Dissecting Dragons

On the surface, you probably wouldn't immediately think of time travel when you think of Christmas stories, and yet there is a distinct connection which is hard to deny. Nor does it date to when Dr Who regularly began to deliver Christmas special episodes - it goes far further back than that. For the final episode in this year's festive selection, the dragons dive into why Christmas is the perfect setting for a time travel story. F...

Every enduring Christmas story has a villain woven in somewhere - whether that's King Herod in the nativity or Ebenezer Scrooge, the Grinch of Hans Gruber in Die Hard. Whether the audience is rooting for huge redemption arc or waiting for the bad guy to take a nosedive off the Nakatomi Plaza, there's something about a festive story that uniquely lends itself to a good villain. This week Jules and Madeleine delve into what makes a g...

'Ugly' is a subjective term, of course. Tastes vary and opinions are heavily influenced by how we perceive someone or how much we like them. However, there are plenty of characters in speculative fiction who even on the page do not fit the parameters of being conventionally physically attractive. When those books are translated to the screen, often the 'it' actors of the moment are cast in these roles because they are often great c...

Moving slightly away from spooky season and weird folklore, the dragons are clocking in with a writing episode. At the moment, Romantasy is the biggest whale splashing around in the sea of fantasy, partially drowning out other subgenres (at least temporarily). While romantasy is a lot of fun, it's caused further changes in the 'strong female character' trope which are less fun. This week, Jules and Madeleine revisit the subject, lo...

How many jobs and professions have existed over the centuries which we now no longer know anything about? Who thinks about warreners and coopers? Fowlers and knocker-ups? And yet this now unnecessary work lingers in surname origins and in the strange tales that grow up around these jobs. This week, still feeling semi spooky and continuing their recent folklore deep dive, Jules and Madeleine take a look at the urban myths which spra...

Still in the spooky zone, this week Jules and Madeleine take a look at the fascinating phenomenon of folklore being created in real time. There have always been parallels between technology and superstition, magic and science. As technology moves further into the non tangible realm of digital space, ghosts and other entities have begun to echo this shift. So what exactly is the part that folklore plays in this? Are all our ghosts g...

As far as the dragons are concerned it's still spooky season and this week, they are featuring one of the most beloved 'universal monsters' - the Mummy. From Ancient Egypt to Victorian obsession to post war film era, the Mummy has been a symbol for secrets and forbidden knowledge, often reflecting discomforting truths back at us. Jules and Madeleine take a look at why this is a universal monster - what are its origins? When did it ...

Sleep - something so mundane we do it around eight hours out of every twenty-four - makes a great vehicle for horror. Judging by folkloric record and cross cultural points of similarity, it's been part of horror for millennia. From old hag syndrome to nightmares to the simple but essential necessity of being unaware and vulnerable for blocks of time, sleep is it's own carnival of terror. This week Jules and Madeleine delve into why...

This week's spooky season offering dives past the whole haunted house experience to go deeper. What if the haunting was more specific? An attic or cellar is well known trope, but what about a playground? A nursery? A clock or a mirror? What do those things say about the state of the main character's mind in storytelling? And what exactly is the quiet terror of the mundane more effective than dripping gore and howling monsters? Jule...

It's time for episode three of the dragons' spooky season extravaganza and don't be deceived by the title. Folk Magic can go to some pretty dark places... This week, Jules and Madeleine take a look at a magic system that relies on mundane objects and folk knowledge. In fact this type of magic is, on the surface, so mundane that many people would argue that it's more superstition than a magic system. It forms a backbone in many folk...

Continuing their spooky season, this week the dragons pose a question: what's more frightening? The object of terror can see or the entity you can't?

A fear of non tangible threats is baked into the essential human make up - we would hardly have survived to evolve as we have if our ancestors had not had the capability to 'what if' about predators concealed in shadows or long grass. This is reflected in fairy tales, folklore, gothic...

The dragons are back just in time for spooky season. They are naturally kicking off their favourite season with a new slant on and old favourite subject - the Gothic. But what exactly do 'outsiders' have to do with Gothic literature? As it turns out, quite a lot. Jules and Madeleine take a joyful autumn romp through this little mentioned but essential ingredient of the genre from it's literary inception up to its quirky, spooky mod...

Approximately ten years ago, both dragons signed their first publishing contracts. Since then it's been a riotous series of highs and lows and new adventures - including the creation of this podcast. This week, Jules and Madeleine look back over the last decade. Would they have written their first books the same way if they'd been writing them now? What is the relationship between writing and creativity and where does creative insp...

Part Two of a Two Part Episode

Continuing on from last week's examination of how depictions of the work place in fiction have transitioned over the decades from daily grinds where hard work will reward the worthy to places where you can find fun and family (if you're a team player) to recent depictions of bleak office hellscapes where baffled, exploited employees are required to perform a series of increasingly bizarre and sensele...

Part one of a two part episode

Sci-fi and fantasy have portrayed many workplace settings over the decades - engineers and pilots on space craft, for example, or fairy smiths and kitchen witches in fantasy. However while fantasy has been leaning into the idea of leaving unfulfilling work and finding a perfect cosy profession, sci-fi has been delving into the nightmare of the bad workplace. This week, Jules and Madeleine take a look ...

Disney, purveyors and creators of magical family friendly (mostly) entertainment have existed through an interesting and checquered 9 decades. The company is responsible for some of the most beloved fairytale retellings and pioneered the animated feature film. However, it's not all magic kingdoms and pixiedust. As with all multi billion dollar corporations, there's a dark side.

The company has shapeshifted several times over the de...

Have you ever picked up a book, full of anticipation, only to quit 100 pages in? Or maybe you read the whole thing and were left annoyed and baffled when you reached the end? Welcome to the baked in cognitive dissonance of the bookish community. Uber hyped books can turn out to be...bad. Not just bad in your opinion but objectively bad when employing the metrics of writing skill, storytelling and production values. So why exactly a...

If you've noticed all the celebrations, new editions of Austen's work, new adaptations and not a few arguments over issues which seem to amount to 'who's the biggest fan?' then you may have an inkling that it is a major Jane Austen landmark this year. 

Celebrating the 250th year since Jane Austen's birth, the dragons have decided to do their own thing and judge a pageant of Jane Austen adaptations in film, TV, theatre and book...