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With next month marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this seems like an appropriate time to critically examine the fascination generations of writers and filmmakers have had with the moon. What is it about space travel that was so interesting to Jules Verne when he wrote FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON? George Melies was certainly inspired by Verne when he made his pioneering short film A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902). Melies actually allows his characters to land on the moon, not just circle around it as in the Verne original. It was Fritz Lang who first showed audiences the possibilities of rocket travel in his 1929 German silent film WOMAN IN THE MOON. What is the relationship between these works of science fiction and the scientific facts? And what insight have writers and filmmakers provided about humanity's relationship with the rest of the universe?

A significant portion of contemporary internet memes seem to trivialize and wish for death, often to the concerned bewilderment of older generations. Is using memes to discus death a new exercise, or are memes simply a the most recent in a long tradition of staving off the Grim Reaper with humor? Look at representations of Death in various cultures' art and performance theater as a humorous or benign force or figure (memento mori paintings, the Grim Reaper, Beetlejuice, etc.) and compare them to modern memes which focus on death and dying.

Why the trend in independent games of 8-bit graphics and music? What started it, and why has it continued for so long? Why would game makers and game players want to regress to a time when video games were stripped down and basic? Is it just pure nostalgia? It is a reflection on the decline of clever game design in AAA video games over time? Look at games such as Shovel Knight, Hotline Miami, Gunpoint.

As long as movies have been a popular form of entertainment, there has always been a standing genre that a majority of movies released at the time fall under. With movies like Endgame and Logan providing a sort of pseudo conclusion to long running movie series that have been keeping viewers hooked and willing to watch anything wearing a cape or having -blank-MAN in the title; I can't help but wonder what everyone thinks is coming next. Is it already here and I've missed it? Maybe there's someone who's been around the block that already sees it coming? P.S. Anyone else feel like Logan acknowledged this by being just as much a western as a superhero movie as a way to send off not just Hugh Jackman but also the mainstream state of the genre as a whole?

Perhaps a less philosophical topic, but I'd love to see just a short article analysing various light novel titles. I've noticed a trend in which many of them have excessively long titles, some overly descriptive, but some not so much? I'd love to know why, or even just read about some common themes in them.
A lot of them, as a result of their overly-wordiness, also tend to have nicknames, which could also be interesting to look at.

There are plenty of examples to look at:
Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka (DanMachi) (Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon?)

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sō Desu yo? (Mondaiji) (Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren't they?)

Ore no Nōnai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Rabu Kome o Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru (Noucome) (My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering with my School Romantic Comedy)

Why the trend in independent games of 8-bit graphics and music? What started it, and why has it continued for so long? Why would game makers and game players want to regress to a time when video games were stripped down and basic? Is it just pure nostalgia? It is a reflection on the decline of clever game design in AAA video games over time?

Beta gaming and early access play have become a mainstream ploy within the video games industry that is used to generate publicity and garner public opinion before a game is 'fully released'. However, as recently exampled by the Anthem debacle beta gaming and early access play present a host of problems for games designers and indeed the gaming public. These issues are heightened and compounded by marketing campaigns that present early access video games as a mostly finished product and foster an expectation that early access offers an advantage over other players who opt to purchase after the official release date. This article examines why beta gaming has become prevalent in modern gaming and why the abuse of DLC has led to some games being released that otherwise would be considered incomplete.

Seeing how popular culture is flourishing in the waves of 80's revival culture with television hits like Stranger Things, movies like Bladerunner 2049, and a new brat pack, how long will this movement last? Is quality entertainment and/or art coming from this movement and what might be the next driving force of popular culture. Will it be another renaissance or a new set of genres?

Increasingly, classic literary works are being reinterpreted in graphic novel format. William Shakespeare's plays have been reimagined as graphic novels, as have famous novels like Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and even some nonfiction such as Machiavelli's The Prince or the diary of Anne Frank. What might be some factors driving the current trend in graphic novelizations of literary classics? Does the graphic novel format provide any benefits that an ordinary book would lack, and, conversely, what might be some unique challenges these graphic-novel adaptations face? Are there any literary works that might lend themselves particularly well to the graphic-novel format, or any that would be particularly difficult to adapt?

Detail the history of the extremely popular true crime comedy podcast My Favorite Murder, from their inception to their recent book release titled Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered. Are we living in a "new era of true crime fascination," as some have suggested? Research the global response of the podcast resulting in millions of "murderinos," and avid listeners. Does the success of My Favorite Murder suggest that interest in true crime is more common than previously thought? Is this interest healthy? Are Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, the show's hosts, honoring the victims of the stories they recount? Does My Favorite Murder glorify violent crime? Touch on the titles of the chapters in the memoir, each corresponding to a catchphrase one of the women have coined during the taping of their show over the past four years. Does Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered qualify as a "self-help" book? Is their path to success unprecedented and representative of the digital age?

Everyone I know, excluding my old-school parents, have subscriptions to one or many subscription-based movie/TV show sites. Netflix, Hulu, HBO, etc. They all seem to more or less run the world. It matters so much to us when they take down well-loved series or put up a hot, new movie. But how, if at all, is this effecting cable companies, and people who refuse to give up their commercial-ridden television? Will television become obsolete to Smart Televisions that do not use cable?

Writing about nature is an interesting way to go about creative nonfiction. Nature writing forces a writer out of their comfort zone and requires them to have a personal interaction with the world around them. Some nature writers travel for months at a time following a flock of birds, living in a wooded area, or experiencing different climates, all while taking notes and collecting research. What impact does this interaction with nature have on the writer? How does this help the writer grow? What are the limits of nature writing? Nature is an interesting topic in the field of writing that should be explored and discovered.

In the past several years, we've seen the production of movies such as "Hidden Figures", "Hacksaw Ridge", and "Dunkirk", just to name a few. All of these movies have the fact that they were based on a true story in common. These are only a few of such movies, with easily a dozen others having come out within the past decade, or even less, within the past five or so years. What is it about these "true story style movies" that has made them so incredibly popular within the past ten years? What aspect of society does their popularity stem from? Is it just filmmakers trying to come up with viable movie ideas, or is there a deeper societal meaning that contributes to their success?

Is the era of the dystopian over? We seem to be seeing a slow rise in the quantity of utopian fantasy and science fiction works being published year-over-year. What can be read from this potential turn away from the primacy of dystopian literature? In addition to these questions, why is it that increase in published utopian literary works does not seem to be a trend that is, as yet, reflected in film?

In Frank Miller's Sin City (1991-2000), the prostitutes of Old Town, Basin City's red light district, keep the pimps and cops out. In a city filled with corrupt cops and politicians, they are the only semblance of true justice. But are they a good portrayal of strong female characters or are they merely a male fantasy? Analyze how well the women of Old Town hold up in the age of #MeToo.

It seems like pregnancy in fiction and other popular media tends to follow a certain stereotyped and predictable trajectory, which isn't usually very realistic. Usually what will happen is a woman will discover she's pregnant in an overly emotional scene after she's thrown up a few times, then will get bigger for a while until she gives birth to a beautiful, cooing baby in an unrealistically clean and idealized setting. Examples of this are too numerous to list, though one famous one can be seen in the anime movie Wolf Children. It's also common in fanfiction.

Sometimes, of course, the woman will die in childbirth; however, if this happens it will also be overly-dramatic and sanitized compared to what a death in childbirth would really look like. In the anime "Clannad," for example, Nagisa dies shortly after the birth of her daughter on a clean bed with a smile on her face, while her husband looks on in tears.

What do you think is driving some of these trends of unrealistic pregnancy in fiction? Are there any works that seem to do a more realistic job of portraying pregnancy and birth?

Media is always being adapted into other forms. Books to movies, movies to games, games to movies, and a plethora of other combinations. When this adaptation occurs, those who have seen the previous media go into the new form with a preconceived set of expectations, and a past knowledge of the storyline which is not always what is given in the second form of media. Take Guardians of the Galaxy 2, for example, and the multitude of changes noted around the internet that occurred to the aesthetic of the movie, as well as the story. Or the recent ending of Game of Thrones, where the last few seasons were completed before the book series, leaving a big grey area as to whether or not the author will follow the storyline of the show or take the novel in a wholly different direction. Are these changes within the adaptation good? Are they necessary? As well, for those who have seen the previous medium does this change provide a new experience to the original?

A trope I've seen quite commonly in manga is that of the 'death game'. Usually, a group of students wakes up in some closed-off area, with mysterious instructions to either kill each other, perform acts that might end in death, vote people to die, etc.

I'd love to see an analysis of why this genre is so prolific. Perhaps a look at the themes it deals with, and how despite the large number of manga, there are still so many unique ideas.

Possible example to look at could be: Ousama Game, Jinrou Game, Tomogui Kyoushitsu, Doubt, etc.

Unless it's really well done or in-line with the artstyle, CGI in anime is ugly, easily noticeable, and immersion-breaking. Whenever I see it, I can't focus on anything else but the mess of the 3d rig in a scene. A prime offender is Goblin Slayer – which replaced the protagonist completely at times with a poorly rigged and stiffly animated CG double. I believe one reason for this is budget constraints, but I see it as a negative trend within the Anime industry. What can we do about it?

9/11 drastically changed the action genre, which was previously filled with the blowing up of beloved buildings and terrorist attacks. Talk about how 9/11 changed the genre, how it evolved to fit a changing world, and if you believe we'll ever return to a world reminiscent of Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day"