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

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

Horror movie history – “Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror” (Counterpoint, 2018) – W. Scott Poole interview

Scott Poole is a professor of history in American pop and folk culture with a heavy emphasis on horror studies. We talked about his latest book that examines the effect World War One had on horror movies.

0:56 – Scot talks about how he got into studying horror.

2:58 – Scott talks about the book and how World War One changed horror literature and stories.

9:58 – Scott talks about directors and creators who delved into horror.

12:45 – Scott talks about how Franz Kafka is associated with horror.

16:03 – Scott talks about the occult, horror and the Great War.

22:57 – Scott talks about French author Celine’s affect on horror.

25:33 – Scott talks about the death of animals affected horror.

28:34 – Scott talks about how he found old horror films and war footage.

35:30 – Scott talks about comedy in early horror.

38:39 – Scott talks about the great emotional difficulty he had in writing this book.

43:11 – Scott talks about an interesting discovery he made about Bela Lugosi.

53:04 – Scott tweets @monstersamerica.

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: Scott Poole

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: horror, movies, literature, Kafka, Lovecraft, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi, World War One, The Great War, Celine, movie directors, Nazis, occult