Storyological 1.22 - BUMBLING AND MURDERING

1.  SLIPPING by Lauren Beukes, Berlin Quarterly

2. THE INFAMOUS BENGAL MING by Rajesh Parameswaran

along with, among other things... 

Some things about Sense8

• Sense8 and the Failure of Global Imagination
• Sympathetic Sci-fi
• Is Sense8 Too Radical for Critics?

Some things about Universal Soldier

• The 'Universal Soldier' Paradox: When a Bad Franchise Produces a Great Film
• Old Skool.

Some things about Bojack Horseman and that underwater episode.

• The Bleakness and Joy of "BoJack Horseman"
• "Fish Out of Water": BoJack Horseman goes underwater and hits its high water mark...
• This BoJack Horseman Episode is a Must-Watch, Even If You've Never Seen the Show

Some things about Kafka and his story "Metamorphosis."

• Franz Kafka Says the Insect in The Metamorphosis Should Never Be Drawn; Vladimir Nabokov Draws It Anyway
• On Translating Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

Some things about tension and/or suspense depending on which word you prefer.

• 25 Things You Should Know About Suspense and Tension according to Chuck Wendig.
• "The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last." -- Oscar Wilde
• Such as that one moment from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly when everything gets like so super tense you might literally die. Or not.

Storyological 1.21 - THE BOURNE LAMPSHADE

In which we discuss,

1. The Wombly by K.L. Morris, *Shimmer*

2. Directions by Judy Budnitz, *Flying Leap*

along with, among other things...

• The Bechdel Test and a Sexy Lamp, or, if you prefer, just the sexy lamp.
• All the everything rhymes.
• Those two episodes of our podcast— THE DEAD GIRL IN THE ROOM—where we discussed “Singing My Sister Down” by Margo Lanagan and—THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL THING—where we discussed “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders
• THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson, and other stories of crime and punishment.
• Morality in fiction.
• Aimee Bender
  • That one story by Aimee Bender with a family in a house and weird stuff happens “Americca”; not to be confused with Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • That one story by Aimee Bender where the dad has a hole in his stomach “Marzipan.”
  • The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
• In the uncharted backwaters…
• That one setting for photography—HDR, which is actually not high-dynamic-resolution but, of course, HIGH-DYNAMIC-RANGE IMAGING. Silly words.
• The importance of CHORUSES, as explained by Chuck Pahlianuk

Storyological 1.19 - THE DEAD GIRL IN THE ROOM

In which we discuss

1. "Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan

Pokemon from giphy.com

2. "The Bog Girl" by Karen Russell, The New Yorker

Corpse Bride from giphy.com

along with, among other things...

• That one Margo Lanagan collection, Black Juice
• That one movie with a some famous slow motion, Chariots of Fire
• The canon of crime and punishment
  • That one story by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”
  • That one episode where we discussed “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders, THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL THING
• That cognitive effect, learned helplessness
• Pavlov
• The science of torture

• Karen Russell, on horror and humor
• “The Bog Girl” as read by Karen Russell
• Tim Burton
• Love will tear us apart.
• Films of less than real (or sometimes really real) girls
  • Lars and the Real Girl
  • Mannequin
  • Air Doll[1]
  • Her
• P.G. Wodehouse
• Girls are real people, too.
• That one word for the hashtag, octothorpe.

[1]: Of note, this film stars the amazing Bae Doo-na, what you might recognize from the also awesome Sense 8

Storyological 1.18 - THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL THING

In which we discuss,

1. "Escape from Spiderhead" by George Saunders, New Yorker

VIA GIPHY.COM, FROM "BURN THE WITCH" BY RADIOHEAD

2. "Bed Among the Lentils" by Alan Bennett, Talking Heads

VIA GIPHY.COM, FROM, WELL, ONE OF THE POTTER FILMS, ISN'T IT?

along with, among other things...

• That one collection written by George Saunders,10th of December

No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost, the unlucky, the disenfranchised, those Americans who struggle to pay the bills, make the rent, hold onto a job they might detest — folks who find their dreams slipping from their grasp as they frantically tread water, trying to keep from drowning.

• George Saunders on Discovering His Voice, and not wanting to be ‘interesting’
• Some Brief and Frightening Tips from George Saunders
• “Mr. Vonnegut in Sumatra” by George Saunders from The Braindead Megaphone

I was thinking back in Sumatra, in 1982, this is a classic? Aliens did not belong in classics. Aliens belonged in movies. Aliens were great; I loved aliens in movies, but I did not want them in my Literature. What I wanted in my Literature was a somber, wounded, masterly presence, regarding the world with a jaundiced, totally humorless eye...

