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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from housetop work

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Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.

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Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, and I am Christian Sager

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Speaker 1: and I am Joe McCormick. And today we are going

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Speaker 1: to be doing one of our annual summer Reading episodes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is just kind of a casual get together here

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Speaker 1: where we're just coming to the studio, bring a few

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Speaker 1: listening recommendations for our listeners, share some things that we've

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Speaker 1: been reading, uh, hope to read in the future, et cetera. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: a lot of listeners right into us, both on social

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Speaker 1: media and through email to recommend books and movies and

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Speaker 1: all kinds of things to us. And I feel like

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Speaker 1: this is our chance to to give back. Although I

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Speaker 1: mean probably every given episode we dropped some variety of

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Speaker 1: things that we've been reading or movies we've been watching,

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Speaker 1: or TV or something like that. But this is all

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Speaker 1: about Hey, it's summertime, right, let's go to the beach

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Speaker 1: and read some books. Why is that a thing people

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Speaker 1: do with the beach because you, well, in my experience,

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Speaker 1: is because you you break free from your normal patterns

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Speaker 1: um and you suddenly find yourself creating all this new

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Speaker 1: time in a new space, craving John Grisham, No, no,

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Speaker 1: I mean I thought some people like to go with

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Speaker 1: the more mainstream books that are available in the beach House.

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Speaker 1: But but no, I've always found it a good you

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Speaker 1: can excuse you just really dive into something, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: entertaining or or really heavy. Robert, what what was that you?

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Speaker 1: You went to the beach I think within the past

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Speaker 1: couple of years and uploaded to the internet some pictures

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Speaker 1: of the library on the shelf at the beach House

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Speaker 1: where they had a they had a book about a

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Speaker 1: werewolf spy. I guess um was it was? It went

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Speaker 1: and Robert mccommon um came in. Is that his name? Um? Gosh,

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Speaker 1: I can wish you remember which author that was. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I was surprised to find some cool old genre

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Speaker 1: stuff because generally you just find Tom Clancy John Grisham, uh,

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Speaker 1: some various uh you know, my all romance novels. It's

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Speaker 1: always Tom Clancy. The kind of people who owned beach houses.

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Speaker 1: They like to know how nuclear submarines were. Well. I

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Speaker 1: hope that the werewolf spy had some love in his life.

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Speaker 1: Pretty sure he did pretty cud good good. Well that's

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Speaker 1: a good segue into my first book, which is a

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Speaker 1: document that looks at the entire history of supernatural horror

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Speaker 1: and fiction. WHOA, yeah, So this is my nonfiction pick

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Speaker 1: this this year, guys, and it is by a past

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Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind, guest. Mr St Joshi h

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Speaker 1: He was on a previous episode that Robert and Julie

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Speaker 1: did about HP Lovecraft in the Science behind his Works,

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Speaker 1: and I believe you interviewed him, right, Yeah, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: chatted with him on the phone and uh, we used

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Speaker 1: to interview on the episode. So those of you who

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Speaker 1: are unfamiliar with him maybe go back and listen to

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Speaker 1: that EPI. So, but I'll give you a little primer here.

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Speaker 1: St Joshy. He's like a literary critic and an academic.

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Speaker 1: He's primarily known for very close examinations of weird fiction.

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Speaker 1: So HP Lovecraft and all the writers that preceded him,

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Speaker 1: like Algernon Blackwood, m R. James Are, Arthur Macon and

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Speaker 1: those who have followed him to like Ramsey Campbell, Ray Bradberry, Clark,

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Speaker 1: Ashton Smith. He's written tomes on all of these people. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and he has I guess what can be described as

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Speaker 1: an acerbic style of writing about the genre. He's a

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Speaker 1: little he's a little pointed in some of his criticisms.

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Speaker 1: I feel like he's kind of a horror fiction horror

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Speaker 1: literature ment at. Yeah, yeah, his lips stained purple. Yes,

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Speaker 1: that's how you know. Ellen Datlow is um a really

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Speaker 1: prominent editor in the horror field. She edits the best

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Speaker 1: Horror of the Year books that come out at the

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Speaker 1: end of every year. She described St. Joshy as the

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Speaker 1: nastiest reviewer in the field. So, um, I'm giving you

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Speaker 1: this warning ahead of time. This book is great. But

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Speaker 1: he doesn't pull his punches. When he doesn't like something,

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Speaker 1: he lets you know about it, and when he loves something,

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Speaker 1: he celebrates it in all its glory. It's weird because

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Speaker 1: I think I don't I can't remember offhand an example

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Speaker 1: of him tearing something up like I tend to read Joshi.

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Speaker 1: He does a lot of introductions two books and uh,

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Speaker 1: and certainly puts together as at its compilations of things

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Speaker 1: that he likes. So I've certainly encountered the loving as

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Speaker 1: t Jo, not so much the hammer. Wouldn't it be

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Speaker 1: great to read a book though that had an introduction

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Speaker 1: that ripped the very book you're reading to shreds. Well,

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Speaker 1: here's an example. I've got one for you. Publishers Weekly

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Speaker 1: did a review of this book, and they said Joshi

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Speaker 1: reserves his sharpest judgments for contemporary horror writers, especially popular bestsellers,

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Speaker 1: dismissing Stephen King as quote a schlockmeister, just the literary

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Speaker 1: equivalent of all the b movie and comic books he

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Speaker 1: digested in his youth. So so there's that. Um, this

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Speaker 1: is a great book, though, Like, if you are looking

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Speaker 1: to really dive into the horror genre and to find out,

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Speaker 1: like what's the best of the best, what's the history

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Speaker 1: behind it, what's the stuff I should go out and

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Speaker 1: look for. This is it. I mean. He starts with

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Speaker 1: the Greek and Latin literature that includes supernatural elements, moves

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Speaker 1: up to the Gothic era, has a whole huge section

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Speaker 1: on Poe, and then talks a lot about the weird

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Speaker 1: horror writers at the end of the nineteenth century. That's

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Speaker 1: just the first volume. Originally, this was published in two

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Speaker 1: separate volumes. In the second volume covers the development of

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Speaker 1: horror literature through the twentieth century, with sections mainly on

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Speaker 1: those people I just mentioned before, Makin Blackwood, Lovecraft, etcetera. Uh,

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Speaker 1: Shirley Jackson has her own whole chapter all the way

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Speaker 1: up to Peter Straub, Stephen King and people who are

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Speaker 1: writing today like that. Well they're all writing today, but

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Speaker 1: like Kately and R. Kiernan, who's like a relatively recent

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Speaker 1: writer comparatively to the rest of this stuff. So I

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Speaker 1: I really recommended if you're just looking to just play

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Speaker 1: around and see what's out there in horror literature and

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Speaker 1: what you like and what you don't like. Yeah, he's

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Speaker 1: definitely one of those those uh, those great authoritative um

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Speaker 1: experts on the field where you can always just get

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Speaker 1: a few at least a few ideas of authors you

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Speaker 1: need to check out and try. Yeah, I'm loving it,

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Speaker 1: especially the egg Allen post section has been really illuminating

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Speaker 1: for me so far. And now, would you say his

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Speaker 1: his survey of the field is more exclusively literary, just

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Speaker 1: like looking at the authors and their works and the

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Speaker 1: relationship to each other. Or does he do historical and

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Speaker 1: other cultural contextual stuff too. Uh No, it's primarily literary. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't think he not so much unless he's like

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Speaker 1: previously written about an author like so, for instance, in

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Speaker 1: the post section, he already had like a lot to

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Speaker 1: gather from, so he could provide you with some context

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Speaker 1: about like what was going on imposed life at the

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Speaker 1: time that he wrote I don't know, murders in the room,

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Speaker 1: morgue or something like that, and that provided some context,

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Speaker 1: but but not for everything. Yeah, so yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I highly recommend it. I know from talking to some

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Speaker 1: of our listeners, they always like it when we bring

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Speaker 1: up the weird horror literature that we've been reading, and uh, man,

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Speaker 1: this is it. This is the book if you you know,

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Speaker 1: you don't have to read the whole thing. You can

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Speaker 1: just get it, flipped through it and kind of find

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Speaker 1: like the area that you're looking for and and dive

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Speaker 1: in and you will come out with just a treasure

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Speaker 1: trove of authors to go looking for. Then I gotta ask,

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Speaker 1: last time we did a summer reading episode, y'all convinced

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Speaker 1: me to read The Great God Pan by Arthur Makon,

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Speaker 1: who is one of the writers you mentioned that he

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Speaker 1: gets into. I went and read it, loved it. It's amazing.

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Speaker 1: What does he think about it? I haven't gotten to

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Speaker 1: the section yet where he talks about making. But if

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Speaker 1: I know Joshi, I would imagine that he thinks it's awesome. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he probably like sets up a shrine at its feet. Well,

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Speaker 1: I know a lot of a lot of critics trashed it,

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Speaker 1: didn't they back then? Yeah, I mean a hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty years ago when nobody knew anything. Yeah, and no,

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Speaker 1: I think, And certainly it's not for everybody, Like I

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Speaker 1: can imagine plenty of people would maybe not dig it today.

