100: The Invisibles by Grant Morrison

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100: The Invisibles by Grant Morrison
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The Invisibles (volume 1) by Grant Morrison

Intro 00:06 // Synopsis of volume 1 01:48 // Remarks 20:13 (Mage: the Ascension and Department V) // Media 32:21 (The Matrix, Over the Edge, Nephilim, Sorcerer, Unknown Armies, Continuum, The Mega City Book Club Podcast)

Patreon

Support this podcast on The Fictoplasm Patreon!

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // instagram // youtube

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear, “Cylinder 5”, “Cylinder 4” and “Cylinder 7” from Cylinders, “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

90: Invisible City

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90: Invisible City
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This episode Ralph is joined by Tom McGrenery to discuss the Brazillian urban fantasy Netflix series Invisible City

Timestamps

Synopsis 02:51 // Themes I: Brazilian Myth 18:29 // Themes II: Urban Fantasy 29:24 // Media 58:30 (Changeling the Dreaming, Nephilim, Highlander, Elephant and Macaw Banner, Hilda) // Tom’s other stuff 71:50 (Revolution comes to the Kingdom, Mean by Scene, Fear of a Black Dragon)

Links

You can find The Elephant and Macaw Banner (as well as Tom’s other games such as Malandros, and other translations of games like UED: You Are The Resistance) at Porcupine Publishing

Tom’s Patreon where you can find Revolution Comes To The Kingdom (which he also talks about on the FoaBD podcast)

The Mean by Scene podcast

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

87: Desolation Jones feat. Radio Free Albemuth

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87: Desolation Jones feat. Radio Free Albemuth
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Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis, illustrated by J.H. Williams III (1-6), Danijel Zezelj (7-8)
Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K. Dick

Show Notes

Introduction 00:07 // Synopsis 01:40 // Desolation Jones 01:42 // Radio Free Albemuth 08:31 // Themes and RPGs 15:00 // Other Media 28:16 // Screen 28:26 // RPGs and other games 30:32

Links

Screen

The Naked Lunch (film)
The Prisoner

Games

GURPS Prisoner
Lacuna
Voidheart Symphony
Conspiracy X 2.0
Hollowpoint
Spione
Itras By
Over the Edge
WaRP

Killer 7

Previous podcast episodes

54: The Tremor of Forgery
(fantasy cities trilogy)
69: Viriconium
70: Rats and Gargoyles
71: Ombria in Shadow

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

74: Days by James Lovegrove

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74: Days by James Lovegrove
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Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 02:50 // Commentary 15:20 // The Outside (what kind of a world has gigastores?) 15:28 // Manufactured cultures (zaibatsus and phyles) 16:26 // Grant Morrison (intelligent cities and corporations as planetary contagion) 16:48 // City as organism 17:20 // (autocracy) 18:36 // (microcosm) 19:01 // (visitors) 19:41 // (spaces) 24:26 // (scenes) 29:16 // (pacing) 32:43 // (rise and fall) 33:52 // Extra 34:42 // High Rise by J G Ballard 34:51 // The Hope by James Lovegrove 39:14

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

Episode 71: Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip (fantasy cities pt. 3)

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Episode 71: Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip (fantasy cities pt. 3)
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Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip

Show Notes

Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 02:21 // Commentary 12:39 // Modelling the shadow city 13:00 // Crossing between worlds 14:55 // Mapping 22:53 // Further Reading 30:50

Links

Corpathium (lastgaspgrimoire.com)

Other fiction mentioned in the episode

Neverwhere and Sandman: World’s End by Neil Gaiman The City and The City by China Mieville Wanted by Mark Millar The Invisibles (and Marvel Boy) by Grant Morrison The films Night Watch and Day Watch

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Cylinder Nine” from Cylinders // “Take off and shoot a Zero” from Stunt Island // “I don’t know where I’d be without it” and “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

Episdode 70: Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle (cities pt. 2)

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Episdode 70: Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle (cities pt. 2)
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Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle

Rats and Gargoyles by Mary Gentle

Show Notes

Intro 00:07 // Synopsis 05:30 // Commentary 36:05 // Bleed 36:05 // Magic 39:09 // Magicians, Runequest and Mage: The Ascension 41:01 // Dialect 47:14 // Resources 53:45 (Yates, Agrippa, Authentic Thaumaturgy)

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is that you or are you you?” from Reappear // “Cylinder Nine” from Cylinders // “Take off and shoot a Zero” from Stunt Island // “Another version of you” from Thoughtless

Episode 58: Imajica part 3

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Episode 58: Imajica part 3
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Imajica by Clive Barker

(chapters 43-62, approx 450 of 1100 pages)

Show Notes

Synopsis 00:40 // Themes 12:05 // Wonderlands of Flesh and Blood by Christian Daumann 12:15 // Metaphors for the body 13:41 // The Patriarchal God 14:44 // Gender: female 15:22 // Gender: male 18:41 // Pie’oh’Pah 20:34 // Carnivale and the grotesque 21:53 // Corporeal transformation and extension 27:53 // Cities 28:05 (City Accelerated) // Games 30:56 // Mechanising gender 32:35 // LARP is awful 33:36 // Sagas of the Icelanders 36:01 // Representing the spirit 40:42 // Nephilim 41:50 // Imajica card game 46:28

System Mastery 87: Nephilim

Wonderlands in Flesh and Blood by Christian Daumann

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear // “Another Version Of You” from Thoughtless

