Structured Rambling

Paul--an agnostic at best--talks the importance of writing the faithful honestly and credibly in fiction, especially in a world that looks down upon faith. 

Paul's first true step into the deep and muddy pool of historical fiction. He reads Robert Grave's masterpiece I, Claudius, a book about those crazy Roman emperors and the women who killed them, plus the little boys who killed them. Depravity! Politics! Statecraft! And asides to talk about possessive apostrophe usage!

Paul talks audiobooks. 
And why Moby Dick sucks. 

Why do we read Shakespeare? Why does a poet and dramatist from London 400 years ago still play such and important part in our life? Answer: because we have to have the best.

Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.
Branagh, Kenneth. Hamlet. USA/UK: Columbia Pictures, 1996
McTiernan, John. Last Action Hero. USA: Columbia Pictures, 1993.
Shakespears Sister. "Stay." Hormonally Yours. London: London Records, 1992.  

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