What’s this all about?

It’s a weekly meet cute between pop culture, the past, and the page.

This is where unlikely pairings happen. Where a 16th-century poet gets side-eyed by a TikTok trend. Where a scene from your favorite rom-com becomes a portal into history. Where books, film, music, and cultural flotsam bump into one another in the supermarket aisle and decide to grab coffee.

I write for the curious. Expect essays, deep dives, and the occasional enthusiastic tangent that connects seemingly unrelated worlds.

Pull up a chair. This is where culture, past and present, swap stories.

Who runs The Middling Place?

Me, myself, and I. I’ve got no crew but my brain, fingertips, and daily intake of popular culture and PhD studies.

My name is Sabrina, by the way. I’m in the middle of earning my PhD in the history of the novel, and often don’t have much time to write about anything but strict literary analysis.

And, literature is SO COOL, when we take the time to not read it strictly for the plot (which is okay), but to see exactly what is being done behind the scenes to move us through the plot.

How are characters developed? Why am I responding so emotionally to this? What themes are being communicated without my knowledge? What is the structure and how does it work to uphold the story? And so on. There is a reason we love these books, and it’s not just plot. Plot has to be upheld by something, and that’s what I’m here for.

Why subscribe?

The real question is: Why not?

It’s free. I’m fun. The writing is good. The historical and literary connections abound. It would be your loss to not hit that subscribe button and type in your email. It also helps support and encourage me in what I’m doing!

.