Special: For The Books

The Great American Pop Culture Quiz Show

Where does literature rub up against the rest of pop culture? This episode, of course! Liz is back for the third episode in a row alongside returning player Amy Brundle and newcomer Kendal for a bookish extravaganza! We'll talk frequently adapted authors in round one before a mashup round two game that somehow both confirms our biases and stretch our horizons. But in which direction? Find out, plus experience the customary round of lightning on this week's episode!

NOTES

⚠️ Inline notes below may be truncated due to podcast feed character limits. Full notes are always on the episode page.

📖 Dave’s greeting is Historica Canada’s Heritage Minutes: Rural Teacher

⏳ The joke of Dan’s intro is that Brandon Sanderson writes a whole lot of very long books.

📰 Yes, Tina Brown’s news website The Daily Beast got its name from Evelyn Waugh.

🏹 We should be clear that we’re specifically asking about the 2020 Quibi version of The Most Dangerous Game.

🟥 We’re not the only ones who thought Red Band Society was a John Green rip-off

🏰 The original Castle Freak is only loosely based on Lovecraft’s “The Outsider,” but the 2020 remake is a more direct Lovecraft riff.

🎲 The You Don't Know Jack Facebook Game Scorebreak. The You Don't Know Jack Facebook Game Scorebreak is sponsored by Whiney Wine, the wine made for kids! [6/10 I used to love You Don’t Know Jack but have only a vague idea what a “Facebook Game” is? Is it in the Metaverse? Do you have feet now?]

📚 Quirk books now publishes more sincere, but still pop culture-oriented fare

🔍 The whole series of Proust in current translations is called In Search of Lost Time, though earlier translations were released as Remembrance of Things Past. This question brought to you by Dan and his wife recently re-reading the whole thing.

🧂 A Man for all Seasons is Thomas More, not Thomas Cromwell.

👤 The Jeff Schwartz Scorebreak. Jeff Schwartz, the contestant whose appearance on this show is what prompted me to listen. [7.5/10 I hope he hears this. Thanks, Jeff!]

🧌 The original Shrek is nothing like the movie version.

🧑‍🏭 The Ted Hughes book The Iron Man, which was adapted into The Iron Giant is much, much weirder the movie is (and not nearly as effective).

🧛🏻‍♂️ Caroline is a werewolf, Meredith is a vampire slayer – the books of The Vampire Diaries are very different from the TV show.

✍️ Liz writes for Consequence

🐦 Liz is on Twitter

🎬 Liz is on Letterboxd

💿 Liz also also also has a website

🐦 Kendal is on Twitter