Civil rights, video games, misogyny, movies, Shakespeare, TV, cosmic horror, and a live musical performance! And we even take time to mention how we don’t have time to talk about Notre Dame. Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
Have you read any Lovecraft? Do you have a favourite story? –Craig
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Just finished the 3rd True Detective. I thought it was the best one so far, and also was a sort of antithesis to the first season. Another show on HBO that I just started watching and like a lot is “Barry.”
We watched season 1 of Barry. I liked it, but it was a bit… harrowing, for me. I’m not sure I’ll go back to it.
Hmm, I’m not sure I’m up for harrowing either. Have to see how it goes.
Keep the opening explanation bit. It makes me smile.
As you wish. 🙂
I think there are some important differences between systemic oppression based on race or class and systemic oppression based on gender–some of which you were both pointing too. The fundamental difference has to do with whether the group of people is generally segregated from those with more privilege. Because women are not segregated in quite the same way I think there is more of a chance for women to make changes to the system, but also more of a chance for some women with privilege to improve their own situation at the expense of other women of a lower class or at the expense of women of color. This is one of the main criticisms of feminism of the generation of people like Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem. But also because women are less segregated, the ideological basis for oppression seems stronger (as in the evolutionary biology explanations).
That is a fascinating point! Opens a whole new perspective in the “feminism vs anti-racism” discussion.
When you started talking about “Native Son,” I had a strange moment where I thought the title of the episode referred to the character from the novel, Gus, and I thought, why do they think “Gus is hot”–that’s weird.
Lovecraft and games–I know my son finds a Lovecraft connection with the Dark Souls games.
Lovecraft and race: I’ve heard “The Ballad of Black Tom” is good. It’s a rewrite of “The Horror at Red Hook” by Victor LaValle in which the story is told from the POV of an African-American character.
Cosmic horror: “Event Horizon” is a movie along those lines. I’m not sure if this movie really fits, but it’s one of my favourite horror movies (which is saying something since I don’t usually like horror) and I was reminded to recommend is (again?)–anyway, it’s “Pontypool.” It takes place mostly within the confines of a radio station and the source of fear/horror has to do with language (which is probably why I like it).
Event Horizon is awesome and VERY Lovecraftian.
I really need to watch Pontypool. I’ve needed to for a while.
I use a lot of British spellings, I think because I read more British fiction than American fiction–and much more when I was a kid. The “ou” spelling I will sometimes correct because spellcheck will flag it, but it still looks wrong. On some words “ize” looks wrong, but on others “ise” does. Like “apologise” looks right, but “organise” looks wrong. And the single “l” on some words when adding a suffix always looks wrong–to the point that I want to pronounce it differently. Like “traveling”–what the heck is that? Do you pronounce it tr-ay-vel-ing?
I have mixed feelings about Lovecraft’s writing. The racism is horrible and far too common, even for the writing of its time. I’ve read maybe a third of his material and it is very hit and miss. From what I’ve read I have wondered about whether he was both a lucid dreamer and prone to nightmares. The earlier works (less horror, more otherworldly) are very dreamlike before the later material descends into what he is more known for.
My actual prompt for the question was listening to a Radio 4 audio drama that adapted The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and presented it as a serialised investigative podcast. It was really well done and I would recommend listening to it.
Oh, wow! Yes, I definitely want to get my hands on that.