The Projectionist's Lending Library – Details, episodes & analysis

For our season finale, we delve into the world of dreams by looking at Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven and the 1980 PBS movie based on it. What if your dreams could change the world--not in a metaphorical sense, but in a concrete way? What responsibility would you have? In this wide-ranging discussion we talk about Taoism, overpopulation discourse (again!) and the importance of public funding for the arts. Join us for our last trip into the worlds of science fiction (for now)!

Ursula K. Le Guin interview with Bill Moyers

Closing Music: "Get Along Little Doggies" by Harry McClintock

Nathanael and Erik are rejoined by guest Carl Watts in this episode covering the celebrated novel, iconic film, and its more contemporary sequel. Our conversation today touches on ideas of belief and fraudulence and, in the spirit of PKD, questions of reality and ontology. In addition, as this is our annual holiday episode, we discuss why BLADE RUNNER 2049 is, in fact, a Christmas movie.

Show notes:

"The hidden meaning of Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049"

Osmanthus

Erik and Nathanael are joined by special guest Will Murray to discuss Chester Himes' novel Cotton Comes to Harlem. Discussion includes the nature of reclamation and revolution and historical shifts in discussing racial issues.

Please note that there are substantial audio issues with this episode. We do think that the conversation is well worth listening to.

In this special holiday episode, Kline and Booth discuss James Joyce's short story "The Dead" from his 1914 collection DUBLINERS, as well as the 1987 adaptation, John Huston's last film, and starring Anjelica Huston and Donal McGann. As they parse out the complexities of Joyce's style and what makes the story so quintessentially modernist, they also examine how it fits into the holiday literary tradition in its framings of home, family, love, and human connection.

Listen to Joyce himself read from his final novel FINNEGANS WAKE here.

Booth and Kline tackle Ellery Queen's Ten Commandments themed novel Ten Days' Wonder and the 1971 adaptation of it by Claude Chabrol. What do you do with a God who makes impossible demands and enacts disproportionate judgement? How should humans press forward in a world shattered by war? And how old, after all, is Ellery Queen? These questions and more are addressed in this episode.

If you are interested in this conversation, check out Booth's book God and the Great Detective: Ellery Queen's Struggle with the Divine, 1945-1965, now out from McFarland.

Part 2 of 2. Booth and Kline discuss the movie adaptation(s) of In Cold Blood and the biopics covering its writing: Capote and Infamous. Topics covered include the ethics of adaptation, the use of source materials, and the way Capote's structure informs all subsequent adaptations.

Join us for our most controversial episode yet! Will Kline and Booth agree on the relative merits of Capote and Infamous? There is, after all, only one way to find out....

Kline and Booth revisit Truman Capote in the first of a double-episode covering In Cold Blood and the movies inspired by it and by Capote's experience writing it. Episode 1 covers the book itself and its themes of masculinity and American violence. It also asks the question--is this book a great book or merely a good one?

Kline and Booth discuss Jorge Luis Borges' "Death and the Compass" and the 1992 film adaptation. But the discussion is itself a labyrinth, covering (among other topics) metaphysical detective fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, Alan Moore, and Batman.

Erik and Nathanael are once again joined by Dr. Matthew Wells, who last appeared in "The Swimmer" episode of season one. This time, the three discuss Dorothy B. Hughes's 1947 thriller novel, IN A LONELY PLACE, and the 1950 film adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame.

Booth and Kline are joined by special guest Steph Parker to discuss John Berendt's 1994 book and the 1997 Clint Eastwood movie based on it.

Note that Booth misidentifies a podcast he listened to featuring John Berendt. The podcast is Queer We Are and can be listened to here.