In our latest Conversation, Frank has something special for us!

Following attempts at bringing together all their academic work, Frank goes into Star Trek proper for the first time in the podcast, surprisingly. In an attempt to articulate how the original 1966-1969 run articulated a certain version of the future that, while utopian, was still entrenched in Liberalism and certain elements of Empire from which it could not imagine a different outcome.

So follow along as we dive into proto-Q, liberal visions of race, a mining colony, and the Cold War all over again! Enjoy!

Episodes discussed:

• S1E17 - The Squire of Gothos
• S1E21 - The Return of the Archons
• S1E25 - The Devil in the Dark
• S1E26 - Errand of Mercy
• S2E19 - A Private Little War
• S2E23 - The Omega Glory
• S3E15 - Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

Some bibliography from Frank's own current research into the topic:

GOLUMBIA, David. “Black and White World: Race, Ideology and Utopia in Triton and Star Trek.” Cultural Critique v. 32, Winter 1995-1996. pp. 75-95.

MCKAGEN, E. Leigh. “45. Colonialism and Imperialism” GARCIA-SIINO, Leimar; MITTERMEIER, Sabrina; RABITSCH, Stefan. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Star Trek. New York: Routledge, 2022. pp. 332-339.

RIEDER, John. “Chapter Two: Fantasises of Appropriation”. ______. Colonialism and the emergence of Science Fiction. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2008. pp. 34-60.

SPIEGEL, Simon. “60. Utopia” GARCIA-SIINO, Leimar; MITTERMEIER, Sabrina; RABITSCH, Stefan. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Star Trek. New York: Routledge, 2022. Utopias in Star Trek pp. 471-472.

STEPHENSON, Anders. Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.

WORLAND, Rick. “Captain Kirk, Cold Warrior” Journal of Popular Film and Television. Los Angeles, 16, n. 3, 1988. pp. 109-117.

For more, keep an eye out on:

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage

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Happy closing of the spooky season Listeners

Jay and I are talking about Titane, and subsequently Queer relations and cars.

Enjoy!

Find more of us at:

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage

Find Jay at:

www.librarypunk.gay

https://bsky.app/profile/wildeatheart.bsky.social

Intro Music: I Would Never Have To Know - Samurai Drive. From the Album: Samurai Drive ℗ 2020 Daniel Riederauer

Outro Music: Don't Leave! · El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. From the Album: Zareef ℗ 2006 El-Funoun

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Hello everyone!!

We're finally talking about one of the big ones for our special Halloween collab with Horror Vanguard, it's Berserk!

Focusing on the Golden Age Arc, we talk about how this manga so effectively depicts despair and hope, how it can have ultraviolence and still have one emotional gutpunch after another. And, of course, about fighting fascism in all its forms.

Enjoy!

And check out Horror Vanguard wherever you get your podcasts!

https://soundcloud.com/user-317910500

https://www.patreon.com/c/horrorvanguard/posts

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Music: Ultralounge · Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Music: Don't Leave! · El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. From the Album: Zareef ℗ 2006 El-Funoun

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Hello everyone!!

We're back talking about vampires and abuse, but with a twist! It's far more elaborate and engaging this time, as we discuss the indie game El Paso: Elsewhere!

How do we deal with the holes of violence? With the abyss of abuse that seems to swallow and destroy us whole? In this Max Payne-inspired game (1 and 2, not 3, not at all) we find several ways to not destroy ourselves in such a pit, and find a way to understand ourselves better, even if we don't know what's on the other side.

This was an excellent game that kept surprising us not only by being good, but by presenting an emotional story with sparse elements but not less impact.

Enjoy!

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Music: I Would Never Have To Know - Samurai Drive. From the Album: Samurai Drive ℗ 2020 Daniel Riederauer

Outro Music: Don't Leave! · El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. From the Album: Zareef ℗ 2006 El-Funoun

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Hello everyone!!

We're talking about another classic today, but for sci-fi, it's the 1995 anime film of Ghost in the Shell!

Time to talk about one of the most iconic cyberpunk objects there are, and for good reason. Quite a lot to go over when thinking of bodily relations and representation, identity, the urban landscape and, of course, a whole heap of gender. And it's great!

It's a phenomenal film, and we're finally spending some time on it.

Enjoy!

For reference, the Major's wiki page, as we mentioned it: https://ghostintheshell.fandom.com/wiki/Motoko_Kusanagi

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Music: Home, by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Outro Music: Leve Palestina, Spartacus

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Hello everyone!!

We finalize another series! James S. A. Corey's The Expanse! Returning for the last three novels, Persepolis Rising, Tiamat's Wrath, and Leviathan Falls.

