SpongeBob SquarePants turned 20 this summer. This is the story of how a marine biology teacher named Stephen Hillenburg gave life to an animated character who continues to delight fans worldwide.
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Posted inReading List
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2018
The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
Posted inArts & Culture, Story
On Flooding: Drowning the Culture in Sameness
Flooding (v.): Unleashing a mass torrent of the same stories by the same storytellers at the same time, making it almost impossible for anyone but the same select few to rise to the surface.
Posted inArts & Culture, Science & Nature, Story
Critics: Endgame
If there’s no earth, there’s no art. How do you engage in cultural criticism at the end of the world?
Posted inNonfiction
My Year on a Shrinking Island
Former baker Michael Mount explores the interplay of community, cookie dough, and changing terrain on Martha’s Vineyard
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Fiction, Story
If Only There Were Someone Who Would Listen
Dror Burstein’s “Muck” sets a difficult course through themes of power, pita bread, and invasion, mixing up the biblical past and the just-as-lamentable present.
Posted inStory
Deconstructing Disney: Motherhood and the Taming of Maleficent
Last week, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released on Disney+. Jeanna Kadlec takes this opportunity to explore how Disney has dealt with their most powerful of witches.
Posted inStory
Deconstructing Disney: The Princess Problem of ‘Frozen II’
Audiences wanted Disney to give Elsa a girlfriend. But the Frozen franchise is at the center of the corporation’s latest princess project, whose nationalist concerns are decidedly here for the gay agenda.
Posted inStory
‘If an Animal Talks, I’m Sold’: An Interview with Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
Ann and Jeff Vandermeer discuss talking animals, the weird/fantasy divide, and the ‘rate of fey’ as an organizing principle in their new anthology of classic fantasy.
Posted inCurrent Events, Feature, Profiles & Interviews, Science & Nature, Story
Notes for a Post-apocalyptic Novel
When things get hard, we look to our most fundamental relationships. This is the story of a son, a father, a camper van, a pandemic, and the ties that bind.
