Podcast
The Red Pen
Hosted by Amanda Jean, Austin Chant · EN
Amanda Jean and Austin Chant dive deep into what makes fiction work. Join them as they answer burning questions like: How do you sneak complex gender theory into the structure of a novel? What makes a truly great magic system? How do you humanize a fictional serial killer… and should you?
9episodes
Episodes
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Episode 9: Kinkpunk
May 7, 201900:59:36Tap to summarizeContent warnings: This episode discusses media which portrays trans characters experiencing suicidal ideation, murder, violence, deadnaming, transphobia, drug abuse, self-destructive behavior, and abuse. We also reference real-life attempted suicide (including a method). Follow Austin down the rabbit hole of exploring trans narratives, both subtextual and textual, in The Matrix and Imogen Binnie's Nevada. What do these very dissimilar pieces of media have in common? A lot, as it turns out, including the mythologizing of the self, the cyclical nature of coming out, and cool leather jackets. Austin feels a lot of things about navel-gazing trans characters, and Amanda defends Keanu Reeves at all costs. Works Cited: The Matrix (Film) Nevada by Imogen Binnie (Novel) Killing Eve (TV show) Rose Buddies (Podcast) / Wonderful (Podcast) To L And Back: An L Word Podcast The Matrix Trivia on IMDB Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard Ana Valens: ‘Nevada,’ my transition, and me Emily Sandalwood: How The Matrix universalized a trans experience — and helped me accept my own Jennifer Harrison: Some thoughts and disagreements on The Matrix as a trans allegory Courtney Gillette: ‘Nevada: A Novel’ by Imogen Binnie HaveYouReadNevada.Club Follow TRP on Twitter: @redpenpod Support The Red Pen on Patreon! The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.
Transcribe →Episode 8: Video Games Are Bad, Actually
Apr 9, 201901:25:21Tap to summarizeContent warnings: Anti-black racism, antisemitism, mentions of the Holocaust, mentions of slavery, domestic violence, references to sexual assault, murder, death, violence, mentions of stereotyped drug abuse, mentions of android body horror, fatphobia, transphobia, and generally just a lot of co-opting of real-life struggles in an allegory about androids gaining freedom and rights. Amanda had the bright idea of exploring problematic media and talking about the ways in which you can like problematic things, but she might have erred upon choosing—and digging deep into researching—the video game Detroit: Become Human as her example. Amanda acknowledges the cool parts of the game (and its fandom) but struggles to get past its egregious racism, antisemitism, bad allegory, and troublesome depictions of trauma. A broader conversations is had throughout the episode, with questions like: How do you engage with problematic media? Where have Austin and Amanda personally drawn the line and disengaged, and why? And can kinky android fanfic redeem a game? Works Cited: Detroit: Become Human (Video game) Roseanne (TV show) Attack on Titan (anime/manga) How I Met Your Mother (TV show) The Daily Show (TV show) The Colbert Report (TV show) Dragon Age: Inquisition (Video game) The Harry Potter series Mulan (Film) Evan Narcisse: The Casual Inhumanity of How Detroit: Become Human Uses Black Culture Martin Robinson: David Cage on Detroit and its depiction of domestic violence Tanner Rubert: Detroit: Become Human, Domestic Violence, and Cowardice in Writing Connor Rennick: How Detroit: Become Human Misunderstands Race Relations Yussef Cole: 'Detroit' Siphons and Squanders a History of Marginalized Struggle Ian Graber-Stiehl: The Profound Quandary of Blackness in the Video Game ‘Detroit: Become Human’ Heather Alexandra: David Cage Games Keep Treating Women Like Shit Gita Jackson: The Super-Fans Of Detroit: Become Human Hate Most Of The Game Sharonda Harris-Marshall: It’s Ok To Like Problematic Media Follow TRP on Twitter: @redpenpod Support The Red Pen on Patreon! The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.
