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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02.03 William Lindsay Gresham and NIGHTMARE ALLEY
May 22, 202301:38:19Tap to summarizeNathanael and Erik dive into William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley and Guillermo del Toro's 2021 adaptation. Topics include: freakishness, tarot, whether authors get any say on what their symbolism does. For further information see: Abbot, Megan. "Megan Abbot on the Difference between Hardboiled and Noir." Adams, Rachel. Sideshow U.S.A. Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination. Pollack, Rachel. Rachel Pollack's Tarot Wisdom. Discussion of Nightmare Alley & Use of Tarot [YouTube Video]
Transcribe →02.02 James Dickey and DELIVERANCE
Apr 16, 202301:21:20Tap to summarizeErik and Nathanael are joined by Jennie Lightweis-Goff to discuss James Dickey's 1970 novel Deliverance and the film based on it. Topics include: masculinity, nature, and freakishness. Please be aware that due to the graphic nature of the content of this episode, listener discretion is advised.
Transcribe →02.01: William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and AND THE HIPPOS WERE BOILED IN THEIR TANKS (and KILL YOUR DARLINGS)
Mar 11, 202301:42:07Tap to summarizeErik and Nathanael begin a new season of PLL. This year we will be looking at books dealing with crime and criminality of all sorts. And to kick things off, we return to the Beats and discuss the collaboration between William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks. This novel is a fictionalized account of a very real murder that took place in 1944--a murder that proved to be important for the developing Beat Generation. We pair this novel with the 2013 film Kill Your Darlings, which approaches the same case from a different perspective. Along the way, we talk about life on the homefront during WWII, the ways this novel anticipates the mature work of both Burroughs and Kerouac, and the ways in which some responses to the movie suggest that issues raised by the case might still be with us today.
Transcribe →12. Charles Dickens and the Muppets' CHRISTMAS CAROL
Dec 23, 202201:20:57Tap to summarizeJoin Nathanael and Erik for this special holiday season episode! They are joined by two special guests and talk about the Dickens novella as well as its many adaptations, including the Muppets classic.
Transcribe →11. John Ball and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
Nov 6, 202201:38:41Tap to summarizeWill Murray joins Erik and Nathanael to discuss John Ball's novel In the Heat of the Night and the 1967 movie based on it. Join us as we discuss the idea of the American South as branding and as scapegoat, interrogate the limits of generic forms, and answer the question of whether In the Heat of the Night is a feel-good movie. [Production note: there are some issues with sound here and there in the episode; we don't think this detracts from the overall flow of the discussion]
Transcribe →10. Franz Kafka's THE METAMORPHOSIS (1915) and Cronenberg's THE FLY (1986)
Oct 10, 202201:48:10Tap to summarizeIt's spooky season! In their October episode, Nathanael and Erik discuss the figurative and literal body horror seen in Kafka's absurdist novella THE METAMORPHOSIS and Cronenberg's visceral cult classic THE FLY.
Transcribe →09. Joan Didion and PLAY IT AS IT LAYS
Sep 11, 202201:36:29Tap to summarizeIn this episode we take a trip to midcentury California and into the lives of the bored and desperate. It's Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion. This movie is not easy to find, but it is on YouTube. Youtube Videos: The American Experience as told by Joan Didion (2003) (Source of our first intersegment bumper) Joan Didion, 1971. Katarzyna Nowak McNeice - "Joan Didion’s California and the Melancholic American Identity" Further Reading Daugherty, Tracy. The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion. St. Martin's, 2015. Nowak-McNeice, Katarzyna. California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion's Novels. Routledge, 2019. Vandenberg, Kathleen M. Joan Didion: Substance and Style. SUNY 2021.
Transcribe →08. John Cheever's THE SWIMMER
Aug 15, 202201:15:40Tap to summarizeA guest joins Nathanael and Erik to untangle midcentury malaise. Tune in for suburban flotation.
Transcribe →07. Carson McCullers and REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE
Aug 2, 202201:43:14Tap to summarizeCaitlan Sumner joins us to discuss Carson McCullers' Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941) and the 1967 John Huston movie based on it. Further Reading: Carr, Virginia Spencer. The Lonely Hunter: A Biography of Carson McCullers. U of Georgia P, 2003. Gleeson-White, Sarah. "Revisiting the Southern Grotesque: Mikhail Bakhtin and the Case of Carson McCullers." The Southern Literary Journal, Volume 33, Number 2, Spring 2001, pp. 108-123 Hoang Tan Nguyen. A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation. Duke UP, 2014. [Booth apologizes for butchering Hoang's name multiple times during this podcast. It's a good book and worth checking out]
Transcribe →06. Jack Kerouac and ON THE ROAD
Jul 17, 202201:37:49Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Erik and Nathanael discuss Jack Kerouac's 1957 monumental Beat novel, ON THE ROAD, as well as the 2012 film adaptation. Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. Penguin. —. Desolation Angels. Penguin —. Dharma Bums. Penguin. Charters, Ann. Kerouac: A Biography. St. Martin’s. Johnson, Joyce. Minor Characters. Washington Square P. Leland, John. Why Kerouac Matters. Viking. Miles, Barry. Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats: A Portrait. Virgin. Penner, James. Pinks, Pansies, and Punks: The Rhetoric of Masculinity in American Literary Culture. Indiana UP.
Transcribe →