Preternatural Investigations

Preternatural Investigations

By Sharron KrausSociety & CultureArtsPhilosophy
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Preternatural Investigations episodes

  • EPISODE 7: HOW WEIRD IS FOLK?

    In which a contrast between the way folk music is seen in England and the US leads to speculation about the role of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music in weirding the US folk scene. When is folk music otherworldy and weird and when it is, what is the weirdness due to?

    MUSIC

    Sharron Kraus, ‘Barleycorn’
    Jane Griffiths & Colin Fletcher, ‘Air’
    Alasdair Roberts, ‘I Went Hunting’ (clip)
    The Iditarod, ‘Raga (in D#)’
    Ian Giles, ‘The Bonny Banks of Fordie’ (clip)
    Jack Rose, ‘Yaman Blues’
    Ralph Stanley, ‘O Death’ (clip)
    Margaret Barry, ‘She Moves Through the Fair’ (clip)
    Fursaxa, ‘Poplar Moon’
    Alula Down, ‘Interruption’

    REFERENCES

    David Keenan, ‘Welcome to the New Weird America’
    Greil Marcus, Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes
    Harry Smith, Anthology of American Folk Music
    Jeanette Leech, Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk
    Topic Records, The Voice of the People

    34 min
  • Ep. 7: How Weird Is Folk?
    In which a contrast between the way folk music is seen in England and the US leads to speculation about the role of Harry Smith's 'Anthology of American Folk Music' in weirding the US folk scene. When is folk music otherworldy and weird and when it is, what is the weirdness due to?
    34 min
  • EPISODE 6: OLD TRADITIONS AND NEW

    In which an old, traditional ceremony – The Ancient Castleton Garland Ceremony – is compared with a new, invented one – the burning of the hare at Sin-Eater Festival and the differences between them that make one spellbinding and the other less so are drawn out.

    Music by Sharron Kraus

    Sin Eater Festival recorded by John Still

    REFERENCES

    Dan Jones, ‘Dark Rites’ in New Scientist, 17 January 2015
    Alan Dundes, Interpreting Folklore
    Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth
    Alan Garner, The Voice That Thunders
    Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays
    Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain

    32 min
  • EPISODE 5: TWO WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT THE PAST

    In which an examination of M.R. James’ approach to writing ghost stories leads to a distinction between two ways of thinking about the past, the first being a parallel to Edward Said’s Orientalism – a way of treating the past as an exotic and mysterious ‘Other’ – the second, viewing the past as continuous with and persisting into the present, the present as containing palimpsests or time capsules that allow us access to the past.

    Music by Sharron Kraus, with Harriet Earis and Guy Whittaker

    REFERENCES

    Mark Fisher, The Weird and the Eerie
    M.R. James, Collected Ghost Stories
        ‘Ghosts – Treat Them Gently’
    The League of Gentlemen
    Edward Said, Orientalism
    Penelope Lively, The House at Norham Gardens
        The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
        The Presence of the Past
    Charles Butler, Four British Fantasists
    Rob Young, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music
        ‘The Pattern Under the Plough’
    Detectorists

    30 min
  • Ep. 5: Two Ways Of Thinking About The Past
    In which an examination of M.R. James’ approach to writing ghost stories leads to a distinction between two ways of thinking about the past, the first being a parallel to Edward Said’s Orientalism – a way of treating the past as an exotic and mysterious ‘Other’ – the second, viewing the past as continuous with and persisting into the present, the present as containing palimpsests or time capsules that allow us access to the past.
    30 min
  • EPISODE 4: FICTIONAL MAGIC AND REAL MAGIC

    In which the enchanting music of The Pied Piper, the natural magic of The Secret Garden, and other fictional portrayals of magic are examined and some are shown to convey aspects of the preternatural magic we can find in the world.

    Music by Sharron Kraus, with Harriet Earis, Tara Burke, Helena Espvall, Norman Fetter and Howard Wuelfing

    REFERENCES
    Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising
    Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
    Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
    C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
        Of Other Worlds: Essays & Stories

    John Masefield, The Midnight Follk
        The Box of Delights
    Penelope Lively, The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy
    The Wicker Man
    Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror
    Mark Gatiss, A History of Horror
    Burnt Offering: The Cult of The Wicker Man

    33 min
  • Ep. 4: Fictional Magic And Real Magic
    In which the enchanting music of The Pied Piper, the natural magic of The Secret Garden, and other fictional portrayals of magic are examined and some are shown to convey aspects of the preternatural magic we can find in the world.
    33 min
  • EPISODE 3: MAGIC, MYSTERY AND A SENSE OF WONDER

    In which the idea that the sense of wonder we are born with automatically diminishes as we mature is brought into question. The factors that erode our sense of wonder are examined and the possibility of reaching adulthood with a sense of wonder intact is argued for.

    In which the idea that the sense of wonder we are born with automatically diminishes as we mature is brought into question. The factors that erode our sense of wonder are examined and the possibility of reaching adulthood with a sense of wonder intact is argued for.

    Music by Sharron Kraus, with Guy Whittaker, James Green, Aby Vulliamy, Harriet Earis, Oliver Parfitt and Nick Jonah Davis

    Clips from Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Lather’ and Rupert Holmes’ ‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song)’

    REFERENCES

    Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow
    Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of the Morals
    René Descartes, The Passions of the Soul
    John Ruskin, The Elements of Drawing
    Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice

    33 min
  • Ep. 3: Magic, Mystery And A Sense Of Wonder
    In which the idea that the sense of wonder we are born with automatically diminishes as we mature is brought into question. The factors that erode our sense of wonder are examined and the possibility of reaching adulthood with a sense of wonder intact is argued for.
    33 min

About Preternatural Investigations

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A podcast about the marvelous things that lie between the mundane and the miraculous