Episode 3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People"

Episode 3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People"

Author: SpectreVision Radio February 21, 2018 Duration: 1:20:25
JF and Phil delve deep into Arthur Machen's fin-de-siècle masterpiece, "The White People," for insight into the nature of ecstasy, the psychology of fairies, the meaning of sin, and the challenge of living without a moral horizon. WORKS CITED OR DISCUSSED Arthur Machen, "The White People" - full text or Weird Stories audiobook read by Phil Ford Arthur Machen, Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy H. P. Lovecraft, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" J.F. Martel, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Jack Sullivan (ed)., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural John Keel, The Mothman Prophecies: A True Story Patrick Harpur, Daimonic Reality Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, The Morning of the Magicians Michael Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison J.K. Huysmans, Against Nature (À rebours) 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 133: On Weirding, and the Virtues of Unknowing Everything [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:04
With the term "weird studies" gaining currency inside and outside academia, Phil and JF thought it was time to discuss the philosophical method they've been developing on the podcast since 2018. Borrowing a term from Eri…
Off-Week Bonus: On Worlds and Stories, with a Special Announcement [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:54
In this bonus episode, originally released for Listener's Tier Patreon supporters, a discussion of the books Phil and JF are reading leads to a debate about the place of plot, story, and worldbuilding in narrative art. T…
Episode 130: Holiday Memories [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:17:11
In August, 2022, JF and Phil flew to the UK to attend the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) at the University of St. Andrews and the Supernormal Festival in Oxfordshire. In addition to recording two live show…
Episode 128: Demon Workshop: On Victoria Nelson's 'Neighbor George' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:28:29
The American writer and thinker Victoria Nelson is justly revered by afficionados of the Weird for The Secret Life of Puppets and its follow-up Gothicka. Both are masterful explorations the supernatural as it subsists in…
Episode 126: The Daemon Speaks, with Matt Cardin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:37
Returning guest Matt Cardin is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose focus on numinous horror places him in the literary lineage as Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood. His new book, What the Daemon Said, collects tw…