The SFFaudio Podcast #799 – READALONG: Dark Carnivals: Modern Horror And The Origins Of American Empire by W. Scott Poole

Jesse, Evan Lampe, Will Emmons and Terence Blake talk about Modern Horror And The Origins Of American Empire by W. Scott Poole

Talked about on today’s show:
according to the empire, And The Origins Of American Empire , doesn’t sound right, empire should come first, not his thesis, third book by him, Wastelands, a big one, association of ideas, correlation is not causation, a good book, WWI and horror, the Lovecraft one, Evan’s concern, kind of appreciate it, should have read more books, into Heinlein now, it has to be done, Glory Road, what’s the thesis of this book?, escapism, American empire is reflect in American horror, a facile thesis, Mike Nowak, getting judged, its fun, silent conversations happening, South Carolina, written a book about South Carolina, horror ladies from Finland?, Vampira or Suspiria?, promote his book, three or four books came out, when Elon Musk bought twitter, conversations deleted, broken now, the way he emails Jesse, Dr. Poole do you think Trump’s election…, Dr. Poole rights back, really just history, Trump as less an aberration, a synecdoche, he/him, object right away, psychological explanations, political explanations, fits in, dark forces, historical/political motifs, quite anarchic, a giveaway, the first third of the book, that might be the thesis of this book, still working on the introduction, separate essays integrated into a structure, not a cohesive thesis book, more Zizeky, a propagandistic work, in a good sense, a better way, making people free, if he didn’t tell you whether the book was good or not, a lot of judgement, checkmark, needs to be longer, not filler, how he feels about a particular thing, Stranger In A Strange Land, a fascist?, misspeaking, forms a cult, Jesus kills people, he unpersons them, Valentine Michael Smith, The Horror At Red Hook, obviously racist, build that scaffolding, not a metaphor, remembering it wrong, a veteran who goes on another adventure, get it that wrong, Tobe Hooper, Jaws (1975), Amity Island, whitewashing American empire, Poltergeist (1982), Jaws is fun, thesis supported, Peter Benchley’s The Beast, sanding away, box office gold, Get Out (2017), Jordan Peele, not elevated horror, a business marketing thing, people don’t trust academia or reviewers, professional reviewers, massive gaps, Roger Ebert, The Medusa Touch (1978), one of the worst movies of the year, moviemakers usually want to get their movies to make money, Rod Serling vs. Jordan Peele, both hosted The Twilight Zone, ongoing dialogue with David Currie, loves America too much, my greatest neighbour, he doesn’t know he’s in airstrip 1, the DEW line, if W. Scott Poole had added some textual reference, a lot of shitting on Heinlein, vs. short stories that would fit this argument incredibly well, a media studies guy, lots of interesting movie recommendations, more balanced, looking at art, the film canon, paintings, movies and TV, very important, the majority of people don’t read books, a book about movies and TV shows, Gulf War I, little asides, how [Bashar al-Assad] is a bad man, you’re at a university, you want to be supportive, throw around an accusation, undermines everything else, could have been a lot longer of a book, a lot of people are alone, all his colleagues at the University of Charleston, not a scholarly work, riffing on, ultimately useful, morally undermine, mostly Americans, weaken it from within, turn people’s attention to facts on the ground, this book is dated already, 2022, Ukraine is not in here, Israel/Gaza are not in here, Houthis are not in here, Russian hacking in here, a media bubble, undermined him, his colleagues are going to read it, a liberal anti-imperialist book, I saw the signs, a materialist liberal, watching all these horror films, the media realm, the real horrors existing everywhere perpetrated by the American empire, as opposed to idealist liberal, a believable protagonist, protest and vote, horrible at the end, if we’re lucky, the American empire will fight another foe, Biden is not in this book, Trump is all over this book, doesn’t call Obama by his true name, he mentions Bill Clinton, unfortunate, makes the book less awesome, a favourite chapter, the best, the zombie chapter, very solid, George Romero, Night Of The Living Dead (1968), super low budget, Dawn Of The Dead, long, ponderous, Walking Dead episodes, a political speaker, Haitian voodoo movies, Red Letter Media style, watching Poole watch these movies, horror movies are good, The Devil’s Rejects (2005), more like twitter essays, attacking the libs, it was slick, the pivotal scenes, forgettable, Nope (2022), intended audience, white liberals, maybe a lot of black people thought it was terrific, a successful film, Native Son (2019), communists become the foil, white liberals, the equivalent of communists (white liberals), interested in race, the centrality of white supremacy, foundational, class, some nods in the direction, settler colonialism, it aint the white man it’s the rich man, the vast majority of people moving across the landscape, poor whites in the Confederate army, they deserve to die for that reason, false consciousness is a real thing, just gotten together, the planter class, how race worked in America, the idea of American freedom, American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund Morgan, if you are obsessed with America, written for an american audience, the Strait of Hormuz, the powers in charge, who are they?, they have an agenda for you, it’s going to effect you, respond correctly when they come at you, addressing an American audience, that’s a thesis, other stuff in there too, January 6th, really?, not a big deal, 9/11?, the forever war, traumatized a lot of people, triggered a lot of people, one million percent, Starship Troopers, inserts itself, a science fiction guy, a seminal figure, tying it to the security state, Who Are the Heirs of Patrick Henry? Stand Up and Be Counted!, he was all in, the difference is, when people are wrong, quick to denounce, when there’s a denouncing party in the room, some scary stuff in there, ignoring a lot of what’s going on in that book, he took the book at made fun of it, liberal academics, some people are not going to see the criticism, bad because some people won’t see it as fascistic, Verhoven sucks us in, arent these shiny happy people showering together, Doogie Hauser dressed up in an SS uniform at the end, it’s dangerous, it is dangerous, literature should be dangerous, makes you think thoughts outside of the nannies trying to control our brains, Haldeman likes Heinlein, The Forever War, what he’s pointing to, doesn’t correspond to experience and memory, a tiny possible aspect, a sort of monologue, science fiction as a megatext of dialogue, in dialogue with Starship Troopers, thoughtfully funny, The Sound Of Music (1965), dismisses him, using things to make a , tips his hand, N.K. Jemisin’s now classic novel, an article by David Agranoff, why is this written down for us?, the sensation that the robot was a robot sometimes, robophobic, an exaggerated the broken up and assembled thesis, giving addresses the way a robot would give addresses, jarring, competent robotic, work for hire, experiencing it as we were, deep sense of outrage, sounded robotic, some weirdness in the pauses between paragraphs, weird page breaks?, the style, errors in the recording, relooped, left out little bits, at the end, his memory became a cubist painting, the same historical sequence, he repeats, he can’t do it in order, the kaleidoscope is good, where the writer reviews his own book, starting a new section, some factor about some person or some event, one paragraph, the historical sequence, what the relation is, what has just gone before, a quirk of style, a painting or a photo of something or someone, does it over and over again, a summary of the book from Random House, too much, why even in here, Charles Manson, connected to Heinlein, Stephen King and school shootings, the 2017 clown traumas, little historical anecdote, that IT movie, somebody reads a book, 2 years later taken as gospel, guy reads