Our Opinions Are Correct

The winter holidays are coming up, and it's a great time to hide away with a stack of books. Good thing we've got you covered! Here's our roundup of our favorite recent books, including some you probably haven't heard much about yet. Plus we geek out about the themes and common ideas we've been seeing in the books we've read in 2022. Get ready to grow your TBR pile! Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy supercharged the genre of epic fantasy, giving rise to countless stories of heroic quests in settings that looked like Medieval Europe. How do we expand the map of heroic fantasy so it includes everybody who was marginalized, or left out completely, in those tales? Plus we talk to Tolkien scholar Helen Young about the racist backlash against the new TV show Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

One of the most cherished tropes in science fiction is the idea that technology, science, and civilization are always getting better -- and the future will be wealthier and fancier than the present. Call it the myth of progress. We explore where the myth comes from, and how it influenced scifi authors from HG Wells to NK Jemisin. Plus we’re joined by economist Brad De Long, whose new book Slouching Towards Utopia is all about economic progress in the twentieth century – and why that progress stopped in 2010.  Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Classic science fiction wears its love of colonialism on its sleeve, from heroic explorers to space empires that keep the peace. Why are empires such a major part of the genre, and how do we break free? Plus we talk to Naseem Jamnia about their new book, The Bruising of Qilwa. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Fears of nuclear war are in the news again. We revisit a 2019 episode about how science fiction has dealt with atomic weapons, and how twenty-first century writers will represent the dangers of nuclear war.  Shownotes: https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes/2019/2/28/episode-26-the-bomb-is-back

People talk about "pacing" all the time when it comes to storytelling — but what does "pacing" mean? How do you make a story feel like it's moving faster or slower, and why does this matter? And how do you figure out what pace your own story needs to move at? Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Floods. Sea level rise. Superstorms. Droughts. All over the planet, people are being hit by disasters caused by too much water or not enough, and it's only going to get worse. We talk about why science fiction has been focused on water disasters for over a century, from Princess of Mars to Dune and Mad Max: Fury Road. We're also joined by flood geologist Kyle House, who tells us about ancient floods -- and the recent one that inundated his neighborhood in Arizona. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

It's time to get some therapy, with some help from speculative fiction. In this special live recording from WorldCon, we talk to actor/creator Theo Germaine about fictional therapists (good and evil), and what makes a story therapeutic. Plus, we discuss their recent scary therapy movie They/Them, as well as their role in the show "Work in Progress." Can a story actually heal us? And what happens when stories hurt us instead? Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

We hear a lot about redemption arcs, but what about damnation arcs, where characters go darkside? In this episode, we talk about the "villain's journey," or the tropey route followed by characters like Anakin Skywalker on his trip to Darth Vader-hood. But what happens when the script is changed, and characters hover between hero and villain? Neon Yang, author of The Genesis of Misery and the Tensorate series, joins us to talk about how to feels to turn a character bad.  Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Recently Charlie Jane came up with a new term for stories she's been enjoying: Sweetweird. What does this mean, and is it a subgenre or an aesthetic? And also, why do we enjoy inventing and debating new genre terms so much? Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes