Discussing the greatest comic book ever and one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Why is this such a great book? Why does it stick around despite being such a product of the mid-80s Cold War? It's been adapted (semi-successfully) as a film and sequeled (semi-bizarrely) as an HBO series, but it remains a comic book's comic book, and a work of art.   

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, DC Comics 2005
"Boneyard Tree" by The Watchmen. In the Trees, MCA Records 1994. 

Paul discusses what IS home and how characters can go home again, in a sense.

"Hell Broke Luce" by Tom Waits
"The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell (incorrectly referred to as "The Hero's Journey" in the podcast but Paul is too lazy to fix it)
"Home For a Rest" by Spirit of the West

Delving into one of Paul's favorite earths: Middle!

Texts:
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit by Corey Olsen
The Annotated Hobbit by Douglas A. Anderson. 

Discussing the major ideas in Plato's dialogues, especially his major work The Republic. What was this Socrates' guy's deal, anyway? Exploring the foundations of Western Civilization. 

Animals! Religions! Survival!
Hyenas! Zebras! Tigers! Oh, my!
And in a book about what we're willing to believe, would you believe the Easter Egg about the crossover with the Amazing Spider-Man?

Paul discusses what's great about Star Wars and where it all went wrong. (HINT: It's the mouse's fault!)
Star Wars Theme by John Williams
Imperial March by John Williams

Some words of hope for the youth.

There are different ways to read a book, but to truly analyze a text, you need to have an approach.

Paul analyzes The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald using the three levels of inquiry from The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. This is a twist on the agent Greek Trivium.

How do we read, think, and talk about a book? Like this.

Structured Rambling:
Website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/podcasts/920605/website?podcast_id=920605
Instagram: structured_rambling_podcast
Facebook: @structuredrambling

Paul discusses movies and books using the news to tell a story. The Post, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Citizen Kane--that's right, Citizen Fah-reakin' Kane--The Newsroom and more. 

Paul talks about nothing less than his favourite novel of all time.