Happy New Year! Today we discuss something not at all relevant to our current world situation, oh no, not at all, who would even think that: Hypocrisy. Starting the new year off on a positive, optimistic foot, eh?
Before we get to that, we (and return guest Sara Shaw) share some of the good, positive things in our lives, like video games and Philip Pullman.
What’s Stuck In Our Heads This Week
Martha: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Pete: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Sara: The West Wing
In an effort to be more mindful, Martha hopes to play more video games this year, and she’s kicking things off with the most recent Dragon Age epic (you can’t double-fist social media when you’re too busy killing Darkspawn). We all collectively have a moment (some more than others) over The Golden Compass, and Sara returns to a simpler moment in pop culture history when it felt like The West Wing could have been our future rather than a beautiful fantasy.
Homework for the Episode
Sara: The Ides of March, 2011, dir. George Clooney
Martha: Saved!, 2004, dir. Brian Dannelly
Pete: Animal Farm, 1945, auth. George Orwell
Some points of consideration:
- How does hypocrisy play out in the different genres that we look at?
- What is hypocrisy telling us about these characters, and what does it tell us about ourselves in what we view as being hypocritical?
- We definitely get into why politics and religion feature so prominently as themes.
Next episode, we’re going a little lighter with Coming of Age stories! Brand new guest Kim Scheslinger joins us to get into the buldungsroman.
Your Homework:
Pete: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Martha: Call Me By Your Name, film by Luca Guadagnino
Kim: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Did You Do Your Homework? 