Triple Bladed Sword: Recent Episodes
Mike Perschon
A podcast about the Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror we read, watch, and play. Your host is Mike Perschon, a professor of English at MacEwan University.
We kick off our journey through fantasy film from the 1980s to the 2020s with Conan the Barbarian, the much-maligned box-office hit that kicked off a plague of direct-to-video loincloth knockoffs. Yet it's an important moment in the history of fantasy film, with production design anticipating the "fantasy-as-history" approach of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Furthermore, it's a well-made film in its own right, championing the role of the warrior woman in adult fantasy in ways that are less reductive than other films of the decade.
I mention the excellent Fan/Anim podcast in this episode. Here's the link to get there! https://www.fantasy-animation.org/all-episodes
It's the start of a new series on fantasy film from the 1980s to today! This week, I deliver a brief history of fantasy film along with the reason why we're starting in the 1980s and not back in the silent era.
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Early in her career, naysayers told Gail Carriger her books "weren't steampunk enough." A little over a decade later, Carriger and a host of female writers are the "top of the pops" on Steampunk lists on Goodreads. This week, I'm talking about how we approach researching literature, and how sometimes, we're missing some of the most Important Things in the world.
Leaning heavily on Scott McCloud and his excellent Understanding Comics, I give a quick breakdown of some of the tools we can use to analyze comics, using Marjorie Liu and San Takeda's brilliant steampunk fantasy, Monstress.
While steampunk's first wave (or trickle?) was mostly narrative, its second wave jumped beyond page and screen and into the real world: from fashion to to music to Maker spaces, steampunk was no longer a fantastic imaginings - you could wear it, work on it, or, in the case of steampunk culture, live it.
Just like Disney, Hiyao Miyazaki's films represent a huge influence on the development of the steampunk aesthetic. While early American steampunk writers were developing a literary subgenre, Miyazaki was doing the same in cinema, from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind to Howl's Moving Castle, leading up to Steamboy, Katsuhiro Otomo's second-wave-steampunk homage to Studio Ghibli's Castle in the Sky.
This lecture takes a look at the influence of Walt Disney and film adaptations of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells's works as a significant influence on the growth of first and second-wave steampunk.
Thumbnail Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash
A retrospective of the first wave of steampunk, from antecedents to inception to the madcap assortment of comics, games, books, and films that formed the genre's early years.
Using steampunked Star Wars art, this lecture identifies three key features of steampunk narratives and art: technofantasy, retrofuturism, and hyper vintage.
Thumbnail image by Bjorn Hurri Music: "Freedom Fighters" by Machinimasound
Whatever anyone tells you about Jack Kerouac, the rest of us need more than one draft to get it right. Revision is the last step in the writing process, and we need to make sure we give ourselves the time to do it.
Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
The idea that academic writing needs to be dense and difficult is outdated. While you'll always have profs who want that sort of writing, the world at large will demand that we be interesting, accessible, and direct. Instead of writing in a way that obscures meaning, let's focus on communicating!
Thumbnail image by Matt Botsford on Unsplash!
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
We've likely all either told a story or heard one where we kept thinking, "Is there a point to this?" I've asked the same question while writing papers in my undergrad and while reading student papers as a professor of English. We need to do more than have a great thesis and solid evidence - we need a point to our argument!
Thumbnail Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
Now that we've spent a semester writing a research paper in slow motion, it's time to speed things up and write one in real time. This lecture breaks down some of the first steps to writing a research paper: namely, gathering sources, reading them, and then determining our focus to come up with a thesis.
Thumbnail Photo by Rabie Madaci on Unsplash
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
Here's my new and improved lecture on how to write introductions and conclusions for essays! Now with fancy slides and examples based on Godzilla and the history of the Hiroshima bombing.
Thumbnail Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
We've got all the right words in all the wrong places, and we need to get them in the right ones. How do we do that? How do we go about guiding our reader through our ideas as though our written argument were a journey? It's all about transitions!
Thumbnail photo by yns plt on Unsplash! Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
When we're arguing a point in our research papers, why would we choose to include a skeptic? Why would we give voice to our opposition? As it turns out, planting a naysayer in our writing not only helps us kick off our arguments, but it can also strengthen how convincing that argument is.
Thumbnail Photo by Sushil Nash on Unsplash
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
After several weeks focused on what "they say," we're finally talking about how we bring our voice to a paper. How can what "I say" respond to what "they say"? The answer is far simpler than you assume, though there's lots of room for complexity in these four little words: Yes, No, and Okay, But.
Link to Monty Python's argument sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpAvcGcEc0k Thumbnail image by by Alison Pang on Unsplash. Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
How do we write a paper when we only have two sources to work with and we're told to craft our thesis from what they say rather than our own opinion? How do you build an argument while delivering information someone else has said? That's what writing a synthesis is all about! It's all about weaving your sources together, turning two arguments (or more) into one!
Thumbnail photo by Bilal O. on Unsplash!
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
Too often, students will rush ahead of the Planning phase of the Writing Process, constructing a thesis, writing their paper, and then finding sources to jam into their writing as support for their views. This isn't reseach, though -- it's prooftexting. And if we take time to properly Plan our research by first Gathering Information and then determining our focus, we'll produce better work, and even get an education in the bargain!
Apologies for the crummy audio this week!
Thumbnail photo by Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash!
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios
As we begin a research paper, it's crucial to start with what others are saying, rather than just rushing to create a thesis based solely on our opinions or limited knowledge. This week, I talk about the first step in research using Chapter 1 of They Say I Say: Starting with What Others Are Saying.
Opening and closing music: "Ground Control" by Andrea Baroni at Cyberleaf Studios Thumbnail Image credit: " David Lezcano - @_thedl - from Unsplash
Analysis and Argument, Part 2 - Entering the Conversation. Literary theorist Kenneth Burke compared scholarly writing and research to an ongoing conversation. This week, we talk about the first stage of writing a research paper, when we gather ideas and determine focus, and how that's easier to do when we read and listen to what others have to say.
Photo credit: @alexisrbrown on Unsplash
A lecture from my English 102 Analysis and Argument course about how to write a summary, based on A Brief Guide to Writing From Readings by Stephen. W. Wilhoit and They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.
One year of podcasting! This is my first anniversary episode, and I'm devoting it entirely to the triple blades that make up Linda Hutcheon's adaptation theory: telling, showing, and interacting, or as I always say here, read, watch, and play. You'll learn why the book isn't always better than the movie and that sometimes, adaptations aren't interested in being true to "the original." I dance around the IPs of Harry Potter, Star Wars, the Lone Ranger, and the Wizard of Oz, to name just a few.
This may come as a surprise, but surprises aren't as big a deal to your enjoyment of a movie or book as you might think. Taking a look at our spoiler-obsessed culture through the lens of the Alien franchise of films, books, and games.
This week I bore you all to tears by explaining my approach to course design, using a Speculative Fiction course on aliens and dragons as a case study.
I thought I'd answer this perennial question for my commencement speech to our English grads this year. Bonus poetry and Terry Pratchett!
With a new Dungeons and Dragons movie in production, I got thinking about why movies about games often fail as adaptations, while shows like Critical Role and Harmonquest succeed. What do the streamers have that Hollywood doesn't? The answer lies in an unholy synthesis of '80s teen flicks and that D&D Saturday morning cartoon!
Contrary to what the madness of the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s taught me, it turns out tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons don't cause suicide, but might just be a really great prescription for robust mental health. How can a game involving mind flayers and intellect devourers do this? Jane McGonigal's book, Reality is Broken has some answers for you!
This week I'm contemplating the question I've been asking myself, "Should I celebrate/observe/cancel Canada Day" through the lens of Indigenous writer Richard Van Camp's brilliant short fiction. As with some of the great literary short stories, the epiphanies are left to the listener!
Today I'm talking about the last two DCEU movies, Wonder Woman 1984 and Zack Snyder's Justice League, and how both work to give us epic meditations on loss and grief.
In honour of Pride Month, a reflection on my journey from homophobia to allyship via Star Trek: The Next Generation, Clive Barker's dark fantasy novels, and Gandalf!
This week, I'm talking about Gabrielle Moss's totally tubular Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction, teaching Children's fiction in University, and how looking at teenage paperbacks might lead us to learning about really important moments in the representation of marginalized voices.
I'm back! I needed a break, and while I was doing nothing for a while, I was reading Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing. It got me thinking about my days as a pastor, but also how painting fantasy minis is how I currently practice Sabbath, or the art of doing nothing. This is the first in my "Office Hours" series for 2021, shorter episodes that are meant to emulate the sorts of conversations I have with students when they visit me in my office.