book, cousin tells main character, UFO stuff,more material, different direction, the aftermath of Roswell, what the 60s were like, an MKUltra experiment, Rage doesn’t indict Stephen King, talking to your lawyer all day, do it in doses, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, Church Of All Worlds, didn’t kill any moviestars, just a horny guy, a bit of a hippy, gaia thesis, deep ecology, liked Lord Of The Rings too, weird mentions, The Omen franchise, got paid to handle snakes, a girl holding a snake, satanic panic films, Courtney Brown, Emory University professor, put his classes online, Science Fiction and Politics, interesting, read through a bunch of books, classics, novels, remote viewing, nutso bullshit, DARPA is spending the money on it, the Men Who Stare At Goats, astral projection, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Trump is disconnected from horror (except for he clowns), who’s the best the president?, the guy who builds houses, John Adams, that modern people would know, but freed the slaves, Americans can kill each other all they want, outside the borders, fewer people killed than Obama, central America wars, Predator (1987), Commando (1985), we’re a rescue team, you lied to us, Dillon, muscle-off, punished, a good connection and he makes it properly, he didn’t read, supposed to read this, making the phone calls, regular politicians, possibly that’s the reason, didn’t start any new wars, the Mother of All Bombs, assassinated an Iranian general, went back, distanced us from Iran, trying to make peace with North Korea, triggering people, we didn’t have the word, broken brains, ugly truth, at the heart of it the worst thing is true, we’re the bad guys, in the context of, shadowbanned, for his award, he’s the bad guy, point of view, people don’t want to accept, news for the Americans, some Americans, a book with nice examples, a good book, pretty good, good stuff in here, soft touch, trying to keep his job, kick himself off of twitter, this is allowed in history class, conservative historians, demented people, money in the demented industry, how did the 14th amendment lead to Jim Crow?, why this is racist, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”, the foundation of American civil rights, gave rights to black people, not capable, excellent answer, a common take on reconstruction, bleeding as a cure for colds, something that was left out, The Repairer Of Reputations by Robert W. Chambers, set in the future, a head injury, asylum, an unreliable narrator, observing the state of 1920 United States, imperial horsemen, the reality that he sees around him, people didn’t classify it in that way, poll numbers at the end, Americans who think the country is on the right track, the British Empire in 1945, the Empress of India is the head of an empire, not a lot about corporations in here, reflected in horror movies, I don’t think people should have guns, keep your job measures, Heinlein thought fighting the Vietnam War was a good idea, don’t get into any accidents, Friday is amazing, interesting themes, the optimism of Space Cadet, he has to focus on the popular and famous, got to attract attention, find them where they are, provide the evidence, back it up, the casual remark, saying something fascistic, peace and love and sex, grading this book, somewhat incoherent, why are you so focused on Charles Manson, Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino’s argument about Manson, laugh gleefully as you kill the Manson family, we shouldn’t have firearms, where’d you get that idea, c’mon man?, why attack Bashar al-Assad?, didn’t gas his own people, one third of Syria is occupied right now, one line about Libya being a mistake, denounces Saddam Hussein, got too big britches, Will’s colloquialism, tool of the CIA, being stupid, two items of information, annexing Kuwait, palpable in the hallways, the head of Iraq attacked Kuwait, why do we care about this, carved up empires recarved, why are we involved in this at all, the Red Sea, all goes back, feels a bit muddled, make that case, the invasion of Grenada, Heartbreak Ridge (1986), too young for the Korean War, going 1 for 1, almost gelling, The chainsaw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), looms large, the evil is never defeated, the final girl runs away, the external evil, if we can ferret out his thesis, good book ultimately, Jesse doesn’t denounce Poole, misinterpreting him, the cultural significance, Heinlein’s responsible?, juxtaposition, Wernher von Braun, I Am For The stars (but sometimes hit London), the cynical underbelly, what they’re doing all the time, Fauci’s in the government, comparable, funding Wuhan has had a huge consequence, excess deaths from mysterious other reasons (a vaccine that doesn’t fit), a plan to kill everybody on the planet, not the greatest guy even if he was good at rockets, Fauci more impactful, the sideshow, other than with satellites, space telescopes, ICBMS, V2, too hard to see for most people, under COVID, how fearful he is, conspiracy theories, he does both in this book, doesn’t go into JFK, how its relevant, the CIA did kill JFK, a horror movie example, Stephen King is underrepresented, King has a lot to say about empire, Pet Semetary (1983), American expansionism, the story of the Philippines, our gene Poole, fight for us, part of our great union, insurgents against the Japanese empire, you’re your own, whataboutism, Hawaii is a state now, Puerto Rico, Oklahoma, Guantanamo is empire, July 1st 1776?, the American Empire started before America did?, the treaty of Paris, where are the horror films for that part, Ravenous (1999), ramps up in the 70s and 80s, the less solid it is, enjoyable and interesting, Poole sold me this thesis: Lampe write a book, Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe on empire, all from 2022, goodreads?, reviews online?, The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Young Goodman Brown, Weiland, those stories are part of this, James Fenimore Cooper, a propagandistic work, nobody’s going to read that, sadly non one cares, responsible for the title: Ray Bradbury, he wrote the book, he owns it now, in reference, just in the air, Insane Clown Posse, Insane Clown President, facepaint and faygo, a michael Jackson tatoo, Matt Tiabbi’s important work, could have done without all of those, endorsement, get his colleagues, I got checknamed, feels like that, academia is very weird, people don’t have the kind of job security they want, his job and his privilege, being privileged, a popular professor at a fancy school, Gay lady got shitcanned, Claudine Gay, cheating on her homework, that was the excuse, they dug up her shit to shitcan her, the mostly kindly possible way, her performance, she did nothing wrong, he aint a cheater, he aint a liar, trying to be careful, a sense of paranoia amongst adjunct professors, pretty good writer, pejorative, bad speculation, Ray Bradbury, The Pedestrian, guy goes for a walk, police car arrests him, just a robot, wonderful, FBI following Ray Bradbury for ten years, Philip K. Dick informing on people, learns to drive from an FBI guy, cultural horrorshow, I would like decent government, Nixon has it in him, in the 2020s, a big Bradbury man, 55 and 60 years ago, stalked or studied by the FBI, the stark aspect of his work, influenced by [George] Finney’s The Circus of Dr. Lao, a dark circus, notable by its absence, demarcate each epoch, the Iraq War, video game simulation, weak, the Gulf War didn’t take place, Independence Day (1996), ah, yes, recognized the name, vaguely interesting, just the idea of the dark carnival, didn’t do much with it, the polarity between Jaws and Texas Chainsaw, several other polarities, a film review of Zone Of Interest (2023), presenting the horror without showing it, Shoah (1985), comestible, making a Nazi a nice guy, a way of reading it, a hate on, seems to hate Stephen Spielberg, they’re twee, a comestible catastrophe, an item of food, make it palatable, Welcome to earth!, PUNCH, Alien (1979), an alien in the horror mood, a class movie, mentioned, fragmentary, an assemblage of fragments, readable in slices, why are you putting that it there, #BrassBra, it passed the time, it was comestible, walk out of the movie theater of this book, Valentine Michael Smith is a fascist?, WTF, triggered but for what purpose, the Our Opinions Are Correct ladies, and Poe is a third rate writer?, just trying to trigger people?, received opinions, probably not the worst person on the planet, why is he mentioned at all?, Americans created a vacuum, his dad died, I’m gonna run my own country, you were supposed to do what you were told?, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, regime change, Russia, the “brutal Assad regime”, making Kurdistan its own thing, not even tied to a horror film, The War Of The Worlds, vs. vs. vs., that thread back to the original War Of The Worlds, doesn’t read texts very much, did a lot of other stuff on the side, he’s space Jesus, I don’t think that’s very nice, the second season of Reacher, a consensual, disincorporates people, not a good season, good riddance to the villains he gets rid of, judge and jury and executioner, just provide the evidence, provide the data, a wicked joy, you think he’s a libertarian, libertarians are bad too, they’re bad, sideburns and Boris Johnson’s hair, sister is first lady of Argentina, fun to see what happens, America might become fun again, barring health issues, barring assassination from the conversation, when and if Trump is assassinated, what’s our reaction supposed to be, bemusement?, he’s not a threat, he called a lady bird brain, he was president before and nothing happened, he’s gonna be wiser, he’s seen the deep state for what it was, if he’s assassinated it was because he was mean to them, you threaten everybody getting paid, I’m making deals everywhere, it’s so meta, weird, are we supposed to be rocked to our core, they sent everybody home in fucking Canada, this is a foreign guy, he was JFK, if Regean or Obama had been assassinated, a child in Australia, are they gonna commemorate the assassination of Trump?, we’re so fucked it has become comedy, the dangerous clowns, not so worried about the clowns, an addenda, better update it, wanting to Scott Poole’s tweets right now, are there any 2020s horror movies, Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982), fun, Suitable Flesh (2023), the hot lady, couple hot ladies, Heather Graham, and Barbara Crampton, the bodies of women turn you off?, bought a DVD, Will and Maissa, Marc Singer from The Beastmaster, 1976 TV play for television The Taming Of The Shrew, meeting Catherine, commedia dell’arte style, Scaramouche by Raphael Sabatini, such a hot body, goddamn his body’s hot, wonderfully performed, available and complete but very low rez, awesome so heat, was he in V?, didn’t have his shirt off in V, loincloth movie, the Andre Norton book, the last Navajo?, read it in German, why don’t we do this book?, how do we convince Evan, maybe, Othello, the beast with two backs, Iago and another dude, Othello’s father in law, Shakespeare is gold, the teachers and the school boards have no clue, the ass scene, Romeo wanting suck and fuck Juliet’s ass, pomegranate things, so hilarious, they don’t focus on that scene, kids love it, read it back in their own words, he’s based, the time zone effect, Chinese New Year, starts off well, dig Hoffmann, The Tales Of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, an adaptation?, wrote many tales, nobody reads books, try talking to people about Hoffmann, you have 20 English teachers, they’re the ones who read Shakespeare and don’t see how sexful it is, computer games and Xboxes exist, you don’t need to do much to be an academic anymore, punished by a lot of reading, you inhereted money, you’re going to your mom’s school, Evan as president of Harvard, delete his twitter acount, when this podcast comes out in 7 months, so many Hugo awards it’s going to be unbelievable, sympathy Hugos, tit for tat Hugos, when you just read Scalzi and don’t read anything ten years ago, David Agranoff is going to win a Hugo and you’re going to be sorry, he stopped calling Evan, set up a slack then Evan will show up, contact me on tawianese wechat, Kakaotalk, cute like everything from South Korea, purify yourself, self love, hot funny stuff, dig out my Bleiler, The Scarlet Planet by Don Mark Lemon, really funny and good, kind of a slog, Wonder Stories Quarterly, never reprinted, a spider woman story, The Mansion Of Forgetfulness, not well remembered, a proper science fiction story, Mike Ashley, free expression, spoof on male dominated society, editorial comment, realistic rather than satirical, boys will be boys, SF should seek to realistically portray the impact, the little corporal, pretended suicide, no emotional impact, planet plane, make them rich and live forever, secretly acting under orders of a fraternal reference, the Basques, master criminal, insubordinate comrades, radiocycles, feeling Ringworldy, totally down with it, keep getting into fist fights, chasing monster girls, is it funny?, same joke over and over again, back and forth for 60 pulp pages, a novel, red blooded masculine impulses, women and girls are objects to be conquered, a progressive opinion, our public opinion, but what will we say in our private slack?, it takes two to tango (and conquer), it takes two to Conga, marry once they return to Earth, acting according to their nature, the little corporal must have been a phrase, mostly repetitive, reflections on feminine youth and beauty, crystalizes their bodies, a giant tomb of crystalized girls, She, Gulliver Of Mars, a glacial region, Edwin Lester Arnold, Robert W. Chambers, petrifies items dipped in a bathtub, a sculpture that is fake, the artist model goes in the bathtub, you know this guy is a good writer: his focus is aesthetics, Lovecraft, that’s a story about art, when it isn’t, him doing the art in the writing, literally was an artist, writes about artists, same with Poe, writes a story to fit the drawing, The Philosophy Of Composition, The Philosophy Of Furniture, why are you talking about this, Poe?, is there anything there?, he’s all about aesthetics, an educational tangent, Mark Of The Beast, the entire entry, a lot of sympathy, pulps from the turn of the century, attacked as surreptitiously erotic, Hugo Gernsback flew into a panic, lots of blood drinking, destroys memory cells, ease the suffering to the bereaved, died at sea, the woman is Morella, the lovers will start afresh, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004), 1907, The Spider And The Fly, The Thrill Book, the way you think about women, a particular crooning noises, two hammocks, Julia is a spider woman, you have not tamed her, you’ve fallen into her web, sometimes Terence wins, you only have to hammocks twice, my spider friends, overrated, investigating Lego Minifigures, spider women stories, the snake woman, the gorgon, snake women, snake bodies but with breasts, ancient Greek Mythology, Arachne, sueey!, suddenly realized, warthogs, suidae, big lightbulb goes off, it’s about weaving, fun politics, more Don Mark Lemon, good ideas, The Sale Of Shakespeare’s Ghost, isfdb is great database, how could this not be on ISFDB?, corresponding French site, noosfere.org, Chuck Tingle?, a guy with a bag over his head, the unknown comic, free in ways we will never be, freer than Chuck Tingle, he would feel unfree, if anything was going to be censored from the Hugo, space butt invasion, unionized in the butt, unicorn tinglers, Campus Damascus, an aspiring proctologist comedian, likes having his prostate exam?, thinking about Trump being assassinated, who killed Trump?, so silly, why is this considered science fiction, kill somebody in central park and get away with it, invent quotations, funny as it is, even with Elvis, self-referential piece of writing, he deserves something, a Hugo, relativizes people’s self-importance, Sad Puppies, this is considered in the same, too long, that’s the word, some salty bits here and there, don’t put in so much rosewater, happy that he read it, in an actual bookstore, pretty short, Terence knows where to get it, multiple Bleiler books, he’s a hero, very happy to be pirating his stuff, Guide To Supernatural Fiction, Checklist Of Fantastic Literature, these are from the 1990s, if you look at the text, Science