Discussing how these books represent fascism and cannot conceive of any other kind of enemy, we also reexamine the series as a whole. Pointing out its merits in materialism and political relationships... up to the point where it slips up, falling back into usual liberalism that cannot break out from its original chains of dreamlessness and end of history.

Still, an important read, and an excellent one, without a doubt. So join us as we wrap it up, for now.

Enjoy!

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Credits: Ultralounge, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Credits: Leve Palestina, Spartacus

Bibliographical Bonus:

BANKER, Bryan. “‘The Modality in Which Class is Lived’: Literalizing Race and Class in The Expanse.” In: The Genres of Genre: Form, Formats, and Cultural Formations. SPELL: Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature 38. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH: Tübingen, 2019. pp. 85-103.

BELLAMY, Brent Ryan; O’Brien, Sean. “Solar Accumulation: The Worlds-Systems Theory of The Expanse.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 45, no. 3, 2018, pp. 515–29. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5621/sciefictstud.45.3.0515.

FLEISCHHACK, Maria. “Against all Odds: Kinship and Collective Action in The Expanse.” In: Kinship and Collective Action: in Literature and Culture v. 6. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH: Tübingen, 2020. pp. 229-249.

PERCOCO, Juan Ignacio; LABIANO, Virginia. “Memories of Future Empire: The Productive Effects of Imperial Imaginaries in Science Fiction – An Analysis of The Expanse”. Contexto Internacional, vol. 46, no. 3, Sep/Dec 2024. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-8529.20244603e20230058

ROYSTON, Edward. “Enclosing, Opening, and Redefining Modern Space in The Expanse.” In: American Science Fiction Television and Space: Productions and (Re)configurations (1987-2021). Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, 2023.

SADRAI, Edward; DANDO, Michael; KISHIMOTO, Kyoko; BARTON, Matt; COGDILL, Sharon. “Welwala at the Borders: Language, Space, and Power in The Expanse.” In: American Science Fiction Television and Space: Productions and (Re)configurations (1987-2021). Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, 2023.

SCODARI, Christine. “Unfamiliar Races in Untimely Places: Anti-Essentialism and the Science Fiction Television Series The Expanse”. The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 55, no. 4, Aug 2022. https://doi-org.ez67.periodicos.capes.gov.br/10.1111/jpcu.13156

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Hello everyone!!

We're talking about one of 2025's biggest and best releases so far, and with our good friend André! It's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33!

It's French, but we have to talk about it. Both how it creates a mechanically elaborate and successful game, and how it manages to incur in unfortunate psychological reductions and an... unfortunate bump into imperialism and colonialism. We have plenty good and plenty bad in it, so we had to talk about it, and its Frenchness.

Enjoy!

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Music: La ziguezon - La Bottine Souriante ℗ Les Productions Mille-Pattes

Outro Music: Tit galop pour Mamou · The Balfa Brothers ℗ 1990 Swallow Records Music Publisher: Flat Town Music

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Hello everyone!!

Joined by good friend Jon, of Horror Vanguard, as we talk about one of the books of all time, Moby Dick, or The Whale, by Herman Melville!

Come along as we discover why this book is everything, how it fits into the larger body of American Literature, and how the threats and consequences of individualism are ever-present. Oh, and of course: how this is a phenomenally gay book indeed.

Enjoy!

Check out Horror Vanguard:

https://soundcloud.com/user-317910500

https://www.patreon.com/c/horrorvanguard/posts

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Credits: Ultralounge, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Credits: Leve Palestina, Spartacus

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone!!

Time for us to talk about one of the bigger and better releases of the year, and a kind of horror movie, no less, it's Sinners!

Come along as we go into how the film represents music and culture, how it frames the ideas of religion and "sinning", and, obviously, the institutional practices of racism, colonialism and oppression. There's a LOT to talk about, and we certainly do!

Enjoy!

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Music: Home, by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Outro Music: Leve Palestina, Spartacus

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone!!

Time to wrap up the Witcher Saga proper!! As we go over this series in things we hadn't yet covered last time!

We dive into the sense of History and Myth established, some other relationships and the fellowship functions themselves, and some of our general thoughts on the Witcher and the Saga! We mark it here for the books, we are (probably) finished!

Enjoy!!

If you can and are interested in early episodes and the Here Be Extras, check our Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/leftpage 

Also! If you're not there already, feel free to join our Discord, as we have been more talkative than usual, and plan to do so more and more!

https://discord.gg/J2wgG3yrPN

Intro Credits: Ultralounge, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Credits: Leve Palestina, Spartacus

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.