Joining me as my guest for this episode is Sue Terry. Sue is an academic of weird and occult literature – her research interests involve her exploring the relationship between 'the occult' and literary fiction and understanding how texts of all kinds can help us interpret paranormal phenomena to develop a better appreciation of it.
She is currently writing a book on fantasy author Alan Garner as well as researching her PhD in feminist occult literary modernism at the University of Surrey and it is these two areas which my conversation with her focuses on.
Alan Garner’s work is deeply connected to the local landscape of Cheshire in Northern England where he grew up and often features the emergence of mythic and fantastical events in the everyday world – sometimes in a subtle way but not always. His fascination with the relativity of space and time is also prevalent and means that his stories are full of high strangeness, with ancient evils, gateways to otherworldly realms and the lasting effect of mythic betrayal and murder featuring prominently in some of his most beloved works, such as Elidor and The Owl Service.
I begin the interview by talking with Sue about her research and her PhD thesis, after which we talk about Alan Garner – from his traumatic childhood which may have ignited his imagination onto some of his best known works and the themes they explore.
Further details on Sue, her work and the courses she runs can be found at her website https://www.sueterryacademic.com/.
If you would like to support the upkeep of Some Other Sphere you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!
The Some Other Sphere theme is from Purple Planet Music - 'Hubbub' by Geoff Harvey and Chris Martyn.
Episode 36 - Mike Clelland - Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee
Episode 35 - Dr Becca Tarnas - Journeying to the Imaginal Realm
Episode 34 - James Franklin - Manx Notes and Queries
Episode 33 - Corjan Mol - The Mystery of Rennes-le- Chateau
Episode 32 - Dan Shaw - Vortexes and Earth Energies
Episode 31 - Amanda Woomer - The Spook Eats Blog
Episode 30 - Christopher Josiffe - The mystery of Gef the Mongoose
Episode 29 - Sara Schick - Mother Joseph and the Hidden bricks
Episode 28 - Dick Khan - DMT and My Occult Mind
Episode 27 - Matt Hopewell - Gorillas and ghostly gloves
Episode 26 - Dr Amy Hale - The Magical Life of Ithell Colquhoun
Episode 25 - Kiki Dombrowski - A Curious Future
Episode 24 - Listener Stories - Steve Mills
Episode 23 - Dr Kate Laity - Leonora Carrington and The Hearing Trumpet
Episode 22 - Andy Burnham - The Old Stones
Episode 21 - Ailish Jane - What is a sense of place?
Episode 20 - Matthew Meyer - Yokai and Japanese Folklore
Episode 19 - Garrett Kelly & Jeremy Puma - The Liminal Earth project
Episode 18 - Amanda Edmiston - Botanica Fabula
Episode 17 - Aleksandar Petakov - Lake Monsters and Lions
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Dairyland Frights
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL