0:00

see democracy collapsing and totalitarianism on

0:02

the American doorstep. Massive changes

0:04

our foot and no matter what

0:06

happens, our country will never

0:08

be the same. So with that

0:10

dark distort going on, why

0:12

and how do creators keep making

0:14

escapist art? We'll talk about

0:16

it right after this. You

0:23

chose to hit play on this podcast

0:25

today. Smart choice. Progressive loves

0:27

to help people make smart choices. That's

0:30

why they offer a tool called AutoQuote

0:32

Explorer that allows you to compare your

0:34

Progressive car insurance quote with rates from

0:36

other companies. So you save time on

0:38

the research and can enjoy savings when

0:40

you choose the best rate for you.

0:42

Give it a try after this episode

0:45

at Progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and

0:47

Affiliates, not available in all states or

0:49

situations. Prices vary based on how

0:51

you buy. Welcome

1:00

to Deep Cuts, the bonus episode of the

1:02

Scott Sigler Slices Fiction Podcast, where a sci -fi

1:04

author and an audiobook narrator discuss things and

1:07

stuff in the world of fiction and pop

1:09

culture. And apparently today, overall

1:11

global doom. I am Scott Sigler, sci -fi

1:13

horror author known far and wide as the

1:15

Future Dark Overlord. And I am

1:17

A .B. Sigler, publisher at Empty Set

1:19

Entertainment and audiobook narrator. And on

1:21

this Deep Cuts, we're talking about

1:23

how artists can keep making escapist

1:25

entertainment while the world burns. and

1:27

why they should keep doing it.

1:29

Hey, reminder, this is a bonus episode

1:31

in the Scott Segler Slices feed. Not part of

1:34

any particular story. You don't have to listen to

1:36

this, keep up on our current tale, but we

1:38

would like to have you join us for this

1:40

particular elements behind the storyteller curtain.

