As avid readers and bibliophiles, Madeleine and Jules will pretty much tackle anything, no questions asked. As writers however, and especially as SFF writers, they all too often run aground against the literary merit debate. Said debate is that true literature which is worth reading should be hard, it should require effort to read and digest. Ultimately, literary fiction is more worthwhile than genre fiction. This week the dragons delve into the origins of this argument - where did literary fiction originate as a term? What is the genre divide? Who decides which is which? - as well as taking a look at the roots of the history of the novel and side trip through the disreputable origins of SFF, before confronting their own prejudices and snobberies over types of fiction. On the slab this week - The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell, The Book of Strange New Things - Michell Faber, The Night Circus - Erin Morgernstern, When the Moon was Ours - Anna-Marie McLemore and Sing Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward.
Title Music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic
Episode 414: Seasons May Change - Stars Farmers & Wild Weather Calendars
Episode 413: Dragon riders & wolf speakers - the Animal Soul Bond in Speculative Fiction
Episode 412: By the Blade - the Evolution of Heroic Fantasy
Episode 411: Kitchen Heroes - Humble Protagonists who get Things Done in Speculative Fiction
Episode 410: In a Rural Dream - The Rise of Cottagecore
Episode 409: Pitched Perfectly - The Film was Better than the Book
Episode 408: There’s good news and...more good news - 2023 in review
Episode 407: Jingle Bell Rock - Storytelling through the medium of songs the Christmas edition
Episode 406: A Picture Says a Thousand Words - The Rise of the Graphic Novel
Episode 405: The Fairest of Them All - The Pursuit of Beauty as a Literary Device
Episode 404: It was Great Apart from the Ending - Beloved Fiction that Wobbled on the Dismount
Episode 403: The Old Family Business - Gangster Witches and Legacy Monster Hunters
Episode: 402 Of Gold and Hubris - Tracing the Origins of Rumpelstiltskin
Episode 401: Girls on Ice - a History of the Fridging Trope
Episode 400: Strange Fruit in the Gallant South - Exploring the Southern Gothic
Episode 399: This Set is Cursed - Strange Events Behind the Scenes at Horror Films
DD Episode 398: Joyous Companions Forever - examining the queerness of the vampire genre
Episode 397: The Beautiful and the Damned - examining the Queerness of the Vampire Genre
Ep 396: It Came from Out of the closet - The Queer Relationship with Horror
Ep 395: Weirdstones and Magic Keys - What makes a Children’s book a classic?
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