Stars and Swords: Footnoting Genre Fiction

This week, we begin our discussion of Great Expectations by discussing the gothic, coming of age, and the traumas of childhood. 

Next week, chapters 11 to 22 of Great Expectations!

Footnotes:

• Great Expectations
• Charles Dickens
• The Castle Of Otranto (Horace Wallpole)
• The Philosophy Of Composition (Edgar Allen Poe)
• Bildungsroman
• End-Weight
• 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, a brief introduction to Dickens, the Victorian Era, what makes Great Expectations the perfect book for this series, and Dickens’ most notorious peer. 

Next week, chapters 1 to 10 of Great Expectations!

Footnotes:

• Great Expectations
• Charles Dickens
• Great Ormond Street Hospital
• 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 conclude Katharine Kerr’s Daggerspell, learn the secret of Rhodry’s parentage, unpick (some of) the ties that bind, and ride off on the long road!

Next week, an introduction to Charles Dickens!

Content Warnings: incest, suicidal ideation, violence, misogyny

Footnotes:

• Daggerspell
• Katharine Kerr
• Ruth Urquhart
• Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society
• “Where do Elves go to? Tolkien and a Fantasy Tradition“
• The Black Cauldron
• The Chronicles of Prydain

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.

In the second part of our adventure through Katharine Kerr’s Daggerspell, we read to the middle of Chapter Five, meet our main cast (again), tie tight the knots of destiny, and move into our oddly independent main plot.

Next week, we finish the book!

Content Warnings: incest, rape, suicide, suicidal ideation, violence, sexual violence, misogyny, racism, discussion of homophobia

Footnotes:

• Daggerspell
• Katharine Kerr
• Ruth Urquhart
• The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore
• Euhemerus
• I’ve Got A Bad Feeling About This

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.

In our first real episode studying Katharine Kerr’s Daggerspell, we cover the first two chapters, meet our main cast, meet our main cast again under very different circumstances, and begin to unpick the knots of fate and destiny that bind them together.

Next week, we cover chapters three, four and the first half of chapter five; stop when Nevyn and Jill meet for the first time!

Content Warnings: incest, rape, suicide, suicidal ideation, violence, sexual violence, misogyny

Footnotes:

• Daggerspell
• Katharine Kerr
• Ruth Urquhart
• Druid
• Beltane

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.

In this brief bonus episode, we set the stage for Katharine Kerr’s 1986 Celtic fantasy Daggerspell with some discussion of the fantasy landscape in the ’80s, and the pronunciation of the Deverrian language.

Next week, we get underway with the prologue and the first two chapters!

Footnotes:

• Daggerspell
• Katharine Kerr
• Ruth Urquhart

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.

In this episode, we discuss Parts Six and Seven of V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. How do we navigate so many late reveals? What comes next for Addie? If this book is a fairytale, what kind of fairytale is it? 

Next week, we begin our fourth book: Katherine Kerr’s Daggerspell. 

Unanswered Questions:

• Is the thirty year/forty year contradiction simply a mistake?
• Is The Last Word a part of Luc’s plan?
• For how long has Luc been present in Henry’s life?

Footnotes:

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
• V.E. Schwab
• Julia Whelan
• Cicada Club
• Le Coucou
• Daggerspell

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.

In this episode, we discuss Parts Four and Five of V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Does Addie really explain it all? Do we have the perfect fan-casting for Henry? What kind of deal did Beethoven make, anyway? 

Next week, we conclude our reading with Parts Six and Seven.

Unanswered Questions:

• Is Luc connected with all the storms we’ve seen?
• How do we resolve the questions of consent in Addie and Henry’s manipulation of others?
• In what ways are Luc and Addie alike? In what ways are the different?

Footnotes:

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
• V.E. Schwab
• Julia Whelan
• Victor from Corpse Bride
• Asterisms and Dinkuses
• The High Line
• Flaming June (Frederic Leighton)

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.

In this episode, we discuss Part Three of V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, get deep into the text, discuss red flags on first dates, wonder about drives Addie back to Villon, and consider again the dreams that feed defiance.

Next week, we continue our reading with Parts Four and Five.

Unanswered Questions:

• How deliberate is the overlapping of art and dreams in Addie’s experience?
• To what degree are Remy and Henry attractive because they are reflective of Addie’s sense of herself?
• Is there a symbolic meaning to the unfinished bowl in Addie’s father’s workshop?

Footnotes:

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
• V.E. Schwab
• Julia Whelan
• Sunshine Laundromat and Pinball
• Nitehawk Cinema
• Voltaire
• Dashboard Confessional

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.

In this episode, we discuss Part Two of V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, delve deeper into the fairy tale, consider capitalism and the origins of modern France, and talk about our love triangle. 

Next week, we continue our reading with Part Three.

Unanswered Questions:

• How is Addie reborn after her near-death experience (in terms of proximity if not mortality) in Paris?
• Is Henry’s study of theology significant, or significantly insignificant?
• How, exactly, do names have purpose?
• What’s going on with Henry’s siblings?

Footnotes:

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
• V.E. Schwab
• Julia Whelan
• Daggerspell (Katherine Kerr)
• Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (Adrienne Rich)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Shakespeare)

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.