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Speaker 1: Give men maybe a little bit stuffy, a little bit

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Speaker 1: the prose style is yeah, is definitely of its time,

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Speaker 1: and it's How does our friend H. E. C. Steiner

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Speaker 1: refer to it? He talks about it as being like

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Speaker 1: yet another one of those stories of like learned gentleman,

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Speaker 1: like just sitting around by fire talking about something horrific. Right,

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Speaker 1: but it's awesome. It's one of the best horror stories

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Speaker 1: I think I ever written. You would not comprehend my horror?

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Speaker 1: When all right, Joe, what do you have? What do

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Speaker 1: you have from the nonfictional bucket here for us? Well,

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Speaker 1: I've got it. I've got one fiction book and a

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Speaker 1: few nonfiction books, but all I'll start with one that

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Speaker 1: if you are a regular listener, to the show. This

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Speaker 1: probably is not going to come as a surprise to you,

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Speaker 1: because I think I've gushed about it on at least

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Speaker 1: one episode before, maybe multiple episodes. But my first nonfiction

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Speaker 1: pick is the Invention of Nature Alexander von Humboldt's New

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Speaker 1: World by Andrea Woolf. And that's a book published by

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Speaker 1: NOTAP and it's about the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt,

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Speaker 1: who lived from seventeen eighteen fifty nine. And this guy

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Speaker 1: has a lot of things in the world named after him.

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Speaker 1: There's the Humboldt Current, the Humboldt Glacier in Greenland, Humboldt

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Speaker 1: Bay in California, the Humboldt Range, Humboldt Falls, Humblet Mountains,

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Speaker 1: Humbolt penguin, Humboldt squid, uh tons of other animal species.

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Speaker 1: He's all over the map in the natural world. They

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Speaker 1: should all get together and full formed like a Humblet

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Speaker 1: super team, right like, and turn into a giant robot.

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, huh. And so I I think, in fact

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Speaker 1: that this is my favorite. I think he's even got

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Speaker 1: a sinkhole named after him. Now, once you've got a

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Speaker 1: sinkhole named after you, you you have made it squad goals.

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Speaker 1: But so he traveled all over the world during his

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Speaker 1: lifetime making observations of nature. He was one of those

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Speaker 1: classic nineteenth century naturalists, kind of like dar Win, but

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Speaker 1: preceding Darwin, and so his influence in his own time

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Speaker 1: was pretty much incalculable. But I don't think I ever

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Speaker 1: learned a single thing about this guy in school, And

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Speaker 1: after reading this book, I think I'd say von Humboldt

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Speaker 1: might be the most historically influential intellectual of the past

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Speaker 1: millennium who is just completely forgotten by history. Why is that,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, But reading Andrea Wolfe's book on him

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Speaker 1: is just wonderful. I I absolutely loved it. So to

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Speaker 1: give a little context about what's going on in Humboldt's lifetime,

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Speaker 1: I want to read a quote from Thomas Jefferson that

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Speaker 1: sort of reflects the attitude toward nature one might encounter

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Speaker 1: in the learned gentleman, as you say, of the of

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Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. Turn of the nineteenth century. So Jefferson

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Speaker 1: had put the mammoth on this chart he made of

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Speaker 1: extant European mammals, and obviously some people were like, why

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Speaker 1: the mammoth, and so he said quote. It may be

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Speaker 1: asked to why I insert the mammoth as if he

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Speaker 1: still existed. It may be asked in return, why I

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Speaker 1: should omit it as if it did not exist, such

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Speaker 1: as the economy of nature, that no instance can be

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Speaker 1: produced of her having permitted any one race of her

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Speaker 1: animals to become extinct, of her having formed any link

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Speaker 1: in her great works so weak as to be broken.

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Speaker 1: I mean today, that's obviously extremely wrong in multiple ways.

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Speaker 1: But this was sort of the climate in which Humboldt's

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Speaker 1: view was revolutionary. So in many ways Humboldt is responsible

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Speaker 1: for the way scientists came to see nature as they

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Speaker 1: do today, not as a static created order with everything

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Speaker 1: in its right place and nothing really changing over the

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Speaker 1: long term, but as this dynamic, changeable, massively interconnected system

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Speaker 1: of ecology and biological and chemical webs of relationships between

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Speaker 1: all the things on Earth, the elements, and its life forms.

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Speaker 1: So in Humboldts of view, habitats could be altered and destroyed,

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Speaker 1: species could go extinct, and changes in one place could

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Speaker 1: have far reaching effects and others. And Humblet began to

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Speaker 1: use the analogy of the world as sort of one

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Speaker 1: unified organism, whereas you know in an organism, if you

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Speaker 1: get gang green in one part of your body, it

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Speaker 1: will affect other parts of your body. So, Uh, I

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Speaker 1: loved this book. It's just full of really fascinating stories

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Speaker 1: about humblets travels around the world and his experiments. I

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Speaker 1: think I used it as one of our sources in

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Speaker 1: the episodes Robert and I did about the early days

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Speaker 1: of electricity experiments where uh one of the ones I

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Speaker 1: related with Humbldt's quest to collect the bodies of lightning

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Speaker 1: strike victims so he could examine the burns to their

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Speaker 1: to their body hair and see exactly what that could

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Speaker 1: tell us about animal electricity. Another one was humbldts experiments

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Speaker 1: with bom Blonde about the electric eels of South America,

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Speaker 1: collecting eels by causing horses to stay impede over a

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Speaker 1: pond full of them, and then once he finally got

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Speaker 1: some eels. Uh like touching the eels a lot, and

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Speaker 1: it's weird, but he was a very interesting, very smart,

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Speaker 1: very cool guy for his time. He was like the

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Speaker 1: ig Nobel Prize winner of his time. Like, instead of

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Speaker 1: taking bees and holding them to his body, he just

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Speaker 1: touched electrical kind of but more of a more of

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Speaker 1: a scientific superstar. Yeah, he was absolutely a rock star

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Speaker 1: of his time, like more than Stephen Hawking or any

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Speaker 1: celebrity scientists today. He's like dead to history now. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if they don't talk about him in school

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Speaker 1: or or you know, I guess just in the science

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Speaker 1: community in general. I don't know. It's it's a good question, um,

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Speaker 1: because his his influence was absolutely huge. A big part

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Speaker 1: of the book is just showing how big his influence was,

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Speaker 1: like their chapters focusing on contemporaries of of Humboldts like Gerta.

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Speaker 1: Darwin's Thorau, so artists, politicians, other scientists, and how they

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Speaker 1: all revered him and got lots of ideas from him.

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Speaker 1: And so I really don't know exactly why it is

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Speaker 1: that his legacy is mostly forgotten. Well there's penguins and

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Speaker 1: glaciers and sinkholes at least. Well it sounds like you

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Speaker 1: really need to push the Humboldt renaissance here. I mean, yeah,

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Speaker 1: everyone behind and pushed Tesla back to the forefront. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think humbold more interesting than Tesla. Whoah, you heard

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Speaker 1: it here first folks. Yeah, but anyway, this should we

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Speaker 1: name a car after him. Well, if you want to

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Speaker 1: find out for yourself, for yourself, you should read this book.

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Speaker 1: So it's really really wonderful. It's not only a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: It covers this massive blind spot I didn't even know

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Speaker 1: I had in sort of the Western history of scientific thought. Uh.

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Speaker 1: So that's Andrea Wolf Alexander von Humboldt's New World. Uh

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Speaker 1: check it out. Big, big thumbs up from me. All right, well,

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Speaker 1: um from my part um. You know, we a lot

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Speaker 1: of scientific books, especially the mainstream general scientific books across

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Speaker 1: our desk, and of the ones that have come out

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Speaker 1: in the past year, I really have to say that

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Speaker 1: mar j Hart's Sex in the CEA our intimate connection

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Speaker 1: with sex, changing fish, romantic lobsters, kiki squid, and other

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Speaker 1: salty erotica of the deep, it's probably the one that

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Speaker 1: right at the top of my list. Yeah, that's a

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Speaker 1: great book. And we talked about it in our Osadas

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Speaker 1: bone Worm episode. We didn't talk to her with Ma

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Speaker 1: and there and and we're planning to do another interview

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Speaker 1: with her later this summer. Uh. She was delightful down

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Speaker 1: to Earth and really is into the kinky stuff between

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Speaker 1: marine life. Yeah, like she does. I thought she did

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Speaker 1: just a fabulous job, not only you know, in the book,

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Speaker 1: but in the interview as well. I mean, just really

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Speaker 1: conveying I love for these creatures, but also a great

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Speaker 1: willingness to enjoy the ridiculousness of totally inhuman weird nous,

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Speaker 1: of the sense of humor about it. The way that

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Speaker 1: um she frames each of her chapters. Yeah, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: enjoyed that. It reminded me of Mary Roach. I'd love

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Speaker 1: to see more come out from Marra sort of along

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Speaker 1: the same lines as how Mary Roach has got this

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Speaker 1: series of books over time. Yeah, she has a similar voice,

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Speaker 1: but but coming from you know, more of a devoted

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Speaker 1: expert background, because this this is her her area of expertise,

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Speaker 1: and she really brings across a clear passion for ecological preservation. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And it it's probably would say it's a perfect scientific

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Speaker 1: beach read for obvious reasons. You're going to the beach

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Speaker 1: and not better than the werewolf spot. Then you go

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Speaker 1: swimming around in the ocean and have all the various

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Speaker 1: fluids of marine life spawning just flowing around over your body. Now,

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Speaker 1: this gives me an idea has anybody ever tried to

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Speaker 1: create a wear bone worm story? Well, you know, it

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Speaker 1: would be hard because you'd have to swim all the

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Speaker 1: way to the bottom of the ocean near a whales

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Speaker 1: carcass and then be bitten by a bone worm. So

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Speaker 1: it starts like the abyss. Yeah. Well, but then I

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Speaker 1: don't see how I don't think think see how they

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Speaker 1: would be a threat to anybody. Like basically they'd be like, oh, well, Carl,

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Speaker 1: he caught this bone worm illness, and now he just

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Speaker 1: he keeps to himself a lot because he goes down

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Speaker 1: the whale car because we'll remember we were talking about

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Speaker 1: in that episode though about maybe it was just me.

