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The Projectionist's Lending Library
Hosted by The Projectionist's Lending Library · EN
Two literary scholars discuss great (and some not-great) books and their adaptations.
42episodes
Episodes
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5.02: SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (14th c.) and THE GREEN KNIGHT (2021)
4d ago02:00:51Tap to summarizeNathanael 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.
Transcribe →05.01: Michael Crichton, EATERS OF THE DEAD (1976) and THE 13TH WARRIOR (1999)
Apr 1802:08:19Tap to summarizeA 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.
Transcribe →04.11 SEASON FINALE: No Country for Old Men (McCarthy, 2005; The Coen Bros, 2007)
Feb 2101:59:08Tap to summarizeKline 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 ChurchA Cowboy Serenade
Transcribe →04.10 "The Three Godfathers" (Kyne, 1913); 3 GODFATHERS (Ford, 1948), and TOKYO GODFATHERS (Kon, 2003)
Dec 2501:48:30Tap to summarizeIt'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
Transcribe →04.09 Hesse's SIDDHARTHA (1922) and Englund's ZACHARIAH (1971)
Dec 702:02:38Tap to summarizeSome 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
Transcribe →04.08 John Steakley, John Carpenter, and VAMPIRES
Oct 3102:09:43Tap to summarizeBeneath 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.
Transcribe →04.07 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Oct 1201:41:14Tap to summarizeThe 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.
Transcribe →04.06 Ruthanne Lum McCunn and THOUSAND PIECES OF GOLD (1981/1991)
Sep 1402:03:46Tap to summarizeIn 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
Transcribe →04.05 Edna Ferber and GIANT--PART TWO
Aug 2601:49:05Tap to summarizeThis 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.
Transcribe →04.05 Edna Ferber and GIANT--PART ONE
Aug 301:38:29Tap to summarizePART ONE OF TWO Please note that we had minor technical issues with recording on these episodes. We have to the best of our ability edited around them. They say everything’s bigger in Texas—the land, the sky, thehair, the ambitions, the hopes, the fears…. GIANT is a novel about that bigness, a novel about the way that immensity can overwhelm a person…. Virginian Leslie Benedict—nee Lynton—follows herrancher husband out West to begin a new life on the range. Once there, she encounters a kind of life she has never experienced among a kind of people she never dreamed existed. She struggles against insularity, bigotry, and sexism. Make no mistake—GIANT is her novel.It’s also a novel of America, and that is partly what we will discuss in the following episodes. For, whatever problems Texas may have at midcentury with race and class and gender, these are problems that can be seen writ large in the nation itself. And so here we are, in the first of a two-part series here on THE PROJECTIONIST’S LENDING LIBRARY, with Edna Ferber’s GIANT.
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