We come to the end of our journey in the postapocalyptic wastelands of books, comics, films, and games with T.C. Boyle's short story "After the Plague" and the final part of Station Eleven.
This week, we look at David Robert Mitchell's brilliant twist on so many conventions of earlier horror films, from the slasher to the zombie to the supernatural curse in It Follows.
Another study of film language, this time using George Miller's high-octane masterwork, Mad Max: Fury Road. We'll see how the movie and Station Eleven share the same story while looking at how each narrative addresses the theme "Survival is Insufficient."
Ghost stories and an adaptation of Japanese Horror this week as we hit the 2000s. Relying exclusively on film language, I analyze the way Gore Verbinski's The Ring hems in its narrative to provide the ultimate fake out ending.
This week, we look at making the familiar unfamiliar in the seventh part of Station Eleven, bringing it into conversation with Craig Raine's riddle poem "A Martian Sends a Postcard Home" and Nathan Pyle's webcomic, Stranger Planet.
When I originally envisioned my 100 Years of Horror, I didn't think I'd include a film, to underscore that many see it as a low point in the history of the horror film. But by popular acclaim, friends and student wore me down with the question, "What about Scream?" The answer is finally here, and it has to do with media-savvy '90s teens, the guy who wrote Dawson's Creek, and one of the "movie brats" of the '70s reinventing himself for a new generation.
In this episode, I get to talk about one of my favourite movies of all time, John Carpenter's The Thing. And as you might expect, I go on a little long about body horror, great edits, shooting on location, and a discussion of how the direct horror of showing the Thing results in a little suggestive horror, since seeing the Thing isn't the same thing as knowing what it is we're seeing.
This week I get reflective about possible worlds and forking paths with a discussion of part 7 of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and a few apocalyptic and postapocalyptic games, including the video game Plague Inc., the board game Pandemic, and the storytelling game The Quiet Place along with some ideas from Jorge Luis Borges.
Since Station Eleven is about comics and a few critics compare Emily St. John Mandel's novel to more violent postapocalyptic narratives like The Walking Dead, I thought it would be worth taking a look at Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore's brilliant graphic novel, Days Gone Bye.
Director William Friedkin, Screenwriter William Peter Blatty, and actor Linda Blair have all called The Exorcist a "theological thriller," refusing to admit that the top grossing horror movie of all time is really a horror film. Looking at how the film using editing to build a narrative of transformation from innocence to malevolence, I argue that ultimately, it still deserves the title of one of the scariest horror movies of all time.
This week we hit the 1970s, which for my money, is the greatest decade of horror film yet. So great, that I had to examine two movies, starting with Tobe Hooper's notorious The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. What makes this film one of the greatest horror movies ever? And why was it banned in Britain for over 20 years when it never really shows any explicit gory violence?
This week, I don't really talk much about Station Eleven, but instead talk about one of its great moments of intertextuality (besides every other academic's favourite from this novel, Shakespeare): Bill Watterson's beloved and brilliant comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes. I use some strips to discuss what comics are, how Station Eleven references them, and then how to read them.
This week we explore the idea of "everyday apocalypse" at length by reading Part 3 of Station Eleven, "I Prefer You With a Crown" in concert with James P. Blaylock's short story "War of the Worlds."
We arrive at the point that many horror film scholars have called the beginning of the modern horror film: George A. Romero's seminal zombie flick, Night of the Living Dead. This time, the blood is chocolate syrup, but the guts are real, and the monsters are the neighbors--literally. Come find out about the movie Romero made with friends, family, and real cops!
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This week we learn about Alfred Korzybski's idea that "The Map is Not the Territory," as we head into the postapocalyptic future of Station Eleven, comparing the second part, "A Midummer Night's Dream" with Walter Van Tilburg Clark's dark short story, "The Portable Phonograph."
Welcome to the 1950s, the decade of atomic horror in America, and Hammer Horror in the UK! This week, we look at Hammer Films' Dracula (1958) aka Horror of Dracula in the United States. We've got full-colour gore! Low budgets and low necklines! And Grand Moff Tarkin at his most energetic. Spoiler: Peter Cushing is the greatest Van Helsing ever, and Christopher Lee was pure evil before he ever touched that Palantir in Lord of the Rings.
