Cracked Spines

Spookiness can be a November thing too. This week, Sarah and Amelia discuss what happens when you get a house that's just Bad. Like just the most toxic of vibes.  Where people die inside the house, sure, but that's almost incidental to why the house sucks. Amelia loves only the quietest and slowest of horror movies. Sarah expresses some strong disappointment with one of the staple works of the genre. 

Works mentioned: 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
The Puppet Motel by Gemma Files
His House (2020 film) 
Relic (2020 film) 
Silent Hill video game franchise
Kingdom Hearts but I swear to god it was off topic, we just meandered there for a sec 

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This week, we’re talking symbiotes! Venom! Parasites! I Married A Lizard Man! Venom! Honestly mostly Venom! What is it about having an alien consciousness riding tandem in your noggin that sparks such joy? We read virtually all we could find in the symbiote/host dynamic, from the actual Venom comics to Stephanie Meyer’s The Host. Sarah unironically compares the Venom movies to Lawrence of Arabia and Amelia evangelizes spores. 

Our books this episode: 

• The Host by Stephanie Meyer
• Parasite by Mira Grant
• Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis
• Earth Fathers Are Weird by Lyn Gala
• Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts by Lyn Gala

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Can we talk about Disco Elysium? I've been dying to talk about Disco Elysium. A video game technically, but like, counterargument, all you do in it is read and think and embarrass yourself, and that sounds like a book to me. If Victor Hugo had made video games, he'd have made Disco Elysium. Anyway Sarah would through herself in front of a bullet for this particular piece of media, and she made Amelia discuss it with her. Talking points include: Amelia's animosity towards all fictional children, some extraordinarily bad voices, a tie that screams at you to have sex and do drugs and why that's a good supporting character, and unending lamentations about the load times seriously the load times hi game it's Sarah writing the episode description I just want to talk about these load times I mean truly truly truly what the hell also let me kiss Lt. Kim Kitsuragi. 

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Hey remember those short stories in English class that are outstandingly good and extremely messed up? We certainly do! (Or, Sarah does and Amelia has goldfish memory probably as a result of playing World of Warcraft for so many years.) We're talking about those dark lil short stories you read fifteen years ago and have thought about every day since. Amelia ponders the question of hubris. Sarah has deep emotions about a school group project from 15 years ago. The cat forcibly weighs in. 

Works mentioned: 

"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson 
"The Interlopers," by Saki
"All Summer in a Day," by Ray Bradbury
"The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allen Poe
"Little Things by Raymond Carver 
"The Veldt," by Ray Bradbury
"The Most Dangerous Game," by Richard Connell 
"The Lady or the Tiger," by Frank Stockton
"A Sound of Thunder," by Ray Bradbury (really only mentioned in spirit) 

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The same way that a pony is APPARENTLY not just a baby horse (????), a novella is far more than a smaller version of a novel. This week your hosts read a whole smattering of the little suckers, from the agonizing exorcisms in Prosper's Demon to the epic worldbuilding of The Empress of Salt and Fortune. What makes a novella great? What makes a novella unsatisfying? As usual, we're no experts, but we sure did read a helluva lot. Along the way, Sarah makes some bold foot claims which probably won't surprise you, and Amelia states her answer on the classic question, "At what degree of separation are you allowed to marry your cousin?" which actually might. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo
• Prosper's Demon, by K. J. Parker
• Inside Job, by K.J. Parker
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers
• The Governess and the Norseman, by Grace Burroughs
• Hard Reboot, by Django Wexler 
• The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson
• Sisters of the Vast Black, by Lina Rather
• A Ruin of Shadows, by L. D. Lewis
• The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway 
• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, which Sarah didn't read and is gonna get to, she promises
• The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, which Sarah did read in high school and hated

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Can we talk to you about Ethan Winters? We've been dying to talk to you about Ethan Winters. Look, we're big book people over here, but unfortunately there's no form of storytelling we've recently encountered that demands discussion more than whatever the hell is going on in these games. We got mold. We got #girlboss.  We got the weirdest approaches to worldbuilding you've ever dang seen. Amelia can't handle how much she loves a dweeb with his pressed khaki slacks, Sarah can't handle how much she hates a man who nicknamed himself Alpha. 

Media discussed:

Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil Village 
The Last of Us

Captain America: Winter Soldier Ultimate Collection (graphic novel), written by Ed Brubaker 

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This week, we're going full-on, all-out id. The kinds of books that speak directly to your most basic, primal fiction desires, like bed sharing or parasitic fungus. You know, normal things. Sarah and Amelia talk about a few books they've read that really just hit the spot. Amelia exudes her usual natural calm and doesn't get stressed out over extremely minor matters. Sarah enjoys Amelia's zen aura and everything is fine.

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What is cosmic horror, and what makes it so effective? After last week's episode on Lovecraftian horror, we're diving into cosmic horror as a separate entity from Lovecraft--and yes, we then proceed to discuss more Lovecraftian horror for the first half of the episode. Also including Sarah's potential clown fetish, Amelia's unquestionable mushroom fetish, and a joke about hentai that Amelia was going to cut but Sarah made her keep in so look forward to that. 

In this episode we discuss the following pieces of media: 

• Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
• The Dream Quest of Vellit Boe by Kij Johnson
• Bloodborne (game)
• The Magnus Archives (podcast)
• Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw
• Catfish Lullaby by A. C. Wise
• The Fisherman by John Langan 
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

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Can we talk about H.P. Lovecraft's sex life? Because we've been dying to talk about H.P. Lovecraft's sex life. And apparently, so has this person who wrote a literal article about it. Yes, we spend an inordinate amount of time talking about this. In preparation for this episode Sarah and Amelia read H. P. Lovecraft's work for the very first time, and proceed to tear into the man like two catty mean girls behind the bleachers.  Sarah dredges up Lovecraft's first poem (racist!) and then dishes out the hot gossip on his wife.  Amelia makes a convincing case for the sex appeal of his monsters. We both exclaim the name "Danforth" too much. 

Also, content warning! Racism! Because it's Lovecraft, so you can probably imagine. 

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Sarah strongarms Amelia into reading one of her favorite books from last year, and to both their surprise Amelia liked it. This week we're talking Weird Points of View, from the plural first person of Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic to The Mountain Goats to second person novels to Sarah's dim memory of Stargate SG-1 fanfic. Also there's like. A lot of discussion of a particular regional high school challenge right at the start of the show. We have no excuse for that. It connects to nothing except in that we're channeling the spirit of a classic outside POV, Ishmael from Moby Dick, and the white whale is an illicitly acquired Philly cheesesteak. Come for the books, endure the weird Northern Virginia cultural practices. 

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