#tmctr ref

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.2.5

Once again we spent most of a Discworld episode quoting the book, so all the quotations get their own post! The page numbers are from the 1990 Corgi Books edition.

"'[Duke Felmet] said he died of natural causes.'

'Well, being assassinated is natural causes, for a king," said Granny. 'I don't see why he's so sheepish about it'". p. 53

"The Fool jingled miserably across the floor." p.56

"'Witches just aren't like that,' said Magrat. 'We live in harmony with the great cycles of Nature, and do no harm to anyone, and it's wicked of them to say we don't. We ought to fill their bones with hot lead.'" p. 219

"The storm was really giving it everything it had. This was its big chance. it had spent years hanging around the provinces, putting in some useful work as a squall, building up experience, making contacts, occasionally leaping out on unsuspecting shepherds or blasting quite small oak trees. Now an opening in the weather had given it the opportunity to strut its hour, and it was building up its role in the hope of being spotted by one of the big climates.

It was a good storm. There was quite effective projection and passion there, and critics agreed that if it would only learn to control its thunder it would be, in years to come, a storm to watch." p. 6

"As the cauldron bubbled an eldritch voice shrieked: 'When shall we three meet again?'

There was a pause.

Finally another voice said, in far more ordinary tones: 'Well, I can do next Tuesday.'" p. 5

"'I hate cats.'

Death's face became a little stiffer, if that were possible. The blue glow in his eye sockets flickered red for an instant.

I SEE. he said. The tone suggested that death was too good for cat-haters. YOU LIKE GREAT BIG DOGS, I IMAGINE.' p.12

"He rubbed his dagger hand, although the word was becoming inappropriate." p. 133

"'It's the witches,' whispered the duke, to no-one in particular. 'We must tell the world about the witches. They're evil. They make it come back, the blood. Even sandpaper doesn't work.'" p. 67

"[The voice] apparently belonged to a large fat man who had been badly savaged by a moustache. Pink veins made a map of quite a large city on his cheeks; his nose could have hidden successfully in a bowl of strawberries." p. 32

"'Mrs Vitoller,' [Granny Weatherwax] said eventually, 'may I make so bold as to ask if your union has been blessed with fruit?'

The couple looked blank.

'She means-' Nanny Ogg began.

'No, I see,' said Mrs Vitoller, quietly. 'No. We had a little girl once.'" p. 36

"Witches are not by nature gregarious, at least with other witches, and they certainly don't have leaders.

Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn't have." p. 7

"The calendar of the Theocracy of Muntab counts down, not up. No-one knows why, but it might not be a good idea to hang around and find out." p. 190

"...he was also one of those rare individuals who are totally focused in time.

Most people aren't. They live their lives as a sort of temporal blur around the point where their body actually is - anticipating the future, or holding on to the past. They're usually so busy thinking about what happens next that the only time they ever find out what is happening now is when they come to look back on it. Most people are like this." p. 10

"Like most people, witches are unfocused in time. The difference is that they dimly realise it, and make use of it. They cherish the past because part of them is still living there, and they can see the shadows the future casts before it.

Granny could feel the shape of the future, and it had knives in it." p. 42

"Granny Weatherwax didn't hold with looking at the future, but now she could feel the future looking at her.

She didn't like its expression at all." p. 17

"'Goodie Whemper did a recipe,' she confessed. It's quite easy. What you do is, you get some lead, and you -'" p. 219

"'A magic sword is important', said Magrat. 'You've got to have one. We could make him one,' she added wistfully. 'Out of thunderbolt iron. I've got a spell for that. You take some thunderbolt iron,' she said uncertainly, 'and then you make a sword out of it.'" p. 188

"Totally mad, the Fool thought. Several bricks short of a bundle. So far round the twist you could use him to open wine bottles." p. 65

"'What I'm saying is,' said Granny firmly, 'that we've got a king who is no worse than most and better than many and who's got his head screwed on right - '

'Even if it is against the thread,' said Nanny." p. 250

"When the giant growled, and turned around, an arm like a couple of broom handles strung together with elastic and covered with red fur unfolded itself in a complicated motion and smacked him across the jaw so hard that he rose several inches in the air and landed on a table." pp. 166-167.

