Unseen Academicals: A Discworld and Pratchett Podcast

Live from Josh's bathtub, it's a countdown of the worst books he read for the first time in 2022! Access the (much better sounding) Best Books episode at: patreon.com/unseenacademicals Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com

Josh is back to talk some more about Hogfather (1996) and its connections to Christmas traditions, covering the history of the Tooth Fairy and Hogswatch, the relationship between Father Christmas and Father Time, and the relationship between Christmas and the modern fantasy tradition, paying particular attention to works by Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, as well as films like The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

Dr Nadav Prawer joins Josh for the first part on 1996's Hogfather, examining Susan's character development, her contrasts to Teatime, the nature of justice, the power of belief, falling angels, rising apes, Kierkegaardian existentialism, lies to children and the possible psychological (and legal!) ramifications of believing in the tooth fairy.* *All jingling bell sounds in the background are indicative of cats, not the encroachment of any Verruca Gnomes. I hope...  Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Support: patreon.com/unseenacademicals

Unlock the full episode early by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/unseenacademicals.

Part three of our exploration of Soul Music (1994), examining Susan's side of the story and her engagement with heroic palimpsests, heroes' journeys, the "Sensible Susan" archetype, orphans, inheritance, education, Romanticism, quantum literature and more!

Josh shares some initial thoughts about Rob Wilkins' official biography, Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes (2022).

Heavy Blog is Heavy Editor in Chief, E den Kupermitz joins Josh to talk about 1994's Soul Music, focusing on the book's engagement with the literary tradition of "magical music" and how it is foundational to the fantasy genre (and perhaps even the universe itself!) through its depiction in the myths of Orpheus, Genesis, H. P. Lovecraft, J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, among others, as well as music's unmediated connection with spirituality and memory.* Follow Eden and Josh's music writing at heavyblogisheavy.com  Eden's other literature podcasts: Death // Sentence Anarchy SF  *May also contain copious amounts of Whitesnake.

Unlock the full episode early at pateron.com/unseenacademicalspod 

May 2022 – Review Are We Headliners: Ibaraki, Kendrick Lamar, Cave In. Special Guests: Evergrey, SepticFlesh, Moon Tooth, Tómarúm, Malevolence. Supports: Def Leppard, Puppy, Katharos, Entgeist, Unprocessed, Hollow Front, Morgue Supplier. Uncool People: Mark Tremonti and Udo Dirkschneider sing Sinatra. Cool People: Blut Aus Nord, Ufomammut, Arcade Fire. Subscribe to Podcast: https://feeds.sounder.fm/20336/rss.xml  Further reading: heavyblogisheavy.com

Part two on Reaper Man (1991), exploring prologues, disability studies, "vegetarian" vampires, bereavement, Alzheimer's, euthanasia/assisted dying and more! Listener Liz's essay that inspired this episode: https://somelizthoughtsondiscworld.blogspot.com/2022/06/reaper-man-death-or-death.html

The first of two episodes on 1991's Reaper Man, exploring further representations of Death, dances Macabre and Morris, existentialism, pastoral romanticism and animal ethics.

We kick off our examination of the Death series with 1987's Mort, exploring evolving representations of Death, fantastical and comedic bildungsromen, Dickensian parody and subverted heroes' journeys.

Another episode of our bonus pre-show Wotcher' Been Reading? wherein we discuss: The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk The Mortal Instruments seriesby Cassandra Clare The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman and then an extended bonus section about all the crazy shit that happens in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

A quick update about the podcast schedule.

Our long-awaited second episode on Carpe Jugulum, covering the literary development of the vampire from the early-nineteenth century through to the publication of Carpe Jugulum almost two hundred years later in 1998 and beyond! We discuss Lord Byron (a lot) and his influence on the early vampire characterisation and his influence on other nineteenth-century vampire texts, including the unjustly overlooked Varney the Vampire as well as the more influential Carmilla and Dracula. (After moving house and catching COVID,) we then turn to the twentieth-century, discussing early cinematic iterations on Dracula and the shift toward sympathetic and overly Byronic representations via TV series like Dark Shadows and books like Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, ending up in the 1990s and the wild experimentation that was going on around Pratchett when he wrote his final Witches book.

Preview episdoe for our Patreon bonus show Wotcher' Been Reading? where Alice and I discuss the non-Discworld things we've been reading recently. Support Unseen Acemicals at patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod to get access to this show and our other bonus content.

Send your questions and comments to unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com  I know the book's called Hogfather not Hogswatch!

Episode 7A of Unseen Academicals, discussing Carpe Jugulum and exploring Pratchett's subversion of the triple goddess, magpie rhymes, Gothic landscapes, modernisation, notions of progress, "quilted" signifiers and more! We were going to do a deep dive in to the history of the vampire a a literary type in this episode as well, but we haven't had time to record it yet and I think there's enough in this first part for i to be its own episode, so all the vampire stuff will come in parts 2 and 3!

Did you know Alice does another podcast called Of the Devil's Party, where they and their friend Rowan do a deep dive into dark hero archetypes?  It's really good. You should listen to it! ...It also might help explain what all this "Byronic" stuff we keep talking about is. On this bonus/preview episode Alice and Rowan begin their discussion of Gothic villains by examining Byron's 1817 closet drama Manfred and its debt to the Gothic tradition. The pair discuss Byron's life, work,  and experimentation with dark hero archetypes, and whether there is  actually such as thing as a Byronic Hero. They consider the way Byron  experiments with Dark Heroism by combining existing heroic archetypes  and traditions such as The Wandering Jew, the Child of Nature, The Hero  of Sensibility, Prometheus, Satan, the Gothic Villain and Faustus. Subscribe to Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support Unseen Academicals on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com A Doctor Prometheus podcast.

We discuss Maskerade, exploring the origins triple goddess, the many guises of The Phantom of the Opera,distinctions between high and low culture, the gentrification of opera, masks, physical appearances, the archetype of the Gothic Villain and its theatrical transformation into a Romantic Hero of Sensibility and more! Episode Transcripts and Bibliographies: https://monash.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com A Doctor Prometheus podcast.

Preview for our first ever bonus episode of Unseen Academicals, covering issue 19 of Neil Gaiman's comic series The Sandman: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1991). We compare Gaiman's treatment of Shakespeare's titular play to that of Pratchett's Lords and Ladies (1992), while examining the history of Shakespeare in comics and fairy illustration, the Faerie connections to the underworld, Faustian bargains, the history of Puck and his "reverse Pandora," Tolkien's opinions on fantasy and drama, as well as the origins of drag and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and more! Unock the full episode at: https://www.patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod  Episode Transcripts and Bibliographies: https://monash.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts   Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com   Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ A Doctor Prometheus podcast. 

Our second part on Lords and Ladies, exploring evolving literary and cultural representations of elves and fairies through the works of William Shakespeare, J. R. R. Tolkien, T. H. White, Lord Dunsany, Rudyard Kipling and more! Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts   Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com  Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/  Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod  

The first of two episodes on Lords and Ladies (1992), covering quantum continuities, simulacra warrior queens, performative dressing, glamour, the ethics of borrowing, vegetarianism, pagan landmarks, horny gods and more! Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod

We wrap up our extended coverage of Witches Abroad with an examination of mirrors in feminist literature and fairytale revisions, Lilith's origins, Granny's cultural chauvinism, Mrs Gogol, Carnival and the power of parody in combating postmodern pastiche. Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod

The Oggisms continue as we explore the cultural impact and implications of fairy tales featured in the Genua section of Witches Abroad, including Cinderella, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Rumpelstiltskin and Disney itself. We also figure out what simulacras are all about and whether Nala stands a chance in a Disney Princess Deathbattle. Apologies for the clicking sound that shows up intermittently on Alice's mic. Other than that though, the sound is perfect! Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts (The transcript for the Witches Abroad episodes will be uploded with Part 3.) Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod

Episode 4A of Unseen Academicals, discussing the third book in the Witches Series, Witches Abroad (1991), and using it to explore the characterisation of Magrat and her tension with Granny Weatherwax, crises of identity, homoerotic familiars, fairy godmothers, how fairytales shape culture, way too much about Sleeping Beuaty and The Wizard of Oz, a bit of Shrek, and, uh... dildos. Lot's of dildos. Nanny Ogg would be proud (we hope!).The sound on this one is actually pretty good! There's an intermittent thumping sound that shows up now and then, I've done my best to minimise it and I've found speeding up the podcast to 1.2x or 1.5x speed smooths it out a lot. Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod

Episode 3 of Unseen Academicals, examining the second book in the Witches Series, Wyrd Sisters (1988), and using it to explore theories of humour, the power of words, Shakespeare, the history of Macbeth, evolving depictions of witches, broomsticks, Black Aliss, vegetarian ghosts, and more!The sound on this on is pretty rough. As Alice and I have alluded to on the previous episodes, recording this one was a bit of an ordeal and I essentially had to stitch it together, Igor style, from three seperate back-up recoridngs that all got weirdly compressed. We're pretty down on this one too, so heads up about that.Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod

Episode 2 of Unseen Academicals, discussing the first book in the Witches Series, Equal Rites (1986), and using it to explore definitions and history of magic, magical gender roles, education, the power of words, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series, female wizards, male witches, seventh sons of seventh sons, H. P. Lovecraft, parallel worlds and more! Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod

Episode 1 of Unseen Academicals, discussing our titular Discworld novel, Unseen Academicals (2009), and using it to discuss Terry Pratchett's critical and academic reception, football/soccer, Academics, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Eddie McGuire, fashion, gender expression, RuPaul's Drag Race, the racial implications of orcs and their origins in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons, creation, corruption and definitely not psychoanalysis! Referenced transcripts: independentresearcher.academia.edu/JoshuaBulleid/Podcasts Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Alice's other podcast, Of the Devil's Party: https://ofthedevilsparty.sounder.fm/ Support: patreon.com/doctorprometheuspod