literature

Supernatural fiction studies book – “A Feeling of Wrongness” (Penn State University Press, 2018) – Joe Packer interview

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Joe Packer is a communications academic and became interested in how pessimism is expressed in popular culture. He co-wrote a book on the subject and we discussed it.

0:56 – Joe talks about how he got into writing about pessimism in popular culture. He references Lovecraft.

2:14 – Joe talks about the book and philosophical pessimism. The book focuses on the idea that things would be better if humans didn’t even exist.

6:31 – Joe talks about why they incorporated True Detective, Rick and Morty, and Final Fantasy VII into the book’s ideas.

12:37 – Joe talked about other works they considered including such as drone metal.

16:08 – Joe talks about their backgrounds in communications studies.

17:09 – Joe talks about the short story “I have No Mouth and I Must Scream” and how it affected him.

22:53 – Joe talks about post-apocalyptic films.

27:38 – Joe talks about the philosophies of BioShock.

28:52 – Joe is on academia.edu and Google Scholar.

Links of interest

A Feeling of Wrongness https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08235-6.html

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Joe Packer

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, art, artist, Rick and Morty, True Detective, Lovecraft, Final Fantasy VII, Inside Out, drone metal, Get Out, BioShock, video games

Race, Gender, and Disability in Spec Fiction – “Bodyminds Reimagined” (Duke University Press, 2018) – Sami Schalk interview

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Dr. Sami Schalk is an academic who studies race, gender and disability in contemporary American literature and culture. We spoke about her latest book on science and speculative fiction as it relates to her studies.

1:05 – Sami first got into speculative fiction through Octavia Butler.

3:38 – Sami talks about her book.

5:00 – Sami mentions some of the works she studied like Stigmata by Perry and other works in the field.

10:29 – Sami talks about Octavia Butler’s letters and files and the studies she was doing in disability and science.

12:34 – Sami talks about some of the history of speculative fiction by minority groups.

14:45 – Film and tv are getting better with race and gender but not with disabilities.

16:35 – Sami talks about some of the fan websites she used to do her research.

21:41 – Sami talks about which disabilities are most written about and which are not written about as much.

25:37 – Sami talks about how Octavia Butler’s works presents power in uncomfortable ways. The dynamics Butler applies are complicated.

35:50 – Sami has a professional facebook page under Dr. Sami Schalk. She also has a twitter account @drsamischalk. Readers can buy the book on the Duke University Press at a 30% discount if they use the code “E18BODYM” without the quotes.

Links of interest

https://samischalk.com/

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Sami Schalk

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, speculative fiction, disability, gender, race, Octavia Butler, literature, culture

Fantasy works and climate change – “Fire and Snow” (SUNY Press, 2018) – Marc DiPaolo interview

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Dr. Marc DiPaolo is an English literature academic who likes to write on pop culture. We discuss his latest book deals with climate fiction as found in sci-fi and fantasy books and video entertainment.

1:26 – Marc talks about how he got into studying genre pop culture. He got into Game of Thrones and Narnia audibooks and noted how much they get into climate and environmental issues.

3:46 – Marc talks about how these environmental themes were connected between works and authors. He looked at Philip Pullman, Octavia Butler, GRR Martin, CS Lewis and others. He also considered the Inklings, Dr. Who, Mad Max and so on. He also gets into Star Trek and Star Wars.

6:55 – He didn’t want to just do books or popular culture. He wanted to bring everything together.

11:50 – Marc talks about the inclusion of religion in this climate fiction.

15:56 – Marc talks about he did his research.

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Marc DiPaolo

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, Game of Thrones, Narnia, Tolkien, Lewis, Mad Max, Octavia Butler, environmentalism, Dr. Who, Star Trek, Star Wars