Episode 70: The nightmare of history
In the 1943 film I Walked with a Zombie, the best defense that the descendants of slaves have against White plantation owners is magic.
What happens when you bring real history into fantastical stories about monsters and magic? We talk about movies, books, and TV where the result is a more compelling, emotional -- and even truthful -- representation than literal history can provide. Plus, we talk to author and historian P. Djèlí Clark about his writing, especially his latest historical horror novella, Ring Shout.
Notes, Citations, & etc.
The Odyssey, allegedly by Homer
The Aeneid, by Vergil
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, by Susanna Clarke
The Temeraire series, by Naomi Novik
Dread Nation, by Justina Ireland
Crooked, by Austin Grossman
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, dir. Xavier Burgin — a 2019 documentary featuring Due and other creators talking about the horror noire genre.
Lovecraft Country, created by Misha Green
Black Skin, White Masks, by Franz Fanon
Sorry to Bother You, dir. Boots Riley
Whitey on the Moon, by Gil Scott-Heron
A Dead Djinn in Cairo, by P. Djèlí Clark
Ring Shout, by P. Djèlí Clark
The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark
“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” by P. Djèlí Clark
Formation, by Beyoncé
Hegel’s master-slave dialectic
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness in the Literary Imagination, by Toni Morrison (Annalee mistakenly refers to it as “Whiteness in the Black Imagination.”)
Birth of a Nation, dir. D.W. Griffith (1915)
“Slavery and Film,” class taught by Dexter Gabriel (P. Djèlí Clark is his pen name)
I Walked with a Zombie, dir. Jacques Tourneur
Antebellum, dir Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz
Queimada!, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo
Quilombo, dir. Carlos Diegues
The Last Supper, dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Brother from Another Planet, dir. John Sayles
Get Out, dir. Jordan Peele
The WPA Slave Narrative Collection
Sly Mongoose, by Tobias Buckell