Lithe and listen, gentlefolk! The year is 1193, or thereabouts, anyway sometime in the reign of “Good King Richard” (the Lionheart, good for some and not so good for others). The place is merrie olde England—more precisely, Nottingham and its environs, under an enormous, ancient tree. The subject: Robin of Locksley, Robin o’ the Hood himself. You know the basic story—robs from the rich, gives to the poor. It’s a story that’s been told many times and in many ways, a story that’s designed to give its poor listeners comfort in difficult times. Well, I don’t know about you but it sure seems like times are difficult, so perhaps we’re ready for another look at the old bandit. He might still have something to offer.

The time: now. The place: here. The subject: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The podcast: The Projectionist’s Lending Library. Pull on your tights, get out your longbow—we’re going adventuring.

For more on the Robin Hood tradition, check out The Rest is History.

Music: Gems from "Robin Hood." Used under a Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Nathanael and Erik continue their brief foray into medieval verse with the late 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the 2021 film adaptation The Green Knight directed by David Lowery and starring Dev Patel and Ralph Ineson. This episode's music comes from the album In a Medieval Garden by the Stanley Buetens Lute Ensemble, available at the internet archive. Nathanael references this youtube video by Novum in their discussion of the film.

A new season begins!

Horror has come to Hrothgar’s Hall. Grendel the monster,hated by God, has laid waste his mead-hall, slaughtered his men.

Now comes the champion, claiming renown: Beowulf the Brave,bringing his band to battle the monster, slay the beast.

Today on The Projectionist's Lending Library, we discuss the epic poem Beowulf, the 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, and the movie The 13th Warrior.

Kline and Booth are joined by special guest Mark Brenden to discuss Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. Mark gives insight into the novel and movie as examples of what he calls "The Bush Western"--a Western written during and responding to the early years of the War on Terror.

Music Used:

The Old Country Church

A Cowboy Serenade

It's a Christmas episode! Today we look at the short story "The Three Godfathers" and two adaptations--one very loose--of it: John Ford's 1948 3 Godfathers and Satoshi Kon's 2003 Tokyo Godfathers. Explore with us the mystery of grace and humanity in this desperate season of grace and humanity.

Resource: Julia Serano

Some seek enlightenment in self-abasement; others, in surrender to the senses; still others, in a contemplation of time and eternity.

The protagonist of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha does all three. Today, on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, we examine Hesse’s 1922 novel, a kind of parallel life of the Buddha, and the 1971 electric Western Zachariah—perhaps the wildest adaptation we have looked at so far. So saddle up, adjust your gunbelt, and let’s ride into the wildest frontier of all—the human soul.

Kaz Rowe: The Wild, Wild History of Gay Cowboy Movies

Beneath the surface of ordinary life is another world—the world of the vampire. While you go about your day—shopping, working—the vampire sleeps until the moment when, the sun fallen, he can emerge from his crypt and feast.

Down these bloodsucking streets go men who are massive, giants with their own towering emotions. They live hard, drink hard, love hard, because they know that any night might be their last. Such is the price of being a vampire hunter.

Tonight, on the Projectionist’s Lending Library, we enter the world of the vampire and the vampire hunter in John Steakley’s VAMPIRE$ and the John Carpenter movie based on it. So lock your doors, hold your loved ones close, and if you hear a noise outside, don’t be afraid. It’s only the children of the night….

Chuck Berry song "Everyday We Rock & Roll" used under a Creative Commons license.

The stars of the West are all larger than life: Wyatt Earp, Wild BillHickock, Billy the Kid. Among the brightest of these stars is Jesse James, an outlaw who became a legend in his own lifetime—and, through his death, ascended into the pantheon. But, of course, Jesse James was a man, and not a particularly good one; and his murderer, Robert Ford, was also a man. Their story is much less one of clashing titans and more one of petty squabbles, ambition, and greed. Today, on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, we look into Ron Hansen’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This novel blends history and fiction to reach something like what that epic—that all-too-human—confrontation must have been like. It’s the story of the American West, the story of the American people—butultimately it’s the story of two men and their tragic confrontation. Jesse James was a legend, of course—but he was a man. And so was his assassin.

In 1872, Polly Bemis came to America. She did not come, as so many have, out of hope of beginning a new life; she was forced here, sold into slavery (as the story goes) to a man named Hong King. One she arrived, however, she set about building a life for herself almost in spite of the men around her: she gained her freedom, she married Charlie Bemis, she settled down. These are details in the life of a single woman who has become famous in her adopted home-state of Idaho.

Polly’s life was unique, and yet in some ways it reflected the lives of many other women who made the same journey. Today, on the Projectionist’s Lending Library, we read Thousand Pieces of Gold by Ruthanne Lum McCunn and we learn about this extraordinary woman who became a legend.

Ruthanne Lum McCunn's Website

This is part two of a two-part episode on Edna Ferber's GIANT (1952) and the 1956 film adaptation of it starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. In part two, Erik and Nathanael discuss the film, its historical significance, and its contemporary resonance, as well as its notoriety as James Dean's last film.