"... and what Lucy says in response to this isn't a solution. She doesn't say it is. But... it is something small. Achievable, and helpful. And it's that little glimpse of hope in the darkness that I not only like to hold onto... I need it."

The second half of Episode 7 ended up being much shorter than expected. Once more I used my editing shears liberally, and Toby contributed in a major way to say things more concisely, emotionally, honestly. But I think this one ends on the hope that Alex invests in his works, and moreover, we've got another batch of outtakes at the end for some laughs.

We talk about Doris Cooper, Katherine Holloway, and Joanna Grey. We've got some more surprise Elton John, discussion about why combining elements to create new stories is always helpful when done well, and narrative voice. Most of all, we talk about why a hat can be so important and hard hitting. As always, we bring the feels.

#BlackLivesMatter

#WrathMonth

"World on Fire" - Sarah McLahlan

https://youtu.be/FDmPcSWE0WU

"My Father's Gun - Elton John

https://youtu.be/wb2B966IOfM

The New Century Multiverse Website:

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com

The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:

https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Fireside Alliance: https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/

Intro is "The Talons of Adventure, The Antlers of Romance" by Doctor Turtle of the Free Music Archive

Outro is "Satellite Call" by Sara Bareilles

"They want to keep us chasing/their money and greed/but happiness/oh, I know is free/don't curse the darkness/just be a light/let it shine for the heartless/let it shine through the night." - Tash Neal

Welcome to a brand new episode for a brand new story! The next two episodes cover chapters 1 through 5 of Secret Rooms: Definitive Edition. Like Episode 6, I cut this one into two halves because of length, and also due to additional editing time. Between changing things due to sound issues, cleaning up some wordy asides or removing parts due to feeling like they were insensitive, this is likely the most editing I have done thus far. I hope you'll agree the end product is worth it.

Today we get into some of the fundamental themes that show up in both this book and New Century as a whole: the importance of names, familial relationships both good and bad, and the metaphor of how flawed systems crack more readily when faced with something it's not able to fight easily. We also talk about the role of distaster fiction as a form of escapism during a time of very real disaster.

Be prepared: there's more politics in the pipeline. It's hard not to talk about the real world stuff that comes up when discussing New Century. The topic is baked in, especially because of the way things were getting worse around us due to the election of Trump, and what has come about as a result. But we'll try to keep it light.

#BlackLivesMatter

Recommended links for fun and profit learning:

Ian Danskin - "The Artist is Absent:Davey Wreden and The Beginners Guide"

"Where Once Poe Walked" - by H.P. Lovecraft

Lindsey Ellis - "Death of the Author"

The New Century Multiverse Website:

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com

The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:

https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Fireside Alliance: https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/

Intro is "The Talons of Adventure, The Antlers of Romance" by Doctor Turtle of the Free Music Archive

Outro is "Can't Hold Me Down" by GriZ feat. Tash Neal

"I have faced my ghosts like Rebecca has faced hers, and I am no longer afraid of this story and the emotions it brings out for me."

Part 2 of our final discussion on Let Them Go focuses on the mythological, where were come back to the Maiden, Mother, Crone archetype, but also delve into ancient Fertile Crescent myths that have a special significance to one of our show hosts. 

Our story has monsters and ghosts, but what happens if we consider the story as an allegory for apotheosis? Is Rebecca regaining her life and agency not unlike a goddess coming into her own? One thing is for certain: even after the conversation is done and recorded, sometimes new insights can be found afterwards, while editing a podcast all pretty for others to enjoy.

Make sure to listen to the end, as I included some hilarious outtakes that I decided didn't fit in with the conversation, but were too much fun to throw away! (I also apologize for any background noise that sounds like I keep bumping my microphone, I don't know what the noise comes from since it's a headset, and I haven't yet figured out if there is a way to remove it, since it doesn't show up as background noise.)

