“Is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds?”
This week, against Paul’s express wishes, the Spoiler team have accepted a listener request and are reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s philosophical fantasy novel ‘The Buried Giant’. This dense meditation on collective memory pretty much splits the team three ways, with professed fantasy fan Rachael wishing for more fantastical elements and Andy, who is ambivalent at best about the fantasy genre, pleased to find the emphasis more on themes and ideas than on ogres and pixies. Paul, meanwhile, is perplexed and frustrated by the slow pace, the lack of action and the fact that everyone is so unnecessarily courteous. It doesn’t help that certain elements of the book also remind him of Chris de Burgh! Regardless of their opinions on the text itself, the team use it as a jumping-off point for interesting discussions on our reaction as human beings to concepts and events that we struggle to process. And everyone agrees that the numerous critical comparisons with ‘Game of Thrones’ are as lazy as DJs who play The Bangles ‘Manic Monday’ on a Monday morning.
Elsewhere, Rachael takes a sublimely uplifting look at Kazuo Ishiguro’s lesser-known stint as a jazz lyricist, with plenty of lovely musical interludes to enjoy.
This week’s scale: A giant in the world of fiction or a book that should be buried deep, deep in the ground
The SPOILER Awards - Lockdown Special (Episode 56)
Pride (2014, Ben Schnetzer, Dominic West, Andrew Scott): SPOILER Episode 55
Dark Season 1 (2017, Netflix Original Series): SPOILER Episode 54
Top Gun (1985, Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer): SPOILER Episode 53
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902): SPOILER Episode 52
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee): SPOILER Episode 51
Singin' in the Rain (1952, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor): SPOILER Episode 50
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008, Dir: Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett): SPOILER Episode 49
I, Daniel Blake (2016, Dir: Ken Loach, Dave Johns, Hayley Squires): SPOILER Episode 47
Ex Machina (2015, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac): SPOILER Episode 46
Detectorists Series 1 (2014, Mackenzie Crook, Toby Jones, Rachael Stirling): SPOILER Episode 45
Labyrinth (1986, Jim Henson, Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie): SPOILER Episode 44
SPOILER Puppeteer Special: Nigel Plaskitt (Pipkins, Spitting Image, Little Shop of Horrors)
Boyhood (2014, Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke): SPOILER Episode 42
Amelie (2001, Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz): SPOILER Episode 41
Cool Hand Luke (1967, Paul Newman, George Kennedy): SPOILER Episode 40
Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio): SPOILER Episode 39
Wonder by R J Palacio (2012): SPOILER Episode 38
Big (1988, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins): SPOILER Episode 37
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