Fiction The Early Years, the most interesting part of our podcast, 1000 pages, very tightly spaced, review after review after review, he read everything, The Gorilla, you see where this is going, obsessed with blood, very mild mannered, acting like an ape, the reader may assume, 1905, gonad transfusions, conquering woman, becoming a goat, at the wrong time, Confessions Of An English Opium Eater, a real believer in illustrations, include them in your tweets, said something in French and disappeared, other sources, it shouldn’t have any repeats, LibriVox, Martin Geeson, 5 hours 21 minutes, visit not contact, slow but delectable, like opium, look at the comments, this guy is horrible, this is absolutely divine, the best narrator I’ve ever heard, positively fantastic, “performance”, spelling mistakes all over the place, another perfect pairing of narrator and narrative, weird youtubes, book reviews, Superboy comic review, Edward Rice Burroughs unboxing, he gets dressed up for it, fun to know, being bossed around and shit on, fuck right off, that CBC thing, Jesse had to go to copyright school, what are Happy Tree Friends?, a less popular Spongebob?, the right Spongebobby age, evil google, Bryan Alexander tweet from Qatar, Qatar sounds painful?, he’s doing his normal thing: consulting, consulting about consulting, universities going out of business, he’s not there to join the Houthis, getting paid to be there, Bryan is very careful, doesn’t say radical things, liking gothic horror like Weiland, for work, adjunct professor guys, the middle class’ fear of falling, there’s concerns, he doesn’t have a bank, free to make his jokes, he has to be anonymous to be free, getting off the airplane in Chengdu, especially Chinese ones, an unemployed layabout, fun work, might work for a living at some point, mental health episode, wealthy lawyer, spouse who works, cheap shipping, a comic book store yes, new Philips Brubaker book, Charlton girl comics, Teen Confessions, Where The Body Was, Eisner Awards, Ed Asner gives out the Eisner Awards, he’s like the Hugo Gernsback of comics, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner’s studio system, an early comics guy, Tara from Planet Comics, she’s public domain, mostly badly written, Tara Outlaw Of The Universe, text features, text pages in comics (are garbage), nobody is supposed to read it, just a rip off of Farmer In The Sky on one page, Farmers on Ganymede, fast writing, shooting hoops, write 5000 times, this is not a good story but it is good, the way Jesse solved a problem, The Cat’s Advice by Jesse, such a good story, a Bros. Grimm story The Cat And The Miller’s Son, written in 7 minutes, stupid and good, the mill’s mouser, Will’s all in, structured, everything is perfect, the cat is touching him, should be hitting Will in the feels, they pressed Hans into their service, the cat was right, he was put on a path, he does what his father tells him to do, the state?, some other state?, killed his dad and raped his sister, child soldier, how do you like that?, get up in those clouds and become untethered, all the apostrophes, the cat doesn’t have a name, not owned by the mill, take whatever you’re given, no thinking, on your bag is a pin with a bicycle, little schoolboy holding ramen, he won the rabbit from a wizard, takes the chopsticks, in the undergrowth, a calico cat, it only works for here, the way that story is solved, anime or manga level, next issue, never an end, that will be resolved next issue, for the idea being expressed, you gotta do something or someone will choose for you, to thy own self be true, adults will give you advice, wrong and right, go get passionate about something, three hours is probably the ideal, break them out of that, read something that’s at least 20 minutes long, she’s not engaging, the material is terrible, supervisor nearby, outsourced stuff, stack of Lovecraft poems, she lit up like a sparkler, 100% down with meter and metaphor, brain level is right but vocabulary isn’t, the rhyme and the meter, polished, almost nobody in English ever think about, saying the same word over and over again, about how long the word is, to fit a meter, dreamed vs. dreamt, saves a character, microblogging, poets are very focused on this, o’er, where text and speech are designed to go together, narrating as a job, it doesn’t flow, definitionally prosaic, prose need not be prosaic, there were points when, dialogue that almost feels like Shakespeare, this is Inception (2010) level of interesting, engaging with Poe in a science fictional mode in the first decade of the 20th century, brings his own shit to it, all a coincidence, hooded or something, zaps himself, brings a layer of Poe upon it, buncha other Poe, this is why Jesse loves being a tutor, finding the spark is amazing, lighting up with these reviews, stories from the 20s, 30s, 40s, the Campbell era of Astounding, the pre-Campbell, important but not that cool, personality quirks, difficult upbringing, the psychology of Campbell, a domineering trickster, pretend to be each other, Who Goes There?, interesting but very stilted, people getting paid for cash, banned space opera, to serve different audiences, a blurb about the author, so many fuckin lies, responding, women didn’t use their own names, why is that a persistent thing?, nice narratives persist, I don’t think I should pay any attention, not motivated to do so, strangely, uninteresting at this point, The Golden Globes, conceive of them, European journalists rewarding Hollywood, French guys who liked a movie, pretty hilarious, when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize then went on to become the drone king, be dismissive of all this stuff, need to talk to Paul, banished from China, smoking cigars, if it makes you happy, cinnamon bun, sugar is bad for you, which guy should I be, it’s your fuckin life, look into it, doesn’t react well to text, well quoted in The Guardian, a dramatic thing is about to take place, the drama was very one note, develop further, Hugo Book Club predicted, that’s pathetic, rewarding Paul for being snubbed by China, rewarded for the meta-situation, Jon Stewart said mean things about George Bush, Cirsova was using his mind over it, Daily Show and Colbert Report, he’s a shitlib of some kind, a science fiction freak, a Tolkien freak, Elon Musk is more science fiction than anybody else that’s famous, D.D. Harriman, Requiem, the evil that is libertarianism has infected his brain, somebody is going to heckle Musk well and give that person an award, tried to make a media career, you got tweeted at by Donald Trump, Jesse’s uncle’s neighbour is a youtuber, very offended right now, as a communist you’re responsible for this, building civil society ties between the West and China, fuck around and find out, we don’t have the full picture, entirely plausible, a big deal, when the shoe is on the other foot and Israel’s doing a genocide in Gaza, these are not fake, these are all real, some guy says, look at this satellite photos, are these graves?, because words have consequence, you didn’t get your cigar, at least you got cinnamon buns, the cigar of the Hugo award, lose a family member, incomprehensible, the gum you like, twinkies are out of business, a recognition, an affirmation, it’s dangerous, more follower and more likes, more engagement, very good friends, I can’t smell you but I don’t need, Jesse might smell like curry, an excuse, good work on deleting people you’re following, Pulpcovers is a standard for one direction, technothriller heaven, this guy likes books, I like books, we can be friends, Cirsova’s account, marketing something, a shitposter is the opposite of being careful, Bryan Alexander’s youtube account, that is telling you something, YouTube is not where its at, a very good ratio, obligatory thank you tweet and lifelogging, foreign universities moving in, money in educating the ruling classes, non-client states, part of the alliance or whatever, part of the Empire, host Al Jazaaera, Kurdistan a good idea?, astride five different countries, using the Kurds as an excuse to control the area and fuck around, Deutsche Welle, propaganda cutout, a little doc, interviewed three ladies carrying AKs around the