(Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 3: Elden Ring: Endless Purgatorio
In episode three of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Ajay and Isi welcome fellow faculty and videogame connoisseur Joseph Earl Thomas to talk about Elden Ring, the acclaimed 2022 RPG videogame, directed and created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and Japan's FromSoftware studio (alongside some "worldbuilding" by Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin.) After a few preliminaries (a revisit to Andor and discussions of the recent Sight and Sound "best movies" poll, Pokemon, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as communist allegory, and more), the talk turns to Elden Ring's "endless purgatorio," its "nihilistic" setting, its "open-world" structure (just how "open" are open worlds?), the meaning and limits of agency in videogame play, taking pleasure in difficulty, "affective difficulty," why videogame playing might be like dancing (with reference to BISR's late Jeffrey Escoffier), affect theory (and feeling bad about killing), gender, playing dress-up, and much more besides.
The Podcast for Social Research
From Plato to quantum physics, Walter Benjamin to experimental poetry, Frantz Fanon to the history of political radicalism, The Podcast for Social Research is a crucial part of our mission to forge new, organic paths for intellectual work in the twenty-first century: an ongoing, interdisciplinary series featuring members of the Institute, and occasional guests, conversing about a wide variety of intellectual issues, some perennial, some newly pressing. Each episode centers on a different topic and is accompanied by a bibliography of annotations and citations that encourages further curiosity and underscores the conversation’s place in a larger web of cultural conversations.
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Practical Criticism No. 65—Dark Side of the Moon
In episode 65 of the Podcast for Social Research’s “Practical Criticism” series, the game has changed. For a special live recording of the final episode of 2022, everyone knew in advance that the sonic object would be Pink Floyd’s landmark concept album—and favorite laser light show accompaniment—Dark Side of the Moon. A gathering of dedicated […]
Faculty Spotlight: Paige Sweet
For the second installment of Faculty Spotlight, hosts Mark DeLucas and Lauren K. Wolfe sit down with faculty Paige Sweet—writer, writing consultant, literary theorist, and practicing psychoanalyst—for a wide-ranging conversation about the many eclectic aspects of her work, including the unconventional classroom and how it transforms pedagogical practice; what constitutes literary “theft” (from Kathy Acker’s […]
(Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 2: Stellan Skarsgårdian
In the second episode of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Isi and Ajay continue their explorations of the “fantastic form” of pop-cultural commodities. This time around, they take up the latest addition to the Star Wars universe, Tony Gilroy’s television series Andor. Their talk touches on topics large and small, from animatronic garbage droids, ordinary social life […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 56: Virology—A Reading, Conversation, and Celebration with Joseph Osmundson
In episode 56 of the Podcast for Social Research, BISR faculty Joseph Osmundson joins Ajay Singh Chaudhary and Nafis Hasan for a discussion of his new, highly acclaimed book Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead and the Small Things in Between (Norton). Issues at hand include: the biological and social mechanics of viruses; how they’re […]
Faculty Spotlight: Türkan Pilavci
In the inaugural episode of Faculty Spotlight, hosts Lauren K. Wolfe and Mark DeLucas sit down with faculty Türkan Pilavci, art historian and field archaeologist, for a wide-ranging conversation about her work, including her archaeological field work in Turkey, the problems with art museums, the meaning and periodization of “Ancient Egypt”; how modern states draw on—and […]
(Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 1: Elves and Dragons
Introducing Episode 1 of the new Podcast for Social Research subseries (Pop) Cultural Marxism, in which Ajay and Isi (and special guests!) will be exploring the “fantastic form” of pop-cultural commodities—from film and television to toys and games to objects of every conceivable consumer variety. In the premier episode, they turn their attention to the […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 55.5, Shortcast: Heathers
In this Podcast for Social Research Shortcast, BISR’s Ajay Singh Chaudhary and Isabella Likte consider the genre of teen comedy—or, in this case, a macabre critique of the genre. Sitting down for a short discussion in advance of our People’s Choice Back-to-School screening of Michael Lehmann’s 1989 film Heathers at BISR Central, Ajay and Isi […]
Practical Criticism No. 26—György Ligeti
In episode 26 of the Podcast for Social Research’s Practical Criticism series, Ajay Singh Chaudhary plays György Ligeti for Rebecca Ariel Porte, who, as usual, doesn’t know what the object of the week will be. They talk the newness of New Music, sparkling dissonance, champagne dissonance, weak shock, the poetry of Monk and Evans, generosity […]
Podcast for Social Research, Episode 55: The Last Emperor
In episode 55 of the Podcast for Social Research, BISR faculty Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Rebecca Ariel Porte, and Isabella Katrina Litke sit down after our Occasional Evening screening of The Last Emperor to record a film guide to Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 masterpiece. Subjects discussed include the making of the film (with the active participation of […]