Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Science fiction cannot be discussed without discussing Foundation. In this episode of Leave It To The Prose, we discuss the items of Foundation that have stood the test of time as well as what aspects of the story have not aged well.

Spoilers

• Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Other Media Mentioned

• The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• JRR Tolkien works such as The Lord of the Rings
• Piers Anthony works such as A Spell for Chameleon
• Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
• The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin (‘seasons’ book referred to)

Foundation

Based loosely on the fall of the Roman Empire, Foundation takes us into the future to look at a society spanning hundreds of planets. Across this hard science fiction lens Asimov tells a story of social determinism and if humans can be the masters of their own destinies.

Kamanti’s Child and Through the Veil by Jenniffer Marie Brissett

Jenniffer Marie Brissett is a Manhattan author and winner of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Special Citation Award and finalist for the Locus Award. Brissett’s work has been published in many magazines since 2009, and has an upcoming book, Destroyer of Light, set to be released in the Fall of 2021.

In this Episode

• Kamanti’s Child is the story of an alien mother who gives birth, discovers a human child, and finds a connection that transcends the conflict that surrounds them.
• The magic system within Kamanti’s Child is originally portrayed as an old, mythic type of system, however, the final image is one of science fiction. Kamanti’s Child blurs the lines of science fiction and fantasy and how magic is just science we do not understand.
• The single effect of Kamanti’s Child is finding a peacefulness in a world of chaos and conflict.
• Diving into the interpretation of the line “I can see that we were like them once. Long ago.”
• Through the Veil is the story of a scientist who goes rogue, takes her defunded project into a rural farmhouse, and seeks to travel into a place that is somewhere else.
• Through the Veil‘s themes of obsession, identity, and transition. How contrasts are drawn between the real world and a dream world are brought together via the topics of purpose, color, and movement.
• The role of the unreliable narrator in Through the Veil, and how there is an interpretation of a death. But, how we are quite content with taking the more reliable narration point of view.
• How the dream world of Through the Veil is the narrator’s best interpretation of what could be beyond, and how it is so much better than any Lovecraftian description.
• How space, physical location could play into the theme of starting at the same location within the dream. One interpretation through projections and the rules that we currently know, vs an interpretation similar to that of The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin.

Works Discussed and Mentioned

• Kamanti’s Child (major spoilers), link to the short story on Uncanny.
• Through the Veil (major spoilers), link to the short story on Uncanny.
• Tideline by Elizabeth Bear (mentioned), link to our discussion.
• Lovecraft (mentioned), link to our discussion.
• The Three Body Problem (mentioned) by Liu Cixin, link to our discussion.

The Specialist’s Hat by Kelly Link

Happy October! To celebrate the spooky month of October we are discussing the ghost story The Specialist’s Hat by Kelly Link. Kelly Link is an award winning author known for genre-combination and magical realism. The Specialist’s Hat contains horror, fantasy, suspense, and realism exemplifying Kelly Link’s style. Find Kelly Link’s Specialist’s Hat here.

Discussed this episode

• The unreliable narrator. Despite not having a specific point of view character, the narrator of the story keeps reality ambiguous. The narrator sets up an expectation–for example the children play at dead–but then later on it is referenced that there is no pain and only no pain when death occurs. Statement of the truth followed later by a contradictory statement of truth provide a level of unsettlement. This unease forces the reader to question what is presented: is it true? What is the actual truth?
• Characterization by means of showing. The children are studying numbers, and throughout the story numbers are referenced: the number of stories in the house, the number of chimneys, the number of windows. The characterization of the children as individuals who study numbers is then reinforced within the narrative.
• The use of journal entries as ways to provide additional information and to break up the narration. Various epigraphs, which are poems from an author within the story, break up the story as a way to introduce the Specialist, and also other haunting elements of the house.
• The invocation of horror. The Specialist is brought up several times, and each time just enough information is provided to allow the reader to fill out with horror. The Specialist is someone who is coming. Ghosts are hinted at. Strangers in the woods. These little descriptions and asides are enough to weave a framework to create suspense and build off of the unease of the narration.

November is Next Month!

Make sure to follow Reid in National Novel Writing Month. Follow him as he takes over the Leave It To The Prose Twitter and attempts word sprints and plotting.

Leave it to the Prose, Your Podcast for Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature

Leave it to the Prose is your podcast for science fiction and fantasy literature. We bring the perspective of a writer (Reid) and a reader (Isaac) to critically discuss science fiction and fantasy works. In this episode we look back at 2020 and ahead into 2021.

Looking back in 2020 a few themes stand out: short stories; comedy and horror, and length of works. In 2020 we expanded our short story repertoire, beginning with several discussions of award winning short stories to our read through of Uncanny Magazine and continuing to our discussion of the Hugo Award Finalists. For comedy and horror our discussion grew from how similar beat structures could be tailored to one genre to the other. And finally we have a plethora of short and long works to discuss how science fiction and fantasy can be conveyed regardless of length.