deserts of Syria, who blew up the Nordstream pipeline, Biden saying Nordstream will be ended, did one on Philip K. Dick, Roog, that’s the art Jesse did for it, a fence and a garbage can and aliens, gravitation beam, that German propaganda company stole Jesse’s art, snitching, Heinlein estate you should be paying attention to this, bizarre consciousness, very common, reject the idea The Green Odyssey is in the public domain, in their fuckin interest, get rich from their copyrights one day, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., hiring good artists, Joe Jusko, so locked down, can’t do shipping, Diamond, out of the loop since COVID, three distributors, three times the work for your local comic book store, the Previews phonebook, lines with numbers and a name, a hoped promised date, lies or false, incentive covers is where its at, guessing what Jesse wants, same dudes, comics books are fucked, Comics MATTER w/Ya Boi Zack, Windows Tiny 11, weird computer software people are transgender, Tiny 10, completely stripped down, tubi with no ads, youtube with no ads, the good stuff, Iraq War guy with bad lungs, kickstarter, 104k followers, twitter drama, reads comics, very interesting, explains why comics are unreadable, Hugo style drama, mainstream American comics, quality of those has been going up, it all works as long as you’re in the ecosystem, pretty pricey, new canonical ERB novels, to develop ip to pitch to movie companies, The Cave Girl, a cat in a forest riding a bicycle, can’t write it very well, doesn’t stop them, it’s a math thing, writing about math, the singularity in math, the characters disappear, symbolic logic, unreadable, you have to have a base level of connection with the material, Jesse’s best joke, break the ice, very ESL or very young, I don’t like female sheep, why, dam, ewe, dam, ewe, in retrospect it is humorous, cocks and hens, what’s a female peacock, peahens, peawfowl, foul is bad, why are ducks such bad actors?, because they perform fowl plays, brilliant!, dad jokes, father to many students, baby raising industry, cuckolded by the planet, forced to raise them, a simp?, a silly or foolish person, simp verb, urban dictionary, someone who does way to much for a person they lake, here is the entire public domain of Terror Tales, shudder pulps, a Ray Cummings, Mike Vendetti, really going fast, the art is amazing, forthcoming, Beauty And The Butcher, Bride Of The Serpents, Cat-Woman, all of these have nudity, Kiss Of The Flame Blossom, Mistress Of Satan’s Hounds, Pleasure Cruise To Hell, When The Banshee Calls, Test-Tube Frankenstein, Mistress Of The Dark Pool, Where Dwell The Living, the interior art is accurate, Test tilde Tube, a monster engulfing a woman, this man was not my old friend Chester Vermis, late 30s, Lovecraft’s shadow, horror science fiction movies, fetish stuff, fetishy, Veil Of Tanit, [Jesse is shadowbanned], the latest set, can’t argue with the length, finally got some traction, racist and very interesting, supposed to shudder when you read them, a lot of salacious, “weird menace”, generally feature heroes pitted against villains, cults, I didn’t want to do it, very base (not based), all that she wants, babies mysterious disappear, that’s what the hook says, Dime Mystery Magazine, Grand-Guignol theater, a simp for art of all kinds, Shudder streaming service, seems to have a lot of cash, Midnight Pulp, more for Meg than for Will, a horror head?, she’s a keeper, horror movies are scary, not to infect your dreams with horror, parents had a rental property, had to go clean it up, had mold in it, not threatening, Tetris dreams, playing Tetris too much, a CPAP machine, quite a production, sleep test, moderate sleep apnea, wrecks your dream, low blood oxygen, is it worth it?, die from cinnamon buns, Jenny Colvin may have died from Jesse’s joke, 2019: why do bibliophiles prefer loud deaths in libraries?, funerals, hearse, another duck joke, too many tweets, duck attack, Remarkable Story Of Chicken Little, so fuckin smart, mysterious, my new joke, where does Red Lobster get their breadsticks?, what did FDR say?, popular with nobody, what has tulips and kisses?, I don’t know much about wolves?, what does a suddenly deshelled bivalve say?, technically excellent, what kind of food do Chinese cannibal dogs eat?, pretty good, so petrified, why do robots never need haircuts?, theoretical physicist, some people are neutral about uranium, a science fiction jokes, why don’t cows wear shoes?, ex-spy didn’t like it, former spook didn’t, what is the name of the magazine for people who like simple or elegant aircraft?, which kind of nut do impoverished cobblers most prefer?, I was impressed by the British Navy’s recruiting methods, why are math students the best protestors?, if digital watches made any sense, I asked the captain to stop eating popcorn, he was so smitten with her, a domestic violence joke, running out of jokes, certain people at this table, what do you call a severe wound on a highly ranked army teen, how do horses greet you when they have food in their mouths, nice inside baseball, took so training, trying to make kids not hate school, what does the masticating train say?, why do barbers not allow their customers to trade their hair?, looking forward to it, happy to hear, Walmart catfood, meat or kibble, Walmart brand, congregating in the catfood aisle, 7 -9 cats, old ladies, I’m a tad annoyed, a shaggy dog or cat story, Jesse’s other podcast, pretty good, it’s short and deep, he thinks things are deep, funny and deep, a long joke that’s is in the end not funny, a longwinded anecdote, terminated by an anti-climax, useful term, something wrong with it or something wrong with you, flummoxed, setting you up, mad at Jesse, Roger Zelanzny’s A Night In Lonesome October, Ulalume by Edgar Allan Poe, a jokey funny book, health problem, wanted to like the book, it’s a trick, you’re being trolled, this is a long story and nothing really happened, a monster rally, meet Abbot and Costello, to feature the monsters, Norm MacDonald’s jokes, it’s a troll, a real genre that’s been around forever, being trolled over a novel, a novel length troll, you don’t read a troll book, “Aliens Invade My Butt”, maybe those Chuck Tingle books aren’t novels, why would I do that?, gets attention, Trish and Paul were not happy, Jesse got trolled too, like judo, how did that happen?, weird genres, tae kwon do, they’re all doing Brazilian ju-jitsu, another reason they don’t like Trump, fighting is base, MMA things, just bring a gun or a taser, no swords, karate’s a thing, hitting points, the victory conditions, scored on hits, putting people into a submission, wrestling, tap three times or pass out, it works because people can fight and make it happen, judge you on your form, the 85 year old kung fu master, tai chi, very base things, shudder pulps are interesting because they are very base, zombie preppers, magazine rack, becoming a mercenary, firearms magazine, prepping is a popular activity, ways of spending cash on your money, a lack of faith in the government, do you want to be caught without food or electricity, you don’t want to be subject to the new M-rays, keep your boosters up, seeing it as racist, tap dancing towards, zombies are dangerous whether they are black or white, because of the police, the next one [Dawn Of The Dead], solidarity as a human species, institutionalized racism, fear of the cities, “inner city”, Jesse’s buddy Jimmy Dore, [Stef Zamorano], Chicago is the worst place in the world, always picking on Louisville, still pushing on the race button, a thing in conservative spheres, they think laws are important, understand this instinct, incompetent and sold out buttons here and there pressing buttons, not exactly what Scott Poole’s seeing, Trump did the same thing, using the terms that they refer to, what Terence meant, when Trump gets assassinated, how are they going to stop him?, increasingly unable, their goal is to put Trump in jail, the fire sale that is the United States right now, that student debt thing he just promised, infrastructure bill, so many new construction projects, so far behind, railroad disaster in Ohio, economic disaster everywhere, see you in cyberspace.

