digital TV in the United Kingdom. The third, written by a media sociologist, provides a comparative study of policies for public service TV in six European countries. It offers rather less political analysis, but presents a useful policy content-focused approach. The article concludes by calling for more work on the development of policies that will ensure the continued fulfilment in the digital era of public service journalistic functions and provision of public service content.     

‘The Talke of the Towne’: News,Crime and the Public Sphere in Seventeenth-Century London

This article reconsiders ideas of the public sphere in the seventeenth century, by focusing on how public opinion is shaped by the movement of information between media and between receivers. It contends that the scholarly preoccupation with a public sphere viewed exclusively in terms of politics obscures the fact that contemporaries did not distinguish between politics and subjects such as crime in their newsgathering. Examining the case study of James Turner, a burglar in the 1660s who became a cause célèbre in London and beyond, this article shows how crime news were eagerly exchanged, informing discussions and constructing public opinion.     

Sharing Taijiquan with the World Xing Qilin:A Representative Bearer to Transmit and Promote Li-Style Taijiquan

As Taijiquan is going global,the culture embodied in this traditional physical practice is gaining wider attention and interest among the people around the worl...     

Almost under the same sky: reclaiming urbanity beyond an epidemic

Abstract

This essay deals with the social and political after‐shock introduced by SARS, which is considered here as both a public health outbreak and an urban cultural crisis. In Hong Kong, several years after the epidemic episode, the people’s voice regarding urban spatial politics, governance, and the media has not only grown louder, but has also been profoundly transformed into collective effervescence. This essay is based on over 50 interviews of ordinary Hong Kong residents from a wide spectrum of demographics. A particular focal point of the interviews was, inevitably, the participants’ reformulation of their identity as a function of urban crisis. Chiefly a documentation of the vernaculars of public criticism offered by the citizens of Hong Kong, this essay relates post‐SARS public sentiments to the (somewhat fiddly) development of democratic ideals that is animating our urban imagination today.