Alexander Schmid Podcast

Staying awake for the old lady's stories, reuniting the lovers, playing hide and seek with Mask Salesman children on the Moon--we touch on themes of memory, maturity, awakening, and friendship in the final Side Quest on Majora's Mask. 

This week, Wes and Ben are: winning the Mirror Shield from the bottom of the well, shining light on the dancing undead of Ikana Castle, and scaling the Stone Tower, with a nod to the Tower of Babel theory of Termina's blasphemy: https://zeldauniverse.net/2006/11/03/the-stone-tower-why-termina-was-doomed/

Wes and Ben continue exploring the graveyard and the music box house, with hints of Ikana's dark history.

In this conversation on the final book of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I discuss chapters 26-30. Specifically, we consider: (a) the meaning of differences in Goblin and Wizarding notions of ownership; (b) the appearance of Aberforth and his similarities and differences with his brother, Albus, and (c) we end where we began, in Hogwarts, now breaking in to the place we were once invited!

In this conversation on the final book of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I discuss chapters 20-25. Specifically, we consider: (a) the meaning of a story within a story; (b) we consider the symbolic meaning of the Deathly Hallows; (c) and we consider the differences between how the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix define themselves through language and action! And more!

In this inaugural episode of our conversations on the corpus of Shakespeare, Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I discussed one of Shakespeare's first works, if not his first work, "The Comedy of Errors". We specifically considered: (a) Shakespeare's time and historical context; drama as a medium, and Shakespeare's audience; (b) from the play, we considered the layers of errors, who was at error (ourselves, even?), and why observing people making errors is funny, and (c) we concluded with questions of identity, social class, and what makes comedy enjoyable in the first place!

This is the first episode in a series that aims to bring critical commentary and intelligent conversation (when we can muster it!) to each of Shakespeare's plays, so that no matter how one intends to read Shakespeare, one will always have three fellow interlocutors to join!

In this episode, Mr. Wes Schantz, Mr. Ben Kozlowksi, and I consider the Great Bay portion of Zelda: Majora's Mask. We specifically consider: (a) the themes of eros (relationship) and thanatos (death) from both Freudian and Taoist perspectives; (b) we further consider the themes of growing up, meeting the opposite gender, and dying present in the Great Bay; (c) and we consider the perspective Majora's Mask takes on William James' concept of the "moral holiday" and differing ways one can spend one's vacations (or time in general).

In this conversation on the final book of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I discuss: (a) the uses of and symbols of intelligence vs. intuition (or revelation); (b) the desire for discovery and its misleading potential; (c) and connections between how the Harry Potter series confronts the question of death vs. the Christian way of doing so!

In this conversation on the final book of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Ms. Sarah Miller, Mr. Wes Schantz, and I discuss: (a) the wedding of Bill and Fleur in juxtaposition with the fall at the ministry; (b) the tragic tale of Kreature and contrasts between Hermione and Umbridge; (c) we conclude with differing accounts on the scope of the series as a whole!