Dark Carnivals by W. Scott Poole

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #748 – READALONG: Passport To Peril by Lawrence Block

The SFFaudio Podcast
Jesse, Maissa Bessada, and Will Emmons talk about Passport To Peril by Lawrence Block

Talked about on today’s show:
Anne Campbell Clark, 1967, internal stuff, guess what year this photo was taken, asking about JFK like he was still alive, Teddy Kennedy, the Irish connection, proud of him being president, very few people have read this, a book worthy of reading, noped out, pretty horrific, too sunk into it, a cocoon of singing and countryside, a lovely little book, not going anywhere and not upset about it, almost plotless, not all books need to have plots, spending time with Hobbits in Hobbiton, an old lady who likes to bicycle, red herrings, Will’s first Lawrence Block, the trip to the countryside, all of the lovely singing, I never shall marry as long as I live, really liked this book, who is the audience, Helen MacInnes readers, neither had Lawrence Block, spies with a little romance, romance with a little bit of spies, how smooth did this go down, easy drinking all the way through, it was a formula, the bad guy came around, there he is, why does that priest want her passport, maybe I’ve misjudged him, he’s back, women protagonists, usually a male, page by page, line by line, a little bit much, intoxicated, a 24 year old in 1967, the height of the sexual revolution, chaste for a folk-singer, they get snug and snuggle, she hides her nudity, not so folksy as one might imagine in real life, the scene with the IRA, pastiche-ish, that part never happened when Lawrence Block went to Ireland, a massive amount of violence, let’s go have a party, one of them gets shot and they keep having a party, movie-like, none of the dialogue felt clunky, what kind of folk-singing, Airplane!, lady with a guitar, inspirational songs vs. historical events, WWII essay, WWI, WWI’s influence on Ireland, the Irish Rising, home-rule in 1922, according to Star Trek [The Next Generation] and Mr. Data they’re going to reunite next year, all of us under the British rule, the overlords in Egypt, real bastards, it doesn’t translate across generations as well, gearing up, the ultimate McGuffin, because of the title, back to the passport, easy listening, P.J. Morgan, a lot of singing, male voices too, accents, a really good job, if I was P.J. Morgan and I had finished this book I would be superhappy with myself, a recipe, 191 pages, 5 hours 38 minutes, a short novel, a young lady who goes on a trip, chased across the countryside, a monster, a hero, delivering what women want, nice and smooth, the historical research, enthusiastic about Irish history, great fun, a double checkmark, creepy and scary quite late, when’s it gonna turn, grusome, burned to death, legs blown off, shoots somebody’s brains out, starts with a horrible murder, really violent, a nice guy from Philadelphia to leg cling to, a nice old lady who gets strangled off screen, the German guy with a family, what happened to the kids?, the casting room, spy training school, the woman with the red hair, in the ring?, a nice Londoner, leaving cards together, he’s playing a great great game, I need to tip my hand, when Ellen gets into the car with the priest, you’re just ahead of her, ahead of Jesse, I wish I knew my Irish history better, a really good promoter of stuff on his blog, the afterword, the blog post about Passport To Peril

In 1966 I was living at 16 Stratford Place, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. I’d spent a year in Wisconsin as an editor in the coin supply division of Western Printing, and just when it looked as though I might have a future in the corporate world, I realized it was the last thing I wanted. I’d been writing books all along, and I moved east and resumed writing full-time.

My agent, Henry Morrison, came to me with an assignment. Lancer Books, for whom I’d written a few books during Larry T. Shaw’s editorship, wanted to publish a romantic-espionage thriller in the tradition of Helen MacInnes. I hadn’t read anything by Ms. MacInnes, though I knew the byline; her books were published in hardcover, and frequently wound up on bestseller lists. Mine would be published as a paperback original, and bestseller status would be not even a fleeting dream.

I don’t know if I actually read any of the books which were to be my model. I probably skimmed a couple. I knew what was required—a clean sweet likable American girl as the heroine, a reasonably exotic foreign locale, and a couple of people who were not what they appeared to be, including an evident villain who turned out to be the unlikely hero and love interest, and a dashingly attractive good guy who turned out to be an absolute rotter.

I could do that.

And I knew just where to set it. Ireland. Where else?

I’d actually been to Ireland, which gave it a leg up on the rest of the world. In the fall of 1964, a few months after the move to Racine, my wife and I flew to Limerick and spent the better part of two weeks driving around Ireland. We had a day in Edinburgh and a few days in England, but Ireland got the bulk of our business.

Aside from brief forays into Canada and Mexico, this was my first time out of the States, and if it felt like an adventure, it felt even more like a homecoming. It’s clear to me that I spent at least one past life in Ireland. Among my earliest memories are ones of listening to Irish songs on the radio. (There was a girl who sang “Toora-loora-loora” on a local amateur show, and I’m pleased to report that she was the winner three weeks running.) I had a set of the Book of Knowledge, and from it I learned all the lyrics to Wearin’ o’ the Green.

When I had begun selling short fiction and was casting about for a book to write, I decided a novel of the Irish rebellion and civil war might be a good choice. But what did I know about it? I amassed an extensive library of English and Irish history, and read a surprising amount of it. And, around the time that my interest in numismatics was steering me toward the job in Wisconsin, I began collecting Irish coins and tokens and medals.
No question, then. I’d set the book in Ireland.

Ever since the trip, I’d been picking up records of Irish folk music. The Clancy Brothers, of course, but also a slew of Folkways albums on which various singers, some more gifted than others, collected songs of the 1798 Rising and other blighted periods in the land’s sad history. As G.K. Chesterton wrote:

For the great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad.

Well, why not make my heroine a folksinger? Why not send her to Ireland to collect songs? There, of course, she could meet the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and the sheep in wolf’s clothing, and things would look decidedly dark for a while, but eventually the sun would burst through. I mean, it would have to, sooner or later. As far as we could make out, it was always either raining or about to rain in Ireland, but maybe I could cheat and have a little sunshine toward the end.

I went to New York to write the book. Don Westlake had sublet a studio apartment on West 24th Street in Chelsea; he’d lived there briefly, during a marital rough spot, and kept it as a sometimes office until the lease was up. I moved in, and brought home Passport to Peril ten days later. I don’t know if the title was mine, though I rather think it was. I know the pen name was mine, and I know that forty-five years later nobody else on earth knew it.

Henry knew back then, but I’m sure he’s long since forgotten. My first wife would have known, but I don’t think she ever read the book, and would be surprised if she recalls anything about it. Irwin Stein at Lancer would have known, but would have had no reason to remember. Among the book-collecting fraternity, no one had a clue. This book, and Fidel Castro Assassinated!, are the two works of mine that somehow escaped detection. The latter, written under the name Lee Duncan, was recently reprinted as Killing Castro by Hard Case Crime, and has since become available as an OpenRoad eBook. Passport to Peril now makes its first post-Lancer appearance as an e-book, and I can only hope you’ve enjoyed it.

I read it myself recently to ready it for publication, and I was surprised to find that I liked it. Remember what Yeats wrote?

Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave. . .

