{"id":11221,"date":"2015-03-07T11:41:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T16:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=11221"},"modified":"2015-03-09T08:47:02","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T12:47:02","slug":"reaching-out-through-retold-stories-radio-readings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2015\/03\/reaching-out-through-retold-stories-radio-readings.html","title":{"rendered":"Reaching Out through Retold Stories [Radio Readings]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You can listen to\u00a0\u201cFights in Good Faith,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0my weekly radio program,\u00a0 streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm<\/a>\u00a0 The episode is now available to download\/stream on demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week, Rosamund Hodge\u2019s\u00a0Crimson Bound<\/em><\/a> served as a jumping off point to talk about why I love reading retold stories.<\/p>\n

Every week, I put up a \u201cRadio Readings\u201d post, so you can track down the books, articles, and, (this week) fanfiction that I cite on the show. So, without further ado, here\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about this week.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guaranteed Redemption or Damnation, Pick One<\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
Rosamund Hodge\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Crimson Bound<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>is set in a world where people marked by the forestborn must kill someone within three days or die themselves. \u00a0If they survive, they will eventually become one of the heartless forestborn themselves.<\/li>\n
Ted Chiang\u2019s \u201cHell is the Absence of God\u201d<\/a> is set in a world where angels visit earth frequently, and people blinded by their light will\u00a0automatically<\/em> go to Heaven when they die.<\/li>\n
*Cassandra Clare\u2019s\u00a0**Mortal Instruments<\/em><\/a> trilogy includes a secular Jewish character who winds up as a vampire and is distressed by his inability to say the name of God or pray* the Sh\u2019ma<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why set a story inside another story?<\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
Hodge\u2019s Crimson Bound<\/i><\/a> is only loosely linked to Little Red Riding Hood and The Girl with No Hands.<\/li>\n
Nancy Werlin\u2019s\u00a0Impossible<\/em><\/a> tracks \u201cScarborough Fair\u201d<\/a> much more closely.<\/li>\n
Eliezer Yudkowsky told\u00a0Vice<\/em><\/a> that his\u00a0Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality<\/em><\/a> is too closely linked to\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em> proper to be unhooked and told as an independent story.<\/li>\n
Meanwhile, Marvel is transposing its Avengers to the Wild West<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allusions and Asperger\u2019s<\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
The Moss Troll problem<\/a>\u00a0is the difficulty fantasy authors have, cut off from common points of reference, building up both sides of their analogies at once.<\/li>\n
In Priscilla Goodman\u2019s\u00a0 The Anti-Romantic Child: A Story of Unexpected Joy<\/em><\/a>, her hyperlexic<\/a>\u00a0son was more likely to use other people\u2019s words than his own.<\/li>\n
In \u201cI See Your Value Now: Asperger\u2019s and \u00a0the Art of Allegory\u201d<\/a> Rachel Edidin describes how she finds it easiest to communicate by reaching for cultural references
\n
The only way I am consistently comfortable communicating feelings is via broad fictional allegory. The friends who know me best\u2014not just likes-and-dislikes-and-interests, but things more fundamental and less articulable; the friends I\u2019m willing to let see me fucked up; the friends I text at 3 AM when my world is falling apart; are the friends who read the same comics I do.<\/p>\n
I tell him that I have a folder on my desktop labeled \u201cfeelings\u201d that is mostly panels clipped from comics and Community gifs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n
The Curb Cut Effect<\/a> is when an accommodation intended for people with a certain disability or other acute need winds up making life easier for a broader group of people than expected.<\/li>\n
(If you want the fastest two-book summary of all of\u00a0my<\/em> feelings, pick up\u00a0So You Want to Be a Wizard<\/em><\/a> and\u00a0Witches Abroad<\/em><\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arena Culture and #TheDress<\/h3>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
David Brooks discusses \u201cArena Culture\u201d<\/a> \u2014 a modern substitute for a shared understanding of the world
\n
For the past hundred years or so, we have lived in a secular age. That does not mean that people aren\u2019t religious. It means there is no shared set of values we all absorb as preconscious assumptions. In our world, individuals have to find or create their own meaning.<\/p>\n
This, Dreyfus and Kelly argue, has led to a pervasive sadness. Individuals are usually not capable of creating their own lives from the ground up. So modern life is marked by frequent feelings of indecision and anxiety.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n
Shared cultural references are required to pull off a joke like this Hunger Games\/Mulan video:
\n<\/iframe><\/li>\n<li>My friend group has build up a strange, shared canon (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/014310490X\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=014310490X&linkCode=as2&tag=unequyoked-20&linkId=WSJRIIEXS4LNLNBG\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Black Lamb and Grey Falcon<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0143039164\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0143039164&linkCode=as2&tag=unequyoked-20&linkId=YXASMHBM3T3TKPNW\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Kristin Lavransdatter<\/em><\/a>) but we didn\u2019t read them\u00a0simultaneously<\/em> the way we all did\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nBonus content that didn\u2019t wind up on the air: <a href=\"https:\/\/fanfiction.princeton.edu\/schedule-of-readings-and-viewings\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Princeton\u2019s syllabus for their class on fanfiction<\/a>, Barbara McClay on <a href=\"http:\/\/iasc-culture.org\/THR\/channels\/THR\/2015\/03\/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cWhat We Talk About When We Talk About What We Talk About When We Talk\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and a charming niche shared moment when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/wonkblog\/wp\/2015\/03\/06\/the-feds-released-todays-jobs-data-62-seconds-late-and-suspicions-flew-2\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the BLS didn\u2019t release the jobs report\u00a0exactly<\/em> on time, and all the econwonks flailed around together<\/a>.<\/p>\nOh! And if you don\u2019t want to wait til May to read\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00MMENBPS\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00MMENBPS&linkCode=as2&tag=unequyoked-20&linkId=TVR3AJ7HBP7TBJ35\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Crimson Bound<\/em><\/a>, Rosamund Hodge has another novel,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0062224735\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062224735&linkCode=as2&tag=unequyoked-20&linkId=CXD76XQVYFAOICHM\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Cruel Beauty<\/em><\/a> which is Beauty and the Beast\/Bluebeard-ish, plus\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00BEFTQN2\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00BEFTQN2&linkCode=as2&tag=unequyoked-20&linkId=ENJMJEMZIU56PSSF\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gilded Ashes<\/em><\/a>, a creepy Cinderella novella set in the same world as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0062224735\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062224735&linkCode=as2&tag=unequyoked-20&linkId=CXD76XQVYFAOICHM\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Cruel Beauty<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can listen to\u00a0\u201cFights in Good Faith,\u201d\u00a0my weekly radio program,\u00a0streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm\u00a0 The episode is now available to download\/stream on demand. This week, Rosamund Hodge\u2019s\u00a0Crimson Bound served as a jumping off point to talk about why I love reading retold stories. Every week, I put up a \u201cRadio […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":11222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-radio","category-reviewsrecommendations"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Reaching Out through Retold Stories [Radio Readings]<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can listen to\u00a0\u201cFights in Good Faith,\u201d\u00a0my weekly radio program,\u00a0streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm\u00a0 The episode is now available to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2015\/03\/reaching-out-through-retold-stories-radio-readings.html\" 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Why set a story inside another story?<\/h3>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Allusions and Asperger\u2019s<\/h3>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arena Culture and #TheDress<\/h3>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n