Episode 573 - Join the cult?
Mar 7, 2022
Cults are weird. Unlike normal religions (from which many cults stem), cults are usually based more around charismatic individuals rather than simple doctrine. Which means the followers of cults can often get a little crazy because they're following the whims of an individual rather than boring old text from a book. And this is why religious groups with charismatic leaders (i.e evangelical Televangelists and hardline Imams), become crazy and cultish too.
Topics and Show Notes
Our lovely Andreas Helixfinger inspired this cast with an idea about how horrible cults can be in fiction. He made a newspost about that on the last Sunday of February. One of the interesting things I find about depictions of cults in fiction are the difference between how the right and left show cults. The rightwing version of what a cults is usually involves satanism, pentagrams, goats, human sacrifice, blood, knives etc. While the more leftwing version is of a creepily nice, ultra conservative, uptight group of people who live in perfect houses, dress very neatly, have their hair just right and are usually very rich, but under the surface they're all creepy murderers or sex fiends or demon worshipers or something.
Some of the fictional cults we mention in the cast are various cults in Warhammer 40k; the Chaos cultists, the Imperial cult, The machine cult, the genesteeler cults… It's funny how the Chaos Cultists mirror our real world cultish people: Slaneesh cultists are sex maniacs B&D, S&M people; Khorn followers are death metalheads; Tzeentch followers would be Q-Anon conspiracy theorists; And followers of Nurgle wold be antivaxers.
Some good fictional cults were shown in The Wickerman, Midsommer, Hot Fuzz, Randal and Hopkirk Deceased (the reboot series) has about 3 different cult episodes, Welcome to NHK has a brilliant depiction of a multi level marketing cult (Anime is FULL of cults), and Tantz mentioned a great Korean movie with a cult: Keuraim Peojeul.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Remedial Magic - Puddles and ripples of light and dappled shadow spreading outward ever wider and wider. Beads of light glow within, sparkles glitter and burn. This is a pleasantly thrumming piece of electronica that gently steps from note to note.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Evil Cult Newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/feb/26/horrific-evil-cults/
Keuraim Peojeul - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15305982/
Featured comic:
ORIGIN by David Abiola Olukoga - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/mar/01/featured-comic-origin-by-david-abiola-olukoga/
Featured music:
Remedial Magic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Remedial_Magic/ - by Sameth, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
PitFace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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Episode 572 - Myths of fiction part 2
Feb 28, 2022
Last week we did a thing of the persistent myths of fiction- fictional conventions that we all just accept, and are repeated over and over and even influence real life- for example: that people are blasted back in reaction to being shot. It started as a way of making shooting scenes more dramatic and obvious on film, but became a convention and we all believe it so much that it influences reality- it's part of the famous JFK conspiracy about a “second shooter” because people foolishly think JFK's head rocking “back and to the left” indicated the direction of a gunshot. The kinetic energy of a bullet is imparted to the medium it strikes, typically through heat and destruction when it hits a soft target like a human.
Episode 571 - Myths of fiction
Feb 21, 2022
There are so many really silly cliché myths from fiction that we all just tend to accept. They're objectively stupid but they get repeated so often that we don't bat an eye when we see them and we can even start to believe them in reality. I thought it'd be fun to dig into them in a Quackcast. I made a thread in the forum for people to contribute to. Unfortunately we didn't get to many in the Quackcast but there's always time to do another!
Episode 570 - Hair!
Feb 14, 2022
Time to chat about character hairstyles. Tantz did a newspost about them a few weeks ago and I spun the topic off into a fashion subject for a Quackcast, but something really basic and simple like hair has a lot of potential in its own right. There are lots of things you can consider…
Episode 569 - Everything old is new again
Feb 7, 2022
He might not be in the Quackcast right now but he's in our hearts and in this topic! Banes did a newspost about Nostalgia the other day because so much popculture these days is openly recycled: from reboots and remakes, to stuff done in 80s styles etc. This sort of thing has always existed of course, nothing is new not even nostalgia ironically, but today there is more of it and less totally new stuff.
Episode 568 - Growing up!
Jan 31, 2022
This Quackcast is about one of the cool things about being an adult: growing out of childhood prejudices and expanding your tastes to try new things. There's this rosy, idealistic idea that kids are culture sponges, open to everything, all experiences and tastes, but that's a fantasy unfortunately. Kids are only open to experiences for a relatively short time before their preferences solidify, but even THEN they have a very strict hierarchy of sources they'll accept those influences from- parents, friends, family etc. A lot of what they like is driven by peer pressure and the opinions of others.
Episode 567 - Fairies, the Darkmatter of the supernatural
Jan 24, 2022
Pit and Tantz join me to talk about about fairies, fae, Faery, Fair folk, Yokai, and all that good stuff. They're like the dark-matter of the supernatural world: they're not really gods, demons, monsters, or ghosts (though sometimes they are al of those sort off…), they generally fill the spaces between. They exist in a lot of cultures all over the place. They can be naughty spirits, elemental creatures, or animalistic, but generally they're quite alien and unknowable. This discussion comes from Tantz's newspost on Saturday.
Episode 566 - feeling the vibe!
Jan 16, 2022
Let's talk about total immersion… When consuming media rather than creating it, if you're lucky you become immersed: the struggles and fears of the character become your own. You feel for them, you care, their pain, their hunger, even their shivers and sweats, you care about the world in which they live… That can be an amazing feeling and it's pretty much WHY we really enjoy and keep consuming media. Themes, great visuals, intellectual explorations of ideas and concepts are all very well but nothing compels and excites you as much as when you really CARE what's happening. So that's what we're chatting about! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