True too of the Ireland of the 1960s. It was a curious pleasure to revisit the time and place, if in my own work.

the exact same thing, good at remembering how things happened in the 60s, very Lawrence Blocky, passionate about foreign revolutions, a CIA plot to kill Castro, a cheque to the farmer with the dead sheep, what ever revolution is happning in that country, the Evan Tanner series, comedic and silly, almost perfect for what its doing, broader, like James Bond, cartoonish, fun but silly, a Korean war veteran, shrapnel in his head gives him a superpower, The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep, why readers would like a book like this, I become a supergenius, whatever republic that wants freedom from colonialism, participating in their revolutions, joke book, The Canceled Czech, light and fluffy, Tanner On Ice, literally frozen, a participant in the ideas the book he is producing, numismatics, a book on racewalking, walk faster than other people, the Hit Man/Hit List series, cozy, there’s a guy in Mexico who needs to be shot, I like Mexico, observations in a restaurant, really into stamp collecting, an action scene, whatever subject he turns his attention to becomes a very very readable book, can you write a book about assassinating Castro?, technically required to do this, Will material?, not-enough enthusiasm, emphasis and underlining and exclamation marks, Classic Crime Library number 15, how quiet it has been resting, Lawrence Block took control of his publishing, he’s the one, making you buy his stuff, around an participating in his estate, incredible, he’s so good, Westlake through Block, turns out its a real book, Westlake’s highs are higher but Block’s more consistent, a lady on vacation, why that guy slipped, an excuse to have her in peril, an excuse to have a lady chased by spies, maybe she will marry, he was trying to be caught, no one knew, there’s a tip off, out of genre for most of the people who read Lawrence Block, she goes to a movie, something drums, “A Sound Of Distant Drums”, a calling card, or a signature, somebody coming out of a movie theater, that’s cool, his Burglar series, The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, topic books, exploring some little niche, standup comedians bits they connect together, researching and polishing ideas, Burglars Can’t Be Choosers, the girlfriend is the murderer, settles into a formula, really really fun, passes the time, go have a sandwich, oh yeah one of these, that paperback book industry is where he really lives, take a paperback and enjoy the weekend, a song saved her life, why I like folksinging now, Kumbaya, historical information, how to be, in America 2, here 12, makes you want to drink stout, listen to folk music, the festival circuit, the premise of this book, the state department in real life is evil, spread American culture, money spent on evil not on good, cultural activities, Eastern block, throw money at a problem, Lawrence Block needed to have an excuse, her family’s all killed off, one and done, they’re happy and their Irish now, both green, 2 cigarettes, more cigarettes, they stopped to buy more cigarettes, the new taste, so much smoking, they don’t need food they’re thin and young, dates the book, you could write this book, their sten guns would be something else, Berlin, Ukraine or something, delightful little book, make you say “I’d like some stout.”, Guinness, a wish fulfillment fantasy romance, read the back cover, little tipsy here and there, poignant moments, the songs, the stories, a Brothers Grimm thing, went out to all the pubs, music and stories are the same, all personal histories, probably wrong, music that’s close to the people, in the process of collecting these folk songs there’s some exploitation, selling a record, who’s going to see the proceeds of that record, what is the purpose of this?, to commoditization it?, spread it?, share it?, Stan Rogers, Barrett’s Privateers, east coast Nova Scotia Irish kitchen, a fun song, it has swearing a letter of marque, Sherbrooke, god damn them all, Halifax, the staggers and jags, such a good singer, sea shanty folk song, Montego Bay, sailing terms, incapable of catching a slow moving ship, smashed like a bowl of eggs, both me legs, in my 23rd year, six whole years, War of 1812, while you’re paying attention, similar to The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, a homeless beggar on a pier, the big Coleridge poem, the same story as Annabelle Lee, grateful and thankful, what has Will been doing?, back into politics, a tenant union, a communist caucus in the DSA, COVID last months, 2 and a half weeks, testing positive, not very sick, flu-like symptoms, paxlovid, our medicines don’t protect us or help us, that’s crazy, a lot of cat action happening, a core group of nine cats, stranger cats, a high number of a cats, all feral, the boys that aren’t fixed are both named Brandon, one darker than the other, let’s go Brandon, telling the Brandons apart, laser eyes, that’s the dark Brandon, smaller feet, chipmunk feet, Brooklyn Dad Defiant, a very 90s name that’s a 2020s name, Owen with Gs, beg to come inside, Tobias, to bite toes, a bias towards toes, a negotiation, mother and grandmother of them all, a mean old cat, a sour disposition, the dog will let her, irritable, you can just come and rub up on my dog, mean old girls, on the roof some, Maissa’s fascinating life, editing Ace Galaksi, social media stuff, blogs and newsletters, let’s do an internal podcast, a link on the dl, what is Maissa’s job?, lots of divisions, pr, edit videos, write and produce pr things, listen to the podcast, if I need to know, 15 minutes at most, once a month, reediting a novel for 20 years, middle school, rewrite a billion time, I got out my library card…, regarding that game [chronophoto], everybody’s wearing fucking masks, anytime after 1950, AOC, 2018, an I voted sticker, eerily obvious what year it is, figure out what year that was, talking about Kennedy being president but not talking about Kennedy being assassinated, in county Cork, is the book dated?, no, it’s a period piece, au courant, everybody’s playing with their iPhone 6, bullying each other, only play with a group, a couple repeats, playing PUBG, a faster version of the game, early January, online vs. in person, got rid of some old computers, that to lean on, Scott does the editing for Reading, Short And Deep, 4-6 hours per day, 8 hour days are horrible, and the show’s over, 10 hours per day, send me a secret signal, Burn Notice, a comiccon, Battlestar Galactica, Archer, a throwback, Pulpcovers/Alex, the last of an earlier era of television, problem of the week, and a weak overriding plot every season, he used to be spy, just a premise for the show, exotic locale, it has a car, 80s, A-Team van, Kitt from Knight Rider, Dukes Of Hazzard, the car is the star of the show, an actor based show, Gabrielle Anwar, an IRA terrorist, Jeffrey Donovan, Bruce Campbell is the sidekick, the Evil Dead series, Sharon Gless, Cagney & Lacey, flip phones, 2005-2011 show, a fine show, a comic book, a sidekick on Xena, western shows, The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr., short lived Fox shows, Zorro style, Jack Of All Trades, what you can do while you’re at work, a half hour syndicated action comedy, 1801, East Indies, a swordfighting, masks, Napoleon Bonaparte is character, Mr. Charismatic on screen, bicker in fun ways, a good fun show, Spider-Man villains, Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), Elvis and JFK, it should be an amazing movie, a little long in the tooth, the cylon lady, Lucy Lawless, you see those people together, the Spartacus tv series, Blood And Sand, 300 (2006), the acting and the dynamics, a slave morality show, diaries?, slave folk heroes, Kirk Douglas, what would it mean to be a slave, having sex with the slaves, a great villainess, New Zealanders, Evan agrees, a slave rebellion, the servile war, amazing history, super-compelling on-screen performances, green screen, practical sets, thinking of it as a play, a tool to get stuff done, laidoff, Vikings was a better show, blood eagle, why you don’t want piss the vikings off, doesn’t overstay its welcome, a maori gladiator, sticking to the facts is fascinating, what is it like to be a celebrity slave, I am Spartacus, a consciousness raising movie, also very sexy, they’re sexy too, regretful but should be done, killing the masters, killed in the end, sexy