Podcast
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.
44episodes
Episodes
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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 3, 202501:38:29Tap 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.
Transcribe →04.01 Alan Le May, John Ford, and THE SEARCHERS (1954/1956)
Jul 13, 202502:17:31Tap to summarizeIn 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner concluded his speech on “TheSignificance of the Frontier in American History” with these words:“What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bond of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more, the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and tothe nations of Europe more remotely. And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.”This season on the Projectionist’s Lending Library we turn our eyes westward and look at a definitively American genre—the Western. For America, the Western is our Iliad, our Odyssey. It’s the founding myth to which we look in order to derive meaning for ourselves. Here all the conflicts central to literature and human existence play out: man versus man, man versus nature, man versus himself. And in it, too, are all the complexities and contradictions of America itself: kindness, bravery, hope—anger, murder, genocide.And how better to begin such a season than by looking at the prototypical director of Westerns, John Ford, working with his recurring star, John Wayne.Today on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, it’s The Searchers.Ford adapts a novel by Alan Le May about two men searching for a girl captured by a band of Comanche in post-Civil War Texas. Their quest is a long one, its outcome ambiguous and unforgiving as the landscape they travel. At the end of both the novel and the movie we are left with a question: who really triumphed, and at what cost? Welcome as we explore these questions and more in the inaugural episode of our new season, all about that most American of myths—the Western.For more about The Searchers, check out Glenn Frankel's The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend.
Transcribe →04.04 John Williams and BUTCHER'S CROSSING (1960, 2022)
Jun 29, 202502:05:57Tap to summarizeIn 1865—or perhaps it was 1833—Horace Greeley gave the famous advice to “go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” He said it in print—or to a young acquaintance—like most legends of the American West, the details are vague. All the same, over the course of the 19th Century many young men answered his call. One of them was Will Andrews, the protagonist of the novel we will be discussing today. Will is a young man, fresh out of college, with more dollars than sense, looking to discover himself in the great untamed territory of the West. What he finds might be too much for him as he faces thirst, blizzards, torrential rivers. He goes out a boy; if he’s lucky enough to survive, he might just return a man. Today, on The Projectionist’s Lending Library, it’s Butcher’sCrossing.From Booth's recommendations, here's the Pillar of Garbage video on Brick.
Transcribe →03.08 Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Nov 24, 202401:47:46Tap to summarizeErik and Nathanael are joined by special guest Elizabeth Allen to discuss 2001: A Space Odyssey, a somewhat unique collaboration between two giants in their respective fields. We discuss midcentury fears of overpopulation, the destiny of humanity, and the possibilities (and dangers) of transcendence. Links: Scout Tafoya and Tucker Johnson on Kubrick, Spielberg, and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence Farya Faraji: Desert-Level Music vs. Actual Middle-Eastern Music Standard Ebooks
Transcribe →03.07 John W. Campbell, "Who Goes There" (1938) and John Carpenter's THE THING (1982)
Oct 27, 202401:37:16Tap to summarizeHappy Halloween! Come in out of the cold and cozy up to the blazing outpost as Erik and Nathanael discuss John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There" and the movie(s) based on it. Golden Age S.F., the limits of science and language, and very butch men battle it out in a struggle for dominance in the frozen wastes.
Transcribe →03.06 William S. Burroughs and NAKED LUNCH (1959/1991)
Sep 29, 202402:09:07Tap to summarizeWelcome to the Erik Kline show! Today we look at William S. Burroughs, David Cronenberg, and Naked Lunch. We talk biography, we talk drugs, we talk obscenity. Everything is on the table and nothing is forbidden, so strap in for a bumpy journey into the Interzone. Burroughs lecture on the paranormal. Here's the YouTube video Booth mentions.
Transcribe →03.05: Kurt Vonnegut and SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE (1969/1972)
Aug 25, 202401:59:27Tap to summarizeBooth and Kline are joined by returning guest Matthew Wells to discuss Slaughterhouse-Five, war, and time. Heavy topics, but done with a light touch since, after all, you can't spell "slaughter" without "laughter." Music: "Cheerio," performed by the Manhattan Beach Coast Guard Band
Transcribe →03.04 Jeff VanderMeer and ANNIHILATION
Jul 27, 202401:25:20Tap to summarizeErik and Nathanael venture into the uncanny world of Area X, where words lose meaning and form loses consistency. Along the way they discuss Lovecraft, Nature's revenge, and the nature of grief. Stock audio for the intro and conclusion can be found here, here, and here.
Transcribe →03.03 Pierre Boulle and PLANET OF THE APES (all of them)
Jun 30, 202404:36:52Tap to summarizeHow do you celebrate the most epic s.f. franchise of all time? With the most epic podcast of all time! In this episode, Erik and Nathanael explore Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel Planet of the Apes as well as all of the movies based on it. Hear Booth's thoughts on James Franciscus! Hear Kline's digressions on James Franco! Hear both of them nearly come to blows over how close the 1968 movie is to the novel! It's all here in a blockbuster length, so grab a banana and tune in.
Transcribe →