>> What boys want: Self-loathing antiheroes. In The New York Observer, Leon Neyfakh wonders “Why Do Young Male Writers Love Icky, Tough Guy Deadbeats?” — and why do so many readers buy up these books? Theories explaining this phenomenon include confusion about changing gender roles and the “inevitable disillusionment of idealistic people.” (via fimoculous)

>> What girls want: Vampires. In a long feature essay in The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan explores the complexities of female adolescent desire through the Twilight series. “This is a vampire novel, so it is a novel about sex, but no writer, from Bram Stoker on, has captured so precisely what sex and longing really mean to a young girl.”

Tangentially: In NYC, a woman bites a bus driver because the bus isn’t a hybrid. “Going green was a cause she could really sink her teeth into…. Bolar chomped through a jacket, a sweater and a thick shirt, causing a bruise and swelling but not breaking skin.”

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