1:42

Absolutely. This is definitely how

1:44

the sausage is made. We've done

1:46

another, recently another episode like this where

1:48

while I wish we could wrap this up

1:50

with a nice bow for you, that

1:52

is not what we're doing, but we have

1:55

actually had a handful of emails asking

1:58

how some of these changes affect

2:00

our small business and especially our business

2:02

since we work with strategic vendors

2:04

to make t -shirts and books and

2:06

all that jazz. And we're going to

2:08

talk about it. We're not going

2:10

to solve this problem today. So

2:13

why don't you tell me a little bit

2:15

about your thoughts? Work is

2:17

being impacted now by the

2:19

dramatic changes that are

2:21

going on. in America and

2:23

the world to some

2:26

extent, but right now the

2:28

things that are newsworthy,

2:30

if you will, are being

2:32

driven by the American

2:34

government. And, you know,

2:36

we're not going to get too

2:39

much into it, but several things are

2:41

happening now that I never would

2:43

have thought possible. I thought the American

2:45

system checks and balances for this

2:47

particular thing. What we're finding

2:49

out is that has been a

2:51

gentleman's agreement. from square one. There really

2:53

hasn't been any enforcement procedure in

2:55

place to do this. So now the

2:57

point of what I'm saying is

2:59

we're getting to the area where at

3:01

my age, I've been around a

3:03

long time, I've won a lot of

3:05

elections. This is

3:07

not normal. This is not

3:10

normal. And we're never going

3:12

to see normal again. So

3:14

with that in mind, You

3:16

know, here I am writing

3:18

stories about a foul mouth

3:20

bartering session in a magical

3:23

pawn shop. You

3:25

know, how can I continue to stay

3:27

focused and make good work and make

3:29

it good enough that people will give

3:31

me their time and their money to

3:33

take in what I create when largely

3:35

a lot of the stuff doesn't seem

3:37

all that important anymore. It seems my

3:39

work seems more. Trivial now than it

3:41

has before so I'm having trouble as

3:43

a lot of staring at the screen

3:45

There's a lot of staring off in

3:47

the middle distance and being like why

3:49

am I doing this? What is the

3:51

point of doing all of this? So

3:53

that's kind of where I'm at right

3:55

now. It's it's affecting It's affecting not

3:57

the work itself, but the time put

3:59

into the work for sure a lot

4:01

of gears being missed up top and

4:03

do you find Part of the reason

4:05

that it takes longer is that there's

4:07

more mental load and there's also more

4:09

that you are having to look into

4:11

having to look at how is it

4:13

taking your time? Well, it's not

4:15

possible. I don't think anymore for a lot

4:17

of people, including me, like I'm just

4:19

not going to pay any attention to it

4:21

because not paying attention to it. Every

4:23

time you turn on the news or you

4:26

go on threads, I don't go on

4:28

Twitter anymore. But every time you go on

4:30

social media or read the noise, you're

4:32

like, what are you? What the what the

4:34

fuck? How is this happening right now?

4:36

So if you just ignore it. For

4:38

a day I've been able to do that

4:40

a couple times ignore it for a day

4:42

hang out with my awesome wife hang out

4:44

my pups You know enjoy the life that

4:46

we've worked so hard to build and then

4:48

you go back to it again And you're

4:50

like holy shit now now this now what

4:52

this is crazy So I'm not able to

4:54

just ignore it nor do I think as

4:56

an American citizen ignoring anything at this point

4:58

is a wise idea because we're gonna We're

5:00

gonna get some point where like this isn't

5:02

at all the same anymore good a hundred

5:04

percent. I think that is that is true

5:07

One of the things that

5:09

I think has been really

5:11

important for us as a

5:14

business that has a direct

5:16

relationship with our customers and

5:18

has a real connection here. One

5:21

of the things that I

5:23

think we've talked about offline

5:25

is how your work throughout

5:27

your career has given people

5:29

hope and strength and tenacity

5:31

to get through a specific

5:33

thing in the Facebook chat

5:35

room. Dawn just mentioned this

5:38

very thing, saying definitely not

5:40

frivolousness. It is an absolute

5:42

necessity for me. I

5:44

am not going to read them because

5:46

I didn't want to do the work

5:48

of getting permissions from everybody because this

5:50

is pretty trivial. But over the years,

5:52

we've gotten emails from people who watched

5:54

their spouse die of cancer, who

5:56

they themselves were dying of

5:59

cancer, people who had catastrophic

6:01

house fires, catastrophic flood, all

6:03

sorts of things that They

6:05

send you a thank you and

6:08

say thank you for giving my

6:10

brain a break And I think that

6:12

is a place that I want

6:14

to start about why it's not

6:16

You know in this way your

6:18

your job is not life or

6:20

death But in this way it gives

6:22

life when sometimes there's a lot

6:24

of hopelessness and I think that's

6:26

essential. Okay So the idea that

6:28

we get from creations and definitely from

6:30

your work examples

6:34

of courage, of strength,

6:36

of fortitude, of bad

6:38

people or imperfect people

6:40

having to make terrible

6:42

choices because they're the

6:44

best choice they have.

6:47

I think all of those things I

6:49

gain from reading your work and

6:51

work like yours. It's interesting to me

6:53

that you think that it somehow

6:55

isn't relevant to that, but it is.

