Pop DNA

Totally spontaneous commentary track in anticipation of our first LIT(erature) Summer episode, Pride & Prejudice. We know you want to hear all our P&P thoughts, from the gorgeous score, to all the men’s sideburns, to the strangely high number of hams, to Keira Knightley’s perfect fringe.

Stream the movie here or buy the DVD here.

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Hope you’ve had your elevenses because we are travelling through Middle Earth this month, with our friend Rebecca and the Fellowship of the Ring! …and The Two Towers, and The Return of the King… We look at how Tolkien was influenced by his experience in WWI, his Catholic Faith, and mythology, as well as the psychology of the characters and the series’ lasting influence, from the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s to the popular fantasy fiction of today.

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Links

Tolkien movie review

The Battle of the Somme

The Inklings

The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter

Catholic and Christian themes in The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories”

How mythology influenced Tolkien

The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson

Smeagol’s psychology

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Tolkien and Hippie Culture

Newsweek story on Tolkien’s influence on fantasy

Rolling Stone interview with George R. R. Martin

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BONUS EPISODE! We decided to talk about horror movies, in this our first official Geek Out episode! We discuss some of our favorite horror flicks, from the good to the so-bad-they’re-good to the ones with zombies. Listen at your own risk!

A couple corrections:

I mistakenly said in the episode that the novel The Woman in Black was written by Shirley Jackson; it was actually written by Susan Hill. Sorry, Susan.

Also, in A Quiet Place you do get several very good looks at the monsters, but I apparently blocked that from my memory.

Links:

Why Do We Crave Scary Movies?

Horror Movie Tropes

Classic Literature Connections in Us

2019 Horror:

Us

Greta

Happy Death Day 2 U

Pet Sematary

Ma

Recommendations:

Good

Alien

Sunshine

Get Out

Annihilation

A Quiet Place

Cabin in the Woods

Hannibal series

The Birds

The Shining

Snowpiercer

So Bad They’re Good

The Woman in Black

Prom Night

Breaking In

Death Note

Drag Me To Hell

The Grudge

Final Destination saga

The Poltergeist

The Haunting

Sleepaway Camp

Mixed Feelings

Bird Box

Halloween

The Others

Jennifer’s Body

Life After Beth

The Ring

Zombies

28 Days Later

The Girl With All the Gifts

Shaun of the Dead

Zombieland

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Video

Train to Busan

Night of the Living Dead

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High School is Hell. Our discussion of Buffy’s Pop DNA explores the roots of vampire legends and literature, the show’s psychology and social commentary, and connections to our literary BFF, William Shakespeare. I officially have no more words. I slay all day.

The Rise of Buffy Studies

Buffy’s page on TV Tropes

The A. V. Club’s look at the 1992 film

The legend of the (possibly) first vampire

Vampires, Burial, and Death by Paul Barber

The Evolution of Vampires in Literature

“The Vampyre” by John Polidori

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Boxer Rebellion

A timeline of historical events shown on Buffy

Psychology of Buffy

Yay Willow!

Willow and Tara

Buffy Speak — Buffy‘s unique dialog style explained

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Apocalypse Now

Slayer by Kiersten W...

On Wednesdays we wear pink! This month we break down Mean Girls’ Pop DNA, from the literary tradition of social satire in the work of Swift and Thackeray, to the roles of women in comedy and STEM fields, to the film’s place as a link in a long chain of teen comedies. So fetch!

Fictional Hangover Podcast

Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman

Psychology of Mean Girls in adulthood

Chicago Reader Mean Girls review

Jezebel article on Heathers vs. Mean Girls

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

Internalized Gender Roles affect STEM Performance from the Daily Texan

The Media and Women in STEM on the Radical Idea Blog

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

Social satire in Vanity Fair (requires a free account to read)

Social commentary in Mean Girls

Much Ado About Mean Girls by Ian...

This one had to be a two-parter. We just had SOOOO many feelings to discuss!

Links:

Buy the books (We receive a small portion of the proceeds from sales through this link)

The Hunger Games‘ 10th anniversary New York Times article

Team Peeta or Team Gale?

Why Katniss is a Feminist Icon

Full text of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Paste Magazine’s list of the 30 Best Dystopian Books of All Time

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Galax-Arena by Gillian Rubinstein

The Classical Roots of The Hunger Games by Barry Strauss

Another article about connections to Ancient Rome

The Anatomy of Revolution by Crane Brinton

The Politics of The Hunger Games

Which Hunger Games character are you? Buzzfeed quiz and PopSugar quiz

(FYI: Amber = Buzzfeed: Peeta, PopSugar: Katniss; Erin = Buzzfeed: Peeta, PopSugar: Gale; Rhonda = Buzzfeed: Effie, PopSugar: Johanna)

A site where you can examine whether or not your favorite movies pass The Bechdel Test

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This month Erin and Rhonda take on one of the biggest pop culture phenomena of our time: Star Wars. We discuss the saga’s connections to both the past and the future, through its ties to folklore and mythology, its profound influence on effects and technology in filmmaking, and the Shakespearean threads woven throughout the series, as well as our undying love for Han Solo and Poe Dameron. Listen now, and may the Force be with you.

*Note: In the episode, I say that I believe that Star Wars Legends is a series of comic books that takes place thousands of years prior to the cinematic timeline, but this is not completely correct. Star Wars Legends, according to Wookiepedia, the Star Wars wiki, “encompasses every one of the officially licensed, fictional background stories of the Star Wars universe, outside of the original six Star Wars films produced by George Lucas and certain other material such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars, created before April 25, 2014,” in other words, every Expanded Universe story that Disney declared non-canonical when it bought Star Wars. However, Legends material does include stories that take place “anywhere from over 36,000 years before The Phantom Menace to 136 years after Return of the Jedi,” so that must be where I got the idea of what I thought Legends was. Anyway, enjoy the episode!

Links:

The Cinema Behind Star Wars: The Hidden Fortress

This Nerdist article about Star Wars and The Hidden Fortress

Videos with side-by-side comparisons

How the Samurai inspired the Jedi

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

How to Be a Heroine

Linguistics of Yoda

Why does Yoda speak the way he does?

Making Monsters

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars

Star Wars Reading Challenge

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We’re heading to Stars Hollow, Connecticut for episode 2 of Pop DNA. Erin and Rhonda talk about everyone’s favorite mother-daughter duo, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, discussing Gilmore Girls’ ties to Tolstoy, Austen, and the history of the American Revolution, and also how we’re both unapologetically Team Jess. “Where you lead… I will follow…”

Links:

The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge

Book references in A Year in the Life

Anna Karenina

Blog post on one reader’s experience with Anna Karenina through the Rory Gilmore Challenge

Pride and Prejudice Gilmore Girls Style

Dangerous History Podcast episode on Ivy League Secret Societies

Daughters of the American Revolution official website

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Our brand new podcast, Pop DNA, explores the literary and historical roots of your favorite movies and TV shows. In our first episode, your hosts Erin and Rhonda discuss how The Little Mermaid, Aristotle, and the early 20th Century women’s suffrage movement are all related to the 2017 film Wonder Woman, and also how we might both be in love with Gal Gadot.

Links

More about the Amazons

Philosophy articles on Good and Evil

Entertainment Weekly article about The Little Mermaid‘s influence on Wonder Woman‘s story

Forbes article on the history of Wonder Woman

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore

Subscribe to us on ITUNES, STITCHER, SPOTIFY, RADIOPUBLIC or your podcatcher of choice.

Find us on FACEBOOK, TWITTER or INSTAGRAM

YOU CAN READ OUR BLOG HERE: THEPOPDNA.BLOG

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.