Triple Bladed Sword

This week's installment of 100 Years of Horror takes us into the 1940s and a discussion of the studio system, and how that system was instrumental in Val Lewton's decision to use "suggestive horror" in an innovative shift away from a European Gothic Past into the American Urban Present of Cat People. 

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Jumping from the silent era to the 1930s, this week's selection from a century of horror film is the pinnacle of the Universal Monsters films, James Whale's masterpiece, The Bride of Frankenstein. 

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This week, we learn more about the way Narrative Theory approaches Story and Narrative by comparing Steven Soderbergh's film Contagion with "The Theatre," the first part of Emily St. John Mandel's novel, Station Eleven. After a crash course in film language using Contagion as our case study, I look at how the intensity of the film helps us understand how Mandel is creating a kinder, gentler apocalypse in Station Eleven. 

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We embark on a journey of terror, looking at 100 years of horror movies. We begin our journey with F.W. Murnau and Albin Grau's classic silent film, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. This episode discusses some misconceptions about the film, the ways in which it is like (and unlike) Stoker's Dracula, and how we can be a "sympathetic audience" to old horror movies that no longer have the power to scare a contemporary viewer. 

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My first Christmas episode, in which I probably say "whimsy" too much, but make some recommendations for you to read, watch, and play over the Holiday season (which goes until January 6 if you want it to).  0:00 - Introduction (with festive music!) 2.43 Reading Recommendations         3:09 Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Science Fiction)      10:23 Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (Fantasy)      17:25 All the Bells on Earth by James P. Blaylock (Horror)26:20 Watching Recommendations       26:30 Doctor Who: "A Christmas Carol" (Science Fiction)       28:50 Jingle Jangle (Fantasy)       33:08 Rare Exports (Horror)35:02 Playing Recommendations - Heroic Maps (Holidays ones!) for Fantasy Roleplaying

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This episode introduces a new season/course, Media Across Narrative. Our focus is Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven, which we will use as our central pillar to a semester-long investigation of the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic genres. In this episode, I take judge Station Eleven by its cover -- or rather, covers, and explain the difference between story and narrative using Noah's Ark, one of the first apocalyptic works of written narrative in the world! 

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The final episode of the Narrative in Film series! This week, I'm looking at how sound works as cinematic language, with Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity as our case study. Rabbit trails include why Gravity isn't science fiction, and why Neil DeGrasse Tyson needs to stop punching holes in the fabric of film reality. 

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This week, I'm standing on the shoulders of giants Will Brooker and Linton Davies as we discuss how editing contributes to cinematic language, with Star Wars as our case study.

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In this lecture, we're talking about that aspect of cinematic language everyone thinks they're an expert on: acting! Our case study for the week is Jordan Peele's excellent horror flick, Get Out. Just in time for Halloween!

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This week, I'm looking at Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring with a focus on cinematography, which is one of the areas this film won an Academy Award for. It's an epic episode for an epic film!

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