Episode 57: Imajica part 2

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Episode 57: Imajica part 2
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Imajica by Clive Barker

(chapters 18-42, approx 500 of 1100 pages)

Show Notes

Synopsis 00:35 // Themes 13:25 // What is Portal Fantasy? 13:52 // The sub-genre (self-contained, relative to our world, superstructures, identity, travellers, geography) 17:25// Dopplegangers 26:00 // Games (Portal Rats, Day Trippers, Lords of Gossamer and Shadow, Everway, Grand Tableau) 32:33

Links

Bibliography

Blog posts

Other Games

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear // “Another Version Of You” from Thoughtless

Episode 56: Imajica by Clive Barker pt1

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Episode 56: Imajica by Clive Barker pt1
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This is the first in a series of 3 episodes discussing Imajica by Clive Barker, covering chapters 1-17.

Show Notes

Synopsis 04:45 // Themes 16:39 in which I rant about 1e vs 2e Vampire the Masquerade, plus some waffle about the Urban Fantasy genre // Games Keeping Urban Fantasy “fresh” 21:15 // Department V (embarassing nostalgia; Blavatsky, Atlantean Colonies; Arktos) 31:36 // Options for interesting modern fantasy (Conspiracy X 2.0; Silent Legions; why PbtA sucks for mystery games)

Music Credits

Music is by Chris Zabriskie: chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Samples: “Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear // “Another Version Of You” from Thoughtless

Episode 301: Werewolves

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Episode 301: Werewolves
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We open our third season on Halloween with a look at werewolves.

Show Notes

Our analysis of the werewolf in book, film and television, plus roleplaying games.

Becky Annison, Elizabeth Lovegrove, Ralph Lovegrove

  • Introduction and scope 00:15
  • Books section (Becky) starts at 01:35
    • Kelly Armstrong (Women of the Otherworld)
    • Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson)
    • Gail Carriger
    • Tanya Huff
    • Angela Carter (The Bloody Chamber)
    • Darker than you think by Jack Williamson
    • Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevey
    • Anita Blake novels by Laurel K. Hamilton
  • Film section (Ralph) at 11:10
    • Physical effects in The Howling, American Werewolf in London, Teen Wolf, A Company of Wolves, Fright Night
    • CGI in Twilight, Underworld
    • Sean Pertwee in Dog Soldiers
  • Television section (Liz) at 19:40
    • Teen Wolf
    • Bitten
    • Buffy
    • Grimm
    • True Blood
    • Hemlock Grove
  • Themes 32:15
    • Metaphors for sex
    • Social dominance
    • Exiles on the fringes
    • Mythic roles
    • The Village
  • RPGs 40:35
    • Werewolf: The Apocalypse
    • The Werewolf party game
    • The Romance Trilogy by Emily Care Boss
    • You must break up with your werewolf boyfriend by Caitlin Belle
    • Fantasy treatments in D&D and RuneQuest
    • Chill (Mayfair Games)
    • Interviewing Becky about Bite Me! starts 50:25
    • Liz’s RPG idea (police procedural)
    • Ralph’s RPG idea (terrorize them)
  • Last words 69:30
    • Werewolf myth in the ascendant
    • Clive Barker’s Cabal

Pride and Prejudice with Derek and Stiles

Music Credits

“Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear by Chris Zabriskie

“But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton” from Direct To Video by Chris Zabriskie

chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Xmas Episode 02: Our Picks

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Xmas Episode 02: Our Picks
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We pitch 7 books for future consideration.

Show Notes

Mo Holkar, Josh Fox, Elizabeth Lovegrove, Ralph Lovegrove

The books:

  • Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
  • No Good Men Among The Living by Anand Gopal
  • Factoring Humanity by Robert Sawyer
  • The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
  • The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker

Mo’s bit (Vonnegut) 00:40 // Josh’s bit (Gopal, Sawyer) 08:10 // Liz’ bit (Chambers, Austen) 17:50 // Ralph’s bit (Stapledon, Barker) 25:30

Other Stuff

The Chaucer Twitter Feed

M. John Harrison’s essay on the Great Clomping Foot of Nerdism from Warren Ellis’ blog (original can be found via Wayback Machine)

Music credits

“I can’t imagine where I’d be without it” and “Another version of you” both from Thoughtless by Chris Zabriskie

chriszabriskie.com // bandcamp // free music archive

Episode 08: Women of the Otherworld by Kelly Armstrong

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Episode 08: Women of the Otherworld by Kelly Armstrong
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This episode Liz and Becky discuss Kelly Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld and talk about pack mentality

Show Notes

The Women of the Otherworld (series) by Kelly Armstrong

Elizabeth Lovegrove and Becky Annison with Ralph Lovegrove

Synopsis starts at 00:40, RPGs at 16:05

Games

Bite Me! by Becky Annison is a Powered by the Apocalypse Game debuting at the Revelation convention in Sheffield on 25th and 26th February 2017

Other games Ralph mentioned in a desperate attempt to be relevant to the conversation: Werewolf (White Wolf publishing) // Buffy and Angel (now OOP, Eden Studios) // Ghosts of Albion (Eden Studios)

Music credits

“Is That You Or Are You You?” from Reappear by Chris Zabriskie

“But Enough About Me, Bill Paxton” from Direct To Video by Chris Zabriskie

(chriszabriskie.com bandcamp free music archive)