Author: Ben and Gabs Roman
Ready Player One
After trekking through numerous levels filled with puzzles, monsters, and platforms spaced just so, Novel Ideas returns with Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This is a book about video games, nerdery, and the 1980’s. Also about corporate interests, environmental disaster, and the 80’s. Also also about friendship, the superiority of real life to virtual life, and the 80’s. But mostly this is a book about the 80’s. In this week’s episode we discuss all of those issues, as well as the 80’s, with only brief intervals to make our own nerdy references. (And don’t forget the 80’s.)
The music bump is “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo, appearing in the intro to the book as well as the intro to Jim Halliday’s rather narcissistic posthumous treasure hunt.
Tuck Everlasting
Welcome to our special election edition of Novel Ideas. Today’s episode features Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, a book that has absolutely nothing to do with elections. This is a slightly shorter than average episode, as the book itself is rather short itself. But for such a short book, there is a surprising depth to it. In the podcast we talk about the character traits of twelve year olds, the effects of August, and the ethics of kidnapping. We also talk about immortality. Like, a lot. So who wants to live forever? No one and everyone.
The music bump is “Who Wants to Live Forever” by the immortal (not literally) Queen.
Frankenstein
Welcome to a very spooky episode of Novel Ideas, featuring the decidedly not spooky Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This is a book about a monster and the man who created him told in a very romantic style. (I have to mention this now because we forgot to say it in the podcast.) In this episode we cover various tropes, unsympathetic characters, the theme of science v. nature, and the theme of isolation v. acceptance. We also cover the timelessness of teenage behavior, the importance of being genre savvy, and whether Frankenstein’s monster might actually be Santa Claus. Make sure to listen in a well lit room so you don’t get scared!
The music bump is “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky because, dude, Halloween. I’m not entirely sure how this piece of music came to by synonymous with that holiday, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the way it sounds.
Brave New World
This week’s episode features Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the science fiction classic about a scientific utopia. Or possibly dystopia. This book is weaker on characters than many of the books we’ve read, but it is full of issues, many of them more relevant than ever in today’s world. We touch on feminism, racism, sexuality, eugenics, consumerism, and religion. And, of course, zippers. Zippers are amazing. Because they are THE FUTURE. There are also some bad puns, the usual level of silliness, and a small amount of modest self-promotion. We think you will find it quite pneumatic.
The music bump is “Brave New World” by Styx, chosen not just for the obvious title tie-in, but at least a small amount of lyrical relevance. Hang out for an extra twenty seconds at the end of the podcast and see if you agree.
28 – Brave New World – Quite Pneumatic
It may not be obvious because of the size of the picture, but the header this week is from an edition of the book that had an egg with a zipper on the cover. The reason we chose this image should be quite obvious by the time you’re about twenty minutes into this episode.
The Golden Compass
Welcome back to Novel Ideas, where banned book week lasts a month. This week’s episode is The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, a book frequently challenged for having/being “religious content, violence, and age inappropriate” according to the American Library Association. We certainly have some opinions on whether this book is religious (sort of), violent (yes), and age inappropriate (if you’re a prude). Check out the podcast for the more in depth version of those opinions, in addition to discussions about daemons, witches, bears, and the country of Texas. Special appearance this week by Callie the cat, who had many opinions about this book and whether it should prevent podcast hosts from paying attention to her. (Hint: no.)
This week’s music bump is “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, because I LOVE IT. Oh, also because there’s a lot of discussion about Dust in this book. So look for that. Enjoy!
25 – The Golden Compass – Bears and Witches and Texans, Oh My!
To Kill a Mockingbird
After a two week hiatus, Novel Ideas is back with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book is another one of those that most of you probably had to read in school. For us, this was one of the assigned readings that we actually enjoyed, and we were reminded of that on the re-read. We discuss the big issues, like feminism and racism, mostly without embarrassing ourselves. Mostly. We also discuss the smaller issues, like who makes the best cakes in Maycomb, why everybody loves tomboys, and whether Atticus Finch gets to claim the title of “Literary Father of the Year.”
The music bump is “Fables of Faubus” by Charles Mingus, written to poke fun at Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas when he called out the National Guard to prevent Little Rock Central High School from being integrated in 1957.
24 – To Kill a Mockingbird – All Racism, All the Time
Note: We neglected to mention it on the podcast this week, but banned book week is coming up at the end of the month. Our next few books have all been banned or challenged in various places for various reasons. Celebrate with us by reading something controversial!
Schedule Update
This isn’t much of an update, our next three books will be the same. But we’ll be airing the episodes one week later than we originally planned, which means there will be no episode this week. We’re just going to go ahead and blame that on schedule chaos that definitely has nothing to do with either of us being lazy. Yep. Definitely none of that. Anyhoo, we’ll look forward to seeing you next week, at least to the the degree that we ever see you.
Novel Ideas 
Redshirts
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This week’s episode is Redshirts by John Scalzi, a science fiction/comedy novel with more than a touch of meta to it. It’s also a fairly short novel, and you’ll notice that our episode is a few minutes shorter than usual to match, only minus the three codas. In our conversation we touch on science fiction tropes, author commentary, some of the qualities of bad writing, and violating the fourth wall. We also touch on the meta-ness of meta-ful meta-tude, hilarious misspoken phrases, and, of course, ice sharks. The mystery of what exactly an ice shark is may not get solved, but I think you’ll agree that Ben should not be allowed to title books.
The music for this week’s episode is “Redshirt” by Jonathan Coulton, which was commissioned by John Scalzi for the release of the novel.
The header is Troy Zimmerman’s (winning) entry in the fan art contest for Redshirts held on John Scalzi’s blog.
23 – Redshirts – Yo Dawg I Heard You Like Star Trek
This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged alternate podcasts, bad writing, Galactic Positioning System, gender politics, ice sharks, John Scalzi, meta, Old Man's War, possible commentary, redshirt trope, Redshirts, Tequila Mockingbird, The Fart in Our Stalls, yawning.