Tender Subject

This week, Kayte, Jay and Jon Greenaway (aka the LitCrit Guy) slice into one of the big cultural artifacts of the Tender Subject canon, Peter Greenaway's gorgeous film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. We use John Berger's Ways of Seeing plus readings on French haute cuisine to dissect the fashion, art, food and politics of the film. Plus: Brecht! Opera! Gaultier! What a feast!

Extra Credit: 

Subscribe to Jon's Patreon

Jay is also a co-host on Library Punk!

Kayte makes art here!

Dave and Kayte are joined by writer Madeline Lane-McKinley to talk about a different kind of body horror, in the Todd Haynes masterpiece Safe (1995). We discuss class, gender, genre, illness, cults and milk drinking. Plus, we dig into Douglas Crimp's seminal essay "How to Be Promiscuous in an Epidemic".

This week, Kayte and Mae are joined by writer/professor Jo Issaacson to devour 1974's cult cannibalism classic Frightmare! We talk about crazy old biddies, British politeness, Julia Ducournau, psychiatry and tarot. Plus Kayte tries and fails to say Canibanthropy multiple times. 

Where to find Jo:

@StepfordDotter on Twitter

This week, Kayte and Dave descend deep into the tunnels of the New York city subway, with author/professor Eleanor Russel to slice into 2008's The Midnight Meat Train (directed by Ryuhei Kitamura). We talk about public transit, the art world on film, the meat industry and why it's so disorienting to film a movie about one city while filming in a different city. Naturally our discussion turns to Clive Barker's original short story, one we highly recommend to horror fiends!

Other Media: 

Eleanor is a Doctor of philosophy on what it means to play pretend and writes about stand-up comedy, sound studies, and the avant-garde.

Dave is also a co-host on Genre Reveal Party and hosts This is Your Afterlife 

Have the lambs stopped screaming Clarice? That’s right: Kayte and Jay are joined by author Jon, the Lit Crit Guy from Horror Vanguard to tackle a big one: Silence of the Lambs! We talk through genre, gender, class and cannibalism in this monster of a film. 

Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by J Halberstam

“Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs” by Jeanne Silverthorne, Art Forum. 

Jay is also a co-host on Library Punk!

Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here!

It's a world with no pain, new organs and performance art is all the rage! Join Kayte and Dave as we delve into the gorgeously grotesque Crimes of the Future. We talk about pain, wounds, pleasure and art through the film and through some of Kayte's favorite performance art texts. 

Other readings: 

Hold It Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art by Jennifer Doyle.

Dave is also a co-host on Genre Reveal Party and hosts This is Your Afterlife 

This week on Tender Subject, we are joined by comedian Jake Flores and writer J †Johnson to talk Frankenstein. We dissect the book and the 2025 film through queer and Marxist theory and get into why the film often let us down.  

Media referenced:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

J †Johnson is the co-editor of Cul de Sac of Blood, a horror poetics journal and the author of two books with Punctum Books. Their forthcoming book, Janky Materiality will also be published by Punctum.

Jake is the co-host of Pod Damn America, Why You Mad and The Preacher and The Slave. He’s also a standup! Follow him on insta for dates.

Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here.

This week on Tender Subject we are joined by Jane Altoids to dissect two Jess Franco surgery movies: The Awful Dr. Orloff (1972) and Faceless (1987). We discuss Franco as a complicated auteur, his mythology and legacy, then get into two body horror movies that bookended his career! 

Media referenced: 

Kayte is Joined by Langdon from Death/Sentence podcast for a discussion about Sayaka Murata's books Earthlings and Convenience Store Woman. We talk biopolitics, cannibalism both literal and figurative, trauma and living in a society. 

Langdon is the host of Death/Sentence and writes here!

Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here!

This Week, Kayte and Dave are joined by returning fave, comedian Gabe Pacheco for a deep dive into the drug fueled Ken Russell film Altered States. We talk about getting high, colonialism, the simian monster and the bliss of turning to sand with your lover. 

Media Referenced: 

Patriarchal-Industrial Anxiety and the Return of the Repressed (Eco-critical) Simian Monster by David Christopher 

Gabe is the co-host of Halal Cartels. Go see Gabe perform by following him here and here!