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.6

Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik (our episodes here here and here)

The Terror (2018-present)

They walk walk walk walk, Tom Cardy (youtube)

Everything always happens so much - apparently there is a wholeass Atlantic article about this

Surprise tools that will help us later (meme)

Jane Austen (wiki)

Bridgerton (2020-present)

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen (our episode here)

For want of a nail (wiki)

"need against need against need" - The Definitive Version, Richard Siken

"What do i know i'm only a window cleaner" - M is referring to this repeated bit from The Armstrong and Miller Show (2007-2010)

Opium Wars (wiki)

"'Maximus and I had to chase after them for hours and hours, it was not funny, at all,' he said, ruffled, sitting back on his haunches and contemplating Laurence with great indignation.

'I beg your pardon,' Laurence said, after he had regained his breath. 'I truly beg your pardon, it was only the notion of you, and Maximus, and the sheep- Oh dear,' Laurence said, and dissolved again, try as he might to contain himself: astonished stares from his crew, and Temeraire haughtily offended." p. 187

""Temeraire blinked at this intelligence. 'You do not hatch out of eggs?' he asked, in deep fascination. 'How then-'

'I beg your pardon, I think I see Purbeck looking for me," Riley said, very hastily, and escaped at a speed remarkable, Laurence thought somewhat resentfully, in a man who had lately consumed nearly a quarter of his own weight again in food." p. 203

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss/Mansplain Manipulate Malewife (meme)

"'Good God, if you want Laurence, you may damn well have him, and welcome.'" p.59

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia title cards (youtube compilation)

Gap Yah (wiki)

I'll come back more powerful than you can imagine - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

I think I will cause problems on purpose (meme)

I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids - famous Scooby Doo antagonist catchphrase (list)

I used to be an adventurer like you, and then I took an arrow to the knee (meme)

Master and Commander (2003)

Russell Crowe (imdb)

Aubrey-Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian

The Muppets

Kermit, The Muppets

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Lirael, Garth Nix (our episode here)

"What worms are eating at the rind" - Tired, Langston Hughes

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

The Glorious 25th of May; Night Watch, Terry Pratchett (lspace)

Cat Rating: 8.5/10

What Else Are We Reading?

Black Powder War, Naomi Novik

911 (2018-present)

Won't You Come By And See Me (I'm A Love Letter Away), dharmaavocado (ao3)

Wheel of Time Season 3 Trailer (youtube)

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

The Discworld series, Terry Pratchett

Next Time on Teaching My Cat To Read

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.0

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (ed. Roger Luckhurst, Oxford 2008)

You can check out friend of the pod Charlotte's previous episode on Anno Dracula here

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (our episode here)

"If he is Mr Hyde, I shall be Mr Seek." Ch.2 p.14, Jekyll and Hyde

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped!, Robert Louis Stevenson

"In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men." Ch.1 p. 5, Jekyll and Hyde

Dracula, Bram Stoker (our episodes here and here)

Charlotte's video work can be found at CharlotteWithAD on youtube

Queer Street - the editor has "there have been some energetic interpretations of Jekyll and Hyde by 'Queer Theorists', who pick up on instances like this and suggest that the modern understanding of 'queer' as a slang term for homosexuality was already in use in the late nineteenth century. Being 'in Queer Street' was in fact a standard phrase for being in financial difficulties, and is a corruption of Carey Street, where the bankruptcy courts were located."

Politics of disgust - here referring to the (flawed) idea that disgust is a reliable indicator of moral value.