6:57

Yeah, I mean, so I guess

6:59

emotionally I sort of get that part,

7:01

right? What I do

7:03

matters to a bunch of people for

7:05

a bunch of different reasons. One

7:08

of my things I'm the

7:10

most proud of is I

7:12

have diehard fans from all

7:14

across the political spectrum, every

7:16

ideology, atheists, you know, evangelists,

7:18

just every kind of religion. People

7:20

groove my work because I don't I

7:22

don't marginalize or punch down. Anyone

7:24

including the people that I don't agree

7:26

with Politically, I don't treat anybody

7:28

my work doesn't show anybody to be

7:30

a buffoon because they believe in

7:32

X Don't think they're an idiot because

7:34

they believe in Y and in

7:36

no point do I say well these

7:38

people deserve what's coming to them

7:40

because they don't think like these other

7:42

characters think so doing that and

7:44

getting to tell stories that take people

7:46

away from their current life has

7:48

always been a major goal of mine,

7:51

right some of the comments in

7:53

the chat room. Now, we're not really

7:55

talking about the actual granular politics

7:57

themselves, all right? So if there's arguing

7:59

on the chat room, just let

8:01

it go. You can go find that

8:03

any place you want. A rational

8:05

discussion is fine. We're more talking about

8:07

the general, the general vibe and

8:09

feeling of I, as an American, as

8:11

an individual, am struggling with what's

8:13

going on right now. And it all

8:15

seems to have so much more

8:17

gravitas than this thing. that I do.

8:19

So we're not, we're not here

8:21

to discuss split hairs about policy. We're

8:23

talking with a bigger picture of

8:25

like, I'm, I'm bummed out. This is

8:27

not, you know, what's going on

8:29

now is this is not the country

8:31

I grew up in, period, for

8:33

a lot of different reasons. It's not

8:35

just tariffs, tariffs are the smallest

8:37

piece of this. Sure. Recluse Mage in

8:39

the Twitch chat room says, you

8:42

provide one of the needs, it's not

8:44

just food and water. And to

8:46

that point, I think for me personally,

8:49

your sort of fiction, fiction that

8:51

looks and feels like the

8:53

real world where Lincoln uses references

8:55

I understand, even though he

8:57

lives in a magical world, kind

8:59

of puts my emotional brain

9:01

into a sandbox mode, where I

9:03

can go through all of

9:05

those emotions and get used to

9:07

some of those emotions without

9:09

having to live through those emotions.

9:11

And that makes me a

9:14

better member of society, I think.

9:16

And I think that

9:19

that is a thing

9:21

where you're not driving

9:23

an ambulance, but you

9:25

provide really essential care

9:28

sometimes. And one of the

9:30

major goals of my work and my craft

9:32

has always been, I want to write

9:34

a story so immersive and so good that

9:36

you get completely lost in my world. and

9:39

it lets your brain be fully occupied

9:41

with what I've given you so that

9:43

the other part of your brain that

9:45

has to deal with all of these

9:47

much more severe, much more intense things gets

9:49

a breather, gets a break. My

9:51

job is to give you a

9:53

respite. There is a thing that

9:55

we do that you do every day that I'm

9:58

gonna talk a little bit about here because I

10:00

think it's relevant. One is in the physical world

10:02

and one is an emotional thing. Frequently,

10:05

Scott will come. You guys all...

10:07

have heard I work downstairs. He works

10:09

upstairs. He'll come downstairs and say I gotta

10:11

do something with my hands I gotta

10:13

I gotta process something in my head and

10:15

It can be hey take all these

10:17

boxes to the garage and break them down

10:19

for recycling It can be emptying the

10:21

dishwasher. It can be loading the dishwasher It's

10:23

a thing that you can do without

10:25

having to think about it. I

10:27

think going

10:29

through the emotions of your

10:31

characters, other characters, does that

10:33

same thing for me sort

10:35

of mentally and emotionally. Gives

10:37

me time to root around

10:39

in what I'm feeling and

10:41

how I'm feeling and maybe

10:44

sort out some things subconsciously.

