Join Ben and Mark as we explore Moby Dick! Now that we’ve completed the novel itself, in the Appendices we’re plunging like fate into the many ways people have adapted it. Whether as film, anime, musical theater, or theme park ride, whether faithful, reinterpreted, or just plain bizarre, we’re here to see Moby Dick in whatever form culture can provide it to us.
A quick update about Detect or Die, a new TTRPG Ben wrote and Mark edited, that’s going to be available on Ben’s Itch Page HERE, and then the project page HERE starting August 25th! Also, if you are interested, August 25th is Itch.io Creator Day, so Ben would certainly appreciate first-day downloads! There’s an example of play HERE, and in this audio update, Ben explains how SF studies influenced his design for a Disco Elysium inspired amnesiac detective tabletop role-playing game.
Ben will also be posting on Twitter and Bluesky - both @silkandstone - with more information about the game and its design this Thursday and Friday.
Thanks for listening!
P.S. There’s a quotation from Darko Suvin in Detect or Die, so it even connects directly to our upcoming Starboard Vineyard Tours episode - Ben
No appendix today, but we have something else for you. We’ve started a new podcast, called Starboard Vineyard Tours! It's the same two overthinking goofballs talking about literature, but this time we'll be reading academic works of science fiction studies, which is a field with a lot of depth and some surprising relevance to Moby Dick. Our first episode, on Samuel R. Delany's essay "About 5,750 Words", is up now. We hope you give the show a try!
This time around, we delve into one of the least rigorously defined musical genres, whalecore. From the classic of the genre, Mastodon’s Leviathan, to a period-accurate sea shanty collection, your hosts Mark and Ben discuss a wide variety of Moby Dick inspired, nautical, or simply whale-flavored music. In all, we talk about: Leviathan (Mastodon), The Call of the Wretched Sea (AHAB), Of Sailors and Whales (W. Francis McBeth), Whaling and Sailing Songs From the Days of Moby Dick (Paul Clayton), Concertato “Moby Dick” (Peter Mennin), and Moby Dick (Bernard Herrmann). There’s a lot of whale music out there.
We don't have another Appendix lined up right now, but that doesn't mean you won't hear from us. Stay tuned!
This episode is a real roller coaster ride, and by that, we mean that in it we experience (virtually) a literal roller coaster! We’re joined by Hannah Yoleau to discuss Hakugei, a Moby Dick-themed roller coaster at Nagashima Spa Land in Kuwana, Japan, and its history as White Cyclone. We live react to POV videos of the two roller coasters! It’s a fun time, and we discuss what it means for a roller coaster to be an adaptation of a 19th century novel. You can find the videos we watched at these links.
