Unseen Academicals: A Discworld and Terry Pratchett Podcast

The second episode examining Terry Pratchett's 1992's Discworld novel, Small Gods, examining the role of books and memory in fantasy fiction, comparisons to Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun sequence, contemplations of genre and what it means to be a "comedy", and seriously considering whether I even want to do the show anymore.

The first episode on Terry Pratchett's thirteenth (and best) Discworld novel Small Gods (1992), looking at religious and folkloric depictions of tortoises, the idea that gods need belief to survive as a trope of fantasy literature through influential works like those of Fritz Leiber and the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as the early Dungeons and Dragons handbooks, the use of explicitly religious language in fantasy, comparisons to Philip Pulman's His Dark Materials series and, finally, an examination of religious animal ethics.

The third and final episode tangentially related to Terry Pratchett's 1989 Discworld novel Pyramids, providing a crash course in Egyptian fantasy and science fiction—as in written by Egyptians, rather than simply about them. We go all the way back to the beginning, talking about traditional fantasy precursors and the origins of the modern Egyptian science fiction tradition, talking about its development throughout the later part of the twentieth century and providing some (overly) close analysis of Mustafā Mahmūd's The Spider (1965) and Nihād Sharīf's The Conqueror of Time (1972), before jumping forward to the allegedly more "authentic" post-2011 Egyptian Revolution era and the currently available English translations by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, Mohammad Rabie and Ahmed Naji, among others. Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com

Tangential mini(ish) episode, inspired by Pyramids (1989), examining mummy fiction and Western representations of Egypt from their nineteenth-century literary origins through twentieth-century film renditions and ultimate assimilation by stupid sexy vampires.

We push the pop-filter to the limit this week, ptalking about Pterry Pratchett's seventh, unaffiliated, Discworld novel, Pyramids (1989), discussing the novel's critical reception along with its portrayals of plumbing, progress, pupils, personal identity, pyramids and polders, among other pthings.

Josh counts down the best books he read for the first time in 2023.

Josh, Eden and Karlo from Heavy Blog is Heavy count down their favourite albums of 2023.

A somewhat off-the-cuff conclusion to our Good Omens coverage, loosely discussing canonicity, adaptation theory and adaptations themselves, including the 2014 BBC radio adaptation and 2019 adaptation of Good Omens, along with its recent second season continuation.

Apologies for the delay, I would have recorded a shorter podcast, but I didn't have time... The second episode about Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's 1990 novel Good Omens, wherein Josh spends a lot of time talking about academic definitions of things like the apocalypse, apocalyptic literature, post-apocalyptic literature, anti-apocalyptic literature, catastrophe, eucatastrophe, fantasy, science fiction, utopia, eutopia, dystopia, anti-utopia and what things like comedy and free will have to do with it all. Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Read my book/order it into your library: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-38347-2

Josh reads a section about Arthur C. Clarke from his book Vegetarianism and Science Fiction: A History of Utopian Animal Ethics, which is finally out as part of Palgrave Macmillan's Animals and Literature Series. Topics covered include: alternative/synthetic meats, space exploration, environmentalism, Buddhism, the Space Odyssey Series, evolutionary theories and the Hunting Hypothesis.

The first episode on Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's 1990 novel Good Omens, looking at its creation and reception, along with its portrayal of previously examined Pratchett staples, including Death, time and naming, as well the William Brown stories that inspired it and where it fits in among literary and cultural depictions of the antichrist.

"Vegetarian Vampire" expert Sophie Dungan joins Josh to talk about the first season of AMC's Interview with the Vampire television series from 2022. Sophie's book: ⁠Reading the Vegetarian Vampire (2022)⁠

"Vegetarian Vampire" expert Sophie Dungan joins Josh to talk about the development of human-blood-abstinent vampires in literature and other media from the year 2000 to the present day. Sophie's book: ⁠Reading the Vegetarian Vampire (2022)⁠

"Vegetarian Vampire" expert Sophie Dungan joins Josh to talk about the development of human-blood-abstinent vampires in the Discworld series. Sophie's book: ⁠Reading the Vegetarian Vampire (2022)⁠

"Vegetarian Vampire" expert Sophie Dungan joins Josh to talk about the development of human-blood-abstinent vampires in literature and other media from the early-1900s to the early-1990s. Sophie's book: Reading the Vegetarian Vampire (2022)

TL;DL: I'm officially shutting down the Patron page at the end of the month. All bonus content and future episodes will be moved over/put out on the public feed, beginning with the bonus vegetarian vampires episodes and then moving onto Good Omens in about a month or so, or whenever it's ready.

The long-awaited final episode on Thief of Time (2001), discussing Aristotle's conception(s) of humanity, religious and scientific conceptions of time, identity theory, the history of time-keeping, notions of historical and technological progress, their implications for science fiction and utopian literature, human sense-making, the "End of History", 9/11, The Book of Revelation, Susan’s character development and existential despair.

An impromptu, stop-gap episode discussing some literary connection to Thief of Time, including works by Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, C. S. Lewis, Michael Moorcock and Ursula K. Le Guin. Contat: unseenacademcialspod@gmail.com

The first of two episodes on Thief of Time (2001), exploring Susan's character development and statistical showings, as well as the role of naming in determining the characters of Lady LeJean, Lu-Tze, Ronnie Soak and Jeremy Clockson and Lobsang Ludd, and far too much about Pratchett's awards history.* *No bonus points for pointing out which sections were recorded in a COVID haze or the one I recorded without my microphone actually being plugged in. I am well aware!

Josh gives his thoughts on the new animated film adaptation of The Amazing Maurice (2022/23).