A forest was a forest, he seemed to be saying, let’s not get all flaky about it. He did not seem to believe, as I had read Tolstoy did, that his purpose as a writer was to use words to replicate his experience, to make you feel and think and see what he had felt. This book was not a recounting of Vonnegut’s actual war experience, but a usage of it. What intrigued me—also annoyed me—was trying to figure out the purpose of this usage. If he wasn’t trying to make me know what he knew and feel what he’d felt, then what was the book for?

In fact, Slaughterhouse Five seemed to be saying, our most profound experiences may require this artistic uncoupling from the actual. The black box is meant to change us. If the change will be greater via the use of invented, absurd material, so be it. We are meant to exit the book altered.

• Edmund Burke said a thing once like, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
• But, on Wikiquote, there’s a fascinating disputed section concerning this quote, e.g.

This purported quote bears a resemblance to the narrated theme of Sergei Bondarchuk's Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's book "War and Peace", in which the narrator declares "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing", although since the original is in Russian various translations to English are possible. This purported quote also bears resemblance to a quote widely attributed to Plato, that said "The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." It also bears resemblance to what Albert Einstein wrote as part of his tribute to Pablo Casals: "The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it."

• Talking Heads by Alan Bennett
• Alan Bennett

Anglophiles, and especially lovers of the high art of English loneliness, are probably already familiar with ''Talking Heads,'' which Mr. Bennett originally wrote for BBC television in the late 1980's. Several of the installments, including Maggie Smith's deliciously dry portrait of a wine-soaked vicar's wife in ''Bed Among the Lentils,'' instantly became genteel cult classics.

• That thing Zadie Smith said once was actually: “Time is how you spend your love.”
• Which, while similar, is actually quite different from, “Love is how you spend your attention.”
• Maggie Smith, dowager countess and professor of transmography.
• The stiff upper lip, and the possible mythicalness thereof.
• That one episode where we discussed Helen Oyeyemi’s story “presence,” from her collection What is Not Yours
• John Green, tired of adults telling teenagers they’re not smart.
• That one John Green commencement speech. in which he talks about the lenght of grass.
• That one episode, long ago, where we first mentioned how the magic in your story should always work, not for, but against your characters, NOW I’M ONLY FALLING APART.

Storyological 1.17 - A DIFFERENT KIND OF GHOST

In which we discuss,

1. "Man on the Stairs" by Miranda July, from Fence

2. "presence" by Helen Oyeyemi, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

along with, among other things...

• Hyuna, “Bubble Pop” and “Ice Cream”
• No One Belongs Here More Than You
• Voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the babe.
• Maria Konnikova.
• Depressive realism.
• Depressive realism may not be real.
• Hitchcock on cinematic tension.
• Yoda, in Empire Strikes Back

  A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have a I watched. All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.

• The Silence, from Doctor Who.

• What Is Not Yours, Is Not Yours

• That cheesy korean song.
• The troubles with seeing yourself.
• 2PM, not 2AM). Also, it turns out 2AM is another boy group. Not, in fact, a girl group.
• Repetition, modes of conversation.
• That thing Chris remembered Neil talking about is not that different from Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory, sometimes known as the ‘theory of omission’

Storyological 1.16 - WEDNESDAY, FULL OF WOE

In which we discuss...

1. "Wednesday’s Story" by Wole Talabi, Lightspeed

2. "See You in the Morning" by Mairead Case, Midnight Breakfast

along with, among other things,

• Two nursery rhymes from which, in part, “Wednesday’s Story” comes…
  • Solomon Grundy
  • Monday’s Child
• Author Spotlight: Wole Talabi, by Christie Yant.
• Aesop's fables.
• October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman.
• Trapped in narratives
  • “A people trapped in narratives and memories : facing pacification in the Great Lakes Region of Africa” by Tshimba David Ngendo

  • People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. ~James Baldwin
    

• Devin Faraci. “Fandom is Broken”
• The ending of Jay and Silent Bob
• Some writing in response to Devin’s writing
  • “Fandom isn’t broken-it’s just not only for white dudes anymore”
  • “Why we’re terrified of fanfiction”
  • “A response to Devin Faraci’s ‘Fandom is Broken’ in three parts”
  • Devin, himself, in response to responses, “Yes, Disney Should Have a Queer Princess”
• Michael Knight
• Why does Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye still resonate?
• Diary of a Teenage Girl

Storyological 1.14 - LAMBORGHINIS AND OTHER SIGNIFIERS

In which we discuss,

1. "Her Majesty's Lamborghini and the Girl With The Fish Tank" by JY Yang, Lontar #6

2. "You Can't See It 'Til It's Finished" by Violet Allen, Liminal Stories #1

along with, among other things...