10:46

And to put this in

10:48

a broader perspective, of

10:50

course, when the Vietnam era was

10:52

going on and the country is

10:54

going through massive difficulties, I

10:56

wasn't... Cognizant of what was going

10:58

on back then. I was a

11:00

little kid. But I'm sure there

11:02

were artists and creators who were

11:05

writing for network TV, Magnum

11:07

PI, for example, or whatever was on

11:09

at that particular time, writing for MASH, what

11:11

have you. And I'm

11:13

sure creators have had the

11:15

same feeling many, many times. You're

11:17

making this escapist fun. entertainment

11:20

stuff, and yet here America's

11:22

umbrella in Vietnam. Here we

11:24

are in 9 -11. Here we

11:26

are at the stock market crash,

11:28

going way back when. Here

11:30

we are in the Civil War,

11:32

although there wasn't as much

11:34

entertainment going on the Civil War,

11:36

but all these major elements

11:38

going on and making entertainment that

11:40

is separate from that particular

11:42

turmoil. If you're making World

11:44

War II and you're writing songs

11:46

about golly gee, we're going to

11:48

go over there and beat up

11:50

the Germans. That's entertainment, but that's

11:52

also part and parcel of what's

11:54

happening within the context of the

11:56

struggle that's happening at that time.

11:58

So I'm sure if we looked

12:00

around and maybe we could find

12:02

people who have gone through this

12:04

more often or in the past

12:06

and how they dealt with it,

12:08

because I'm certain this anybody who

12:10

makes entertainment for a living has

12:12

gone through something very similar, whether

12:15

it be art, music, literature, whatever.

12:17

One of the things that I

12:19

came across while preparing for this

12:21

episode is the idea that you

12:23

brought up at the top of

12:25

the episode, you said, it feels

12:27

like what I do is frivolous.

12:29

And you use that word. And

12:31

one of the things that I

12:33

came across preparing for this episode

12:35

is this idea that joy and

12:37

enjoyment is absolutely not frivolous. It's

12:39

no more frivolous than the the

12:41

opposite of those emotions. So if

12:43

you have to suffer, you should

12:45

have to have the capacity for

12:47

joy. And if you don't, then

12:49

that makes them luxuries. And

12:51

I think having a safe space

12:53

and having an emotional safe space

12:55

and having some joy in your

12:57

life, even if it's transient, isn't

12:59

a luxury. I think it can't

13:01

be, at least for me, I can't think of it as

13:03

a luxury. It has to be, if

13:06

I have to suffer, I should be

13:08

able to laugh too. they should be equally

13:10

important. We're getting a lot of constant

13:12

chat room about the pressure valve or the

13:14

steam valve. So the things that I

13:16

do, again, going back to that, no

13:19

matter how dark things are going on for you,

13:21

if I execute my skills to

13:23

the top levels of my

13:25

ability, I get you to forget all

13:28

about that. So I guess this is really no

13:30

different than the things you brought up early. The

13:32

people, I was going through this horrible divorce, this

13:34

custody battle, I was getting treated for cancer, I

13:36

was losing my wife, have we here? We

13:38

are all kinds of stuff that is

13:40

really hard to process for me, for

13:43

people who come up and say, your

13:45

work was so important to me during

13:47

this very difficult time. And here's what

13:49

it did for me. And I'm like,

13:51

man, you know, I'm just like, I'm

13:53

right about the GFL. And I'm not

13:55

sure. I'm not sure I grok it.

13:58

But so what you're saying is this

14:00

is largely I'm still providing basically the

14:02

same service. Yeah. It's just now this

14:04

is a particular thing that's more happening

14:06

to me. and not something that's happening

14:08

to somebody else. Right. And that the

14:11

idea that art has always existed to,

14:13

I don't know if it's to prove

14:15

our humanity or show our humanity, through

14:18

times of chaos in through world

14:20

war, as everybody's mentioning, through World War

14:22

II, there were USO tours, things

14:24

like that. Yeah, still USO tours. Yeah,

14:26

of course. There's

14:28

Renaissance, the Harlem

14:30

Renaissance was specifically an

14:32

outcome of free black.