This week, we turn to the prologue to Stephen King's post-apocalyptic epic, The Stand to act as a contrast to Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. We also learn about Poe's Theory of the Unity of Effect and delve further into the joys of Intertextuality.
This week's installment of 100 Years of Horror takes us into the 1940s and a discussion of the studio system, and how that system was instrumental in Val Lewton's decision to use "suggestive horror" in an innovative shift away from a European Gothic Past into the American Urban Present of Cat People.
Jumping from the silent era to the 1930s, this week's selection from a century of horror film is the pinnacle of the Universal Monsters films, James Whale's masterpiece, The Bride of Frankenstein.
This week, we learn more about the way Narrative Theory approaches Story and Narrative by comparing Steven Soderbergh's film Contagion with "The Theatre," the first part of Emily St. John Mandel's novel, Station Eleven. After a crash course in film language using Contagion as our case study, I look at how the intensity of the film helps us understand how Mandel is creating a kinder, gentler apocalypse in Station Eleven.
We embark on a journey of terror, looking at 100 years of horror movies. We begin our journey with F.W. Murnau and Albin Grau's classic silent film, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. This episode discusses some misconceptions about the film, the ways in which it is like (and unlike) Stoker's Dracula, and how we can be a "sympathetic audience" to old horror movies that no longer have the power to scare a contemporary viewer.
My first Christmas episode, in which I probably say "whimsy" too much, but make some recommendations for you to read, watch, and play over the Holiday season (which goes until January 6 if you want it to).
0:00 - Introduction (with festive music!) 2.43 Reading Recommendations 3:09 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Science Fiction) 10:23 Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (Fantasy) 17:25 All the Bells on Earth by James P. Blaylock (Horror) 26:20 Watching Recommendations 26:30 Doctor Who: "A Christmas Carol" (Science Fiction) 28:50 Jingle Jangle (Fantasy) 33:08 Rare Exports (Horror) 35:02 Playing Recommendations - Heroic Maps (Holidays ones!) for Fantasy Roleplaying
This episode introduces a new season/course, Media Across Narrative. Our focus is Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven, which we will use as our central pillar to a semester-long investigation of the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic genres. In this episode, I take judge Station Eleven by its cover -- or rather, covers, and explain the difference between story and narrative using Noah's Ark, one of the first apocalyptic works of written narrative in the world!
The final episode of the Narrative in Film series! This week, I'm looking at how sound works as cinematic language, with Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity as our case study. Rabbit trails include why Gravity isn't science fiction, and why Neil DeGrasse Tyson needs to stop punching holes in the fabric of film reality.
This week, I'm standing on the shoulders of giants Will Brooker and Linton Davies as we discuss how editing contributes to cinematic language, with Star Wars as our case study.
In this lecture, we're talking about that aspect of cinematic language everyone thinks they're an expert on: acting! Our case study for the week is Jordan Peele's excellent horror flick, Get Out. Just in time for Halloween!
This week, I'm looking at Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring with a focus on cinematography, which is one of the areas this film won an Academy Award for. It's an epic episode for an epic film!
This week, a discussion about production design, costuming, lighting, and so many other aspects that get dumped under the term mise-en-scène, as mediated through the spectacular "real artificiality" of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge!
This week, we get a little bit of film history about D.W. Griffith, I swear about Griffith, get uppity about documentaries, and talk about how "true" any films based on true stories can ever really be.
This week, I talk about genres, rabbit trailing to giant monsters, Sweeney Todd, and Harry Potter films on an airplane before finally discussing the hybrid genre wonder that is The Shape of Water.
This week. we're looking at "Principles of Film Form," Chapter 2 of Looking at Movies, using Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation of Little Women as our case study. You'll learn about film form, about how much I love Florence Pugh in this film, and hear me cry!
The first lecture from my Introduction to Film Narrative course in fall of 2020, this episode uses the adventure classic Raiders of the Lost Ark to answer the question, "What's a Movie?" Raiders acts as the case study for an initial investigation into the formal elements of cinematic language.
In this inaugural episode, Mike explains the name of the podcast, identifies the triple blades of speculative fiction and adaptation, and argues why the 1982 B-movie The Sword and the Sorcerer isn't just a Conan wannabe. Images referenced in the podcast can be seen over at the Triple Bladed Sword Instagram.