On this week’s FFR, Ebony and Carolyn chat with the author of Texts from Jane Eyre and The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror, Daniel Ortberg. But before that conversation kicked off, Carolyn dumped a giant bucket of disappointing entertainment news in the studio, including Johnny Depp’s continued appearance as Grindelwald in the third Fantastic Beasts film; the “un-uglifying” of Hester in the upcoming Mortal Engines movie, and author Chuck Wendig being let go from Marvel.
But then the mood rapidly lightened as we dove into our discussion of Daniel Ortberg’s formative years in the suburban Midwest; the appeal of certainty and vocation in The Hunt for Red October; and whether Paris Hilton is a closet ham radio fanatic.
**Fun fact: during the entire period that Ebony and Daniel were discussing 17th century Christian allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Ebony actually thought they were talking about the 14th century Christian allegory, Piers Plowman. As far as she is aware, there is no Marvel comic book of Piers Plowman extant.
Segment Timestamps:
0:00 Anita calls in to the Dear Prudence hotline
1:36 Ebony gracefully accepts the mantle of token cis person of the week
3:14 Pop Culture News
15:18 Daniel Ortberg interview
43:17 What’s Your Freq Out?
Relevant Links:
Personal Shopper, a film by Olivier Assayas
Hilda, new Netflix children’s series
The Haunting of Hill House, the new Netflix adaptation
A Dark Song, a 2016 independent Irish horror film