The illegality of pushing a moose out of a moving plane in Alaska (source) . This fun fact turns up in a lot of clickbait listicles but I haven't been able to find anything that actually quotes chapter and verse of the relevant law code, so take this with a grain of salt!

Doctor Who (wiki)

Jules Verne (writer)

The Time Machine, H. G. Wells

Isaac Asimov (writer)

This meme from Buzzfeed Unsolved:

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Jules Verne

Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne

Jack the Ripper (wiki)

The unfortunate coincidence of the stage production of Jekyll and Hyde and the Ripper murders (wiki)

Gestalt therapy (wiki)

"Henry James's praise for Stevenson was that 'His books are for the most part without women, and it is not women who most fall in love with them.'..." p. xxvi, Jekyll and Hyde

Dr Jekyll (2023)

Suzie Izzard (imdb)

The Labouchere Amendment (wiki)

Oscar Wilde (writer)

The trials of Oscar Wilde (wiki)

Charlotte is quoting from this article on Crime Reads from 2023

Dictionary Corner; Countdown (1982-ongoing)

"Stevenson also had a friend in John Addington Symonds who was an ardent campaigner for the legal recognition of homosexuality", p. xxvi, Jekyll and Hyde

"In 1887, Stevenson's sense of sheer disappointment that Hyde had already come to be regarded as a 'mere voluptuary' is palpable: 'There is no harm in a voluptuary,' he wrote, 'no harm whatever - in what prurient fools call "immorality."' Hyde, he claimed, was 'no more sexual than another,' and dismissed as impoverished 'this poor wish to have a woman, that they make such a cry about'." p. xxviii, Jekyll and Hyde

Peep Show (2003-2015)

Kill James Bond! (podcast)

The specific episode Charlotte is referencing here is S3E22.5 "Cruising". Preview here and patreon link to full episode here

ACAB (wiki)

“Everyone was guilty of something. Vimes knew that. Every copper knew it. That was how you maintained your authority—everyone, talking to a copper, was secretly afraid you could see their guilty secret written on their forehead. You couldn’t, of course. But neither were you supposed to drag someone off the street and smash their fingers with a hammer until they told you what it was.” Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

Sins of the City series, K. J. Charles

Brandon Sanderson (writer)

November Kelly on returning to the mothership - this is also from Kill James Bond!, but we haven't managed to track down the specific episode - if you know it, give us a shout!

Blindsight, Peter Watts

Echopraxia, Peter Watts

Countess Boochie Flagrante (meme)

Hogwarts Legacy controversy (source)

Stonewall (website)

Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my actions (meme)

Muppets Treasure Island (1996)

Hercule Poirot; Agatha Christie

Midsomer Murders (1997-ongoing)

Miss Marple; Agatha Christie

Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin; The Murders at the Rue Morgue, Edgar Allan Poe

We! Do Not! Talk About! The Orangutan! story from this tumblr post

The Librarian; the Discworld series, Terry Pratchett

The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, The Purloined Letter, Edgar Allan Poe

House MD (2004-2012)

Beowulf (our episode here)

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik (our episodes here, here and here)

Back To The Future (1985)

The Bodysnatchers, Robert Louis Stevenson

Cat Rating

7/10

What Else Are We Reading?

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher

Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!, Nate Crowley

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

The Discworld series, Terry Pratchett

Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt

The Southern Reach trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer

[teachingmycattoread]

As referenced in our latest episode - guest star Charlotte's Jekyll and Hyde video essay is up! Extra queer Jekyll and Hyde content for you!

