Episode 21: The Trash Stratum - Part 2

Episode 21: The Trash Stratum - Part 2

Author: SpectreVision Radio July 13, 2018 Duration: 1:06:11
The writings of underground filmmaker Jack Smith serve as a starting point for Phil and JF's second tour of the trash stratum. In their wanderings, they will uncover such moldy jewels as the 1944 film Cobra Woman, the exploitation flick She-Devils on Wheels, and (wonder of wonders) Hitchcock's Vertigo. The emergent focus of the conversation is the dichotomy of passionate commitment and ironic perspective, attitudes that largely determine whether a given object will turn out to appear as a negligible piece of garbage... or the Holy Grail. By the end, our hosts realize that even their own personal trash strata may give off shimmers of the divine. Jack Smith, Flaming Creatures Robert Siodmak (director), Cobra Woman (1944) Jack Smith, "The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez" Roger Scruton, English philosopher Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV series) Kenneth Burke, American literary theorist Alfred Hitchcock (director), Vertigo (1958) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground Charles Ludlam's Theater of the Ridiculous Mel Brooks (director), High Anxiety (1977) "Ironic Porn Purchase Leads to Unironic Ejaculation", The Onion (1999) James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games Jorge Luis Borges, "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" Herschell Gordon Louis (director), She-Devils on Wheels André Bazin, What is Cinema? Erik Davis, "The Alchemy of Trash" David Lynch, Mulholland Drive William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience Phil Ford, "Birth of the Weird" 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 37: Entities, with Stuart Davis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:17
Several years ago, on New Year’s Eve, a tall, purple-robed praying mantis appeared to multidisciplinary artist Stuart Evan Davis as he meditated while running a fever. “Remember who you work for,” the entity said after b…
Christmas Bonus: Hyperstition Addendum [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:31
Happy holidays, Weird Studies listeners! In this short "Christmas Bonus" episode, your intrepid hosts finish up what began as a discussion of Nick Land's concept of hyperstition. Following last week's closing remarks abo…
Episode 36: On Hyperstition [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:52
Hyperstition is a key concept in the philosophy of Nick Land. It refers to fictions which, given enough time and libidinal investment, become realities. JF and Phil explore the notion using one of those optometric appara…
Episode 35: Whirl Without End: On M.C. Richards' 'Centering' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:41
The first step in any pottery project is to center the clay on the potter's wheel. In her landmark essay Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person (1964), the American poet M. C. Richards turns this simple action into…
Episode 34: The Weird Realism of Robert Aickman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:55
Although he is one of the luminaries of the weird tale, Robert Aickman referred to his irreal, macabre short works as strange stories. Born in London in 1914, Aickman wrote less than fifty such stories before his death i…
Episode 32: Orbis Tertius: Borges on Magic, Conspiracy and Idealism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:14
Jorge Luis Borges's story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a metaphysical detective story, an armchair conspiracy thriller, and a masterpiece of weird fiction. In this tale penned by a true literary magician, Phil and JF…
Episode 30: On Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:56
No dream is ever just a dream. Or so Tom Cruises tells Nicole Kidman at the end of Eyes Wide Shut. In this episode, Phil and JF expound some of the key themes of Kubrick's film, a masterpiece of cinematic chamber music t…
Episode 29: On Lovecraft [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:37
Phil and JF indulge their autumnal mood in this discussion of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's work, specifically the essay "Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction" and the prose piece "Nyarlathotep." Philip K. Dick, Algernon…