14:34

people moving north and

14:36

finding their ability to

14:39

be human in person

14:41

in public again. And

14:43

that was not escapist,

14:45

but that was in exact

14:47

response to. There

14:49

was one more, I thought of,

14:51

oh, I didn't think of this, but

14:53

somebody said that the whole punk

14:55

rock era that grew out of the

14:57

Thatcher Reagan era in the UK

14:59

specifically was a similar thing. It was

15:01

sort of up the authority. I

15:04

am still the human I was before, no matter

15:06

what you call me, what you tell everybody I

15:08

am, I am still this person. And for me,

15:10

I think that's a very important thing. To

15:12

remain a creative human

15:14

makes you the same

15:16

American you always were,

15:18

to me, anyway. Let's

15:21

see, I have one more point, but we do have to

15:23

take a quick break. This

15:29

is Scott zikareta of this story

15:31

listen to this ad real quick because

15:33

it keeps your stories free Vacation

15:36

season is nearly here and for us

15:38

that means a bit of travel

15:40

this year I am prepared for such

15:42

journeys with quince's high -quality travel essentials

15:44

at fair prices such as lightweight

15:46

shirts and shorts from 30 bucks pants

15:48

for any occasion and comfortable lounge

15:51

sets because I'm gonna do me some

15:53

lounging from

16:15

Quince. Go to quince.com/siggler

16:18

for 365 day returns

16:21

plus free shipping on

16:23

your order. That's quince.com/S-I-G-L-E-R

16:26

to get free shipping and

16:28

365 day returns. There

16:33

are many ways to entice a potential

16:35

new customer with flashy branding and calculated

16:37

marketing strategies, but at the end of

16:39

the day, the success of a business

16:41

comes down to the ability to close

16:44

the sale. And for businesses

16:46

like Thrive Cosmetics, Allbirds or Skims,

16:48

it's what goes on behind the

16:50

scenes, making selling and for shoppers

16:52

buying simple that makes the difference.

16:55

For them and for millions of businesses,

16:57

that difference is made with Shopify. Businesses

17:00

that want to grow grow with

17:02

Shopify. Because if your goal is growth,

17:04

your commerce platform better be ready

17:06

to sell wherever your customers are scrolling

17:08

or strolling. And Shopify will make

17:10

sure you're ready. On the web,

17:12

in your store, in their feed, and

17:14

everywhere in between. Nobody does

17:16

selling better than Shopify. And with

17:18

Shoppay, they boost conversions up

17:20

to 50%, meaning way less carts

17:22

going abandoned and way more

17:24

sales going. It's

17:26

no wonder Shopify is home of the

17:29

number one checkout on the planet. Upgrade

17:31

your business and get the

17:33

same checkout All Birds uses.

17:35

Sign up for your $1

17:37

per month trial period at

17:39

Shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase.

17:42

Go to Shopify.com slash realm

17:44

to upgrade your selling today.

17:46

That's Shopify.com slash realm. Welcome

17:58

back to Deep Cuts. This

18:00

episode, we're talking about making

18:02

fiction while reality is on

18:04

fire. So

18:06

getting back into this

18:08

idea that escapism is

18:10

not necessarily resistance, but

18:13

escapism provides more

18:15

ability to continue

18:17

on. I

18:19

find that we talked about

18:21

this at the beginning, but

18:24

you don't really know how

18:26

or why somebody connects

18:28

with your art. But I

18:31

have seen personally that sometimes it

18:33

is a safe space to,

18:35

like you say, hear someone else's

18:37

perspective that you instinctively reject

18:39

completely. And if you

18:41

can do it in a safe space and

18:43

they can do it in a safe

18:45

space, it can change hearts and minds. And

18:48

I do think even Billy yelling at

18:50

Lincoln to not, just because you had

18:52

a bad day, don't be a piece of shit to peanut, teaches

18:55

by example. At

18:57

least I do. Yes. What do you think? Well,

19:00

Scott, big sexy Scott Pond just

19:02

jumped into the chat room. Hey, Scott Pond, nice

19:04

to see you. Yeah,

19:07

it's all this kind of

19:09

amorphous thing in it. And it

19:11

goes through cycles in my

19:13

head that's like, like, you know,

19:16

dryer washing machines, just constantly

19:18

spinning. Because what I do

19:20

requires an enormous amount of isolation

19:22

and focus. to keep all

19:24

of the hamsters corralled at the hamster ranch.

