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Season Six
Episode 63 - The Duchess of Malfi (1614)
Subtitle: We're ALL taking the snail dogsled
Abby calls Daniel: Football Hooligan
Daniel calls Abby: Soccer Mom
Casting: This should be a Paul Verhoeven film with Eva Green as the Duchess, Joaquin Phoenix as Ferdinand, Michael Sheen as the Cardinal, Robert Pattison as Antonio, James McAvoy as Bosola, and Mia Goth as Cariola.
Advice: If you're not sure how you feel about a book, it's OK to follow discussions about it. Be discerning about who you listen to and align your perspectives with, but sometimes you can clarify your own opinion based on the opinions of critics who you always (dis)agree with.
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: The next banned book is a bit sexy, and you don't get any sexier than a text from France.
Show Notes: This is the beginning of a season dedicated to banned and controversial books.
SMFMS Bookends 15 - The Duchess of Malfi (1614)
Subtitle: Too Hot To Handle
Abby calls Daniel: The Glocestershire Cheese-Rolling Competition
Daniel calls Abby: Kraft Singles Night
Remedial Bad GoodReads: Jane Eyre
Daniel's Media List: Children of Men (2006)
Abby's Media List: Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust (1934), Wicked (2024)
Episode 64 - Madame Bovary (1857)
Subtitle: Going to Wrack and Rouen
Abby calls Daniel: Spearmint Rhino
Daniel calls Abby: Hooters
Casting: This is a subplot on a season of White Lotus, with Kirsten Dunst as Emma Bovary and her real-life husband Jesse Plemons as Charles.
Advice: Read banned books. Banning books is just a way of controlling someone under the guise of 'protecting' them. Look at who's banning the books and really ask yourself why. What are they scared of you knowing?
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: The next one goes out to my girls, Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah!
SMFMS Bookends 16 - Madame Bovary (1857)
Subtitle: Tom and Jerry Plus an Encyclopaedia
Abby calls Daniel: Gentle tutting
Daniel calls Abby: Hey, pencil d*ck!
Remedial Bad GoodReads: Hamlet
Daniel's Media List: On the Town (1949)
Abby's Media List: Peaky Blinders; Name of the Rose (1980)
Episode 65 - The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
Subtitle: Put your 'gine into it!
Abby calls Daniel: This cheeky mare
Daniel calls Abby: Mustang Sally
Casting: Katherine Bigelow war film, from the perspective of the resistance; a woman of colour as Offred (maybe Journee Smollett or Taraji P. Henson) to reinforce that this has really happened and IS really happening, largely to non-white women.
Advice: Be suspicious of nostalgia, in fiction and in real life. It is a very powerful rhetorical tool used to manipulate people. No time period was EVER simpler and nicer.
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: Our next text very prominently features a classic spring and summertime recreational activity.
SMFMS Bookends 17 - The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
Subtitle: Feat. Daniel's Dogsh*t Attitude
Abby calls Daniel: Sir Patrick Stewart
Daniel calls Abby: William Shatner
Remedial Bad GoodReads: Beowulf
Daniel's Media List: Sorry to Bother You (2018); Post Office by Charles Bukowsi (1971)
Abby's Media List: Conclave (2024); Bones
Episode 66 - The Kite Runner (2003)
Subtitle: Beautiful Idiot Makes Honest Mistake
Abby calls Daniel: High Tea
Daniel calls Abby: Low Moonshine
Casting: A stage panto (with some of the more graphic elements toned down), with Baba played by a woman.
Advice: The main character gets a lot of flak for being an English major. However, English (and all humanities) degrees are incredibly versatile in the workplace and give you a lot of transferrable skills (critical thinking, research and good judgment of sources, creativity, public speaking, writing for different audiences, etc).
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: Two years ago in June, we did episodes on The Odyssey. Our next text (which we accidentally released in May) has very strong connections to both The Odyssey and to a specific date in June.
Show Notes: We reveal that we have begun a working relationship with PBS and do a promo swap.
Episode 67a - Ulysses, Part One (1922)
Subtitle: Beautiful Idiot Makes Honest Mistake
Abby calls Daniel: Union Jack
Daniel calls Abby: Right to Work Jill
Episode 67b - Ulysses, Part Two (1922)
Subtitle: That Fake Laugh Did Not Feel Good
Abby calls Daniel: Abbey Road
Daniel calls Abby: Virgil Caine is My Name and I Worked on the Danville Train
Casting: An edgy Bollywood film--lots of intergenerational play, the sex stuff would still be very taboo in this context, there would be loads of music and nonsequiturs, and everyone would be happy with the film being four hours long.
Advice: Libraries are currently in danger: to help stay in business, they need to show local authorities that they're actually being used. You can go in, check out as many books as they allow, and immediately return them in the book drop slot. This will boost their numbers.
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: The theme for our next three summer episodes is: 'Hot, Hotter, and Hottest'. Our first text is 'hot'. We are going somewhere sultry, with boiling-over tensions. And, because next month is Pride, there will be a queer connection to this text.
Episode 68 - A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
Subtitle: Po'boy on the Rocks
Abby calls Daniel: Where's Wally?
Daniel calls Abby: Where's Waldo?
Casting: Another Darren Aronofsky installment/companion film in the Black Swan/The Wrestler vein, with Jennifer Lawrence as Blanche and Florence Pugh as Stella. Maybe Jason Momoa as Stanley.
Advice: For plays, or texts that have been adapted into films, listen to how actors 'approach' a role. Usually an actor will find a small detail that 'unlocks' the whole text for them personally, and this varies from actor to actor.
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: We are going even hotter. When we started this show, we said we'd only focus on high literature, which means no fan fiction, no pulp, no pornography. But what if our next text was both high literature and pornography?
Notes: In this episode, the microphones completely broke and Abby and Daniel recorded the whole episode without noticing. Abby managed to more or less save the audio in the end.
Episode 69 - Fanny Hill (1748)
Subtitle: Yoo hoo, boys!
Abby calls Daniel: This Right Slapper
Daniel calls Abby: This Hooker
Casting: A late '60s Roger Vadim camp classic, like Barbarella, with Jane Fonda as Fanny and Ruth Gordon as Mrs Cole.
Advice: Read everything: good books, bad books, everything. Books that are badly written can help you better articulate why something is good or bad.
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: This is the most obvious clue we've ever given. In our mini-season of 'hot, hotter, and hottest', what could possibly be hotter than Fanny Hill?
Episode 70 - Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Subtitle: We're Part of the Problem
Abby calls Daniel: Jelly Baby
Daniel calls Abby: Wax Lips, the Lips of a Thousand Uses
Casting: A David Mamet film, because he's a fairly conservative person so he might make the horrible conservative world seem normal and good early on; the famously fast-paced, robotic Mament dialogue style would be perfect. Gene Hackman as Beatty, Lesley Ann Warren as Mildred.
Advice: Join your local library--as many libraries as possible. Getting a library card, even if you don't use it, contributes to their numbers and therefore their funding. You can also get loads of free services from a library.
Clue(s) to the Next Episode: We're returning to school soon; what better way to celebrate the new term than with someone playing hookey?
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