Category Archives: Podcast-Archive

The Superman archetype and American Imperialism

When did Superman get so “Dark”?

He’s as American as apple pie, coca-cola and black-ops interventions in the politics of other sovereign nations.

Superman is the symbol of all that is best about the United States of America. An indefatigable powerhouse, an Apollonian sun deity, child of the gods but raised by mortal man, and the archetype of post-WW2 American self image.

But as America has re-learned its own history, so Superman has changed and mutated.

From shining demigod hero.

To dark underworld evil.

00:00 Superman gets a ride in a London cab

00:59 Have we had enough of Dark Superman?

03:50 Content Warning

05:30 Superman is a strange hero

07:55 Superman as Apollonian archetype

11:12 A brief history of Dark Superman

15:42 THE ARCHETYPAL BEING

26:39 Shadow & Ego of Carl Jung

31:54 A shadow-work exercise

39:33 Integrating the Shadow of the Superman

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Strange New Worlds is a simpler Star Trek

Not every story needs to be an HBO prestige format tv show. Episodic television went out of fashion for a while there. But now with Strange New World’s it’s back…big time. Sometimes simple is good.

00:00 Captain’s Log
00:46 It’s just not Star Trek
03:56 The evolution of televisual storytelling
06:29 The Episodic Structure
10:45 Structure vs Content
12:38 The Prestige Format
14:05 Stop blaming Wokeness for bad storytelling
15:32 Psychological Realism
18:59 Simple is good

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

The slow-mo car crash of Amazon’s The Rings of Power

Gandalf announces a new plan to sell the One Ring to Jeff Bezos, and we see a more scathing side of Frodo.

00:00 Selling the One Ring
01:24 The slow-mo car crash of Amazon’s Rings of Power
04:25 New talent – Daniel Abraham, Robin Hobb, NK Jemisin
06:28 Statement of the Tolkien Society
09:48 Worldbuilding and the CEF
12:15 A word from the Wise
17:01 Our new tech giant entertainment overlords

Tolkien Society statement
https://www.tolkiensociety.org/blog/2022/05/i-met-the-team-behind-the-rings-of-power-they-love-tolkien/

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

LitFic vs SciFi – the consilience position

Why does science fiction not get the respect it deserves…from literary fiction?

It’s the East coast vs West cost gangster rap rivalry but fiction writers (except without the drive-by shootings…that I know of?) An ancient feud between the Realists and the Fantasists.

But beneath the surface of the LitFic vs SciFi argument is a more serious issue, about the power of storytelling, and the duty of storytellers.

Are we just the people paid to cast shadows for your entertainment, or is it the storyteller’s job to lead you out of the cave?

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Doctor Strange and the Meaning of Magic

The MCU are making a pivot. From the super-science hero, powered by scientific discovery. To the super-magic hero, powered by the mysteries of magic. WandaVision and Loki were the build-up. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is the pivot point. It’s part of a culture wide obsession with magic, fantasy, escape…and power. A special episode of the Science Fiction podcast asks the question…

…what is the meaning of magic?

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

The Northman : a map of the Unfathered man (with intro)

Batman. Luke Skywalker. Conan. Paul Atreides. And now The Northman. Just a few of the Unfathered men that dominate our storytelling. Why are we obsessed with the Unfathered man?

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Science Fiction Q&A

Questions from listeners of the Science Fiction podcast answered by Damien Walter.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:47 Will humans and machines eventually meld?
00:12:09 Where to go after reading everything by Iain M Banks
00:17:33 Three underrated, thought provoking science fiction novels?
00:25:36 Is Philip K Dick considered a good writer or more valued for his ideas?
00:27:16 What is William Gibson’s best novel?
00:35:36 Has an NFT ever sold for more than it was bought for?
00:39:21 What is your next story about and when is it coming out?
00:47:40 Why are most science fiction fans on Facebook communists?
00:53:52 How will scifi shape science in the future?
00:58:48 What is the most exceptional medium of science fiction?
01:04:37 Can a story exist without human beings in it?
01:08:33 What are some of science fiction’s constantly recurring flaws?
01:15:50 Has self-publishing contributed to the decline in the quality of science fiction?
01:22:08 What modern science fiction has the power of 1984 / Brave New World?
01:26:30 What do you think about YA scifi and gamelit?
01:30:58 What makes a story believable?

