Episode 140: That Ain't Plot: On Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away,' with Meredith Michael

Episode 140: That Ain't Plot: On Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away,' with Meredith Michael

Author: SpectreVision Radio February 15, 2023 Duration: 1:21:34
Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is one of those rare films that is both super popular and super weird. Rife with cinematic non sequiturs, unforgettable imagery, and moments of horror, it is an outstanding example of a story form that goes all the way back to the myth of Psyche and Eros from Apuleius's Golden Ass, if not earlier. In this type of story, a girl on the cusp of maturity steps into a magical realm where people and things from waking life reappear, draped in the gossamer of dream and nightmare. Musicologist and WS assistant Meredith Michael joins JF and Phil to discuss a strange jewel of Japanese animated cinema. Support us on Patreon and get early access to Phil Ford's new podcast series on Wagner's Ring Cycle. Sign up for JF's upcoming online course on Shakespeare's Macbeth on Nura Learning. Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop REFERENCES Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away Kyle Gann, Robert Ashley Robert Ashely, Perfect Lives Apuleius, “Psyche and Eros” from The Golden Ass Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will Kentucky Route Zero, video game Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, video game Jean Sibelius, 5th Symphony Quentin Tarantino, film maker Mark Rothko, American painter Giles Deleuze, “What is the Creative Act?” GK Chesterton, Orthdoxy Herman Hesse, Siddhartha Andrew Osmond, BFI Guide to Spirited Away Special Guest: Meredith Michael. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the heart of Weird Studies, a podcast from SpectreVision Radio, you’ll find long-form conversations between Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel. Their discussions aren’t simple reviews or straightforward analyses; instead, they wander through the tangled undergrowth where art and philosophy meet, giving generous time to concepts that resist easy understanding and to creative works that fracture our ordinary sense of the world. This podcast deliberately lingers in that ambiguous space, treating the “weird” not as a genre but as a particular mode of experience-one that reveals the cracks in what we comfortably assume is real. Each episode feels like joining a deep, meandering dialogue between two friends who are both deeply knowledgeable and endlessly curious, covering a vast terrain that includes literature, film, music, and esoteric thought. It’s a show for anyone who suspects that the most profound truths are often found in the shadows, the anomalies, and the strangely beautiful. As part of the SpectreVision Radio network, which specializes in content that explores the uncanny edges of creativity, Weird Studies builds a unique community of listeners who are eager to think differently. You won’t find pat answers here, but you will encounter compelling questions and a shared sense of exploration that makes each installment a distinctive journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 230

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
Episode 186: Meeting at the Center: The Wedge, Part Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:19
In this episode, JF and Phil continue their conversation on the wedge, their figure for the epistemological divide between approaching reality from the heart and exploring it with the mind. As the discussion unfolds, the…
Episode 185: Intuition and Reality: The Wedge, Part One [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:17:08
"The Wedge" is a key concept for Phil and JF. When exploring weird phenomena—from artworks to ghosts, and everything in between—one tends to emphasize one or the other "end" of the event. At the thin end of the Wedge, th…
Episode 184: On David Lynch [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:42:21
David Lynch passed away on January 15th, 2025, leaving behind a body of work that reshaped the landscape of cinema and television. Few artists have delved as deeply into the strange, the beautiful, and the terrifying as…
Episode 183: On Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:21:47
Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is one of the great novels of the twentieth century and a prime example of literature that transforms the deeply personal into something universal. For Phil and JF in this episode, the novel se…
Episode 182: Providence of Evil: On Robert Eggers' 'Nosferatu' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:50
In this episode, JF and Phil examine the myth of the vampire through the lens of Robert Eggers' latest film, Nosferatu, a reimagining of F. W. Murnau's German Expressionist masterpiece. Topics covered include the nature…
Holiday Bonus: Waiting for the Next Sentence [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:13
With the next flagship show set to drop on January 8, 2025, we thought we'd tide you over with this conversation on the art and craft and writing, originally recorded for Listener's Tier patrons on the Weird Studies Patr…
Episode 181: On 'The X Files,' with Meredith Michael [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:03
Chris Carter's The X-Files is weird on its face: a dramatic series that, from the start, presented itself as more than drama, an exploration of the reality of the paranormal using the tools of fiction, a fantasy posing a…
Episode 180: The Player: On the Magician Card in the Tarot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:27
The Magician card likely graces more front covers of books on the tarot than any of the other major arcana. In many ways, it symbolizes the tarot itself, or the individual who has mastered the art of manipulating the car…
Episode 179: The Final Frontier, with Lionel Snell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:14
One of the great rewards of "weirding" the world is learning that boredom may be a kind of ethical transgression—the world is simply too strange to allow for it, and if you're bored, you're at least partly to blame. Few…