• Radiohead's new album, A Moon Shaped Pool ("Burn the Witch" video)
• That one film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• That one George Saunders fairly long story, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
• That one movie, The Lego Movie
• Ecstatic world building, as discussed by Chris in a review of Nick Harkaway’s Tigerman
• That book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• That one episode where we talked about "Pockets" by Amal El-Mohtar
• Chuck E. Cheese has a surprising relationship with Silicon Valley
• Any excuse for linking to that one XKCD cartoon about adulthood and ball pits.
• The way we communicate. Texting. Gifs. Symbolics.
• Andrew O’Hehir writing in Salon: “Jason Segel on playing David Foster Wallace…”
• Who is Jason Segel? Watch his Dracula Musical and know. (Here’s the story behind the musical.)
• That one book,Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself
• That one David Foster Wallace novel, Infinite Jest
• Ben Thompson writing about friction.

Change is guaranteed, but the type of change is not; never is that more true than today. See, friction makes everything harder, both the good we can do, but also the unimaginably terrible. In our zeal to reduce friction and our eagerness to celebrate the good, we ought not lose sight of the potential bad.

We are creating the future, and “better” does not win by default.

• That one god, Tantalus.
• That one Nietzsche quote.

…for when you gaze long into the abyss…the abyss gazes also into you

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Storyological 1.13 - THE ONE WITH THE SONIC CARROT

In which we discuss,

1. "Thandiwe’s Tokoloshe" by Nick Wood, African Monsters

2. "Appliances" by Nikki Alfar, Heat: A Southeast Asian Urban Anthology, first published in the collection WonderLust.

along with, among other things...

• Bugs Bunny and Doctor Who, and other heroes who win with their wits. This is a blog post from Simpsons storyboard artist, Luis Escobar, and it’s fairly awesome.
• The Tokoloshe.
• Patricia McKillip, Dreams of Distant Shores
• The magic was inside of you all along.
• Watchmen.
• The best of the Cheese Man from “Restless”, the fourth season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• Also, an analysis of the Cheese as Metaphor.

  • ”…many devoted Whedon fans argue emphatically that the cheese man means nothing cos Joss says so. “The cheese man means nothing. He is the only thing in the show that means nothing.” Ah ha! See? This can mean only one of two possibilities. Either Joss is trying to throw us off the scent... or he is in denial. So I have made it my mission to discover and reveal the secrets of the cheese guy. And I think I may have cracked it.”

• Advertising. Hyperreality. Fascination. Also. Jean Baudrillard.
• That one episode, YOU MUST UNLEARN WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED, where we discussed “Six Things We Found During the Autopsy” by Kuzhali Manickavel.

Also.
You can find Nick Wood, here, and read more of Nikki Alfar here and here.

Also, also.

Enjoying the podcast?

If so, we'd love if you left us a review on iTunes. Thank you~^-^

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Storyological 1.12 - HUNGER. SAINTS. BIRDS.

In which we discuss,

1. "Birdwoman" by Pemi Aguda, Omenana

2. "Saint of Rabbits" and "Inside the Witch's House" by Carmen Lau, The Girl Wakes

Along with, among other things...

• The Power of Grace

• Speaking of story structures, here are some illustrations of Kurt Vonnegut’s ideas on story structure.

• CC Finlay and some tweets

Almost all of these stories would be better with less summary and more scene. Externalize the action. Introduce a second character.

— CC Finlay (@ccfinlay) April 16, 2016

• Icarus

• Superman

  Tom says, “You’re crazy. Get the f— away from me!” I said, “Tom, listen. You’ve got to read this.” I gave him all my feelings about what we should do. I said, “The most important thing when you look at it is this: Make a love story. And prove a man can fly.” So he read it and he called me that night and said, “You know, there’s a lot we can do with this.”

• Hansel and Gretel.

• Some thoughts on writing flash fiction

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.” - Kafka

Enjoying the podcast?

If so, we'd love if you left us a review on iTunes. Thank you~^-^

Leave a review on iTunes.

Storyological 1.11 - SOMETHING TO FALL IN LOVE WITH

In which we discuss

1. "The House of Aunts" by Zen Cho, Giganotosaurus

2. "Michael Doesn't Hate His Mother" by Marie Vibbert, Lightspeed

along with, among other things...

• Pontianak
• Last week’s podcast with “Hwang’s Billion Brilliant Daughters” and “The Husband Stitch”
• Jane Austen
• Literary monsters
• Terry Pratchett isn’t jolly. He’s angry.
• “I Shall Wear Midnight”
• Food, Glorious Food
• Will, in The Subtle Knife
• Sam J. Miller’s, “Clarion 2012: Every Brilliant Piece of Writing Advice”, including, among other things, start with the goosebumps
• Flowers in the Attic
• “Solitude and the Fortresses of Youth” by Michael Chabon
• I Kill Giants
• Holly Black, in an interview with To the Best of our Knowledge talking about literalizing feelings.
• Chesterton on fairy tales
• Gaiman paraphrasing Chesterton
• Ending of Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail