Thursday, December 20, 2012

Good Story 049: The Hobbit



Julie and Scott lose track of time as they close out the second year of Good Story with The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Julie finds remarkable meaning in it, while Scott forgets the name of every actor he's ever seen. In glorious 48fps 3D! Good Story, Episode 49.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #049|

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Good Story 048: The Paper



It's never going to be that one big moment; it's going to be a bunch of small ones. Julie and Scott experience the mayhem of a day at a tabloid newspaper in New York City, and learn a lot on the way. The Paper, directed by Ron Howard, starring Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Robert Duvall, and Glenn Close.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #048|

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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Good Story 047: Bleak House



Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog at Julie's house, fog at Scott's place. Fog. The fog doesn't stop Julie and Scott from discussing Bleak House by Charles Dickens. The risk of overwhelming deportment doesn't stop them either. Episode 47.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #047|

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Good Story 046: Heroines, Past and Present

Merida - Brave


Episode 46. A subject much too big for just two people. Joining Julie and Scott for the first "topic" episode of Good Story are Rose Davis, Joseph Susanka, and Heather Ordover. The topic? Heroines, Past and Present - heroines in YA fiction and films.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #046|

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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Good Story 045: The Sixth Sense

This is Episode 45, during which Julie and Scott see dead people. They both enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #045|

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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Good Story 044: H.P. Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft


During today's podcast, Julie takes a few moments to explore a hole Scott found next to an ancient stone marker in a graveyard. Despite all that microphone cable, Scott lost contact with her near the end of the podcast... but he's sure she's fine. Episode 44 is about H.P. Lovecraft. Happy October!

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Good Story 043: Mary and Max

Somewhere during this podcast, Julie decided she didn't need her imaginary friend Mr. Ravioli any more. Now he just sits in the corner and reads. Scott experiences confuzzlement. Episode 43: Mary and Max, directed by Adam Elliot.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #043|

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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Good Story 042: The Uncommon Reader

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett


In Episode #42, Julie and Scott discover reading. Turns out it's kind of meaningful and fun. Who knew? The Queen didn't, but does now according to The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. At the end of the podcast, Julie talks a bit about the 2012 Catholic New Media Conference!

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #042|

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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Good Story 041: O Brother Where Art Thou?

Julie and Scott learn much from Ulysses Everett McGill in the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?. You can't display a toad in some fine restaurants. What it means to be "bona-fide". And what the devil looks like when you meat him at the crossroads. And what does this movie have to do with The Odyssey?

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #041|

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Good Story 040: The Stand


Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury


Episode #40 - It's the end of the world again, this time due to a plague. Julie and Scott discuss The Stand by Stephen King. Bumpity bump!

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #040|

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More stuff:
  • The C.S. Lewis quote from On Stories:
    Another very large class of stories turns on fulfilled prophecies--the story of Oedipus, or The Man Who Would Be King, or The Hobbit. In most of them the ver steps taken to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy actually bring it about. It is foretold that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. In order to prevent this from happening he is exposed on mountain: and that exposure, by leading to his rescue and thus to his life among strangers in ignorance of his real parentage, renders possible both the disasters. Such stories produce (at least in me) a feeling of awe, coupled with a certain sort of bewilderment such as one often feels in looking at a complex pattern of lines that pass over and under one another. One sees, yet does not quite see, the regularity. And is there not good occasion for both awe and bewilderment? We have just had set before our imagination something that has always baffled the intellect: we have seen how destiny and free will can be combined, even how free will is the modus operandi of destiny. The story does what no theorem can quite do. It may not be "like real life" in the superficial sense: but it sets before us an image of what reality may well be like at some more central region.
  • Brandywine Books
  • Inspiration for The Stand

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Good Story 038: Fahrenheit 451


Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury


Episode #38 - It was a pleasure for Julie and Scott not to burn any books during the recording of this podcast. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #038|

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Good Story 037: The Incredibles




Julie and Scott discuss The Incredibles, the sixth movie from Pixar. Sparks fly when Julie explains to Scott that napping in front of the TV is NOT a superpower. Scott thinks it should count.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #037|

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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Good Story 036: The Killer Angels

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara


Episode #36 - Julie and Scott discuss The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Scott learns that Texas is it's own direction, and Julie changes her opinion about Robert E. Lee. Neither is certain where in the timeline to find Lincoln's vampire slaying.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #036|

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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Good Story 035: Rear Window



Episode 35 finds Julie, Scott, and Jimmy Stewart watching all of you through binoculars and telephoto lenses. Hitchcock's Rear Window is the subject... isolation, marriage, and murder are the themes.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #035|

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Good Story 034: Coraline




Coraline by Neil Gaiman


Episode #34 - Julie and Scott recorded this podcast... someday, maybe, Coraline and a nameless cat will come save them both. In the meantime, they discuss Neil Gaiman's short novel.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #034|

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More stuff:
  • Neil Gaiman has a Mouse Circus of his own...
  • The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer in 1917 and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. From Wikipedia.
  • Circling back to Joss Whedon: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Good Story 033: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan








In Episode 33, Julie and Scott welcome guest Heather Ordover of CraftLit and Just the Books. They talk about Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban's chest, and the movie they were in: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan!

