How do we imagine and portray the desert? And what does it say about us and our relationship to each other and, crucially, to the planet we live on? In this, the second in a loosely connected series on places in fiction and popular culture, I chat to Dr Aidan read more…
Popular Culture
Ep 41: Romance Novels
His head moved, his mouth glided up her neck with feather-light brushes to that hollow beneath her ear. Then something hot and wet… His tongue. A Mills & Boon romance novel. The style is pretty easy to recognize – and to imitate or parody – because it works to a read more…
Ep 39: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs is no longer a familiar name. Like many other authors, the fame of his greatest creation, in his case Tarzan, has long eclipsed his own. But Burroughs was far more than the creator of Tarzan. He was an early pioneer of science fiction, a master of the read more…
Ep 37: The Golden Age of Piracy
Pirates have been around, for a very long time. As far as the historical record seems to show, they have been around for as long as there have been property and boats. What is it that attracts us to pirates and why have we got such a well-developed set of read more…
Ep 31: Steampunk, Pt 2 (Even Greater London)
Note: Part 1 of this double episode is here One way of thinking about steampunk is to divide it into two parts: the steam and the punk. The steam is the Victorian element: the fascination and engagement with the 19th century – whether satirizing or poking fun at Victorian conventions read more…
Ep 30: Steampunk, Pt 1 (Fetch Me My Fighting Trousers)
Note: This episode is Part 1 of a double episode on steampunk. There are cultures, and subcultures, and sub, sub, sub cultures. There’s science fiction, there’s alternative history, there’s steampunk. There’s hip hop and there’s chaphop There’s an anachronistic Victorian gentleman wearing a pith helmet with an orangutan butler, dissing read more…
Ep25 – Dinosaurs: Palaeontology To Pyjamas
In 1842 a Victorian anatomist looked at some unusual fossils and, noticing they had something in common, he decided we needed a word to describe these strange creatures. He called them dinosaurs. Cut to the present day and there are dinosaur films, TV shows, books, songs, toys, and anything else read more…
Ep 23: Adaptation (How does a book become a film?)
Literary Adaptation The book is always better than the film. Or so they say. But there are obviously quite a few problems with this, as there tends to be with any sweeping generalisation. For some, the book is always better than the film, because books are just better than films, read more…
Episode 22 – Book Clubs: Revolution, Politics, Wine, and Cheese
Book Clubs: Literary Salons to Online Communities The Rick O’Shea Bookclub is Ireland’s largest bookclub. It has 17,000 members and is growing fast. Book clubs have never been more popular. But where did they begin, and what role have they played in literary history? Well, quite a large one, it read more…
Episode 19: Utopia, Pt 2 (Climate Change Fiction)
This week’s episode continues on from the last episode. So, if you haven’t listened to that, head on over to Episode 18 first. From the history of utopia in the last episode, we move to the future of the planet and the climate change fiction that addresses it. Creating read more…
Episode 17: The 10% Brain Myth, from Self-Help to Pulp Fiction to Hollywood
Do we use only 10% of our brain capacity? (Hint: No) “It is estimated that most human beings only use 10% of the brain’s capacity. Imagine if we could access more of our cerebral capacity?” This is the central question of the 2014 Scarlett Johannson film, Lucy. And it is read more…
Episode 14: H.P. Lovecraft & Weird Fiction
H.P. Lovecraft’s Weird Fiction The American writer H.P. Lovecraft wrote weird fiction. His work is both weird, in the conventional sense of the word, and Weird, in a very specific sense. His tales are not typical horror stories, but instead invoke a type of cosmic terror, a slow realization read more…
Episode 12: The Horrifically Complicated History of Zombies
The History of Zombies from Haiti to Hollywood Whether we like it or not, the zombies are coming for us all. Films, books, computer games, comics and TV shows. From historical and mythical zombies to claims to have proven the scientific truth behind zombification. From the gruesome, cannibalistic monsters of read more…
Episode 10: From Robinson Crusoe to Survivor: The Robinsonade
Daniel Defoe’s classic novel, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, is without doubt one of the most recognizable stories in our culture. It is a book which has had hundreds, if not thousands, of editions. It has been translated into over 100 languages, adapted for stage and read more…
Episode 9: Imaginary Countries and the Ruritanian Romance
Imaginary Countries Writers make up imaginary countries all the time, and for a variety of reasons. It’s relatively straightforward to slip in a familiar-sounding name into a part of the world your reader or viewer may not be too familiar with. Livonia, Wallaria, Tazbekistan… They could be countries, right? But read more…