Episode 92: Glitch in the Matrix: A Conversation with Rodney Ascher
With his latest film, a meditation on what it means to believe we live in a computer simulation, Rodney Ascher has once again placed himself among the most innovative and visionary filmmakers working ...
17 Feb 20211h 27min
Episode 91: On Susanna Clarke's 'Piranesi'
In this episode, Phil and JF explore the vast palatial halls of Susanna Clarke's novel Piranesi. Set in an otherworld consisting of endless galleries filled with enigmatic statues, Piranesi is the sto...
3 Feb 20211h 24min
Episode 90: 'The Owl in Daylight': On Philip K. Dick's Unwritten Masterpiece
Weird Studies has so far devoted just one show to Philip K. Dick, and that was way back in April 2018, with episode 10, "Adrift in the Multiverse." Last fall, as another foray into Dickland began to f...
20 Jan 20211h 10min
Episode 89: On Ishmael Reed's 'Mumbo Jumbo,' or, Why We Need More Magical Thinking
Ishmael Reed's 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo is a conspiracy thriller, a postmodern experiment, a revolutionary tract, a celebration, and a magical working. It is a novel that, over and above prophetically d...
6 Jan 20211h 20min
Holiday Bonus: Magic, Madness, and Sadness
Weird Studies will launch its fourth season on January 6th, 2021. But to celebtrate the end of very strange year, we thought we'd release a conversation which until now was available only to our top-t...
21 Dec 202050min
Episode 88: On Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean's 'Mr Punch'
Before Coraline, before American Gods, in the early days of the Sandman series, Neil Gaiman collaborated with Dave McKean on some truly groundbreaking graphic novels: Violent Cases (1987), Signal to N...
9 Dec 20201h 20min
Episode 87: Glyphs, Rifts, and Ecstasy: On Arthur Machen's Vision of Art
It would be wrong to describe Arthur Machen's Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy in Literature (1902) as a work of nonfiction, since the book features a narrative frame that is as moody and irreal as ...
25 Nov 20201h 7min
Episode 86: On E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman," and Freud's Sequel to It
The German polymath E. T. A. Hoffmann is one of the founding figures of what we now call weird literature. In this episode, JF and Phil discuss one of his most memorable tales, "Der Sandmann." Origin...
11 Nov 20201h 24min