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #033|

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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Good Story 032: A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor


Episode #32 - Julie and Scott finally talk Flannery O'Connor. Misfits, baptisms, and wooden legs. Oh my! We discuss Flannery O'Connor in general and three stories in particular: A Good Man is Hard to Find, The River, and Good Country People.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #032|

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Thursday, April 5, 2012

Good Story 031: To Be or Not to Be (1942)



Episode 31 (even though Scott calls it 41 - ignore him) has Julie and Scott talking about the 1942 film To Be or Not to Be. Turns out that's not the only question, because they end up talking politics.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #031|

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More stuff:
  • The movie, in its entirety, on Hulu.com
  • The SFFaudio post mentioned in the podcast
  • Here's a bit of the president's warning to the Supreme Court (which is what everyone's calling it now ... a warning):
    “We are confident this will be upheld, because it should be upheld,” Obama said in a joint press conference in the Rose Garden with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

    The U.S. president said it would be an “unprecedented, extraordinary step” for a majority of the nine justices to overturn a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically–elected Congress.

    Rejecting the law would be an example of “judicial activism,” which conservatives like to complain about, he noted, where “an un-elected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.”

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Good Story 030: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte


Episode #30 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Julie thought Jane was right in asking Rochester about whether or not he loves another, while Scott thinks Jane needed to be a little more concerned about the dark goings-on.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #030|

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More stuff:
Rose's email on YA Lit and Heroines (included by request)
6 Traits of a YA Dystopian/Fantasy Female Protagonist
  • She is independent to the point that she spends little time with her family (whom she loves) and relies little on family or her one or friends for help. She and her one or two good friends very themselves as outsiders and while that may be true for her friends, she is most likely held in high regard by others, simply inapproachable. 
  • She had a lack of self-awareness of her good qualities, including but not limited to physical attractiveness, intelligence, leadership, etc, which she generally possesses in abundance. Because of this, she is prone to self-doubt.
  • She has little to no interest in romance unless with a childhood friend whom she views as inaccessible. Because of this she is uninterested in her own beauty, never wearing makeup or a dress unless forced.
  • She is averse to a leadership position, but excels when it is thrust upon her, generally because of a special ability she discovers she has.
  • She is proficient (or aspiring to be) at a physical skill such as hunting, combat, survival, etc.
  • She is surprisingly unobservant or uncritical of society until shown its flaws by someone else, typically her love interest. However, she is perceived as being highly intelligent because of her tendency to speak her mind, something she attributes to how bad she is at lying.
These traits are obviously meant to define her as a Woman of Action, a strong, independent female protagonist who is worthy of admiration. However, the one trait relied on to make her strong is her physical skill and possibly leadership. An absence of these traits leads to a character who, like Bella in the Twilight series, is criticized as being weak and passive. While this simplistic view of strength is likely to appeal to the girls it is written for, these types of novels have a much wider audience and reflects the general rejection of the Domestic Goddess image that dominated literature for centuries.

The Domestic Goddess is stereotypically a weak, passive woman who waits for a man to save her and while there are numerous examples of this, there are many noticeable exceptions. Penelope, the archetypal Domestic Goddess from The Odyssey, demonstrates amazing strength of will in her determination to avoid a second marriage and wait for her husband to return, putting herself in danger not just from one, but a whole gaggle of men, every night as she unravels her dress, a traditionally female craft. This internal, feminine strength extends to female protagonists throughout literature including Jane Eyre, Fanny Price from Mansfield Park, Dorothea from Middlemarch, and Hester Pryne from The Scarlett Letter. They display a strength, both emotional and mental, that surpasses the Dystopian Protagonist’s physical strength becomes it comes with more conviction and purpose. These women do not need the false modesty of the Dystopian Protagonist because they have a true self-knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses that gives them the strength and maturity to affect their society in a constructive way and serve as an example to others.

So has the modern woman really lost her true strength to this pale imitation of masculine heroics? Are there any truly original, realistic women in YA Dystopian/Fantasy novels today or has the future really lost the wisdom of the past?

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Good Story 029: In Bruges





Julie and Scott are forced to spend the entire movie in #$%^ing Bruges. Not all is lost, though, because they're filming midgets! In Bruges, written and directed by Martin McDonagh.

PS: It's in Belgium.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #029|

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Friday, February 24, 2012

Good Story 028: The Lifecycle of Software Objects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling


Episode #28, in which Scott finally admits to Julie that he's a digient. Julie knew it all along. The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang!

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #028|

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Good Story 027: Lars and the Real Girl



Julie bought a life-size Johnny Depp doll, and Scott got a little uncomfortable. Luckily, they had a movie called Lars and the Real Girl to talk about.

Dr. Dagmar: Have there been any changes in the family in the last year or so?

Gus: [
while Karin simultaneously nods "Yes"] No, everything is pretty much exactly the same except Karin is pregnant and Lars is nuts.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #027|

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Good Story 026: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling


Episode #26 is the first of the year, and Julie and Scott talk about J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. Julie marvels at the end of the series, and Scott can't believe he didn't mention Luna Lovegood.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #026|

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