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Episode 7: Universally Panned
Mar 26, 201900:59:01Tap to summarizeContent warnings: discussion of children stabbing things, shitty dudes, homophobia, anti-Native racism, and gender essentialism Summary: In this pantastic episode, Austin and Amanda disagree on the particulars of their drunken book buying and wander through the hundred-year legacy of Peter Pan's cultural mythos: everything from the gender politics of Peter and Wendy to the queer appeal of Neverland. Austin talks shit about edgy takes on Peter Pan. Amanda makes sure that no one forgets about Hook. Works Cited: The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb Yes, Roya by C. Spike Trotman and Emilee Denich Disney's Peter Pan (1953 animated film) Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie The Little White Bird by J.M. Barrie Hook (1991 film) ContactMusic.Com: “Hoffman And Hoskins Turn Peter Pan Villains Gay” Once Upon a Time (TV series) Pan (2015) Peter Pan (2003 film) Disney's Return to Never Land (2002 animated film) Disney's Tinker Bell movies Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey Austin's big gay blog post about how Peter Pan is a trans metaphor Astolat's Game of Thrones fanfic Jonas Brothers - Fly With Me Support TRP on Patreon! The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.
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Episode 6: My Son Is Not a Jerk Jock
Mar 12, 201901:00:26Tap to summarizeAmanda Jean(-Luc Picard) talks about the myth of Kirk vs Picard and Star Trek's very impactful, if flawed, ethos. (Seriously, she will fight you about James T. Kirk.) She gets real tl;dr about how both captains were shaped by the eras they were written in, how Gene Roddenberry was more complex than his legacy suggests, and how positing Kirk as the jock to Picard's nerd is reductive and sloppy. Also, tune in to find out the answers to burning questions like: When did queer folks actually appear in Trek canon? Why is internal conflict equally as important as external? And why did Trek writer Ronald D. Moore go on to pen the Battlestar Galatica reboot and the worst man ever, Gaius Baltar? Content warnings: Mentions of racism, colonialism, and misogyny. Works Cited: Star Trek - 1x28 "The City on the Edge of Forever" Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x21 "The Drumhead" "Star Trek: The Next Generation Writer/Director's Guide" (show bible) by Gene Roddenberry "Gene Roddenberry" on Wikipedia "The Philosophy of Gene Roddenberry" on YouTube "The Entropy Effect" by Vonda N. McIntyre "Prime Directive" on Wikipedia "How Jackie Kennedy Invented Camelot Just One Week after JFK's Assassination" by Tierney McAfee and Liz McNeil "Freshly Remember'd: Kirk Drift" by Erin Horáková "How many alien women has Capt/Admiral Kirk slept with?" on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange "Exclusive: David Gerrold Talks Frankly About TNG Conflicts With Roddenberry & Berman + JJ-Trek & more" by Brian Drew "An Oral History of Star Trek" by Smithsonian Magazine "Kirk and Uhura's kiss" on Wikipedia "William Shatner Discusses Chaos on the Bridge - Exclusive" by Iain Alexander "A New Documentary Shows How Gene Roddenberry Almost Killed Star Trek TNG" by Charlie Jane Anders "VIDEO: Patrick Stewart On Expecting TNG To Fail, Roddenberry v Berman, Star Trek ‘Albatross’ + more" by Trekmovie.com "Star Trek on TV and Internal Conflict within the Crew" by Chris St Martin "James T. Kirk - Notes" from the Daystrom Institute Technical Library "Engage! Captain Picard, Federationism and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Emerging Post–Cold War World" by Alex Burston-Chorowicz "'It's Kirk vs. Picard!' Changing Notions of Heroism from the 1960s to the 1990s" by Katharina Thalmann "Episode 40: Thanks for Coming to our TED Talk" by The Hopeless Romantic (Amanda's William Shatner story) Special thanks to Magali Ferare. The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean. Support us on Patreon!
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Episode 5: Who Was the Man Who Betrayed Harry Styles
Feb 26, 201901:00:47Tap to summarizeAustin journeys through the annals of revisionist history with Monique Truong's The Book of Salt and Ron Hansen's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Amanda has a meltdown over a man named Bobert. This episode tackles big sexy metaphors, the future of real person fan fiction, and the great power (and great responsibility) of using fiction to counter dominant historical narratives. Content warnings: discussion of racism and xenophobia, serial killers, and awful dudes from history. Works Cited: The Book of Salt by Monique Truong Miss Fur and Miss Skeene by Gertrude Stein The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hansen Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Narratives of Empire (series) by Gore Vidal Hamilton: An American Musical (Musical) Wilde (Film) Jude's Law's filmography Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate DLC - Jack the Ripper The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean. Support us on Patreon!
