Writing
A sample of my written work from 2022-2025
An American in Paris
I hate Paris. I love Paris. I don’t know what to do with that.
I rewatched An American in Paris recently. …The more and more I visit Paris, the more I find myself disliking it…Whenever I am in Paris, I find myself faced with this overwhelming pressure to do everything in Paris…I think one could spend a lifetime in Paris and never truly experience it because they spent the whole time trying to experience Paris. It is a trap, and it is a plague. I truly believe the last person to be happy in Paris was Gene Kelly in An American in Paris. (And despite Jerry Mulligan’s lack of prospects, somehow, he is happy).
That’s Robert Redford, He’s a Movie Star
Remembering Robert Redford, 1936-2025
The summer [my father] showed me Butch Cassidy [and the Sundance Kid] for the first time; he pointed to the cowboy with the mustache who shot better when he moved and said: “that’s Robert Redford. He’s a movie star”
That’s Robert Redford. He’s a movie star.
The last time I was in Paris, I bought a book. …My trip to Paris was not solely based around buying a book, but as someone who does not love Paris and only travels there when I can out of some strange sense of obligation, my one “to-do” item while in the city was to purchase a book at Shakespeare and Company.
That book was James Baldwin’s sophomore novel, Giovanni’s Room… Giovanni’s Room became my favorite novel.
30 Days of Queer Art: ‘Giovanni’s Room’ by James Baldwin
“I scarcely know how to describe that room. It became, in a way, every room I had ever been in and every room I find myself in hereafter will remind me of Giovanni's Room."
“Rouvière as Hamlet” and Other Stories
Stories are cool, did you know that?
I want to tell you a story…
Have you heard this story before? You must have. This is an old story.
It is the story of Hamlet the Dane. The tragedy of Prince Hamlet. It is one of the oldest stories every told.
It is one of my favorites.
The Film Canon
On those moments. Ya know?
In my last semester of undergrad, I took a class about cinephilia. Cinephilia, using the Greek root "-philia,” meaning “to love,” is a kind of love of the movies. It is an unnatural love of movies and of movie culture more specifically. As my professor pointed out, everyone likes the movies, but you have to love the movies. The cinephile is not just someone who watches movies, they live for the movies. The cinephile is not just content with watching a movie for the plot, they watch the movie for everything about the movie. They are not content with just a story. As a classmate of mine said, “if I wanted to tell stories, I’d be a novelist. I want to make movies.”
Monstrous Soft Power: The Death of Jean Grey and 1970s American Politics
“‘Here me X-Men!’ No longer am I the woman you knew! I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever! — I am Phoenix!’”
“Welcome to the last moments of a young woman’s life. Her name is Jean Grey…Witness the birth of a god! Her name is Jean Grey.” These are the words that open Uncanny X-Men (UXM) (1975) #101 and #136, written by Chris Claremont with art by David Cockrum (101) and John Byrne (136). UXM #101 and #136 are the beginning and end of the Phoenix Saga and Dark Phoenix Saga, two of the many major arches throughout Claremont’s tenure on the X-Men title, which would come to define the franchise going forward.