Questioning the Canon

Come stake your claim to 28,000 acres of the richest soil this side of the Valley Nile as we cover the classic southern gothic play, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Turn away from the lies you've been telling yourself as we explore the depths of unrequited relationships, alcoholism, and even recipes for hoppin' john. The podcast takes a trip down into the cellar as we confront the difficult life of the author, Tennessee Williams, the play's infamous director, Elia Kazan, and even a brief history of the HUAC trials and what that meant for the arts in the 1950's. Hopefully, you'll be able to face the hard truths with us at last as we make our way to bed. Nobody is sleeping on the couch tonight!

We've been on a bit of an expedition of sorts, and we come back bearing news. Terrible news! Namely about the author of our book this month, H.P. Lovecraft. What? You already knew he wasn't great? Oh, dear listener, keep you radios dialed in, we have much to tell. We also share our findings on Earth's ancient history, videogames, and even why you get sick when you go up a mountain quickly! Make sure you're well outfitted for this one, we had a lot to say, maybe because we've been away for so long. Tekeli-li!

Now that holidays are over, maybe it's time you started to process some of the trauma you've been accumulating for all of these years, and there's no better book to highlight trauma than Toni Morrison's Beloved. We do a deep dive into despair, dissociation, and what it can mean to come to terms with something you never thought you'd be able to face. We also take the time to explore several famous black tragedies that inspired this book and helped shape Toni Morrison as an artist and author. There isn't typically a convenient time for our past to come back and haunt us (sometimes literally), but we need to make room for it when it does. This is how we grow.

This month we're back with a traditional Christmas ghost story.  Because Christmas and ghosts are a thing, right?  Well, according to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens they are, and, as we discuss in this episode, whatever this books says is Christmas is DEFINITIVELY Christmas.   We visits topics such as the meteorological conditions of when this book was written as well as nighttime hallucinations and, especially, the lifetime of the extremely famous author of this returned to classic.  This is all for your benefit so trust us as we guide you through important things you need to know to survive your Christmas season.  And, maybe you'll be better for it in the end, who can say?  Merry Christmas!

Welcome to our house...Hop a train with us to far off Carpathia and dank dark evils of Castle Dracula as we explore what made this 1897 novel such an enduring story through the years. We spend extra time talking about all things medical and what Bram Stoker may have been trying to say about women in the Victorian society he lived in. We drank our fill on the biggest movies the feature the dear count as well and had a bloody good time doing it. Listen to us, the podcasters of the night...

Have you ever gone back to really examine something you loved when you were younger? This month we dig into our record collection and put a fresh spin on Nick Hornby's 1995 novel High Fidelity. The movie of this film from 2000 made a big impact on me in high school, so much so that I didn't even realize how much I thought about it in my day to day life. We have a compilation of takes on the book, including why I think the protagonist Rob struggles so much. Make sure you turntable speed is set to 33 RPM, this is definitely and LP.

Here we go! In this hot, stormy summer weather, we've decided to take a field trip to Oz and explore the 1900 book the Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Of course we cover the 1939 movie as well and we found we had a A LOT to say about it and other related projects. If you want to learn about the life of Baum and even what poppy plants are famous for, we've got all of that packed up and ready for you. Come on and get inside, I see a twister comin'.

It's fitting that our longest episode to date should be covering the longest book we've done so far. Gone With the Wind is a monolithic book and movie that has had heavy influence on American history, certainly well beyond whatever Margaret Mitchell may have intended with it in 1936. In this episode, we cover the landscape of the Civil War, survival, and the Myth of the Lost Cause and some of what that means for America after Reconstruction. Further, we get into why Scarlett is such a frustrating yet irresistible character whose appeal has endured for decades. Join us as we sort out fiction from fact in this famous/infamous piece of historical fiction.

It's time to drift out across the farmlands of Iowa to find your one true love on a random encounter. Or not. This month we cover the wildly popular Bridges of Madison County and discuss what made the book so impactful and maybe why it hasn't stayed alive in public discourse over the years. For not being a particularly long book, we found a lot of great topics to cover, even though we definitely had our opinions on the book itself. Maybe this is who we are and who we're meant to be. Or maybe we should just get over ourselves. Either way!

All aboard for Season 4! We crash through snowy Russian landscapes and meander about pastoral Russian farmlands in our exploration of Russian foundational novel Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. We certainly had enough to say on this one, which is not surprising as the book is well over 700 pages in length with overflowing detail on every page. If you've never made the trip all the way through this one (just like I hadn't until recently), travel along with us as we sojourn to light and dark places alike. Sometimes it's more about the journey than it is about arriving anywhere in particular.