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Episode 4: A Layer Cake of Metaphor
Feb 12, 201901:02:33Tap to summarizeAmanda takes Austin and listeners to wurch (witch church) with a breakdown of the subverted fairytale elements and treatment of puberty as witchcraft within Margaret Mahy's The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance. She delves into why fourteen-year-old protagonist Laura Chant is a boss and why the love interest, Sorry Carslile, is her trauma son. The episode considers questions like: What is up with the monsterification of teen girls? Why doesn't getting your period come with sweet magical perks? And why do so many movie adaptations fail to understand what makes the source material great? Content Warnings: Mentions of parental neglect and abuse, coping mechanisms brought on by trauma, child sickness, menstruation, and teen girls being sexualized and vilified. Also, this episode does contain minor spoilers for The Changeover book, and more significant spoilers for its movie adaption. Works cited: The Changeover: a Supernatural Romance by Margaret Mahy The Changeover (Film) "Fairy Tale and Myth in Mahy's The Changeover and The Tricksters" by Elliott Gose "The Changeover, A Fantasy of Opposites" by Josephine Raburn "The horror of female adolescence – and how to write about it" by Lorraine Berry "The Real Reason Women Love Witches" by Anne Theriault The Exorcist (film) Carrie (film) The Craft (film) The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV show) Follow TRP on Twitter @redpenpod. Support Austin and Amanda on Patreon! The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.
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Episode 3: Egg Yolks are Magic
Jan 18, 201900:56:58Tap to summarizeAustin takes Amanda on a whirlwind tour of Magictown and the weird, tropey, twisty worlds of Diana Wynne Jones to answer the following questions: What makes a good magic system? What makes fantasy feel real? And what do wizardry and the culinary arts have in common? (More than you’d think.) Content Warnings: Discussions of child neglect and thinly veiled metaphors for colonialism. Works Cited: Opening quote by Diana Wynne Jones Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones The Bartimaeus Series by Jonathan Stroud Peter Darling by Austin Chant Caroline's Heart by Austin Chant Follow TRP on Twitter @redpenpod. Support Austin and Amanda on Patreon! The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.
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Episode 2: Thomas Harris' Very Special Man
Jan 4, 201901:03:36Tap to summarizeAustin accompanies Amanda as she revisits twenty years of fannish enthusiasm and exasperation to discuss the Hannibal Lecter tetralogy by Thomas Harris. Specifically, why are the first two in the series so good despite their pitfalls? Why is the prequel so underwhelming? Amanda talks the perils of showing the monster, writing from a genius' POV, changing genres throughout a series, and licking steering wheels. (The episode does contain spoilers for most of the series.) Content warnings: This episode discusses murder, cannibalism, transphobia, abuse, gaslighting, non-consensual drugging, brainwashing, and other gross subjects you'd expect to find in an episode about a sadistic cannibal who thinks he's an artiste. Works cited: Opening quote by Thomas Harris Red Dragon by Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris Hannibal by Thomas Harris Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris The Lecter franchise Patton Oswalt - At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas with a Shovel Special thanks to Ibba Armancas. Follow TRP on Twitter @redpenpod. Support Austin and Amanda on Patreon! The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean. Our sponsor for this episode is the crime podcast Criminal Records, which is all about history's weirdest criminal cases. Hosts Demetria Spinrad and Isaac Meyer traverse the globe finding all sorts of fascinating people who aren't typically featured in history books, and the strange crimes they do.
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Episode 1: The Cold War of Gender Theory
Dec 21, 201800:52:54Tap to summarizeIn the first episode of The Red Pen, Austin drags Amanda straight into the radical gender theory of queer and feminist sci-fi/fantasy from 1960 to 2018. Topics of discussion include: Is a genderless society a utopia? What about a society in which everyone is free to choose their own gender—in theory? And what do the gender binary and the Cold War have in common? (A depressing amount, as it turns out.) Content warnings: This episode discusses misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic ideologies; the threat of nuclear war; and non-graphic gendered and homophobic violence. Works cited: Opening quote by Ursula K Le Guin Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells The Tensorate series by JY Yang Follow TRP on Twitter @redpenpod. Support Austin and Amanda on Patreon! The Red Pen is produced by Amanda Jean.
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