Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction

This week, we begin our discussion of Ultimate Spider-Man, and discuss the first volume, Power And Responsibility. How 2000s can a book possibly be? How does decompression change the way we interact with the text? Is Peter Parker the single best character of the last fifty years?

To see the slides for this week’s episode, click here!

Next week: we continue our live-show format and discuss the second volume of Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man: Learning Curve. Join me live on the Next Word Discord server at 8PM Central Time on Monday, September 23!

Footnotes:

• Ultimate Spider-Man: Power And Responsibility (Bendis)
• All Star Superman (Morrison)
• Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Scott McCloud)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we conclude our discussion of Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti: The Complete Trilogy, and discuss the short story Sacred Fire. Why is it important to read according to the chronology of production? What’s the deal with the Saturnian aliens? What, in the end, is harmony?

Next week: in a new live-show format, we’re going to discuss the first volume of Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man: Power & Responsibility. Join me live on the Next Word Discord server at 8PM Central Time on Monday, September 16!

Footnotes:

• Binti: The Complete Trilogy
• Nnedi Okorafor
• District 9
• Guy Gavriel Kay
• Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight (Philosophers on Film)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we continue Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti: The Complete Trilogy, and discuss the third novella, The Night Masquerade. What is the dividing line between science fiction and fantasy? Is identity reducible? Is Mwinyi an Edward or a Jacob?

Next week: a wrap-up episode on Binti, including discussion of the short story Sacred Fire. 

Footnotes:

• Binti: The Complete Trilogy
• Nnedi Okorafor
• Firefly
• Star Trek
• Star Wars
• District 9

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we continue Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti: The Complete Trilogy, and discuss the second novella. What is philosophical dualism? Is Binti a Frodo or a Sam? How are universities exactly like Survivor?

Next week: Binti: The Night Masquerade, the third novella in Binti: The Complete Trilogy!

Footnotes:

• Binti: The Complete Trilogy
• Nnedi Okorafor
• List of Films Produced Back-To-Back (Wikipedia)
• The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell)
• Survivor
• District 9

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we begin Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti: The Complete Trilogy, and discuss the first novella. What is africanfuturism? How do books teach you to read them? Sure, drugs are cool, but have you ever gotten high on math?

Next week: Binti: Home, the second novella in Binti: The Complete Trilogy!

Footnotes:

• Binti: The Complete Trilogy
• Nnedi Okorafor
• “Africanfuturism Defined“
• “Sci-fi stories that imagine a future Africa” (TED)
• Flame Wars: The Discourse Of Cyberculture
• The Last Star In Hollywood
• Silt Striders (Morrowind)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we finally conclude Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. How is the world restored to order? How are the good rewarded and the evil punished? What does it mean to be a good person in Dickens’ world, and who gets to live happily ever after?

Next week: Binti, the first novella in Binti: The Complete Trilogy!

Footnotes:

• Great Expectations
• Charles Dickens
• Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill)
• The Original Ending of Great Expectations (Unpublished)
• Great Expectations (1998)
• Great Expectations (2012)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we discuss chapters thirty-six to fifty of Great Expectations with twists! So many twists! Which is the least plausible? How is Dickens handling the pathetic fallacy? Is Pip redeemed?

Next week, chapter 51 to the end of Great Expectations!

Footnotes:

• Great Expectations
• Charles Dickens
• Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
• Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
• Of The Pathetic Fallacy (John Ruskin)
• Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier (Mark Frost)
• The Original Ending of Great Expectations (Unpublished)
• Great Expectations (1998)
• Great Expectations (2012)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we continue our discussion of Great Expectations by looking at different kinds of life in London, the death of Pip’s sister, and the ease of making choices when you have no choice at all.

Next week, chapters 36 to 50 of Great Expectations!

Footnotes:

• Great Expectations
• Charles Dickens
• The Dying Gaul
• Semayne’s Case
• Castle Doctrine
• Severance
• The Factory Acts
• The Life Of Charles Dickens (John Forster)
• “A Word, Please: What, exactly, is a declarative question?”
• Great Expectations (1998)
• Great Expectations (2012)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

Andy Serkis is directing a new movie based on The Lord of the Rings! In this excerpt from the recent live Patreon Q&A, I discuss my thoughts on the announcement, what the story could be, and why now might be the time.

To hear the rest of the show, and to help support Next Word and Stars and Swords, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord!

Footnotes:

• Warner Bros. to Release New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movie ‘The Hunt for Gollum’ in 2026, Peter Jackson to Produce and Andy Serkis to Direct (Variety)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.

This week, we continue our discussion of Great Expectations by discussing goblin mode, Pip’s increasing awfulness, and the transition to London.

Next week, chapters 23 to 35 of Great Expectations!

Footnotes:

• Great Expectations
• Charles Dickens
• Oliver!
• “When I went to Lunnon town sirs”: Transformation and the Threshold in the Dickensian City (Ben Moore)
• Paradise Lost
• Astrophel and Stella 
• The London Merchant
• Knight of the Burning Pestle
• Great Expectations (1998)
• Great Expectations (2012)

To support the podcast, join the conversation on Discord and get access to monthly bonus episodes, please visit Patreon.com/NextWord and pledge your support!

Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction is a Next Word production, written and produced by Alastair Stephens. 

Copyright © 2024 Stars and Swords. All Rights Reserved.