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Speaker 1: But but like how it would be great if you

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Speaker 1: could use bone worms as like a weapon, like in

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Speaker 1: BioShock or something like that, and you just throw them

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Speaker 1: at people and they immediately start drilling through. So they

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Speaker 1: could be like that. You could just you could just

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Speaker 1: change into a ware bone worm. But but a spy

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Speaker 1: took Uh. The other book that I thought i'd mentioned

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Speaker 1: this is another one that I've definitely mentioned on the

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Speaker 1: podcast before, uh, and that is a Chinese mythology and

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Speaker 1: introduction by and Beryl. I found this to be just

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Speaker 1: a first of all, it's it has provids a great

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Speaker 1: overview of mythology as it's studied in general. So even

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Speaker 1: if you're going into it without a whole lot of

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Speaker 1: religious studies in your past or you know, mythological understanding,

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Speaker 1: she provides just a great introduction to just what mythology

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Speaker 1: is now it works, and then then a wonderful overview

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Speaker 1: about what's distinct about Chinese myth cycles uh, compared to

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Speaker 1: the West, compared to even other Asian myths cycles UM.

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Speaker 1: And there's just also a cool arrangement of themes, so

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Speaker 1: she she groups everything and to for instance, they'll be

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Speaker 1: at there's a section on on miraculous births, section on heroes,

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Speaker 1: the section on immortality, on strange creatures, etcetera. So I

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Speaker 1: feel like the the information is very well presented. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's more of a more of a scholarly

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Speaker 1: textbook for sure, compared to U to to my my

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Speaker 1: previous recommendation. But if you were at all interested in

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Speaker 1: Chinese culture, if we were all interested in UM in

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Speaker 1: Eastern mythology, I think it's a great book to pick up.

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Speaker 1: And I picked up a few different Chinese mythology texts

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Speaker 1: found a few of them a little a little harder

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Speaker 1: to engage with, So of those books, I feel like

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Speaker 1: this is the this is the best, And this was

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Speaker 1: a resource that I'm guessing that you turned to for

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Speaker 1: a couple of different things that we've done over the

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Speaker 1: last few months, Right, like the mythology episode that you

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Speaker 1: and I did. You guys did an episode on the Zodiac.

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Speaker 1: Did it come into play there? Um? I picked up

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Speaker 1: the book after the Zodiac, So I think I actually

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Speaker 1: stopped this one out when I was working on that

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works Now piece of Superhero that was going

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Speaker 1: to be the next thing I mentioned. Yeah, there was

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Speaker 1: one particular story, um from Chinese folklore conserving concerning the

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Speaker 1: seven to ten brothers, however many you want to count,

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Speaker 1: and I was just determined to find a good scholarly

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Speaker 1: resource on this. As it turns out, it's not really

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Speaker 1: dealt with in this book, but it ended up acquiring

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Speaker 1: it anyway, And after I got it, I realized, well,

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Speaker 1: this is not really gonna help me with this particular assignment.

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Speaker 1: But then the more I started reading it, everyalized it

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Speaker 1: was just a faculous text and couldn't put it back down.

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Speaker 1: Cool that sounds great. I hope we get more out

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Speaker 1: of it too, don't Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's tons of

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Speaker 1: inform in there. So if if you guys want to hear, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, anything else concerning mythology from us, if we

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Speaker 1: have not filled our quota from based episodes, because we've

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Speaker 1: had a couple of them, right, we've had the the uh,

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Speaker 1: the overall look at mythology and then Joe, didn't we

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Speaker 1: just record one dealing with myth as well. Yeah, we

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Speaker 1: did one with on a mythical creatures mythology. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: we we we have a couple of us feel like

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Speaker 1: really strong myth based episodes. In mythology of course continually

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Speaker 1: comes up in our episodes. Anyone, we don't bust myths.

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Speaker 1: Here is stuff to blow, all right, we embrace them,

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Speaker 1: we build them. Okay, so we're gonna take a quick break,

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Speaker 1: but when we get back, we're going to delve into

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Speaker 1: our fiction picks for the year. Okay, so we're back, guys.

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Speaker 1: I have been talking about this book, probably to you

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Speaker 1: off air, but to pretty much everybody in my life

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Speaker 1: for the last year. It is Jeff Vandermere's Annihilation. Uh.

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Speaker 1: This is the first first book in his trilogy of

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Speaker 1: the Southern Reach story. Have I have I torn your

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Speaker 1: ears apart yet? Oh? Yes, I I pushed hard for

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Speaker 1: it to for its inclusion in a book club that

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Speaker 1: I'm in it and it was it was just I

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Speaker 1: guess too, Sci five. This is the stuff to blow

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Speaker 1: your mind book. I'm telling you, like it's all like

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Speaker 1: all the things we're going for with this podcast are

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Speaker 1: in this book. UM. So, if you don't know who

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Speaker 1: vander Meer is, he's a weird fiction, sci fi horror

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Speaker 1: author together with his wife, and he's compiled a lot

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Speaker 1: of just excellent anthologies as introductions to those genres that

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Speaker 1: he writes within. Um. In fact, last year, his book

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Speaker 1: The Weird was on my list and I've probably talked

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Speaker 1: about it on almost every single episode since then because

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Speaker 1: I just loved that book. Um and so you've probably

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Speaker 1: heard me mention it a lot of times. But Annihilation

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Speaker 1: is his book. It is a novel. Uh. And if

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Speaker 1: you're a fan of what we do on the show,

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Speaker 1: really I can't recommend you have to check it out.

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Speaker 1: Combines weird science with this haunting prose in a great mystery. Uh.

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Speaker 1: In fact, this is a description of the book just like,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to just give you a bare bones

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Speaker 1: summary because I don't want to spoil anything. It describes

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Speaker 1: a team of four people therefore women, a biologist and anthropologist,

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Speaker 1: a psychologist, and a surveyor, and they are sent into

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Speaker 1: an area known as Area X, and this area has

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Speaker 1: been completely abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization.

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Speaker 1: All they know is that they're the twelfth expedition to

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Speaker 1: go into this area. All of the other expeditions have

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Speaker 1: met with disappearances of their members, suicides, aggressive cancers, or

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Speaker 1: mental trauma when they get back, so pretty much everybody

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Speaker 1: who goes there either dies or comes back and dies

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Speaker 1: or goes crazy. Um. It's narrated by the biologist, and

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Speaker 1: as such, Vandermuir does this really good job of giving

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Speaker 1: it an eye towards the field of biology, and the

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Speaker 1: character explores this weird setting, and it makes use of

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Speaker 1: the flora and the fauna both within the setting of

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Speaker 1: the story in this Area X, but also in the

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Speaker 1: book's narrative. It's it's just wonderful at that. I don't

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Speaker 1: want to spoil it any more than that, but there's

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Speaker 1: some there's some weird stuff in Area X. Uh annely

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Speaker 1: Knew It's give a great review of it over at

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Speaker 1: I O nine, and she referred to it as the

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Speaker 1: tale of an ill fated scientific expedition to a piece

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Speaker 1: of coastline that has developed strange new physical properties that

424
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:33,120
Speaker 1: defy explanation, and it will make you believe in the

425
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:37,280
Speaker 1: power of science mysteries again. Uh. It is currently being

426
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:40,760
Speaker 1: adapted into a film by Alex Garland, who most people

427
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:44,679
Speaker 1: know because he directed X Makina last year. I know,

428
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,440
Speaker 1: I'm from writing The Beach, which I read in high school. Yeah,

429
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 1: he's well, he's done a bunch of great stuff. Twenty

430
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: twenty days later. Um believe Judge Dred, Judge Dread he wrote,

431
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: and I don't. I don't know if he directed Judge Dread,

432
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 1: but yeah, Alex Garland's great. So I'm psyched that he

433
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,200
Speaker 1: is making a movie version of this, and Natalie Portman

434
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:03,960
Speaker 1: and Oscar Isaac are both going to be in it,

435
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 1: so I'm really looking forward to it. I don't want

436
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,240
Speaker 1: to say too much more about it other than that

437
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:10,720
Speaker 1: it's the first part of a trilogy. There's two more books,

438
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 1: and I I hear those are good too. There on

439
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,280
Speaker 1: my list. Awesome, Well, I am going to get into

440
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 1: my fiction pick now, and it is also a science

441
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:23,160
Speaker 1: fiction book. In fact, I actually just finished reading this

442
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:25,920
Speaker 1: book this week. Earlier this week or a couple of

443
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: weeks ago. I guess I didn't know what my fiction

444
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 1: pick for this year was going to be, but now

445
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 1: I know. I absolutely loved this book. It's called Aurora

446
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:39,080
Speaker 1: by Kim Stanley Robinson and it's it was published by

447
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:46,200
Speaker 1: orbit In and it was just absolutely excellent, powerful, smart, thrilling,

448
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: deeply researched, a very emotionally resonant and a lot of fun.

449
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,159
Speaker 1: And I again, I have a similar problem with you.

450
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil too much about the plot.

451
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 1: Uh So I guess I'll keep my synopsis very brief,

452
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:03,719
Speaker 1: but the the story begins on a Generation starship, Robert.

453
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: Have you ever in the back Yes? That's what No.

454
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: I mean. Have you ever done an episode in the

455
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:12,960
Speaker 1: back catalog about like arc ships? Um? No, you know,

456
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that comes up. It has

457
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,359
Speaker 1: come up, been passing before, but never devoted episodes. That

458
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 1: would be Yeah, I think that'd be a good thing

459
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,719
Speaker 1: to focus an entire episode on someday. But generally the

460
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,880
Speaker 1: idea is um is that if you were planning on

461
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: going to colonize an extrasolar star system in the galaxy,

462
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: the limits imposed by physics say that, well, okay, you

463
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,000
Speaker 1: can't actually travel faster than light or anything like that.

464
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be a multi hundred year journey at

465
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,639
Speaker 1: the at the very least. Um, So what's gonna happen.

466
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: What happens if you need to make a you know,

467
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 1: three hundred year journey to a star system, Well, you

468
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 1: basically have to take enough of earth bio diversity with

469
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:57,159
Speaker 1: you to uh to create a self sustaining atmosphere and

470
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: ecology on a ship. Um. And that's by a challenge.

471
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,959
Speaker 1: I mean, we we find we found significant challenges just

472
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 1: creating uh, like the biospheres here on Earth. Yeah, I

473
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,639
Speaker 1: mean I believe one of the episodes we've done we

474
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 1: talked about dirt. Didn't we about like the challenges of

475
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: like how much dirt you would need to bring? Yeah?

476
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:17,679
Speaker 1: I don't remember this, but yeah, I can imagine that

477
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: absolutely features into this novel. So it's the novel starts

478
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 1: on this this generation ship with multiple generations of passengers.

479
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:29,000
Speaker 1: I will say it starts into the journey. So all

480
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 1: the characters are people who did not choose to embark

481
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: on this journey. They were all they were all born

482
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 1: on the way, which is a strange position to imagine

483
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,359
Speaker 1: yourself in because you didn't sign up for this, right,

484
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:45,640
Speaker 1: the original generations and their descendants and their their children

485
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 1: and their grandchildren are all dead. Uh. Well, in a way,

486
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 1: you have to recycle all biological matter within these systems,

487
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: so sort of, I mean, they don't directly cannibalize the flesh. Yeah,

488
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,640
Speaker 1: but I was imagining that in their atoms, their atoms

489
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,440
Speaker 1: and energy go back into the ship system. But so, yeah,

490
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 1: they're they're bound for this extrasolar star system known as

491
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,120
Speaker 1: Tao STI. And I think I can safely say that

492
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: this is the most deeply and thoroughly scientific science fiction

493
00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 1: book I have ever read. Uh. And I will say

494
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 1: that because the plot is one of fundamentally it's a

495
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 1: plot of scientific discovery, and that most of the conflicts

496
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: in the plot are not like you know, your standard

497
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:36,160
Speaker 1: energy weapon battles, but they are scientific and engineering conflicts.

498
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:40,080
Speaker 1: It's uh, coming from smart people trying to struggle with

499
00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 1: the limitations imposed on them by physics, chemistry, and biology.

500
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:46,120
Speaker 1: And this is one of those books that I think

501
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: I knew I was gonna like it once I saw

502
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: what the negative reviewers had to say. Do you ever

503
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 1: have that experience? This got a lot of positive reviews,

504
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,200
Speaker 1: but when I saw what the negative reviews said, there's

505
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 1: just a certain kind a negative review that makes me

506
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,639
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna love something. So I'm guessing this isn't

507
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: something that the sad puppies would vote for a Hugo on. No,

508
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Well. Some people didn't like it,

509
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 1: I think because it had certain environmentalist themes. And then

510
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: also I think some people found it boring because there

511
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: wasn't enough like fighting and killing in it. Yeah exactly, okay, um,

512
00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: but there. But I thought it was just absolutely wonderful.

513
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:31,160
Speaker 1: I I fully, holly loved this book. Cool alright, Well

514
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,639
Speaker 1: for my fictional choice, UM, I'm definitely gonna give you

515
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 1: the Cannibals that you wanted. Thank you. Question. I find myself.

516
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 1: I found myself in the in the first half of

517
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 1: this year. Um, not reading a lot that I ended

518
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 1: up really loving. Like I read, I've read some good books.

519
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: I mean I read The Fixer by Bernard Malamud, which

520
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 1: is which is great and it actually ties into some

521
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 1: stuff I've written about for stuff to play your mind

522
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: having to do with the blood, libel and person and

523
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,960
Speaker 1: Jewish persecution of the Jews. I also read The knee

524
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 1: On Bible by John Kennedy Tool, which is about the

525
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 1: most impressive thing you'll ever read read by a sixteen

526
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,840
Speaker 1: year old if you really want to, really want to

527
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 1: depress yourself about your your your teenage writing ability. Sixteen

528
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 1: year old? How old was he when he wrote Confederacy

529
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: of Dunces? Oh not, what was he older? You know,

530
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: he was definitely older, lived tremendously long since the killed himself.

531
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: But this one came out after the Confederacy of Dunces

532
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: because it was one that his mother had published, was

533
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 1: written before then. I mean, they both came out after

534
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: his death. But it's a I mean it's a very

535
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 1: it's a very advanced book for a sixteen year old

536
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: um and I enjoyed it, but I also I didn't

537
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: just absolutely love it. And it's hard to really, you know,

538
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: pick a science the ankle on it. Um. So really

539
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 1: the book that's uh in aged me the most this

540
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: year was a book of titled Off Season by Jack

541
00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 1: Ketch um Um and it wasn't it. It's kind of

542
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 1: an infamous publication and I wasn't even really going to

543
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: mention it, but because it's extremely graphic, it's an extremely

544
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 1: nasty piece of nineteen eighties horror fiction. And in fact,

545
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 1: I think I edited out a mention of it on

546
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: a previous show. Yeah, but but I figured, hey, it's

547
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 1: the book that that sucked me in the most, so

548
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: I should probably mention it with the caveat that it

549
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,000
Speaker 1: is not for for you, for young people, It is

550
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:35,240
Speaker 1: not for anyone who's squeamish. It has a lot of

551
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 1: a lot of extreme violence in it. Um it is,

552
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 1: but it's a It's a real page turner. It's exceptionally

553
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 1: well written. You care about the characters, and you hate, hate,

554
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,120
Speaker 1: hate all the debased villains, which are all essentially It's

555
00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: about some individuals on a vacation, so it's a great

556
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: vacation read obviously, who are attacked by marauding cannibals that

557
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: live in the hills and I go west Craven move

558
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 1: turned into it. It sounds like the Hills have I Yeah,

559
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,720
Speaker 1: it's my understanding that hills have ice. Was was kind

560
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 1: of an inspiration on it. Like that, that, and a

561
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 1: few other things. Um, but it's just it's really well executed,

562
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 1: especially after you get the initial character development stuff out

563
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 1: of the way. Once thing awful things start happening, it's

564
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,680
Speaker 1: just impossible to put it down. And uh, it's ultimately

565
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 1: the book about normal folks who have to be who

566
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: who are beset by bloodthirsty savages and then have to

567
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 1: become bloodthirsty savages to survive. And you find yourself becoming

568
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: kind of a bloodthirsty savage reader as you cheer them

569
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: on against these awful, awful people. So it's a it's

570
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 1: an extreme read, uh, but not to the point where

571
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: I ever felt like the author was just tormenting me

572
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 1: or the characters just for the sake of all the sufferings,

573
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 1: because I've certainly encountered haror like that before where it

574
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: just leaves me feeling a little gross with the roth. Yeah,

575
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,560
Speaker 1: and that being said, there is still plenty of bad

576
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,720
Speaker 1: stuff in here. So again I stressed that this this

577
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 1: one is only for the dedicated horror fans out there,

578
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't be fair not to mention it since

579
00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 1: it was such a an engaging read, such an addictive read. Hey,

580
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 1: so we need to take a quick break, but we

581
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 1: will be right back with some more selections from our

582
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: summer reading list, and we're back. Okay. So you guys

583
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: know me and I am a comics fan. So I

584
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to bring and do a summer reading

585
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:41,000
Speaker 1: list if I didn't at least mention a couple of comics. Um.