19:26

You have to keep an eye on all

19:28

these hamsters, because once they get away, they're

19:30

out. I have to keep so much in

19:32

my head. I work with Wiki, I work with Notes, I

19:35

work with Outlines. And

19:37

I really have to tune everything out completely.

19:39

But every time I'm like, okay, got

19:41

a couple good hours and that was done,

19:43

I go back, I go back and

19:45

look at what's going on. I'm like, well,

19:47

this is patently illegal. This is completely

19:49

against the Constitution. How is this

19:51

happening right now? that

19:53

makes it really hard to get back into,

19:55

get back into the groove. And I'm

19:57

like, well, I took a break. I

19:59

still got three hours of writing left.

20:01

And now the hamster, the fences kicked over.

20:04

The damn donkey from next door came

20:06

over, kicked over the fence. The hamsters

20:08

are running wild. They've got acetylene torches in

20:10

one hand and gas in the other

20:12

and look out. I'm not gonna lie

20:14

to you, part of your problem might be

20:16

that you chose to put a hamster

20:18

ranch next door. What was that, a

20:20

donkey? Donkey. A donkey. Oh, that's probably your

20:22

mistake right there. Yeah, okay. Well, you

20:24

know what? I'm an author. I'm not

20:27

an architect, nor am I a community

20:29

planner. I don't do either of those things.

20:31

So I have a little bit of

20:33

a difficult question for you, but it's

20:35

a little difficult, not big difficult. Okay. I

20:38

know from having worked with

20:40

you for so long that... are

20:42

uncomfortable getting those emails. I

20:44

just mentioned it is it's

20:46

always a little like oh

20:48

I was just doing my

20:51

job like you sometimes when

20:53

people come to you with

20:55

really heavy stories I am

20:57

absolutely a Terminal case and

20:59

I keep thinking I'll live

21:01

another week to hear the

21:03

Sunday story How

21:05

does that make you feel? And

21:07

is that maybe part of why?

21:09

Yeah, see, this is what I

21:12

mean. Is that part of maybe

21:14

why you have trouble accepting that

21:16

this is not just frivolous, but

21:18

useful, necessary, and good? Yeah,

21:20

I think that those are

21:22

Oreos in the same row, if

21:25

you get a big old

21:27

package of them, right? Like, this

21:29

is another thing that I

21:31

have difficulty reconciling. importance

21:33

my work has with some people at certain

21:35

points of their life with what I think

21:37

is the importance of my work. And I

21:39

take great pride in how hard I work

21:42

and everything and how much wrench time goes

21:44

into trying to make sure if you're going

21:46

to read my stuff, it's going to blow

21:48

you away. You're never going to get a

21:50

phone in performance. But

21:52

I guess it's the characterization

21:55

and the interactions between the characters

21:57

and life situations characters get

21:59

into that resonates with my readers.

22:01

on a level I'm not

22:04

quite sure I planned

22:06

for or that I get.