jumping naked slaves, emotional resonance, very underrated show, 39 episodes, 2013, All In The Family, Happy Days, about as substantial, a monologue about Riverdale, too soap opera, just soap opera enough, Twin Peaks, the original, Deep Space Nine, a very resonant show, better is substantial ways, Miles got trapped in the mine for 20 years, extreme amounts of trauma, poor Miles O’Brien, his wife doesn’t love him, his kid doesn’t care about him, the writers were picking on him, Canadian?, Irish movies, the Canadian film industry, Black Summer, a Netflix show, Calgary, that explains it, the old zombie trope, you are the camera, you don’t know why, you follow that person for a while, this is our main character, nope, they’re killed, weird compared to regular television, Z Nation, an art film, the Asylum, notorious for making cheapo rip off movies, a company designed to make money, the coattails of Hollwood, Sharknado, very surprising, going back all the way, April 2019, not a show like Star Trek Discovery, storytelling techniques that have lain follow, basically praise, the endless sprawling suburbs of Calgary, Alberta, The Crazies (1973), worthy of attention, only one trick: surprise!, the trick works a lot, Stephen King’s The Shining, The Picture In The House by H.P. Lovecraft and Pigeons From Hell by Robert E. Howard, White House-style, axed by ghosts of slavery, based on a black person’s story told to him, a traditional slave folktale, pretty scary, a TV adaptation, anti-mystery box show, sparse in dialogue, what the fuck is going on and why am I so scared, The Extraordinary Attorney Woo, sweet and innocent, childlike, well packaged, young and more than middle aged, a broad range of interests, I think you want it to be great, sweet and fun, Korean film and television industry, clips of this autistic lady, The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2013), Yi Sun-Shin, Korean George Washington, defeated Japan, 12 Korean ships vs. 333 Japanese ships, a slog, historical epics, great horror movies, The Host (2006), the Americans pollute the Han river, evil tank juice, a Godzilla movie, lighter than Train To Busan (2016), kaiju, the worst Korean accent ever, A Man Called Ove (2015), enforcing block association rules, boisterous new neighbors, spends half the movie trying to kill himself, when a movie is not so good, theatering?, Avatar 2, beautiful and too long and mostly a setup for the next one, every crew has a crazyass white boy, very satisfying to see giant arrows go through people, a very clunky writer, repeated himself, Titanic (1997) has gravitas, a big weighty movie, Avatar 3 The Way Of The Rocks, the four elements, exhausted its idea, the na’vi won, Dances With Wolves in space, free of his bad body, a trans story, the transgender kid episode of The Orville, too Star Warsy, special effects heavy, the other way around, show the gender surgery working, trying to sell it on an alien, Ezri vs. Jadzia Dax, a funny situation, Macklin?, they’re both boys, hilarious, like Star Trek but funny, less funny, less good, very wrong of them, Obi-Won was horrible, Andor is not shit, Stalin robbing a bank, a heist show, Diego Luna, Star Wars: Rogue One, many boffins died for this thumbdrive, slow paced, beautifully framed, casting is pretty good, Star Wars writing has been shit, hang out with some labourers, smart but evil, political aspect, Blesson Yates, Imani Pullum [playing Topa], IMDB is getting shitty, a fill-in show, The Venom Business by Michael Crichton, Nazis on the Moon, Evan Lampe started a podcast series reading through everything Heinlein wrote, talked him into it, and maybe Mark Twain, Pirate Enlightenment, Or The Real Libertalia by David Graber, he’s been posthumous for a while, I’m posthumousing right now, autistic style take, all the same, his third posthumous book, “enlightenment, liberty, socialism all the same thing”, hey that’s us!, a radical social experiment, The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff, The Crawlers by Philip K. Dick, crawling abortions being run over by trucks, pretty great story, The Pre-Persons, a weird guy, an interview with Ray Faraday Nelson’s kid, David Agranoff, Philip K. Dick: babysitter, Philip K. Dick shows a 7-year old his derringer, why you have a derringer?, what are you thinking?, this is America, man, too American, we just got problem, do something different in this country, Four-Day Planet by H. Beam Piper, Poul Anderson sword and sandal, Francis Stevens is always interesting, dystopia in Philadelphia, The Heads Of Cerberus, a weird lady, what the fancy people do, Unseen-Unfeared, a few things missing, first published in 1904, Jean Veil, People’s Favorite Magazine, a low rent Italian restaurant, he sells love charms, not tempting, a review by E.F. Bleiler, guy breaks into a house, fights with best friend, a knock at the door, the safe was open, very convoluted, a phial with a stopper with the heads of Cerberus, Dante’s gate, no diamonds in here, what did you do with my cousin, alternate 2018, weird dystopia, no names, just numbers, Mr. Handsome gets a municipal job, a fascist state?, goes in the pit, head of the music department, it’s like the Hugo awards, also stirred up the ashes, seat of her pants, spinning up ideas, opposite of well put together, ideas like rockets going off, Science Fiction The Early Years, Guide To Supernatural Fiction, emdash, 729 pages, a special photographic filter, the soul of a recent suicide, only like an hour, how hard is it to do 47 minutes, we had a good chat, Evan’s been sick, isn’t Paul always at a convention?, socialize, Paul is lonely Libra, Jesse’s just a cancer on society, someplace, pulpcon, money, hassle at the borders, no excuses, lining up for celebrities, Pavel Chekov’s signature, the conversations at the panels are surficial, Pulpfest, 2016, intervening years, a long drive, pulps were more expensive, pandemic prices, Planet Stories for $20, hold it in your hand, oooh look at that ooh!, stay up all night talking to people, if Cirsova were in local stores, Jesse doesn’t want to support Amazon, good used bookstores, lesbian couples are in it for the long haul, a trope almost, they’re bookish, Little Sisters, super-prudes, super-evil, a place of prominence, rent is low somewhere, small town Alberta, a town full of Mormons, an amazing town, Cardston, Alberta, Justice League building, Fortress of Solitude, something out of Ayn Rand, it looks like a bank, cost of living, inflation, $850 for a 3 bedroom and big yard, what does that get you?, giant assessments, working online, the fever has not yet broken on covid, an excuse to fuck everybody and line pockets, definitively its a wash, almost none of the positives are with spreading the disease around, wrecked the industry for in-person tutoring, in person classrooms, kids don’t learn very well online, Paul’s masked up at his convention, the vaccines don’t work for almost any of the people getting them, let’s go back to business as usual, tele-judge, on trial with the judge not in the room, fixed camera, ai shit, a program that you run, that changes where your eyes are focused to make it look at the camera, creepy and interesting, simulated real-life but also fake, no modesty at all, Hawaiian Mormon templeing, nice people, just in this life, Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card is a black name, church homophobia, he’s following his church beliefs, this is the doctrine of my church, and I contribute money to prevent people from getting married, religious objections vs. non-religious objections to abortion, Scott is quite nuanced, say things in a polite way, the same claim about the papists, pushing babies into wombs, bio-ethicists say it is okay to use brain dead women’s bodies, clickbait shit, frustrating fun game, coffee, I can still have coffee, too shaky, three cups max, a catfood shortage, egg pricing, incompetence of a cat named Brandon, personally responsible for inflation, not solving problems, price controls, stick it to the egg industry, milk control board, 59% increase in egg prices, realer food, no-corn in Canadian pop, some breads without soy, Italy has basically real food, pink slime, slight advantages to higher food prices, wrangle some cats, try to find cat food, inexpensive kibble, possums, raccoons.

Passport To Peril by Lawrence Block

Passport To Peril by Lawrence Block (back)

Passport To Peril by Lawrence Block - AUDIOBOOK

Posted by Jesse WillisBecome a Patron!