586
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 1: So I tried to narrow it down from my usual

587
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: huge list to stuff that I think really resonates with

588
00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: our show and our listeners. On the first one that

589
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 1: I have to recommend is called Junction True and it's

590
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: a graphic novel by Ray Fox. Uh. And it's illustrated

591
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: and watercolored by Vince Locke, and it's just gorgeous water colors,

592
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 1: really beautiful book, very uh, you know, has very painterly

593
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 1: quality to it. Uh. And it is about a near

594
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 1: future where subculture involves transhumanist body hacking, which just right

595
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: up our alley right. Uh. It's this weird, twisted love

596
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: story about S and M rebellion, alienation, and body modification

597
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 1: where the main character really has to ask himself how

598
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,360
Speaker 1: far he's willing to go for love, and by go,

599
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 1: I mean modify his body for what his lover wants

600
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 1: him to be. Uh. It is strange and kind of

601
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: creepy and horrifying, but the characters just really feel real,

602
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: and Uh, I just applauded it. Ray Fox is a

603
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 1: very smart writer. He takes a lot of risks that

604
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 1: pay off in his storytelling and in the theme. So

605
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: I recommend this book immensely. I believe it is put

606
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: out by Top Shelf Productions. The second one that I

607
00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: would recommend, and this will come as no surprise to

608
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 1: be who have listened to me talk about things on

609
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: the show before. Warren Ellis has a new comic that's

610
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,000
Speaker 1: been out for the last year together with Declan Shelvey

611
00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:14,400
Speaker 1: and Jordie Blair, called Injection, and Uh, it really takes

612
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 1: that old Arthur C. Clark quote to heart. Any sufficiently

613
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 1: advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So you can't really

614
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: tell is it is there magic in this book or

615
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: is it's, you know, some kind of sci fi technology

616
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,840
Speaker 1: that's just beyond our understanding. And he's not willing to

617
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 1: hold your hand and let you know. If you haven't

618
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 1: heard me babble about Warren Ellis on the show before. Uh,

619
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 1: last year I recommended his nonfiction book Cunning Plans during

620
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,279
Speaker 1: our summer reading list. He's known for doing comics like

621
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:49,279
Speaker 1: trans Metropolitan, Global Frequency, Planetary, Freak, Angels, and a lot

622
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:52,399
Speaker 1: of other superhero, video game and TV work. I went

623
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,960
Speaker 1: back and read the first volume of trans Metropolitan this

624
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: year on your recommendation. I really liked it. Yeah, it's

625
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: pretty cool, it was funny. I love it. Spent a

626
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,239
Speaker 1: long time since I've read it. Yeah, that Spider Jerusalem, right, Yes,

627
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: Spider Jerusalem is his Like sci fi Hunter s. Thompson,

628
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 1: it's it's fun. Injection is about a team that consists

629
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: of a secret agent, a scientist, a hacker, a shaman,

630
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:20,839
Speaker 1: and a detective and they make a mistake and they

631
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:23,080
Speaker 1: kind of think they're smarter than they are and they

632
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 1: let something weird loose into the world, and subsequently they're

633
00:35:26,560 --> 00:35:29,759
Speaker 1: all traumatized by this experience, but they're also trying to

634
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,360
Speaker 1: make things right. Uh. It doesn't hold your hand with

635
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:37,959
Speaker 1: narrative structure. Ellis is definitely trying out some interesting like flashbacks,

636
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:42,360
Speaker 1: flash forwards, jumping from character to character, not really showing

637
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:44,960
Speaker 1: you all the pieces at once, But it comes together

638
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 1: and it's it's excellent. The artwork is stunning. This team

639
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 1: is great. Declan Chalvey and Jordie Blair are a couple

640
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 1: that work together. He does the illustration and she does

641
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,919
Speaker 1: the colors, and so it's just, you know, you can

642
00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:00,320
Speaker 1: see that teamwork in the art that really flows well together.

643
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 1: And the storytelling is superb for comics. If you like

644
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 1: stories that deal with the following things, this is for you. Madness, weird,

645
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:13,640
Speaker 1: incursions into reality, the history of magic, especially in the

646
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:18,560
Speaker 1: British Isles, and government conspiracies. Injection has all that and more.

647
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 1: Now are both of these that you've mentioned? Are these

648
00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:24,360
Speaker 1: complete things? Are the ongoing Injection is still ongoing? Junction

649
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 1: True is a complete work? That's cool? I uh so.

650
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:31,560
Speaker 1: I actually this year have been embarking on a project

651
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 1: of going back and reading basically all the great like

652
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 1: classic graphic novels that I've never read before. So I've

653
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,880
Speaker 1: been reading a lot of as far as superheroes go,

654
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 1: you know, the ones that everybody had read except for me.

655
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 1: I read The Dark Knight Returns for the first time

656
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: this year, and uh some other Batman stuff. Have you

657
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 1: done Alan moore Swamp thing run yet? I haven't, but

658
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:55,880
Speaker 1: I did read concerning Alan Moore I finally went and

659
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,320
Speaker 1: read From Hell, which is another one along your lines, Robert,

660
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:03,200
Speaker 1: that I certainly wouldn't recommend for our younger listeners because

661
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 1: it is extremely graphic in terms of sex and violence.

662
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: But it's also a really, really well researched and interesting

663
00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 1: dark graphic novels. Excellent. It's one of my favorite graphic

664
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,040
Speaker 1: novels of all time, and it has been a huge

665
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 1: influence on my own work in the field. And don't

666
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:25,399
Speaker 1: let the movies do from it. Yeah, but my next pick.

667
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:27,919
Speaker 1: I had a couple more nonfiction books that I read

668
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 1: this year that I wanted to mention because I thought

669
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: they were great. So another one concerning science is a

670
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,960
Speaker 1: book about black holes, and it is called black Hole Colon.

671
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:42,600
Speaker 1: How an idea abandoned by Newtonians, hated by Einstein, and

672
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 1: gambled on by Hawking became loved by Marcia Bartouschek Yale

673
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,360
Speaker 1: University Press. So I have to say, points deducted for

674
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:55,799
Speaker 1: having a sixteen wordlong subtitle that is obnoxious. You think

675
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:59,719
Speaker 1: it should be crunched down and yeah, point of infinite

676
00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:04,239
Speaker 1: and city and zero volume black hole colon spaghettification, But

677
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:08,319
Speaker 1: points deducted for that points awarded for everything else. I thought,

678
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 1: this is just a really superb and concise piece of

679
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:15,879
Speaker 1: science writing. Um and uh so Marcia Bartoschik, I think

680
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,759
Speaker 1: she is ahead of the head of a science writing

681
00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,920
Speaker 1: program at M I T. And you can see why

682
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,200
Speaker 1: she has that post. She she is a really really

683
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 1: top notch science communicator. And there's a very breezy, readable,

684
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 1: compact style to this book. Uh and so Bartschik tells

685
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,560
Speaker 1: the story of our knowledge about black holes, how they're

686
00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 1: first theorized, how violently physicists oppose them, and how they

687
00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:45,399
Speaker 1: eventually came to be accepted and uh. Bartosik is very

688
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: true to the difficult astrophysics behind black holes, but she

689
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: makes the concepts involved, like really very easy to understand

690
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 1: for non scientists. I was am I'm not a physicist,

691
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,239
Speaker 1: I'm not even a very math inclined person, but I

692
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: was following her the whole way. Uh and A lot

693
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: of this is made possible simply by the way she

694
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:07,279
Speaker 1: narrativises the subject. It's easier to understand the ideas she

695
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,480
Speaker 1: presents because she tells the story historically, where she tells

696
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 1: the story of each scientist interacting with the ideas of

697
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 1: the other one. So you can see the logical progression

698
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 1: of how people understood black holes. But one of the

699
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:23,279
Speaker 1: most interesting things about the book to me is how

700
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:27,800
Speaker 1: it shows this long, painful battle between our scientific theories

701
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,640
Speaker 1: and our common sense. So for about a hundred years now,

702
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:35,000
Speaker 1: any physicist who cared to look would be able to

703
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,359
Speaker 1: work out that black holes are a consequence of Einstein's

704
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:42,960
Speaker 1: general relativity. But scientists across the generations just they allowed

705
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: their common sense to rebel against the idea. It's like, wait,

706
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,319
Speaker 1: how can the mass of many stars be compressed down

707
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 1: to infinite density? That's just absurd, That can't happen. Uh.

708
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 1: There's even one story in the book, how about Sir

709
00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:57,800
Speaker 1: Arthur Eddington, who is one of the most respective physicists

710
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: of the time, Just vicious Lee mocked the then young

711
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 1: physicist Supermannia and Chandra Shaker after he gave a conference

712
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,760
Speaker 1: presentation in nineteen thirty five about the inevitability of black holes.