22:08

And when it helps them out an absolute

22:10

ton, yeah, that's the same kind

22:13

of thing. It's like somebody telling me how

22:15

important the work is and my brain

22:17

draws focus on like, well, this isn't really

22:19

all that important at all. And that

22:21

this isn't really all that important at all

22:23

is the same. you know, campster with

22:25

the blowtorch that's looking at the news and

22:27

being like, I should be more involved

22:30

with this stuff and not putting in 14

22:32

hours a day creating fiction. Yeah,

22:34

absolutely. But the world needs

22:36

poets and pilots and everything

22:38

else, I think. For

22:40

me, one of the things

22:42

that I have found in

22:45

the last five years, I'll

22:47

say. So even with the

22:49

world changing pandemic, I find

22:51

grace in... repetitively

22:53

listening to passages I

22:55

really loved, but also

22:57

passages that I learned

22:59

from. And not just your

23:01

stories, but a lot of them. And

23:04

I have, I'd say maybe 15

23:06

books that are always downloaded on my

23:08

phone for a specific, I

23:10

gotta hear this, you know, sometimes it's hard

23:12

to do the right thing, but you gotta

23:14

do the right thing, section or whatever. And

23:16

I re -listen to them because They

23:19

make me feel the way I think

23:21

I felt when I thought I knew what

23:23

the world was doing. And we thought

23:25

what it was, yeah. And if

23:27

I can feel more myself that way, maybe

23:29

the world, you know, I'll see a path

23:31

through the world as it is. I

23:33

think everybody has those special... Things those

23:35

those parts of the books and I guess

23:37

I've lost track with a lot of

23:39

mine because we've moved I've moved so many

23:41

times You know those books with that

23:43

I had the post it's in and the

23:46

highlighted parts and like oh my god

23:48

How did how did this person create this

23:50

little thing right here? Those are

23:52

all gone. You know for me I don't really

23:54

have a lot of books and I can't sit

23:56

and read anymore for the same reason I can't

23:58

the news gets me and

24:00

the hamsters go crazy. And it's hard

24:02

to find those things in audiobooks. So

24:04

I'm glad that you have those things.

24:06

But I guess the older I get,

24:08

the more I've lost touch with those

24:10

iconic little bits that connected with me

24:12

on a much deeper level. Really, the

24:14

only thing I've left for that is

24:16

music, going back to certain songs and

24:18

getting that that. echo resonance of how

24:21

I felt the first time I heard

24:23

it or how important that song was.

24:25

We've got some breakup songs. When

24:29

things were not going as well

24:31

as they are now. And some of

24:33

those songs, like now I love

24:35

those songs, they're great, but it definitely

24:37

calls up a certain emotional palette

24:39

that I'm able to look at from

24:41

a distance. So that's kind of

24:43

what you're talking about. Yeah, that's a

24:45

terrific soundbite or takeaway from that.

24:47

An emotional palette that I am familiar

24:49

with, soothes me, an emotional palette

24:51

that I understand well and I have

24:53

had. I have reacted to a

24:55

thousand times, makes me feel like myself

24:57

when I don't feel like myself

24:59

in the world. It gives me sort

25:01

of emotional, proprioception, I think. And

25:03

Chris Crawl in the chat room says,

25:05

I bet you have those resonant

25:07

moments in movies. That is, I totally

25:09

forgot about that. I'm very much

25:11

a movie -driven guy, Rob Otto and

25:13

I, co -writer of Slay. Our

25:15

whole... whole culture, our Gen

25:17

X, small town cultures, very much

25:19

about the movies. Actually, that's,

25:21

I'm like, I will, so

25:24

I try to, instead of taking a break to

25:26

read the news or look at the stocks or

25:28

anything like that, I'll take a break. You know,

25:30

I'm just going to go to YouTube and watch,

25:32

I'm going to go watch a clip from Pulp

25:34

Fiction. And then 45 minutes later... 27

25:36

short clips of all the different

25:38

movies I love and all these little

25:40

things come up. That's my escapism.

25:42

I don't even know what time is

25:44

passing and like, holy crap, I'm

25:46

gonna watch some YouTube clips for 45

25:48

minutes. And it could be a

25:50

movie that is wholly irrelevant, like

25:53

Caddyshack. Oh, yeah. Absolutely irrelevant.

25:55

Is it about class or...?

25:57

It doesn't matter, it's still

25:59

really good for you. And

26:01

the last thing I want

26:03

to say, and then the

26:05

floor is yours, and then

26:07

we're out of here, is

26:09

the only other option is

26:11

silence. And that means

26:14

if you say, well, this isn't

26:16

important, and therefore I need to

26:18

go do something important, that

26:20

nobody has those moments, nobody

26:22

has caddyshack, nobody has, I

26:24

was about to say porkies, but that's not

26:26

one of mine, and that might not

26:28

be a lot of people. Oh, you kidding?

