These two episodes of the A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast were very interesting to me. Julie selected two movies to compare and contrast: Thelma and Louise (1991) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1955). They are both considered (by some) to be “feminist movies”, yet they are so different.
You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.
I’ve got some A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast episodes to catch up on…
In Episode 286, Julie and talked about Lagaan, an Indian movie from 2001 starring Aamir Khan. There’s cricket!
Episode 287 had us in space on the glorious Aldrin Cycler, which travels between Mars and the Earth. The Last Dance by Martin L. Shoemaker.
Our feet were back on the ground for Episode 288, where we talked about Ted Lasso, Season 1.
The Prestige by Christopher Priest was the topic of Episode 289. In my opinion, the book is better than the movie.
You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.
In the latest episode of the A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, Julie and I took on Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, and, keeping the podcast to an hour, left a LOT on the table. This was my second time reading this massive tome, and loved it so much on this read that I’ve had to add it to my top books of all time.
You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.
I had a great time as a guest on Shawn D. Standfast’s YouTube channel: Desert Island Books, Episode 2: With Scott Danielson.
Catching up on the happenings over at the Good Story podcast:
In episode 281, Julie and I talked about Anne McCaffrey’s first Pern novel, Dragonflight. In the next episode we watched the remarkable movie Sunset Blvd from 1950, which Julie picked as a follow-up to our silent movie mini-festival. Next up was Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene. And the latest episode, number 284, is the first summer blockbuster: Jaws (1975), directed by Stephen Speilberg, a guy you might have heard of.
Episode 281: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
Episode 282: Sunset Blvd (1950)
Episode 283: Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene
Episode 284: Jaws (1975)
You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.
For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.
— St. Justin Martyr, First Apology Chapter 66, c. 155 AD
Julie and I talked about Brad Bird’s terrific animated movie The Iron Giant in Episode 280 of the A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. I think I’ve seen everything Brad Bird has directed to date and it’s safe to call him one of my favorite directors. Cold War paranoia, a giant robot, and a kid named Hogarth! A movie for the pool room if there ever was one.
You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.
Every now and then I feel the urge to branch out of science fiction and fantasy more. I generally do that for a bit, but I always return.
I am inspired by thoughts generated after reading Vandana Singh’s “A Speculative Manifesto”, an essay at the end of her collection The Woman Who Was a Planet and Other Stories. She opens the essay by stating that “the modern descendants of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Mahabharata are the genres of science fiction and fantasy, including various sub-genres like magic realism, alternate history and slipstream”. Then she asks the question, “But humanity has grown out of its childhood, as each of us grows out of it as individuals. Why not discard the old myths, legends, tall tales, and their modern counterparts, as we discard other childish things?”
I admit that the impetus for myself asking these questions is that I fall into the pattern of thinking that I
ought to be spending my time on something “more important”.
In her essay, Singh starts by talking about the deep importance of myth for us humans, then discusses the revolutionary potential of speculative fiction, and the use of metaphor in both science fiction and fantasy. She ends the essay by pointing out that this stuff is fun. You can read this essay here: A Speculative Manifesto by Vandana Singh.
She’s right, of course, on all of the above. I continue to return to science fiction and fantasy because other types of fiction don’t deliver the kinds of things I like to experience. The only thing I’d add to what she wrote is that while I do love the touching on the mythological and I deeply appreciate how the genre allows an author to view humankind by presenting something that is outside of humankind, I also just plain love a good idea story. That’s part of what I believe Singh means by “fun”; an exploration with “the universe as a grand stage”.
Poul Anderson on the same topic:
In this day when humankind has at last the power to win the freedom of the universe, astronautics is more than a set of technologies, more even than a magnificent adventure. Spaceflight is potentially the most meaningful thing that has happened since a half-ape first tamed fire, or first looked up at the sky in wonder. Incalculable material wealth, knowledge now unimaginable, growth of the spirit beyond all bounds, can be the lot of every man and woman in our future. Is this not worth thinking about, reading about, and hearing about?
Here I am in my mid-fifties, having read science fiction and fantasy for more than forty years, and I still love it. I hope I will stop questioning it.
For episode 279 of the A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, Julie picked One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters. This was my first Brother Cadfael novel, and it won’t be my last! I thoroughly enjoyed the 12th century setting. I’m also intrigued by the fact that around these stories actual historical events are playing out.
Brother Cadfael is a Welsh Benedictine monk with a past that included participation in the Crusades. In this book, the monastery is charged with burying 94 bodies after a battle took place nearby. The problem is that 95 bodies are delivered, not 94. One corpse too many. And Brother Cadfael takes on the mystery.
You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.
I found a very nice interview of the author, who’s actual name is Edith Mary Pargeter, from 1991: Queens of Crime: Ellis Peters
From that interview:
I tend to feel that people really want something they can live with in comfort, and a little encouragement to go on living, rather than being battered by violence the whole time.
I think it’s a tremendous relief to have something that is hopeful, encouraging, makes you feel better about being human. Not worse.
Tragedy is entirely bearable and indeed uplifting provided it retains hope.
Also interesting: Edith Pargeter was 60 when she wrote the first Brother Cadfael novel.
Here is the fourth episode of Time Out of Mind, a 1979 BBC2 series on science fiction. The featured author is Anne McCaffrey.