713
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 1: Apparently Eddington just got up after Chandra Shaker had finished

714
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 1: giving his talk, and he said, surely nature has some

715
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:20,279
Speaker 1: way of preventing this nonsense more or less. Uh. And so,

716
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 1: of course, in the end, we learned through decades of

717
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:25,400
Speaker 1: painful back and forth that our common sense about black

718
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:29,960
Speaker 1: holes is completely wrong, and these objects do in fact exists.

719
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,440
Speaker 1: They're they're not theoretical anymore. They're a fundamental part of

720
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 1: our picture of the universe. Um. But the every piece

721
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 1: of common sense in our brain just rebels against it.

722
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense. How could there be something

723
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: like that? Everything I know about black holes comes from

724
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:49,080
Speaker 1: the movie Interstellar. When you go when you go into

725
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:50,640
Speaker 1: did you guys know when you go into them you

726
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:53,759
Speaker 1: travel back in time? You see? Now, everything I know

727
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:58,160
Speaker 1: about Disney's the black Hole, So I know that when

728
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,320
Speaker 1: you go into them, you fused with a row about

729
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:04,720
Speaker 1: and rule over hell man, Was any of this stuff

730
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 1: covered in the book? No? That's uh, that's pretty cool.

731
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 1: You've seen the black Hole? Right? No, I haven't. In

732
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:16,160
Speaker 1: case anyone's misunderstanding, maybe the science is ridiculous and I

733
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,359
Speaker 1: met the same I was being ironic Interstellar as well. Yeah,

734
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: black Hole is one of those like a super dark

735
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:24,880
Speaker 1: Disney sci fi fantasy movies that they did in like

736
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: the late seventies. Yeah, like a robot disembowels Anthony Perkins

737
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:30,720
Speaker 1: in it. It's one of the What's What's the Witch

738
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:35,359
Speaker 1: Mountain movie? As part of that, There's there's another one anyway. Yeah,

739
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:37,359
Speaker 1: oh that sounds pretty good. So there's a lot of

740
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: crazy dark movies that came out to round that time.

741
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,439
Speaker 1: In Black Hole was one of them. To check that. Great,

742
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:45,960
Speaker 1: it's a go into it with you know, realistic expectations.

743
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 1: It's a pretty fun, right, especially if you're ten. Yeah, well,

744
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 1: I will definitely be looking into that. I always wanted

745
00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: to know how I could summon the dark powers of

746
00:41:56,040 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 1: of of infinite density to do my bidding. Uh. A

747
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,799
Speaker 1: couple other quick mentions, I guess of of books I

748
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:05,640
Speaker 1: read this year, one is, uh, The Confidence Game by

749
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:10,600
Speaker 1: Maria Knakova of Viking. You got a copy of that,

750
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:12,800
Speaker 1: didn't you write? Yeah? I saw her speak at the

751
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,040
Speaker 1: World Science Festival this year. She was on a panel

752
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:19,720
Speaker 1: that also included Mary Roach talking about about science writing,

753
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,279
Speaker 1: and yeah, I was really impressed with everything she had

754
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 1: to say. Um, and that's why I also shared an

755
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:27,920
Speaker 1: article about that. She wrote about whether or not Trump

756
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:30,759
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is a con man on artists and I

757
00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 1: shared that on our Facebook feed, and some people did

758
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:37,719
Speaker 1: not like it, even though it was an objective scientific

759
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:41,319
Speaker 1: approach look at what the Trump phenomenon is. Yeah, but

760
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:43,560
Speaker 1: I was really impressed with everything she had to say

761
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:45,800
Speaker 1: at the conference, and so I had to grab a

762
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:47,759
Speaker 1: copy of the book as well. I haven't read it yet,

763
00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:50,719
Speaker 1: but I'm looking forward to uh reading through it. Yeah,

764
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,120
Speaker 1: it's it's a good book. And so it's about con artists.

765
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 1: About half historical narrative about some of the most interesting

766
00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:58,760
Speaker 1: cons in history, and then the other half is science

767
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:02,000
Speaker 1: about psychological rea search on why humans are vulnerable to

768
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,799
Speaker 1: cons in general, and then particular tactics used by con

769
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 1: artists and sort of the cognitive biases that they take

770
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:11,879
Speaker 1: advantage of. Uh. And I think it would be fun

771
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 1: to discuss this book for for a whole episode of

772
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: the show sometimes, especially if we could get con of

773
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:18,600
Speaker 1: COVID to come on and join us. I've touched based

774
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:21,879
Speaker 1: with her her agent and so do that. Well, that'd

775
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:25,120
Speaker 1: be great. Yeah. I did find it interesting, And we

776
00:43:25,160 --> 00:43:26,960
Speaker 1: have to like set it up as if we're going

777
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:29,000
Speaker 1: to do the show, but then don't actually call it.

778
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 1: We just take all our money, yeah, exactly because oh

779
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 1: DoD the audience not know that we get paid to

780
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:38,920
Speaker 1: do interviews. Um. Two things that She mentioned um in

781
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:41,360
Speaker 1: in her talk that I'm wondering, you know, to what

782
00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 1: extent there there in the book. She mentioned that she

783
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: was inspired by David Mannett movies. Really writing this book,

784
00:43:47,719 --> 00:43:49,560
Speaker 1: I don't know. She didn't mention that in the book,

785
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 1: and she also mentioned that she was inspired by like

786
00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: It's it's one thing we hear, we hear talk of

787
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:57,399
Speaker 1: con games and con artists, and it's easy to think, oh, well,

788
00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 1: that poor stupid person. But but in her talk at

789
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,160
Speaker 1: the World's Nice Festival, she mentioned that one of the

790
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:05,920
Speaker 1: things that really got are interested in this topic was

791
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:09,759
Speaker 1: that you have very smart people, very intelligent people, who

792
00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 1: end up getting sucked into these things. Yeah. One of

793
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:17,680
Speaker 1: the stories in the book is about a physicist, a physicist,

794
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 1: like working physicist, brilliant guy who gets conned by an

795
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:26,440
Speaker 1: Internet person pretending to be a I think like a

796
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:30,319
Speaker 1: check model, who wants fished, who wants to marry him,

797
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:33,840
Speaker 1: and they trick him into being a drug mule. Oh yeah,

798
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 1: so you don't have to be dumb to fall for

799
00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:39,279
Speaker 1: a con. They exploit biases that are that are there

800
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:44,479
Speaker 1: in all of us, even even physicists like check models. Uh.

801
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:47,319
Speaker 1: Then there's one last nonfiction book I want to mention. Uh,

802
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: and that is something I think it might have come

803
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:53,120
Speaker 1: out in an episode before. But it's Our Mathematical Universe,

804
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:55,760
Speaker 1: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. By Max

805
00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:59,359
Speaker 1: teg Mark, not for Robert. Did you read this? Why?

806
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,400
Speaker 1: I didn't read it, but I've I've read that Tegmark

807
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,319
Speaker 1: stuff before. He's always great, He's awesome. And I get

808
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 1: the feeling that tag Mark is sort of a polarizing

809
00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,279
Speaker 1: figure in the modern astrophysics and cosmology community. And I

810
00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:13,440
Speaker 1: think this is because he does very important and relevant

811
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:17,040
Speaker 1: mainstream research. Like he's not some crazy crank, but he's

812
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:18,920
Speaker 1: also not afraid to go out on a limb and

813
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:23,759
Speaker 1: explore radically strange hypothesis like the idea that there's a

814
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 1: physical way to quantify consciousness if you think about consciousness

815
00:45:27,680 --> 00:45:31,280
Speaker 1: is a state of matter, or that the entire universe

816
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:35,239
Speaker 1: at bottom is made of math, not figuratively or metaphorically,

817
00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:41,399
Speaker 1: but literally. We're not described by math. We are mathematical objects. Uh.

818
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,479
Speaker 1: And so I think some scientists and scientifically literate people

819
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 1: don't like it when otherwise respected scientists stick their necks

820
00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:51,320
Speaker 1: out and speculate about such weirdness. Basically. Uh, But I

821
00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 1: I guess they think that it causes some confusion about

822
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:58,399
Speaker 1: what sciences. You hear people say this sometimes, like some

823
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:01,839
Speaker 1: people in the skeptic community. Uh. And with those people,

824
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:05,000
Speaker 1: I I cannot agree, because I think it's wonderful when

825
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: productive mainstream scientists are also free to play at the

826
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,000
Speaker 1: edges of what can be known about the world, as

827
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 1: long as you're not confusing one type of intellectual exercise

828
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:18,080
Speaker 1: with the other. But ultimately, this book concerns the mathematical

829
00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:21,879
Speaker 1: universe hypothesis, and it's also just a very good introduction

830
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 1: to many other ideas in physics and cosmology today. One

831
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:29,480
Speaker 1: example is the multiverse. I like the way Tagmark Tagmark

832
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:32,880
Speaker 1: tackles this idea, so, uh, the multi versus the idea

833
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:37,200
Speaker 1: that other universes exist and they're causally disconnected from our own.

