Inside the Text Jedd Cole

BEING an inquiry into the meaning of worldbuilding and the semiotic functions of those fictional maps familiar to us through the likes of The Lord of the Rings (and its many cousins), TTRPGs and video games like Skyrim and NORCO. What do fantasy maps actually do, and what do they mean?

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jeddcole 

Twitter: @inside_textpod 

Soundtrack: https://jeddcole.bandcamp.com/ 

Racism in fantasy fiction:


“Tolkien and Race”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_and_race
“Race: the Original Sin of the Fantasy Genre”: https://www.publicmedievalist.com/race-fantasy-genre/ 

SOURCES AND MAPS: https://insidethetext.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/sources_the-meanings-of-fantasy-maps.pdf

BEING an account of the passing of the Star Wars Expanded Universe into Legends; how canon becomes an abyss at the hands of its undead Author; what happens when said Author is also a corporation; and why canon--and capitalism--must end.

Become a CO-THINKER on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jeddcole

Soundtrack: https://jeddcole.bandcamp.com/album/the-specter-of-endings

MAIN SOURCES:


The Legendary Star Wars Expanded Universe Turns A New Page, starwars.com, April 25, 2014 (https://www.starwars.com/news/the-legendary-star-wars-expanded-universe-turns-a-new-page)
Gerry Canavan, "Hokey Religions: Star Wars and Star Trek in the Age of Reboots" 2017, Extrapolation (https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1466&context=english_fac)
Mike Rugnetta, “Canon Is an Abyss,” January 25, 2019 (https://rugnetta.com/2019/01/25/canon-is-an-abyss/)
Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities, Oxford University Press, 2003
Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending, Oxford University Press, 2000
Steve Baxi, “The Philosophy of Endings (or Why I Hate Endgame), April 18, 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhjhlja3azM)

FULL SOURCES AND CLIPS:

https://insidethetext.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/sources_sacred-jedi-texts.pdf 

If you like the podcast, leave me a tip! https://ko-fi.com/insidethetext.

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“Time is now currency. It is not passed but spent.”

How did we get daylight saving time? How does the answer open up questions about the meaning--and the politics--of our hours, minutes and days? How does the COVID-19 pandemic change our relationship to time? And most importantly, what does any of this have to do with castrated Italian singers? Find out in this episode.


Find all my sources and references here: https://insidethetext.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/sources_not-passed-but-spent.pdf 
Listen to the soundtrack of this episode: https://jeddcole.bandcamp.com/album/not-passed-but-spent-original-soundtrack

Today’s special episode is in two parts. In the second, I am joined by my friend, literary scholar and co-host of the Horror Vanguard podcast, Jon TheLitCritGuy. (He also makes YouTube videos!) It is SUCH a great interview!

But first, a story to begin exploring the question I’m pondering right now: What does Halloween signify in this time? A time of pandemic. Of nihilism. Of violent state repression. Of darkness and anxiety. Of ghosts of the things we’d rather not think about.

Inside the Text presents, “The Masque of the Red Death,” by Edgar Allan Poe.

MUSIC CREDITS:


The Swamp, Loyalty Freak Music https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/WITCHY_BATTY_SPOOKY_HALLOWEEN_IN_SEPTEMBER_/The_Swamp_1569

Glitterhater, CC BY, Computer Music All-Stars https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Computer_Music_All-Stars/CPlaylistsRandom/Glitterhater

Psychout, CC BY, Computer Music All-Stars https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Computer_Music_All-Stars/CPlaylistsRandom/Psychout

In the last couple episodes, we’ve established some of the the ways fiction functions morally as well as how various thinkers have argued it OUGHT to function. But we were left wondering about what the upshot of fiction’s moral functioning is. Why does fiction work on the moral level? 

In this final episode in a series about the moral function of fiction: several notes reflecting on Black Lives Matter protests, Star Wars, evangelicalism, “these unprecedented times,” and the workings of ideology.

Find a full transcript at insidethetext.wordpress.com

REFERENCES & CLIPS:


Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
“Trump threatens to deploy military against protesters” The Guardian, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btjk0_WRIQ4
“Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Entertainment,” Carol Cuppy, Focus on the Family
“‘Magic’ in Movies and Entertainment,” Focus on the Family
“Does Violence in Movies Matter?” Matt Kaufman, Boundless.org (a ministry of Focus on the Family)
“Pepsi Pulls Ad Accused of Trivializing Black Lives Matter,” Daniel Victor, New York Times
“Every Covid-19 Commercial is Exactly the Same,” Microsoft Sam, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM3J9jDoaTA (used with permission)
Ideology: An Introduction, Terry Eagleton

We established last episode that fiction does seem to have a moral function, along with most other discourses. But what should that moral function be?

In this second episode in a series about the moral function of fiction: the opinions of, like, a bunch of white dudes and an actually good one by Susan Sontag.



References:

- John Gardner, Moral Fiction (1978)

- Aristotle, Poetics

- Terry Eagleton, How to Read a Poem (2007)

- Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (2008)

- Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poesy (1595)

- Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 4 (1750)

- Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy (1869)

- Terry Eagleton, Ideology: An Introduction (1991)

- Peter Lamarque, The Philosophy of Literature (2009)

- Henry James, The Art of Fiction (1884)

- #MAGA, “Donald Trump on ISIS - ‘I'm gonna bomb the SHIT out of 'em!’” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OES7kbWZ70Y

- Mary Gordon, “Moral Fiction,” The Atlantic, 2005

- Susan Sontag, “At the Same Time: The Novelist and Moral Reasoning,” At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches (2004)



Music:

- grapes, “I Dunno (Grapes of Wrath Mix), CC BY, http://ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/56346

- Kevin Macleod, “J. S. Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze - BWV 208,” CC BY, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Classical_Sampler/Sheep_May_Safely_Graze_-_BWV_208

- Visager, “We Can Do It!” CC BY, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Visager/Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2/Visager_-_Songs_From_An_Unmade_World_2_-_09_We_Can_Do_It