detachment

‘night Mother

Posted on June 23, 2014

After an unscheduled delay caused mostly by a certain male sibling’s recent life changes/laziness, Novel Ideas returns with ‘night Mother by Marsha Norman. We read this play because it is award winning and unlike our previous two plays, written by a female playwright. We brought back special guest Jessica Showers (at least at the time of recording) because she works in the theater industry. In this episode, we discuss women and Broadway, depression, conformity, and detachment. We also talk about the possibility of cotagonists, Sno Balls (and how they are the worst), candy, and a few terrible alternate endings.

The music bump is “Communication” by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and was inspired by our discussion of the theme of the play.

‘night Mother – Suicide is Hard to Joke About

Recommendations:

An award winning play that would definitely be worth seeing staged. Is it worth reading? Tougher question to answer.

Gabs: 7/10. Interesting, but hasn’t stuck with me completely.

Ben: 7/10. About the same.

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged 'night Mother, absent man, Aristotle, bombshells, Broadway, Chekhov's gun, communication, conformity, cotagonists, definition of a protagonist, depression, detachment, epilepsy, family, feminism, Jessica!, marriage as a band-aid, Marsha Norman, plot v. theme, rational suicide?, set design, sno balls are the worst, suicide, sweets, symbolism, terrible alternate endings, theater business, what is up with Jessie?, women in entertainment.

Watchmen

Posted on October 9, 2012

Banned book month continues with Watchmen by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons. This book is a first for our podcast, a graphic novel. If you are unfamiliar with it, it is a superhero deconstruction with a hint of dystopia about it. And moral ambiguity. Lots and lots of moral ambiguity. Nothing about this book is simple, so this is one of our longer running episodes, covering cold war anxiety, complex characters, and detachment from humanity. Not to mention flaming boners, cat jailbreaks, and exploding psychic squid.

The music bump is “Times They Are A-Changin'” by Bob Dylan, referenced in the book, as well as the music for the opening of the not especially good Hollywood adaptation.

26 – Watchmen – Who Blanks the Blankmen

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged Alan Moore, Alexander the Great podcast, cold war, complications, Dave Gibbons, deconstruction, detachment, exploding psychic squid, flaming boner, funnies ain't funny, kitty jailbreak, moral ambiguity, sad batman, Superman is real, to bone is human, visual interactions, Watchmen, who protags the protaganist, who watches the watchmen.