Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week's topic!

This 2009 TV show, helmed by Joss Whedon, was meant to be a thematic exploration of identity and sexuality but many have argued about its problematic story. Was that because of corporate interference or Whedon's own issues with feminist representation?

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Dollhouse, Season 1

Additional Resources:

• Adams, Pippa. Women in Science Fiction: Opportunities and Constraints of Representations in Postfeminist Worlds
• Joss Whedon on Comic Books, Abusing Language and the Joys of Genre
• JOSS WHEDON TALKS FIREFLY, DOLLHOUSE AND LEAVING TELEVISION
• The Mind-Transplant Script Whedon Wrote Before Dollhouse
• Anderson, D. (2016). Echoes of Frankenstein: Shelley’s Masterpiece in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and Our Relationship with Technology. Slayage, 43, 1
• Kitchens, J. (2016). Object Entanglements: From Postmodern Subjectivity to Posthuman Thingness in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Studies in Popular Culture, 38(2), 1.
• Rogers, S. (2011). Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 22(2), 153.
• Avni, S. (2008). Inside the Dollhouse. Mother Jones, 33(6), 88–89.
• Jensen, J. (2008). Welcome to the “Dollhouse” Fan Frenzy. Entertainment Weekly, (997), 14.
• The Expired Feminism of Joss Whedon
• In defence of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse
• Joss Whedon's Dollhouse: Confounding Purpose, Confusing Identity, edited by Sherry Ginn, Alyson R. Buckman, Heather M. Porter
• • “Fantasy Is His Business, but It Is Not His Purpose” by Alyson R. Buckman
• The Fascinating No-Consent Fantasia of Dollhouse and Mad Men
• POSTMORTEM: WHY WE HATED DOLLHOUSE. AND WHY WE LOVED IT.

THIS IS A REPOST OF A 2016 EPISODE. As the release of the film JOKER looms, we revisit our discussion about Batman, the Joker, and ambiguity.

Looking back on the Batman film “The Dark Knight,” does it stand for anything? Or does it simply soak up whatever morals we bring to it? Christopher Nolan’s intentions remain mysterious, but we do our best to figure them out.  

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Dark Knight

Additional Resources:

• JOHNSON, V. (2014). ‘It’s What You Do that Defines You:’ Christopher Nolan’s Batman as Moral Philosopher. Journal Of Popular Culture, 47(5), 952. doi:10.1111/jpcu.12181
• The Dark Knight of the American Empire
• Hunting The Dark Knight : Twenty-First Century Batman. London: I.B.Tauris
• Dive Deep Into the Making of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy With This Documentary

Thank you to our Co-producer patron Miriam Meaney for selecting this week's topic!

This 1985 Peter Greenaway film approaches storytelling with the perspective that there is no meaning to reality despite our organized attempts to create it. We talk about how Greenaway uses the traditions of Dutch paintings and anatomical animal studies to get this message across or frustrate us by trying.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• A Zed and Two Noughts

Additional Resources:

• Symmetry and Structure in Greenaway’s A Zed and Two Noughts
• Organizing the ZOO: Peter Greenaway’s A Zed & Two Noughts
• Distant Voices, Still Lives and A Zed and Two Noughts: watch the double bill
• Alemany-Galway, M., & Willoquet-Maricondi, P. (2008). Peter Greenaway’s Postmodern / Poststructuralist Cinema (Vol. Rev. ed). Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.
• De Beauregard, R. C. (2010). Green Apples and Red Prawns: The Colour of Time in Peter Greenaway’s A Zed & Two Noughts ( Z.0.0.). Journal of British Cinema & Television, 7(1), 82.

Thank you to our Co-producer patron Chris Marlton for selecting this week's topic!

This 2002 Japanese art film is slow, meticulously shot, and has wonderful, ornate costumes. We discuss how it was influenced by a form of traditional puppetry but should be approached more like a meditative painting.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Dolls

Additional Resources:

• Finding Love in Loss and Tragedy
• Dolls
• Dolls by Takeshi Kitano (Review)
• The cult Japanese movies outfitted by Yohji Yamamoto
• Inviolable Attachments: Takeshi Kitano’s Dolls
• Dolls (2002)
• Redmond, S. (2013). The Cinema of Takeshi Kitano : Flowering Blood. London: WallFlower Press.
• Sherman Hollar. (2012). Kitano Takeshi. Britannica Biographies, 1.

