KrickCast Presents The Definitive

No new episode yet, but new promises. We love autumn and part of our celebrations this year will include a three-episode series on (the best autumn book?) Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962). We hope you'll join our festivities.

As part of our lighter August load, we decided to return to childhood detective stories. At the time, that seemed friendly and reasonable and Encyclopedia Brown went well. This episode ... went slightly sideways.

We don't dig into the actual book as much, using it instead as an occasion to duck into a couple of side conversations*. And that's a very different approach from our usual.

We begin by spending a lot of time talking about Alfred Hitchcock and publishing seals of approval used for marketing purposes.

Brick bounces us from Jupiter Jones into a discussion of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes and the complexities of interpretation in an age of rewrites, reboots, and reimaginings. Kathryn talks about discovering, as an adult, how racist the book she read as a child is. And we end, as sometimes happens, with a reflection on what we see as the value of the humanities and the function of art.

Thanks for joining us again. We will be back … soon …. (We’re sorry we can’t be more specific, but we are in the U.S. and dealing with the tension and increased work-load of university after university insisting on starting face-to-face classes and then abruptly “pivoting” to online instruction.)

*Kathryn hates talking this way about genre, but it's usable shorthand for podcast purposes.

Today we turn to Donald J. Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective, the first in the Encyclopedia Brown series. It takes a while to get to the actual book, since we detour through reading habits and Choose Your Own Adventure books first

Faithful listeners may know that detective fiction is Kathryn's academic focus ... she unsuccessfully tries to hold back at first, but eventually geeks out. No apologies for getting caught up in discussions of criminal vs. criminality, and the dangers in disseminating a worldview in which one illegal action makes one a criminal -- that's a hugely important conversation .... and Kathryn will have it with anyone at any time. Brick comments on the function of criticism (a micro-glimpse into why we do what we do) and we end, as always, with flair.

Also, while Kathryn says in episode that the music is Waltz of Death, it is actually Magical Dirt, also by Sir Cubworth.

We've been enormously grateful for this podcast project over the past few weeks. Setting aside all our quibbles and gripes, Jacques created a world that we (and so many others) rejoiced to enter in childhood and, honestly, still enjoy now.

Today's episode is the last one for the current season (don't worry ... we'll be back!) and we use it to create the Krickcast Official Ranking for season one villains. There aren't a lot of surprises, but we had fun with it and hope you do too. Feel free to drop us a comment or an email and let us know what your ranking is!

In August, we plan to do a couple of non-Redwall episodes focusing on childhood detectives. Then, once we settle into fall and the new academic year, we can all journey back to Redwall again together.

Thanks for listening.

Welcome back!

In this episode, Brick and Kathryn disagree about how interesting these villains are. Kathryn points out the issues with Sunflash's management style, and we talk about Batman more than we expected to. Both of our academic specialities make brief appearances: Kathryn mumbles about murder and Brick about surveillance. After a brief stop at nominative determinism ... Kathryn was pretty negative (sorry) about this book overall, and Brick looks forward to Pearls of Lutra.

Outcast of Redwall is our last regular-season episode in this first season of The Gatehouse. Next week we'll have a wrap-up episode. Then, in August, we plan to publish a couple of one-off episodes that are not Redwall-based (!) but which focus on childhood detective novels. After that, we hope to return to Redwall with all of you.

First off, an apology. There was some kind of noise interference with the microphone on this one, and we couldn't quite get all of it out during editing.

Second, an apology if this is your favourite book; we didn't really like this one. Kathryn (unfavourably) compares the villain to furniture. Brick points out that even the geography doesn't work. We turn to the book a couple of times during our pronunciation debates ... and Kathryn was not paying close enough attention and gets called out. Brick rants about a specific cover illustration ... for more time than expected ...

We rambled a bit. We blame the book. Thanks for sticking through it with us. Join us next week for our final (book-centered) episode of this season ... The Outcast of Redwall.

Welcome back! We're glad to find ourselves with Martin once again (and the cool Martin, not the ghosty one).

In this episode, Brick tells us again about meeting Brian Jacques. (It really is cool.) Brick also notes the Bird-Saviour-Recurrence anchoring the plot of the book. We wander into the utopia (?) of Noonvale. We spend ... quite a bit of time discussing Noonvale. Kathryn is actually feuding with Brick for his continued refusal to look at the evidence from the text and admit that he is wrong about vermin and building -- instead doubling down and making his theory more convoluted and unlikely. (Guess who wrote this summary.) In the end, we loop back around to Noonvale, and toss in a bit of Derrida-lite for good measure.

Thanks for joining, and we'll see you again next week.

This episode is a little different. Instead of discussing one of the Redwall books in detail, we're talking about your letters!

We dip through heroes, villains, our embarrassing vulture impressions ... Brick invents an entire "spirit of Mossflower" in order to resist Kathryn's "straightforward" explanation for poems spreading across time and place. You know, all the usual wrangles ... but you asked for them.

Thanks for your questions (send more!) and we'll see you next week.

Welcome to the Badger Mountain!

In this episode, Brick tries to headcanon away the potential problems with the badger lords amassing capital, while Kathryn insists that none of his headcanons make sense given context. We fail to agree, so you'll have to ponder that one on your own. Seriously, we do not agree at all.

Kathryn undermines her own credibility by not accurately remembering the frame story, and also admits to having once been a teenager. Brick brags about meeting Brian Jacques.

Thanks for joining us. We'll be back next week.

It's Thursday and it's time to visit The Gatehouse. Today we're talking about Mariel of Redwall (1992), the first book in Brian Jacques' second Redwall trilogy.

Brick baits Kathryn into complaining more about chronology. Kathryn encourages Brick to exclaim "Gabool!" more times than strictly necessary. Kathryn coins the term "Martin ex machina" while Brick demands more respect for his cries of "GABOOOL!" We both celebrate our appreciation of Mariel as a character; sidebar into contemplating the function of vengeance; and end with more of Brick's headcanon (which Kathryn fiercely resists).

Thanks for listening. Join us next week for Salamandastron.