Episode 1.4: Equal Rites

Happy full moon–and lunar eclipse! For our fourth episode, we’re throwing it back to a classic: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett.

Our theme song is “Moon and Spruce” by Sarah Littledrum.

Here’s a listening guide for the episode. (For a description of our segments, go here.)

Introduction (0:00 – 3:20)

• Shout out to Hannah McGregor’s new podcast, Secret Feminist Agenda
• Intro to the Discworld series and Terry Pratchett

Which Craft? (3:20 – 29:35)

• Discworld‘s subversion of fantasy tropes
• Examples of Pratchett’s comedic voice
• Potential allegories in the text (imposter syndrome)
• Semiotics and the production of meaning

“Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” (29:35 – 47:46)

• Reading magic through gender identity
• Reading magic as socially assigned labor

Related Links

Traditional Gender Hierarchy*

Male as Norm

Gender Master List: A Glossary of Gender Identities

“Bald Heads and Queer Noses” (47:47 – 1:00:15)

• Decoding bodies through visual cues, especially clothing (#robegate)
• Racebending and the benefits and drawbacks of foregoing racial signals

“Round About the Cauldron Go” (1:00:15 – 1:18:00)

• Connection between magic and the natural world (bees!)
• Real world magic (headology and the power of will)
• More bees!

Final Spells (1:18:10 – 1:24:00)

• String theory and parallel universes

Blooper Reel (1:25:00 – 1:26:50)

*Relevant quote from source above: “Women have traditionally been associated with the senses in Western culture, and in particular, with the ‘lower’ senses. Women are the forbidden taste, the mysterious smell, the dangerous touch. Men, by contrast, have been associated with reason, as opposed to the senses, or else with sight and hearing as the most ‘rational’ of the senses” (Constance Classen, The Color of Angels: Cosmology, Gender, and the Aesthetic Imagination, 1-2).

Next month (Sep. 6) we’ll be discussing Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. See you then!