26:31

Porky's rules, too. So, you know, the

26:33

only thing that you have if you don't

26:35

have these emotional safe spaces is everything

26:37

that's already telling you, you're not going to

26:39

win this, you can't get past this, this

26:42

is going for it. It's

26:44

just, just give up. Just

26:46

don't worry about it. So

26:48

I think that creating escapist

26:50

stories is essential so that

26:52

someday you are someone's caddyshack.

26:55

Yeah, yeah. I guess I

26:58

could be. Someone's Caddyshack. That's

27:00

great. Michael Morris is back to school.

27:02

I've watched the Sam Kinnison scene a thousand

27:04

times. It's great. I can do it. I

27:07

need to watch it one more time. I

27:09

can do that word for word, every pause,

27:11

every intonation. And yeah, there's

27:13

tons of stuff like that. Caddyshack going through

27:15

the Blues Brothers going way back and

27:17

more hardcore movies like Aliens and getting to

27:20

those things. So that's

27:22

a good point. I'm

27:24

creating those Touchstone gemstone

27:26

moments. for other people, where

27:28

they just get to forget, they forget

27:30

to forget who they are. They get

27:33

to go be somebody else for a

27:35

while, and there's a huge benefit to

27:37

just being someone else for a little

27:39

while. I think so, and I think

27:41

that that is whether or not you

27:43

intended Billy vomiting purple nerpel in his

27:45

grandma's bathroom and having to shout, no,

27:47

no, no, don't come in. I'm

27:51

naked to get out of that.

27:53

That's hysterical. But that is that pressure

27:55

valve release. And that is a

27:58

moment that I understand exactly where I

28:00

fit in the world. And that

28:02

is in short order these days. Awesome.

28:05

Well, you've all helped me very much. You

28:07

can send me your bill as your

28:09

therapist bill, which I will put into my

28:11

file back here, which is full of

28:13

many other things. that I have not thought

28:15

about once since they went in there.

28:17

In other words, I ain't paying you jack

28:19

shit. I ain't paying

28:21

shit. Well, we are glad that you

28:23

are with us tonight. That is it

28:25

for this episode of Deep Cuts. Next

28:27

episode, you get a tariff and you

28:29

get a tariff and you get a

28:31

tariff. Everybody gets

28:33

a tariff. How will tariffs

28:36

impact creators, especially ones who write

28:38

books like me? Goodbye.

28:41

Love you guys. See you next week. Welcome

28:53

to Gotham, Jimmy. It's

28:55

not as bad as it looks. DC

28:58

and Realm present. Our

29:00

vigilante, or Batman, as

29:03

he's called, possesses extraordinary

29:05

physical skill. DC high

29:07

volume Batman. Fear.

29:11

I have to make them afraid. I

29:14

shall become a bat.

29:18

Look. Look there. What

29:20

the hell? The

29:25

Dark Knight's definitive DC

29:27

comic stories. He's

29:29

got a motorcycle. Get after

29:31

him or have you shot.

29:33

Take him down. Adapted

29:36

directly for audio for the

29:38

very first time. I think she's

29:40

a damn Robin Hood. He

29:43

dies. Looks like

29:45

it's just you and me

29:47

now, Phil. Hit the floodlight. It's

29:50

showtime. New episodes

29:52

every Wednesday. Follow and

29:54

listen wherever you get your

29:56

podcasts. Batman

29:59

hasn't attacked anybody. What

30:01

do you mean blow up the building? From

30:10

this moment on, none

30:12

of your safe. DC

30:15

High Volume, Batman.

30:19

Available now. I

30:28

don't have much time. I

30:30

am being transported by the Ecclesiad

30:32

vessel Mercava stand trial for heresy

30:34

of the highest order. But I

30:37

will not renounce my work, and

30:39

to my last breath I will speak

30:41

the truth of this plague -ridden world,

30:43

that ours is not a loving God,

30:45

and we are not its favored children. The

30:48

heresies of Red of Bunwine, chapter

30:50

2, Coming right first.