#BlackLivesMatter

#WrathMonth

Recommended links for fun and profit learning:

Dan Olsen - "Annihilation and Decoding Metaphor" 

https://youtu.be/URo66iLNEZw

The courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi

http://jewishchristianlit.com/Texts/ANEmrg/Inanna&Dumuzi.html

The Mesopotamian Underworld

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Mesopotamian_underworld

Inanna's Descent

https://www.ancient.eu/article/215/inannas-descent-a-sumerian-tale-of-injustice/

Lindsey Ellis - "Is Titanic Good, Actually?"

https://youtu.be/hW4U_lfgPac

The New Century Multiverse Website:

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com

The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:

https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Fireside Alliance: https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/

Intro is "Moonrise" by Chad Crouch of the Free Music Archive

Outro is "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" by Sarah Mclahlan

"It's a 21st century take on an era hundreds of years removed that isn't afraid of holding gothic up to the light."

Welcome to part one of our final episode on the New Century Multiverse story, Let Them Go. Even with thorough editing, this episode ended up very long, and after the experience with our introductory episode that covered chapters 1-5, I decided not to do that to you, or myself. So our final discussion is divided into two episodes, the next to be released the following Monday.

This go around, we reflect on the story through the lens of the gothic genre, which Toby and I boned up on prior to tackling this episode. We talk about the components of said genre, and where the story plays it straight, and where it necessarily, wonderfully diverges. We learn about the subgenre of the Female Gothic, and we have a lot of laughs along the way. One of the great things about finally talking about the story as a whole is nothing is held back, but we don't have to dive too deeply into heavy subjects: we already did most of that heavy lifting.

#BlackLivesMatter

#PrideMonth

Recommended links for fun and profit learning:

The New Century Multiverse Website:

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com

The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:

https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Fireside Alliance: https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/

Intro is "Moonrise" by Chad Crouch of the Free Music Archive

Outro is "Bird Set Free" by Sia

"It is one part staggered flashback, one part semi-Kuleshov effect, and one part vivid memory."

Welcome to the episode where we finally hit our stride. We've got a whole five chapters to cover, two of which are flashbacks, and the answers to questions the readers might not have known to ask are revealed. Agency, the head versus the heart, and overcoming deep trauma, it's all on the table. Be warned, the feels are strong with this episode, and there is so much to talk about that there will be an entire extra episode covering them and the book as a whole. 

More than just taking about a book we love, we also take a moment to start unpacking what it means to be a fan of something in the age of author access, and how we do our best to review and analyze something in light of that.

Spoilers for chapters 13-17.

#BlackLivesMatter

#PrideMonth

The New Century Multiverse Website:

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com

The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:

https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Fireside Alliance: https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/

Intro is "Moonrise" by Chad Crouch

Outro is "Outro" by Evgeny Teilor

Used under Creative Commons Licence

Welcome to Part 2 of our Whitescarves Team-Up with the Horror Hulk, Nick Ord!

In this episode, we go into why he feels Let Them Go was heavily influenced by the Night of The Living Dead movies, talk some more about connections to other narratives and tropes, and honestly, laugh a lot along the way as we have fun letting our geek flag fly. Laughter is needed now.

Content Warning: State violence against black people are touched on briefly in the conversations due to elements of some of the movies. I feel its important to highlight this due to the ongoing protests involving real state sanction violence in the here and now, even if we don't delve too deeply - one bit from the original conversation was excised due to potentially insensitive and triggering content. #BlackLivesMatter

Potential spoilers for Night of the Living Dead '68, Night of the Living Dead '90, The Evil Dead '2013 and spoilers for most New Century novels excluding Uncivil Outlaw.

Midnight Movies Online can be found here:

https://midnightmoviesonline.wordpress.com/

Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire:

The Avengine Feminine - Introduction by Innuendo Studios:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes:

Intro is "The Avengers" by Alan Sylvestri

Outro is "Come With Me Now" by KONGOS

As promised, someone besides just us talking about New Century!

