Podcast: Dreadful Discourse

Update, 1/11/2021: The podcast has been on hiatus for four months, but my partner Lindsay and I are making content again. However, the podcast has a new name, Dreadful Discourse, and will have better production values: a new credits intro, custom background art drawn by me, music, and better-sounding audio. Also, more Lindsay and less me flapping my goddamn gums. Yay! 

The whole YouTube playlist is available, here. We also have a new Patreon for the podcast, which you can find, here.

Dreadful Discourse is a podcast-style YouTube series hosted by myself and my partner, Lindsay Wheeler. In it, we discuss the Gothic—what it is, and its individual components in a great detail.

Note: This section will be updated as future videos in the series go live.

Episode 1, the Pilot

This episode discusses the Gothic more generally by outlining its core components: the uncanny, the abject, hauntology, atmosphere, presentation (i.e., horror and terror), oscillation; and various tropes, including the Faustian Bargain and the Promethean Quest.

Episode 2, the Uncanny

This episode covers the uncanny within the Gothic mode: from masks and slashers, to aliens, robots, ghosts, and more!

Episode 3, the Hauntology

This episode Derrida's Hauntology within the Gothic mode, as well as the differences between it and pastiche!

Episode 4, the Abject

This episode covers Julia Kristeva's process of abjection within the Gothic mode: from the idea itself; to archaic mothers, graveyards, and metroids; to hypocrite mad scientists and more!

Episode 5, Atmosphere

This episode covers atmosphere—specially Rudolph Otto's Numinous (mysterium tremendum), and H. P. Lovecraft's Weird (cosmic nihilism) as they appear in various Gothic tales.

Episode 6, Terror & Horror

This episode covers terror and horror as outlined in Ann Radcliffe's famous model. Using this model, Lindsay and I dissect The Invisible Man (2020). 

Episode 7, Satan

This episode cover Satan (in all his forms) in Gothic media. 

Episode 8, Phallic Women & Archaic Mothers 

From Macbeth to Carrie to Metroid, Lindsay and I discuss phallic women and Archaic Mothers in Gothic media. 

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Persephone van der Waard is the author of the multi-volume, non-profit book series, Sex Positivity—its art director, sole invigilator, illustrator and primary editor (the other co-writer/co-editor being Bay Ryan). She has her independent PhD in Gothic poetics and ludo-Gothic BDSM (focusing on partially on Metroidvania), and is a MtF trans woman, anti-fascist, atheist/Satanist, poly/pan kinkster, erotic artist/pornographer and anarcho-Communist with two partners. Including her multiple playmates/friends and collaborators, Persephone and her eighteen muses work/play together on Sex Positivity and on her artwork at large as a sex-positive force. She sometimes writes reviews, Gothic analyses, and interviews for fun on her old blog; or does continual independent research on Metroidvania and speedrunning. If you're interested in her academic/activist work and larger portfolio, go to her About the Author page to learn more; if you're curious about illustrated or written commissions, please refer to her commissions page for more information.