834
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:40,120
Speaker 1: So if you if you follow like the cosmological debates,

835
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:41,719
Speaker 1: you'll know that a lot of people don't like this

836
00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 1: idea either. And one reason is that if another universe

837
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:49,040
Speaker 1: is causally disconnected from us, there's no way you could

838
00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 1: design a test to see if it's really there. So

839
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:54,799
Speaker 1: what's the point in talking about whether it's there? Or not.

840
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,200
Speaker 1: By definition, there's no way to know, and I think

841
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:00,799
Speaker 1: that could be a very valid criticism. But in this book,

842
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:03,759
Speaker 1: teg Mark Uh makes an interesting case. He tries to

843
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:06,080
Speaker 1: make a case for why the multiverse is not a

844
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:09,960
Speaker 1: hypothesis to be tested on its own, but instead it's

845
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 1: a prediction or a consequence of theories for which we

846
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: do have experimental evidence. So you know, we have evidence

847
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:19,880
Speaker 1: that X theory is true. If X theory is true,

848
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:23,799
Speaker 1: you would expect there to be other universes. Um. So

849
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,439
Speaker 1: for that alone, I think this book is worth reading Uh,

850
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 1: and also be sure to check out some of the

851
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 1: criticisms of tech Mark's ideas online. I remember at the

852
00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:33,360
Speaker 1: time I read it, I came across a bunch of

853
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:36,759
Speaker 1: blog posts and reviews by other physicists who had a

854
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: lot of disagreements with him, and they made interesting points

855
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,279
Speaker 1: as well. And you know, as a non scientist, it's

856
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 1: exciting to read a science book that's not just a

857
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:49,360
Speaker 1: presentation of established facts, but that's part of an ongoing

858
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:51,920
Speaker 1: debate where you know, the ideas are not have not

859
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:56,120
Speaker 1: been settled yet. Okay, So Robert, I think you're gonna

860
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:58,399
Speaker 1: close this out right, and you're gonna close this out

861
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:02,600
Speaker 1: with something for every buddy. Yeah, certainly for the younger,

862
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:06,520
Speaker 1: I'll read about the science of black holes and cannibal

863
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:12,439
Speaker 1: uh destroyers. But well we got here. Well UM. As

864
00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, I am the father of

865
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:16,680
Speaker 1: a four year old, so a lot of my reading

866
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: these days involves reading books four or four year old

867
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:22,280
Speaker 1: and reading the same ones over and over and over again.

868
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:25,520
Speaker 1: I imagine many of our listeners I try and hide

869
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:27,840
Speaker 1: the ones they don't like to read UM or certainly

870
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 1: return them to the library. But I thought I mentioned

871
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 1: just three quick ones here that I that I find

872
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,760
Speaker 1: to be very good books that my my son really

873
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 1: engages with um and the and they're able to to

874
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:44,160
Speaker 1: cover science topics to varying degrees. The first one is

875
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 1: a book titled Octopus. This is by Evelyn Shaw with

876
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:51,520
Speaker 1: the illustrations by Ralph Carpentier, and this came out of

877
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:55,840
Speaker 1: one This is long out of print, but luckily with

878
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:59,440
Speaker 1: Amazon it's so easy these days to get out of

879
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:01,120
Speaker 1: print book, so you can pick up a copy of

880
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:05,560
Speaker 1: this hardback for like a dollar or two online, and

881
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,759
Speaker 1: I think it's really worth it. Basically, it's um. It

882
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 1: is the story of an octopus with some wonderful kind

883
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 1: of watercolor illustrations. But it's the story of an octopus

884
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,520
Speaker 1: from basically her early life to her death. And she

885
00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:22,080
Speaker 1: goes out, she finds a new home, she at some

886
00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:25,239
Speaker 1: point mates, so that kind of happens off camera. You're

887
00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: just told that that occurs. Um she finds food, then

888
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:31,040
Speaker 1: she lays her eggs, and then she dies at the end.

889
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:33,640
Speaker 1: So it's the the life cycle of an octopus. It's

890
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,160
Speaker 1: not it's not presented in any kind of a cute

891
00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:41,200
Speaker 1: see way. She's not like personified, right, She's kindling to

892
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:44,160
Speaker 1: tie into a previous discussion we've had on this show before.

893
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:47,799
Speaker 1: Does she cannibalize other octopuses? No, but she gets in

894
00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 1: a fight with an octopus. So yeah, I'm not saying

895
00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:53,759
Speaker 1: it's like a complete, no hold barred look at an

896
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:58,600
Speaker 1: octopus's life, but it is a refreshingly realistic, refreshing le

897
00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 1: naturalistic look at an animal. Uh. And so I enjoyed

898
00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:05,319
Speaker 1: reading it, and my my son is really into hearing it.

899
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:07,920
Speaker 1: And and it doesn't shy away from the fact that

900
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:09,440
Speaker 1: at the at the end of the book she dies,

901
00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:13,400
Speaker 1: that she she walls herself up in her little cave

902
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 1: and spins the last of her energy looking after eggs,

903
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,239
Speaker 1: which is, you know, kind of beautiful. Another one that

904
00:50:20,280 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 1: he's really into is one called all about Scabs, Bige

905
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:26,160
Speaker 1: and Eat. I would have loved that if I was

906
00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 1: a kid, Yeah, because it's all about nasty scabs. What

907
00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:32,720
Speaker 1: are they? What are they not getting into that body?

908
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:38,919
Speaker 1: Horror early Yeah, and this is this one is children's

909
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:40,239
Speaker 1: That is a little bit. I mean, there's talk of

910
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:44,360
Speaker 1: in the book of do you eat scabs? Is a scab?

911
00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:46,480
Speaker 1: Is it poop? Is that what it is is the

912
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 1: body pooping out the scab. If you eat scabs, do

913
00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: you get ancient power? Depends on who who depends? A

914
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:56,279
Speaker 1: boy turns into a pig. At one point, I'm going

915
00:50:56,320 --> 00:50:58,920
Speaker 1: to go on the record and say that my scabs

916
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:01,680
Speaker 1: when I was a kid did great. But I don't

917
00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:03,960
Speaker 1: know what was in them, but they gave you the

918
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,839
Speaker 1: strength of the wind to go. Another great thing about

919
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:09,640
Speaker 1: this one, and this is something that I think should

920
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:12,400
Speaker 1: resonate with any parents out there who read books, is

921
00:51:12,440 --> 00:51:15,719
Speaker 1: that it has a couple of different levels of depth

922
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:17,759
Speaker 1: you can get into. So there's some stuff later on

923
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:19,680
Speaker 1: in the book where you can really get more into

924
00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:22,160
Speaker 1: what skin is and how skin heels. That's cool and

925
00:51:22,200 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 1: you can sort of read to whatever is appropriate for

926
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:28,680
Speaker 1: your child's engagement. So it's a great one. I believe

927
00:51:28,719 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 1: this was. This one is in the same book series

928
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:34,520
Speaker 1: as the Everybody Poops book. Oh yeah, okay, I'm well

929
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:37,759
Speaker 1: familiar with that one. And finally I have one. This

930
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,440
Speaker 1: one makes seem like a strange choice, but it's the

931
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 1: Barrenstein Bears on the Moon by stand and Jan Berenstein.

932
00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:48,719
Speaker 1: From this one came out what in ve um. You

933
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:51,760
Speaker 1: probably wonder how space he could this be? How how

934
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:54,279
Speaker 1: informative could this be about our solar system? This is

935
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:57,440
Speaker 1: what led all those people to write the manifesto about

936
00:51:57,440 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: the Case against Space. Maybe it's a for me though.

937
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:03,800
Speaker 1: Basically in this story you have a couple of the

938
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:05,799
Speaker 1: barn steamed bears and they go to the Moon with

939
00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:09,280
Speaker 1: their dog on a rocket, and that's about all that happens.

940
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:12,200
Speaker 1: They go there and they come back. But I found

941
00:52:12,239 --> 00:52:15,640
Speaker 1: this to be pretty helpful and just explaining to my

942
00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 1: son what the moon is and where it is, because

943
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 1: you know, I want to share all this great stuff,

944
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:23,720
Speaker 1: all this wonderful information about the about the Solar system,

945
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:27,040
Speaker 1: in the universe and what what what's happening on other planets.

946
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:29,480
Speaker 1: But initially I had to get over that hurdle of

947
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 1: how do I explain to him what the moon is,

948
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:35,080
Speaker 1: That it's far away, that there's such an abstract constah,

949
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: that there's nobody on it. But yes, people have been

950
00:52:38,239 --> 00:52:41,040
Speaker 1: there in the past, but only a handful and only

951
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,760
Speaker 1: white men, two bears and their dogs, and two bears

952
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 1: and their dogs. So it basically just as a it

953
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:51,759
Speaker 1: works as a nice illustrative adventure to say, hey, this

954
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 1: is what the Moon is, and this is how it

955
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:56,919
Speaker 1: relates to the Earth. Yea, that's neat very surface level,

956
00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:58,719
Speaker 1: but you gotta start somewhere, and I found this to

957
00:52:58,760 --> 00:53:00,680
Speaker 1: be a good starting place. Now, is it the book

958
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:03,799
Speaker 1: that that movie Apollo eighteen with the Moon Spiders was

959
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:06,759
Speaker 1: based on. I didn't see that with it Moon Moon

960
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:09,920
Speaker 1: Spiders the Amne. I actually didn't see either, but I

961
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:12,880
Speaker 1: watched the trailer several times because I found it funny.

962
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 1: It's actually a prequel to Transformers three. Dark of the Moon.

963
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,799
Speaker 1: The Barrenstein Bears find the Transformers buried on the Moon.

964
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:24,200
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that's those are the three that I have.

965
00:53:24,600 --> 00:53:26,399
Speaker 1: I guess the best way to close it out here

966
00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:28,640
Speaker 1: is if there there are any books that you're looking

967
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:30,799
Speaker 1: forward to, or you know what's next on your plate

968
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,959
Speaker 1: that you're excited about. Well, I have a huge queue

969
00:53:34,080 --> 00:53:37,640
Speaker 1: in my kindle right now of weird horror literature that

970
00:53:37,719 --> 00:53:41,319
Speaker 1: I've picked up from reading that st JO sheet book.

971
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:45,800
Speaker 1: So Brian Evanson is sort of a newish like last

972
00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:49,239
Speaker 1: ten years horror writer that I'm really enjoying and reading

973
00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 1: a book by him called A Collapse of Horses. I'm

974
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 1: going through Ramsey Campbell's back catalog. Um, those are the

975
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:00,360
Speaker 1: big ones that I can remember right now. Oh, we

976
00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:02,799
Speaker 1: should I should throw this out there. A friend of

977
00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:06,279
Speaker 1: the show, Michael we Hunt, has a collection of his

978
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:09,680
Speaker 1: stories out that are really good and it is called

979
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:13,279
Speaker 1: Greener Pastures. Yes, I read this as well. Um, I

980
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 1: highly recommend anyone pick this up who's interested in contemporary

981
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:20,480
Speaker 1: horror fiction. Um. Yeah, there two stories in their in

982
00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 1: particular the title tale Green Pastures and then the first one.

983
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:28,279
Speaker 1: Oh nannon is that it. It's the one with the

984
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:33,439
Speaker 1: mountain and the women. Uh. Anyway, the first story, it's

985
00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:35,160
Speaker 1: one of those collections that kicks off on a really

986
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:38,280
Speaker 1: strong note, really knocks it out of the park. Yeah.

987
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:40,920
Speaker 1: So this is a young horror writer at the top

988
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:43,480
Speaker 1: of his game. Go check it out. Speaking of friends

989
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:46,160
Speaker 1: of the show, there's a comic that I'm excited about

990
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:49,799
Speaker 1: that had just started up called Cryptocracy, and that's why

991
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:52,279
Speaker 1: our friend Van Jensen, who lives here in Atlanta, and

992
00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:55,400
Speaker 1: it's illustrated by Pete Woods up from Dark Horse. It

993
00:54:55,680 --> 00:54:59,160
Speaker 1: is really cool at the first two issues. And uh,

994
00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:01,759
Speaker 1: I believe and at some point is going to be

995
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:05,200
Speaker 1: making an appearance with the conspiracy guys on their post.

996
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 1: I hope. So, because his book is all about it's

997
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:11,040
Speaker 1: basically the pitches what if every conspiracy theory was true? Yeah,

998
00:55:11,080 --> 00:55:14,400
Speaker 1: and it's also from the point of view of the

999
00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:17,479
Speaker 1: conspiracy perpetrator, it's not from the people who are trying

1000
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:21,279
Speaker 1: to solve the mystery. It's fun. I like it a lot. Yeah. Interesting. Okay,

1001
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:22,879
Speaker 1: how about you, Joe, what are you looking forward? Dude?

1002
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:26,799
Speaker 1: What's what's the next big review? I think it's probably well,

1003
00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:28,920
Speaker 1: actually I already started it, so I know it. I

1004
00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:31,239
Speaker 1: don't know why I was hedging like that. It's uh.

1005
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:34,719
Speaker 1: The first novel in a trilogy, a science fiction trilogy

1006
00:55:34,760 --> 00:55:38,120
Speaker 1: by the Chinese author lu check Chen called The Three

1007
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:40,440
Speaker 1: Body Problems but my list as well. I have not

1008
00:55:40,520 --> 00:55:42,600
Speaker 1: read it yet, but yeah, I I just started it

1009
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:45,560
Speaker 1: and so far it's very good, so I'm very excited

1010
00:55:45,600 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 1: to continue with it. Well, for my part, I am

1011
00:55:48,840 --> 00:55:53,120
Speaker 1: extremely excited that our Scott Baker is the Great Ordeal.

1012
00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 1: Book three of his Aspect Imperor trilogy is coming out

1013
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:58,600
Speaker 1: next month. Um. I've talked about this author in this

1014
00:55:58,680 --> 00:56:02,360
Speaker 1: series a lot the past. This is the dark fantasy

1015
00:56:02,440 --> 00:56:06,279
Speaker 1: series that has a tremendous amount of philosophy and even

1016
00:56:06,320 --> 00:56:09,719
Speaker 1: neuroscience in it. Um. I've heard nothing but good things

1017
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:12,080
Speaker 1: about this series. I'm looking forward to catching up on it.

1018
00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:14,440
Speaker 1: And this reminds me of a book that you let

1019
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:16,799
Speaker 1: me borrow that I should mention on the show as well.

1020
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:20,920
Speaker 1: Michael Shay, who we've talked about before because he my

1021
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:24,560
Speaker 1: all time favorite horror story so far is written by him,

1022
00:56:24,680 --> 00:56:27,360
Speaker 1: The Autopsy, And when you heard that, you let me

1023
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,840
Speaker 1: borrow a book of collection of his short fiction that

1024
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:33,600
Speaker 1: The Autopsy is within. But then you also just let

1025
00:56:33,640 --> 00:56:37,279
Speaker 1: me borrow the Nift series, and so I'm getting into

1026
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:41,400
Speaker 1: that as well. That niff Leen in in one episode

1027
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 1: we did recently, Yes, probably something with bugs because he's

1028
00:56:45,719 --> 00:56:48,440
Speaker 1: um or mine. Maybe it had to do with giant bodies,

1029
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,200
Speaker 1: that's right, yeah, giants, because yeah, because he's a very

1030
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:55,520
Speaker 1: biologically or he was sadly passed away a year or

1031
00:56:55,520 --> 00:56:59,480
Speaker 1: two ago, but he was a very biologically literate author,

1032
00:56:59,560 --> 00:57:01,719
Speaker 1: and there was it all. There was always a lot

1033
00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:05,520
Speaker 1: of biological and body horror and creature heart insect horror

1034
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:08,360
Speaker 1: in his work. Yeah, his work goes all over the place,

1035
00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:12,200
Speaker 1: and it's the autopsy is definitely that. It's like alien

1036
00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:15,680
Speaker 1: body horror. But the nip the lean stuff is like

1037
00:57:15,719 --> 00:57:18,840
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of like sword and sorcery style

1038
00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:22,120
Speaker 1: kind of fantasy worlds, maybe Game of Thrones style stuff,

1039
00:57:22,800 --> 00:57:25,280
Speaker 1: this is that. But then incorporating all of this just

1040
00:57:25,360 --> 00:57:30,960
Speaker 1: absolutely weird aberrant, uh life forms and body horror. Yeah, yeah,

1041
00:57:30,960 --> 00:57:32,880
Speaker 1: I believe he took a lot of inspiration early on

1042
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:36,480
Speaker 1: from Jack Vance dying our stories and then really took

1043
00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:40,880
Speaker 1: it into this. Uh this weird directional is alright. So

1044
00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:43,320
Speaker 1: there you have it. Uh, some of some examples of

1045
00:57:43,360 --> 00:57:45,560
Speaker 1: stuff that we have read, that we are reading, that

1046
00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:48,120
Speaker 1: we plan to read, and of course we would love

1047
00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:51,400
Speaker 1: to hear from everyone out there. What are we missing?

1048
00:57:51,440 --> 00:57:53,800
Speaker 1: What what do we need to check out at all costs?

1049
00:57:53,920 --> 00:57:55,720
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts and some of the titles we've

1050
00:57:55,720 --> 00:57:58,680
Speaker 1: mentioned here. Yeah, we've got twelve more months before we

1051
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:02,160
Speaker 1: do another summer reading, unless summer comes earlier next year.

1052
00:58:02,600 --> 00:58:05,400
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, and let us know the way

1053
00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:07,920
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us social media. We are

1054
00:58:07,960 --> 00:58:10,920
Speaker 1: on Facebook, we're on Twitter, we're on Tumbler, we're on Instagram.

1055
00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:13,000
Speaker 1: You can take pictures of your books, send them to

1056
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 1: us on Instagram, put them on Tumbler, however, or you

1057
00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:20,320
Speaker 1: could just write us a message. How do they do that? Well,

1058
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:22,720
Speaker 1: of course they can email us at blow the Mind

1059
00:58:22,760 --> 00:58:34,120
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Well more on this

1060
00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:36,840
Speaker 1: and pathans of other happens. Is it how stuff Works

1061
00:58:36,840 --> 00:59:00,000
Speaker 1: dot Com