Show Notes for Ep. 1 "Introductions"
In this inaugural episode, Mary Anne and Ben promise to introduce themselves in ten minutes, then immediately veer off into a tangle of tangents—parenting, religion, writing—setting a tone for the wild ride to come. From their beginnings as writers, to the far future extrapolations of their work, Mary Anne and Ben begin the discussion of who they are as humans.
Recorded 10 May 2020 / Published 22 March 2021
Contents
- 0:10: Introduction to the podcast.
- 0:30: Starting to introduce Ben: Youth and Clarion West.
- 2:30: How Mary Anne and Ben met, in Seattle.
- 3:50: Strange Horizons, and staff not getting paid.
- 5:15: Identities, and gendered differences in how people identify themselves.
- 6:45: Parenthood, Switzerland, parenting paradigms.
- 9:55: Religion and community.
- 14:55: Starting to introduce Mary Anne. “This is not going to be a long intro.”
- 31:05: Mary Anne’s role and voice in the community, including Strange Horizons.
- 33:20: One area where Mary Anne and Ben overlap: a strong interest in community.
- 34:20: “When I see a problem, … my immediate impulse is to fix it.”
- 39:05: More differences in Mary Anne’s and Ben’s approaches, such as their different reactions to MoonFail.
- 46:45: Forgiveness and recovery and redemption after failures and mistakes. Also racism in sf and horror.
- 52:35: Brief intermission, featuring an ad for the Speculative Literature Foundation.
- 53:15: Continuing the discussion of forgiveness and redemption.
- 1:08:00: What you’re likely to hear in episodes of this podcast, and some possible titles for the podcast. (This episode was recorded before the podcast had a title.)
- 1:13:50: Approaches to science fiction vs literary fiction, and plausibility, and Dr. Who.
- 1:23:20: Star Trek: Picard: realistic characterization and fantastical plots.
- 1:27:30: Ben’s rule of thumb about things persisting into the future; also cognitive estrangement and operationalizing strangeness.
- 1:40:20: Wrapup and credits.
Works Mentioned
Alphabetically by author surname.
- Lois McMaster Bujold: A Civil Campaign (source of the line “Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.”)
- Samuel R. Delany: Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories collects much of his short fiction, but isn’t yet available in ebook form. For suggestions of Delany works to read, see Jed’s Delany starting points post.
- William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury.
- Robert E. Howard: “Queen of the Black Coast.”
- Keri Hulme: The Bone People.
- N. K. Jemisin: The City We Became (which relates to Lovecraft).
- David Lodge.
- Mary Anne Mohanraj: “Plea.”
- Ben Rosenbaum:
- Matt Ruff: Lovecraft Country.
- Charles Saunders: Imaro.
- Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy (mentioned in passing, as a book that Mary Anne was trying to remember the title of).
- Lawrence Weschler: Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (mentioned in passing during discussion of the podcast title).
Other Clarifying or Explanatory Links
- More about how Mary Anne and Ben met:
- Mary Anne’s online-journal entry from July 2001 in which she mentions first meeting Ben; she was in Seattle to visit a friend (after attending WesterCon in Portland), and met the Clarion West students during that trip. (Content warning for praise of Marion Zimmer Bradley; see links below for more on Bradley.)
- Ben’s online-journal entry from June 2001 that mentions submitting a story to an erotica anthology that Mary Anne was editing, Bodies of Water. (Content warning for brief comments about writing a rape scene.) (Mary Anne later rejected that story.)
- Jed’s history of online sf prozines, 1985–2010. Strange Horizons was among the first dozen or so such magazines.
- The Button Lady is still around, and is now making fan vids as well as buttons.
- Mary Anne’s N-word incident.
- See also Jed’s post about a related situation at an editor conference years later.
- Moonfail. (2010.)
- Post by K. Tempest Bradford about safe spaces. (September 2010, before WisCon decided to uninvite Moon.)
- Followup post by Kameron Hurley. (November 2010.)
- Racefail. (2009.)
- Topics relating to people who have engaged in bad behavior and/or promulgated bigoted or otherwise awful ideas:
- Orson Scott Card: homophobia.
- Marion Zimmer Bradley and Walter Breen: child abuse.
- Woody Allen: child abuse.
- Bill Cosby: sexual assault.
- H. P. Lovecraft: racism.
- D. W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation.
- Leni Riefenstahl: Triumph of the Will.
- Ben’s 2010 post about Minimally Invasive Retcons.
- Jed’s 2003 post about author points.
- Jed’s 2005 post about Kip Manley’s posts about ostranenie, unheimlich, strangeness, and dilating doors.