A longtime fan of School of Movies, but someone who only recently dove headfirst into the New Century Multiverse, Nick Ord has been on a creative kick doing his own writing and reviewing on a personal blog called Midnight Movies Online. Between that and being a very verbal fan as he tore through the New Century collection even faster than I did - plus a penchant for dicussing all things horror - I shone the image of a big White Scarf into the sky, and he answered the call!

This entry is part 1 of that conversation, and includes spoilers for Let Them Go and most of the other Phase 1 New Century stories (excluding Uncivil Outlaw).

Potential spoilers also for The Mist, The Shining, and Pitch Black.

Midnight Movies Online can be found here:

https://midnightmoviesonline.wordpress.com/

Intro is "The Avengers" by Alan Sylvestri

Outro is "Outro" by Evgeny Teilor

"If a weapon could be said at all to be haunted, this weapon could easily qualify. Haunted by memory, if not by spirits."

If you need a mental break from everything that's going on, join Greg and Toby for further discussion on the book Let Them Go, a story that brings us heroes that do triumph over the dark and don't give in to despair. Me? I'm fighting my despair by putting the episode out on time.

This episode may include more edits than usual: there were several vocal distortions that I don't yet know how to clean up properly, and a bunch of rambling that I replaced with more succinct passages. There's a number of heavy subjects we discuss along the way, but also get into the symbolism of a shotgun, the power of emotions and logic, and how our heroine prepares herself for the final showdown. Episode covers Chapters 10-12.

Trigger warning: this episode also discusses physical and emotional abuse on a personal and societal level.

#BlackLivesMatter

The New Century Multiverse Website:

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com

The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:

https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Fireside Alliance: https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/

Intro is "Moonrise" by Chad Crouch

Outro is "Outro" by Evgeny Teilor

Used under Creative Commons Licence

"... because this story acts as the starting point for this whole series, it kind of has to convey the breakdown of everything."

Greg and Toby continue their analysis of Let Them Go, with the first four chapters of Part 2 of the novel. Here we do some more analysis of our heroes, discuss the importance of titles and how you meet or subvert expectations, the use of both diegetic sound and background music... and how in a horror narrative, it can always get worse before the end.

Spoilers for chapters 6-9. Potential spoilers for Harry Potter, Pitch Black, Aliens, and John Wick.

The New Century Multiverse Website:

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com

The New Century Multiverse Podcast Feed:

https://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Fireside Alliance: https://firesidealliance.squarespace.com/

Intro is "Moonrise" by Chad Crouch

Outro is "Outro" by Evgeny Teilor

Used under Creative Commons Licence

"They made the everything go differently!"

Long after React World (who?) has come and gone, people are still making "X Reacts!" videos and posting them on YouTube.

We're not on YouTube, thank god. But we are massive geeks, and when Alex posts artwork online to whet our appetites for more New Century Multiverse, you bet your bones that we are going to have opinions!

Featuring the artwork of Antonio Torresan, Vicky Kuhn, Diogo Lopes, and Dios Revoredo, as well as the font skills of Alex himself, we are going to speculate the shit out of what comes next in Phase Two of New Century. We're here, we're nerds, and we're over 9000!

(Spoilers for all of New Century, including Uncivil Outlaw)

Art book (includes Stonespring Maidens cover) : 

https://twitter.com/NewCenturyShaw/status/1259789385198899201?s=19

Panther Man Speed Draw: 

https://twitter.com/NewCenturyShaw/status/1256223055774392324?s=19

Titles: 

https://twitter.com/NewCenturyShaw/status/1255256974545084416?s=19

V Kuhn and D Lopes: 

https://twitter.com/NewCenturyShaw/status/1259788659437568001?s=19

New Century Multiverse Timeline : 

https://www.newcenturymultiverse.com/exploring-the-worlds/2017/7/13/new-century-timeline