Coming of Age Archive

Japanese Boy Band Saves the World: Postcolonial Masculinities in Final Fantasy XV

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Only in a Japanese RPG can a boy band save the world from the empire and its demonic biotechnological army. In Final Fantasy XV, four male friends use the empire’s language of violence to decolonize the kingdom of darkness. Somewhere, Fanon’s ghost is drinking sake and smoking Peace cigarettes.

The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Fiddlebacks” by Kimberly King Parsons

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The games children play can tell us a lot about ourselves as human beings, regardless of whether we attribute the inspiration behind them more to nature or nurture. In “Fiddlebacks” (New South), Kimberly King Parsons makes good use of the games played by three siblings, exploring what they reveal

The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Raised by Humans” by Christopher Knapp

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Anyone who has owned a cat has at some point looked on it with envy as it slumbered peacefully through the day. How are they so comfortable in their own skin? So clear in purpose, while we humans struggle so mightily to know who we are and what we

The Work of Fiction and the Fiction of Work

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A life is divided into three parts: the time before you’re able to work, the time after you’re able to work, and the monstrous bulk of time between. After obedience to the law and some basic moral code, work is one of the great demands placed upon the able.

The Best Short Story I Read in a Lit Mag This Week: “Punkin” by Dawn S. Davies

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You could say sentences are to words what good border collies are to sheep: Each take a disorganized group of individuals and compel them to do the collective bidding of their respective bosses. Both the author and shepherd would have a very difficult time without them. But the analogy