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Science fiction has always been woke

So. Star Wars just went woke did it?

But…wait…

Isn’t Star Wars the story of a army of male CLONES fighting for an authoritarian, colonialist Empire?

versus

An intersectional alliance of diverse species with capital ships commanded by sentient LOBSTERS???

How much more woke can scifi get?

Er. Star Trek’s original multiracial crew? Marvel’s encoded counter cultural messages? HG Wells anti-colonialist novels? The existentialist skepticism of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley?

The truth is..scifi has always been woke.

00:00 Diamond Disney
04:20 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast
05:53 The woke mind virus of Elon Musk
10:39 Scifi has always been woke
16:22 The CEF (Corporate Entertainment Franchise)
19:36 Centralized vs Decentralized Culture
22:50 Disney can’t serve both sides of the culture wars
26:51 The only good side in the Culture War is…

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Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Workshop: Writing Hard SF

Hard SF begins in the realm of pure logic, extrapolating scientific ideas into credible near futures. But the greatest Hard SF by writers like Arthur C Clarke, Ursula Le Guin and William Gibson weaves stories of poetic beauty.

00:00 Writing Hard SF
01:38 The problem with Had SF
03:51 Thinking about thinking
06:39 What is Hard SF?
10:51 Hard SF : Ideas
12:27 4 stages of ideation
20:23 Hard SF : Toolkit
22:30 Toolkit ONE – Character
26:26 Toolkit TWO – Structure
29:24 Toolkit THREE – Novum
32:10 Toolkit FOUR – Metaphor
34:14 Toolkit FIVE – Symbol
37:05 Toolkit SIX – Subtext
40:52 Toolkit SEVEN – Allegory
43:54 Toolkit EIGHT – Myth
49:08 Toolkit NINE – Theme
50:38 Toolkit TEN – Emotion

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Read the classic of hard SF https://amzn.to/3jJNWCb

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Arthur C Clarke’s forgotten masterpiece of hard SF

It’s Arthur C Clarke’s greatest novel and a classic of “hard” science fiction. The Fountains of Paradise is a brilliantly realized story of humankind’s ascent to the stars, not on rockets, but by building the first space elevator. Clarke predicted the discovery of carbon super materials with the “diamond hyperfilament” that is strong enough to stretch 36,000km from Earth to geosynchronous orbit.

But it’s not the science that makes Arthur C Clarke’s novel so great.

It’s the symbolism.

00:00 The Fountains of Paradise
03:50 Science Fiction Q & A
06:49 The forgotten masterpiece of Arthur C Clarke
09:49 The three stages of Clarke’s career
14:07 Was Clarke a good writer?
17:04 The competent engineer
19:30 Hyperfilament
24:50 The Clark-o-verse of Low Orbit SF
27:04 Symbolism and the poetic beauty of hard SF
37:57 Could we…and should we…build a space elevator?
43:51 The Wealth Transfer Frontier we need

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read the classic of hard SF https://amzn.to/3jJNWCb

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Dune part 2

There are many challenges between Denis Villeneuve and completing one of the few truly great science fiction movies ever made. Can Denis capture Paul Atreides transformation of consciousness on screen? Can his Feyd-Rautha compete with Sting stepping out of a steam shower? And most of all…can Dune part 2 overcome the problematic writing of Frank Herbert?

00:00 Play that funky music Denis
02:20 The only great science fiction movies
04:14 The problematic writing of Frank Herbert
06:46 Offences to the purity of Dune
08:02 Can Dune part 2 TRANSFORM our consciousness?
10:16 The Water of Life
11:49 The Fremen
13:21 Chani
14:47 Feyd-Rautha
18:07 The Sandworms of Arrakis

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Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR