Greetings, Felicitations, & Welcome
Thoughts about the entire planet, the universe, and who knows what all?
Welcome to The Vestibule, a space that collects my articles, essays, reviews, observations, protestations, speculations, and other ephemera.
I may even include novel chapters, novellas, screenplays, short stories, stage plays, and teleplays as I complete them, if they are worth sharing and if you—my readers—find them valuable.
The Vestibule functions as an archive of my writing more than a personal blog, since I do not anticipate preparing daily posts, at least not until seeing how this excursion into matters mostly cultural fares.
By training, I am a literary critic whose interest in film, television, and stage drama has made me a hybrid scholar ever since entering graduate school in 1998.
By occupation, I am a professor of English at the University of Guam in Mangilao, Guam.
Some of you may know my books—1) Future Imperfect: The Films of Philip K. Dick; 2) The Postmodern Humanism of Philip K. Dick; 3) Violence Is Power: “The Wire,” “Deadwood,” “Homicide,” and “NYPD Blue”; and 4) Spike Lee: Finding the Story and Forcing the Issue—and scholarly articles.
Others may know my essays, dispatches, and reviews available at The Common Reader: A Journal of the Essay, edited by Gerald Early & Benjamin Fulton, and published by my alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis.
For years, I was uncomfortable with the label author (author!), which always seemed too grand a title for me, a scribbler who jotted and penned and typed and eventually published his notions, but after nearly a quarter-century playing what the late-great William Goldman once called “the writing game,” I see the possibilities of sharing my work in this forum as vital, vibrant, and vivifying—how is that for adjectival exuberance?
I invite everyone who reads the pieces collected here to leave comments, questions, and even complaints to expand the conversations—and perhaps contestations—that these specimens provoke.
As I embark upon this adventure, I hope to post twice each week, which seems a modest (yet realistic) getting-started goal.
Then, depending upon my schedule, I will post more frequently as time marches forward, particularly as I begin writing reviews of just-released works, always aiming to have these pieces ready within a week or two of release.
Indeed, I christen The Vestibule with two long reviews—of the 25th James Bond film (No Time to Die) and Doctor Who’s Series 13 premiere episode (Flux: “Chapter One: The Halloween Apocalypse”)—to give readers a sense of what is in store for them.
You may also begin with two long essays originally posted to Medium: “Mind Warps: Star Trek’s Holographic Worlds & Mediated Realities” and “Django Unbound: American Slave Narratives in the 21st Century.”
Please accept my gratitude for visiting The Vestibule and for reading my work. If, as the late-great Octavia E. Butler once suggested, authors live their best lives in each reader’s good graces, then I hope the pieces collected here are evocative, thoughtful, and worthy of your time.
If they are, I invite you to subscribe to The Vestibule for access to every article, essay, review, and scribble posted here. Thank you, be safe, and be well.
—Jason P. Vest
japaves@yahoo.com
