Episode 159: Science Fiction/Quintuple Feature | Sci-Fi, History & Philosophy

After five weeks of discussing iconic science fiction films and television—2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Rick & Morty Season 4—we’re back with a no-holds-barred discussion of the connecting themes and striking variation within the genre. Starting with a (very) brief history of sci-fi, from its ancient roots to its flourishing in the 19th and 20th Centuries, we try to arrive at a satisfying definition of the science fiction genre that celebrates its rich and diverse output. We’ll discuss how sci-fi properties frequently serve as apt social or political commentary, the changing landscape of literary voices within the genre, and the contentious distinction between sci-fi as pulp and sci-fi as “serious literature.”

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The Midnight Myth stands with Black Lives Matter and those protesting social injustice across our country. Please join us in supporting those who will not stay silent.

Open your wallet if you are able. Consider supporting the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Reclaim the Block, your local Black Lives Matter Chapter or Bail Fund. Or directly support the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Tony McDade. Seek out and support Black-owned businesses in your area.

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Episode 155: Kane's Son | Alien (1979), Greek Mythology & The Body

As we continue careening through the vacuum of space in our mini-series on sci-fi classics, we’re picked up by the commercial ship the Nostromo. A strange creature lurks on board… This week, we’re discussing Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror/science fiction mashup ALIEN. We’ll explore the ancient themes that resonate from Greek mythology into this modern masterpiece, and we’ll discuss how the persistent mind-body problem suffuses this intensely visceral film. A movie that masterfully tackles questions of gender and sexuality, survival and heroism, humanity and monstrosity. Don’t forget—if we break quarantine, we could all die.

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The Midnight Myth stands with Black Lives Matter and those protesting social injustice across our country. Please join us in supporting those who will not stay silent.

Open your wallet if you are able. Consider supporting the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Reclaim the Block, your local Black Lives Matter Chapter or Bail Fund. Or directly support the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Tony McDade. Seek out and support Black-owned businesses in your area.

Looking to get educated about systemic racism, police violence, and white privilege? Find book, film, and podcast recommendations at bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES.

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Support us at www.patreon.com/midnightmyth

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Episode 148: Don't Panic | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Science Fiction & The Absurd

What is the answer to the ultimate question—of life, the universe, and everything? If you dig Douglas Adams, it’s 42. But what IS the ultimate question—and is that question really worth asking? This week, we’re taking on the beloved Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the one-of-a-kind sci-fi satire that brought us pan-galactic gargle-blasters, Babelfish, Vogon poetry, and everything in between. With insights from the 2005 film and the Douglas Adams novel, we’ll explore the philosophy that underlies the story—particularly as it resonates with the Absurdist philosophy of Albert Camus. We’ll also discuss the literary influence of Franz Kafka, the eerie prescience of Adams’ zany galaxy, and the ultimate questions that we constantly seek answers to. Just remember… Don’t panic (and bring a towel!)

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Episode 147: Masquerade | The Phantom of the Opera, Aesthetic Philosophy & Romanticism

Put on your mask, close your eyes, and surrender to your darkest dreams. That’s right, we’re covering the longest running Broadway musical in history, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 mega-hit The Phantom of the Opera. We’’ll analyze the angel of music himself, the love triangle at the show’s core, and symbolism in the opera house through the lens of aesthetic philosophy and mythology—From Edmund Burke’s description of beauty and the sublime to Neoplatonism and the evolution of art-making. Is Phantom a great romance or a piece of gothic horror? All this and more on the Midnight Myth.

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Episode 125: Everybody Gonna Shine | Halloween Special! The Shining, Horror History & Philosophy

Happy Halloween 2019! Come get snowbound with us on our 3rd annual Halloween Special. This year, we’re exploring one of the spookiest, scariest, and greatest horror films of all time, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Bringing insight from the source novel by Stephen King (who famously hated the screen adaptation so much he produced his own adaptation for television), we’ll wander the halls of the Overlook Hotel, peer into Room 237 and into the crumbling sanity of Jack Torrance. Also: history of Gilded Age resorts in America, philosophy of evil, and the short story that forms the basis for much of what makes The Shining so terrifying—Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death.

Subscribe to our friends at the Pop Venture Family on YouTube, and stay tuned for details on our upcoming Star Wars giveaway collaboration!

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Midnight Myth Time Machine | Episode 10: Punk Rock Justice

Welcome to the Midnight Myth Time Machine! We’re republishing our back catalog to make our older episodes widely available. This episode originally aired in 2017.

Derek and Laurel are back at it again, inspired by the FX series “The People vs OJ Simpson.” They contextualize justice as a story, one that evolves through time and cultural relativity. Beginning in Ancient Greece, where mythology and justice merged as one, Derek and Laurel follow the thread to Marvel Studio’s Captain America: Civil War.

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Episode 97: Oathkeeper

In a new format of Game of Thrones analysis, this episode dives in to a relationship study of two characters from the HBO series: Ser Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth. Both raised to uphold a code of chivalry, with varying degrees of success, this pair constitutes a unique form of doubling within A Song of Ice and Fire. They represent two sides of an age-old argument—and they need one another to reach the next level in their development. With allusions to similar relationships in Dickens and Arthurian literature, Derek and Laurel dig in to the philosophies these two Westerosi knights embody. Oathkeeper or Oathbreaker, enjoy this deep dive into two fascinating characters.

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Episode 90: Pobody's Nerfect

Holy motherforking shirtballs! The Midnight Myth is finally taking on NBC’s The Good Place, one character at a time. This week, the question is: what does it mean to be an Eleanor? Following the central protagonist through the two and a half seasons of the Good Place (and through countless metaphysical realms), we’ll discover some surprising truths about morality, change, responsibility, and of course—horniness.