In this 1978 non-fiction book, Gardner argues that art and writing should be moral and that his peers in the literary community are immoral for failing to uphold this tradition. We discuss Gardner's tragic life story while trying to process this debate and whether he was right, wrong or just an asshole.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• On Moral Fiction

Additional Resources:

• John Gardner, Pugilist at Rest
• Moral Fiction
• John Gardner raided the castle of American fiction, a bit like Grendel. By David Stanton
• Getting the Elephant off the Baby: A Look Back at John Gardner’s On Moral Fiction
• John Gardner’s Tricksy Death and Tangled Legacy
• On Moral Fiction, By John Gardner, Analysis by Christian Author Lorilyn Roberts
• John Gardner: A Tiny Eulogy
• What Do You Mean, 'Moral' Fiction?
• An Interview with John Gardner
• John Gardner

This podcast started in 2012 as a fictional update from a strange, supernatural town. With guest Dave Moore, we discuss how this successful production is made while unpacking the utopian ideal it creates with a kind of drab mundanity.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Find out more at their website and tell them we sent you.

• Welcome to Nightvale

Additional Resources:

• Welcome To 'Night Vale' — Watch Out For The Tarantulas
• Welcome to Night Vale: Eerie, witty podcast has Texas ties
• Celebrating Their Corpse-Strewn Future: Welcome to Night Vale
• 10 Reasons to Listen to Welcome to Night Vale
• Welcome to Oakland, ‘Welcome to Night Vale’
• Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor on Welcome To Night Vale
• Why Welcome to Night Vale is Important
• Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: Religious Colonialism in Welcome to Night Vale
• America's Most Popular Podcast: What The Internet Did To "Welcome to Night Vale"
• Fan-created transcripts make it even easier to get into “Night Vale
• FX To Develop ‘Welcome To Night Vale’ Podcast For TV; Harper Perennial Orders Two New Books

This 2005 video game tried to capture the atmosphere and experience of H. P. Lovecraft's mythos. It is now called a commercial failure and a cult classic. We discuss its unique, immersive gameplay, and its Lovecraftian approach to knowledge as a thing to fear.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Call of Cthulhu (RPG)

Additional resources:

• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Interview 2
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Q&A
• The making of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
• Owen, D. (2017). Player and Avatar : The Affective Potential of Videogames. Jefferson, UNITED STATES: McFarland.
• Horror is Knowledge: The Presentation of Fear in 'Call of Cthulhu

This 2015 comic series is an attempt to tell "the ultimate H.P. Lovecraft" story, so we dive deep into the cold, clinical research process behind it. We also discuss this story's relationship with sexual violence, racism, American mythology, capitalism and... comic book fandom.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Providence

Additional Resources:

• Interview: Alan Moore on Providence, Jerusalem, League and more – Part 1
• All About Alienation: Alan Moore On Lovecraft And Providence
• Alan Moore Heralds Providence: ‘It’s Time To Go For A Reappraisal Of Lovecraft’
• H.P. Moorecraft: On the Ending of Providence
• PROVIDENCE Artist JACEN BURROWS On His Long Collaboration With Alan Moore, Adapting LOVECRAFT, More
• Providence: Lovecraft, Sexual Violence, and the Body of the Other
• The Road To Providence
• Innsmouth Gold: Providence Sales Data
• American Dread: Alan Moore and the Racism of H. P. Lovecraft
• Pickman’s Apprentice: An Appreciation of Jacen Burrows

This 1986 horror film adapted an H.P. Lovecraft story into a transgressive "video nasty" about repressed sexuality. We learn about the production methods that brought its "pineal glands" to life, while discussing Lovecraft's fear of sex in contrast with From Beyond's smashing of taboos.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• From Beyond

Additional Resources:

• 30 YEARS LATER, FROM BEYOND IS LOVECRAFT AT HIS KINKIEST
• The Cult 80s Horror Movie That Foretold Our Augmented Future
• Corliss, Richard. TIME Magazine; 12/1/1986, Vol. 128 Issue 22, p74, 
• Sharrett, C. (2015). Lovecraft Today. Cineaste, 41(1), 27–78.
• A Man’s Home…
• Transgressive Sexuality and Slimy Creatures 'From Beyond (Collector's Edition)'
• Stuart Gordon’s Shock Treatment
• Race, Sexuality, and Procreation in H.P. Lovecraft Film Adaptations
• The Posthumous Pornification of H. P. Lovecraft
• Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Sex: or The Sex Life of a Gentleman
• Wisker G. (2013) “Spawn of the Pit”: Lavinia, Marceline, Medusa, and All Things Foul: H. P. Lovecraft’s Liminal Women. In: Simmons D. (eds) New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft.

This 2016 novel explores sci-fi and horror in the 1950s from the perspective of an African-American family already accustomed to prejudice and dread. We have an uncomfortable conversation about how it addresses H.P. Lovecraft's racism and the question of whether a white author should tell stories about the black experience.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Lovecraft Country

Additional Resources:

• Matt Ruff's "Lovecraft Country," where the horror is racism (not racist)
• The Big Idea: Matt Ruff
• Shadows Over America: Matt Ruff and Victor LaValle Take on Lovecraft and Race
• Talking with Matt Ruff about science fiction’s racist past
• Cthulhu Gon’ Slay: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
• Real-world and mythical terrors get equal billing in Lovecraft Country