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Supernatural fiction studies book – “A Feeling of Wrongness” (Penn State University Press, 2018) – Joe Packer interview

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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

Star Trek history – “Star Trek: A Cultural History” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) – M. Keith Booker interview

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M. Keith Booker studies and teaches culture and literature. He worked as an engineer for many years before turning to the literary arts. He also has a passion for Star Trek and “nerd” stuff and we spoke about his latest book on Star Trek.

0:43 – Keith talks about how he got into writing on Star Trek. He’s been a fan for decades and has also studied cultural history for many years. He started as an engineer.

3:43 – Keith has written on high brow literature but also on comic books, film and tv.

4:47 – Keith talks about the book and says that it focuses on the Original Series. But he also touches on the other Star Trek series’ and how the Original Series influenced them.

6:23 – Keith talks about Irwin Allen.

6:53 – Keith talks about NBC’s plans for Star Trek.

10:00 – Keith talks about the Prime Directive in the show.

13:07 – Keith talks about the writing in the Original Series and how Roddenberry reached out to sci-fi writers.

17:38 – We talk about Spock and his parents.

19:45 – We talk about the fan mail the series got.

21:08 – Keith talks about why the third season had problems.

23:40 – Keith talks about the research he did for the book.

27:40 – Keith talks about the X-files where they had stand alone episodes but also a running plot line.

31:39 – We talk about Star Trek conventions and how they came about.

34:45 – Start Trek was made for adults rather than preious sci-fi which was made for kids.

36:30 – Science fiction in general was becoming more adult in this period.

55:50 – We talk about the Coen brothers.

 

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: Keith Booker

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, star trek, the original series, x-files, irwin allen, gene roddenberry, spock, discovery, CBS, NBC, lost in space

Sci-fi and archaeology – “Excavating the Future” (Liverpool University Press, 2018) – Shawn Malley interview

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Shawn Malley is a Canadian professor interested in the Victorian period. We talk about his latest book that discusses the intersection between archaeology, science fiction and spectacle.

1:45 – Shawn talks about how he got into writing on science fiction. He’s a Victorianist by trade.

4:09 – Shawn talks about how he divides the book and what the three parts are about.

8:04 – We touch on steampunk and Victorian tropes.

11:00 – We discuss Superman and archaeology.

21:04 – We discuss how Shawn chose what works to research.

25:45 – Shawn talks about analyzing tv and film media.

27:45 – Shawn is also interested in the technologies used to create sci-fi film and tv and what those say about how we approach sci-fi.

45:00 – The book has about 45 stills and Shawn wanted many more.

48:29 – Shawn’s work can be found in University libraries. He has a page on Bishop’s University of Quebec.

Links of Interest

Excavating the Future https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/108267

 

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: Shawn Malley

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, archaeology, babylon, iraq, smallville, Manticore, films, Stargate, Ancient Aliens, Indiana Jones, Crystal Skull, Superman, cyborgs, Battlestar Galactica, cylons, Star Trek, Transformers, District 9, ISIS