Happy Halloween! As has been our tradition, we wanted to make sure we marked the season with a special episode or two highlighting the concepts of horror. On today's episode, Mav, Wayne and Monica are joined by friend of the show and Director of University of California at Santa Cruz's Center for Monster Studies, Michael Chemers to talk all about the spooky and unsettling narrative and cultural possibilities of creepy dolls. From Chucky to Annabelle to M3gan, as well as real life examples we discuss why focusing on why these childhood toys can be so terrifying. We explore various elements such as Freud's psychological concept of 'The Uncanny,' the cultural significance of toys in childhood, and their role in horror storytelling examining their psychological impact and cultural implications. The episode...
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Update: Just Recorded Episode One
Wayne and Mav just recorded the first episode of the podcast on Origin Stories. Not quite sure when we’re going to post it yet, but we wanted everyone to know that we are certainly working on it. Thank you to everyone who commented on the first blog and gave us ideas to address in the…
Call For Comments: Superhero Origins (and ours!)
From Mav: One of my most favorite things to do as an academic is presenting at conferences. Part of this is just because being an academic means presenting your research. That’s a big part of the job. But for me, conferences are the most fun because it means linking up with other people with similar…
Call for Comments: Do you remember nostalgia?
April 5, 2018
From Mav: This weekend I got a chance to see the film Ready Player One. As I said when I wrote my review of it (if you don’t read my movie reviews on my personal blog site, you absolutely should) I had not actually read the book before, though I’ve been meaning to and i’m sure I’ll get…