Looking ahead to 2021

Our first episodes:

• January The Forests of Silence (Deltora Quest book 1) by Emily Rodda
• The Invasion (Animorphs book 1) by K.A. Applegate
• The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) by Lemony Snicket
• The Giver by Lois Lowry

Other episodes to look forward to include our discussion of the 2021 The Hugo Award Short Story Finalists (after they are announced). “The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro and “The Poppy War” by R.F. Kuang.

Leave it to the Prose: The Next Chapter

Announcing Leave it the Prose: The Next Chapter! An occasional sequel series. Our first series will be the Red Rising Trilogy (Red Rising, Golden Son, and Morning Star) by Pierce Brown. This sequel series will air on the alternate weeks of the regularly scheduled Leave it to the Prose episodes. The Next Chapter will provide space to discuss character development and plot structure that spans multiple books.

Our favorite podcast episodes and works read of 2020

• “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu. Read the story here and listen to our discussion here.
• “And Now His Lordship is Laughing” by Shiv Ramdas
• “As the Last I May Know” by S.L. Huang
• “Dawn” by Octavia Butler, listen to our discussion here.
• Exemplar works:
  • World Building: “A Memory Called Empire” by Arkady Martine
  • Tone: “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern
  • Point of View: “Warming Season” by S.R. Algernon and “The Tiger’s Daughter” by K. Arsenault Rivera
  • Theme (in a not so good way): “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury and “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Other works mentioned

• “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb.
• “Empire of Imagination” by Michael Witwer.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

We went back in time to the works of Shakespeare and how Macbeth solidifies several traditions in speculative fiction. A story or witches, Macbeth follows the titular character as the theme of destiny vs freewill is battled by means of using the fantastical elements of prophecy. The story begins with Macbeth as he is told a prophecy of how he will one day become king. Upon telling his wife, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth conspire to kill the king and therefore become king. Then comes the dramatic final acts as Macbeth turns to

We Discuss

• The accessibility of Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays were written for a 1600s audience and was meant to be consumed via a stage performance medium. There is a common understanding that Shakespeare’s plays and characters spanned the human condition and commentary on the human condition, but due to the fact of these plays being written for the stage and for a different time period of audience, it is very difficult to understand the work simply from the source material itself. Huge recommendation Looking for Richard by Al Pacino, a documentary that breaks down the key elements of Richard III and dissects how the elements of character, plot, and theme are relevant to a modern audience. In general, when you read Shakespeare, utilize the resources that are available to assist with understanding the depth of the stories. (Royal Shakespeare Society Eduction resources on Macbeth, No Fear Shakespeare)
• Macbeth contains many tiny details that are easy to miss (and thus our recommendation of utilizing the internet to find these details), for example the cadence and structure of Lad Macbeth’s lines change as the play advances. Similarly, the witches speak in tuple-rhymes.
• The Definition of a Witch. Macbeth depicts witches and introduces a “Chicken or Egg” debate over how much solidification and summary Shakespeare utilized vs creation. The image of a collection of witches around a cauldron perhaps was created by Shakespeare and now is quite prevalent in modern culture (Disney’s Hocus Pocus for example).
• Witches and magic as a means of exaggerated storytelling. Speculative fiction utilizes fantastical elements to invoke scenarios where theme and character are at the forefront of the story. The witches tell Macbeth a prophecy of how Macbeth will become king. This kicks off a series of destiny vs freewill. Would Macbeth have become king without Lady Macbeth and Macbeth interfering? Would Macbeth have become king without the witches intervening? Did the witches cause Macduff to kill Macbeth? On one side Macbeth had his own ambition, but on the other side if there was that protection or confidence gained by the knowledge the witches gave... what influence did that have? Did Macbeth’s own flaws lead to his downfall?
• The beat structure of a tragedy, and the dramatic reversal towards the negative. Within tragedy the main character often has a fatal flaw, that near the end of the story causes the main character to have a dramatic reversal towards the negative. Within Macbeth, it is Macbeth’s worry and concern that leads to Macbeth assassinating enemies that he did not actually need to assassinate. Typically we see tragedy structure in the middle books or movies in a multi-book or multi-series: for example Han Solo becoming frozen in The Empire Strikes Back; book 2 of the Red Rising Series (Golden Son); book 2 of The Hunger Games (Catching Fire).

Upcoming Episodes

• 3/22/21 – Leave it to the Prose – The Next Chapter: Golden Son by Pierce Brown
• 3/29/21 – Episode 61, Read-through of Fantasy Magazine 63. (Read Ahead here)
• 4/5/21 – Leave it to the Prose – The Next Chapter: Morning Star by Pierce Brown
• 4/12/21 – Episode 62, Short Stories of Usman T Malik (The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family – listen here, The Wandering City)