X-Files

It’s that time of the year again: when film geeks around the world argue about whether Die Hard and Batman Returns are Christmas films or not. The gang at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture has put together its usual Christmas Special episode, this time taking the topic of the year’s summer series, the Lost Summer, as a starting point: what, culturally speaking, have we lost this year… and what have we found? Join Matt, Julie, Alan, Mege and Sam as they ponder their Losts and Founds for 2025 – and everyone here at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture wishes you very happy holidays. Enjoy the remaining days of 2025, spend some quality time with your loved ones, and make sure to enjoy some damn fine films, series, books, games, songs, albums while you’re at it!

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Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness!

To me, The Lord of the Rings is unreadable. Not because the writing is bad; it’s not. And not because I am not into fantasy; while it’s not my favourite genre, I don’t run for the hills if someone suggests a good fantasy novel to me. I have not yet read a bad China Miéville novel, if that is anything to go on. I am also not afraid of super-long novels, either – behold, I am the guy who read Infinite Jest and loved it. It’s just that investing myself in a heavy brick of a novel, there is a point where the text has to convince me that it’s worth wading through it for the next couple of days or weeks.

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