Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Joe Packer is a communications academic and became interested in how pessimism is expressed in popular culture. He co-wrote a book on the subject and we discussed it.
0:56 – Joe talks about how he got into writing about pessimism in popular culture. He references Lovecraft.
2:14 – Joe talks about the book and philosophical pessimism. The book focuses on the idea that things would be better if humans didn’t even exist.
6:31 – Joe talks about why they incorporated True Detective, Rick and Morty, and Final Fantasy VII into the book’s ideas.
12:37 – Joe talked about other works they considered including such as drone metal.
16:08 – Joe talks about their backgrounds in communications studies.
17:09 – Joe talks about the short story “I have No Mouth and I Must Scream” and how it affected him.
22:53 – Joe talks about post-apocalyptic films.
27:38 – Joe talks about the philosophies of BioShock.
28:52 – Joe is on academia.edu and Google Scholar.
Links of interest
A Feeling of Wrongness https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08235-6.html
For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi
Guests: Joe Packer
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: science fiction, fantasy, art, artist, Rick and Morty, True Detective, Lovecraft, Final Fantasy VII, Inside Out, drone metal, Get Out, BioShock, video games