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.4

A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers (all quotations from 2017 UK paperback)

The Wayfarers series, Becky Chambers

The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers (our episode here)

Joining the war on x on the side of x (meme)

"Wednesday has been cancelled due to a scheduling error" is a quote from Welcome To Night Vale Episode 2: Glow Cloud (spotify)

Stormlight Archive series, Brandon Sanderson

House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Iain M Banks

The Murderbot Diaries series, Martha Wells

Ancillary Justice series, Ann Leckie

The Guards books, Discworld series, Terry Pratchett

"Tak looked not to her, but to the Humans accompanying her. Looked at them like you might look at a child's parents if the kid asked something odd. Like you might look at the owner of a pet that strayed into your house." pp. 176-7

This scene from Elementary

Elementary (2012-2019)

Sherlock Holmes' attic theory is originally from A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle (our episode here)

This scene from Ratatouille (2007)

Nero Wolfe series, Rex Stout

"A lie isn't a lie if it's in answer to a question the questioner had no right to ask." Rex Stout

M got it from this tumblr post but so far has not been able to track down the exact source.

Reference to this comic strip by berkeleymews

Wind and Truth, Brandon Sanderson

Do it for her (meme)

The quote Eli is thinking of re. eyebrows is from Pepper and Owl's first meeting. "The face had stuff sticking out of the top of her head, and a little bit over each eye, too." p. 70

"If you could press a button that would give you a great deal of money, but it would cause someone you don’t know in a distant part of the world to die, then you would have a good model for how our current economy works. Welcome to Night Vale." Welcome to Night Vale, Episode 105: What Happened At The Smithwick House (spotify)

"Since the invention of the kiss..." referring to this scene from The Princess Bride (1987)

The tiny child swearing Lottie refers to is from the novella Edgedancer, Brandon Sanderson

Mogget; the Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix (our episodes here, here, and here)

Temeraire; His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novak (our episodes here, here and here)

Greebo; Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett (our episode here)

Pedro Pascal (imdb)

Adolin; Stormlight Archive series, Brandon Sanderson

Jane Austen house museum (website)

Cat Rating: 6/10

What Else Are We Reading?

Mansfield Park (2007)

The Great Wall (2016)

The Garden Against Time, Olivia Laing

Wind and Truth, Brandon Sanderson

Next Time On Teaching My Cat To Read

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.9

The Adventure of the Red-Headed League, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Ocean's 11 (2001)

Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber

diggy diggy hole (youtube)

DEI - Diversity Equality and Inclusion policies, now banned in the United States

The children yearn for the mines (meme)

Ocean's 12 (2004)

Secret tunnels! Secret tunnels! A reference to this scene from Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)

Sherlock Holmes (1984-1985)

Jeremy Brett (imdb)

Project Gutenberg

The Baker Street robbery (wiki)

"On entering his room, I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat."

“I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life."

M is referring to a scene from Leverage Series 2 Episode12 "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job", in which a character jokingly explains that her decision to break up with a partner is because he freaked out about being trapped in a lift with a bomb.

The Oliver Cromwell escape room in Ely (website)

"Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. “Well, I never!” said he. “I thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see that there was nothing in it after all.”

“I begin to think, Watson,” said Holmes, “that I make a mistake in explaining. ‘Omne ignotum pro magnifico,’ you know, and my poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I am so candid."

This scene from Mary Poppins (1964)

Troy Hunt of Have I Been Pwned getting phished (website)

Leverage (2008-2012)

"He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone."

A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (our episode here)

Elementary (2012-2019)

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (our episode here)

Benoit Blanc; the Knives Out films

"Just one more thing," Columbo (1968-1978, 1989-2003)

"I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and grotesque."

A Scandal in Bohemia, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (our episode here)

Steven Moffat (imdb)

Sherlock (2010-2017)

Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection, read by Stephen Fry (audible)

Stephen Fry (imdb)

The Hercule Poirot series, Agatha Christie

"Conan Doyle ranked "The Red-Headed League" second in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories." (wiki)

Jonny Lee Miller (imdb)

House M. D. (2004-2012)

House, Cuddy; House M. D.

Parker; Leverage

"“I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands,” remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. “You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have the goodness, also, when you address me always to say ‘sir’ and ‘please.’”

“All right,” said Jones with a stare and a snigger. “Well, would you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry your Highness to the police-station?”

“That is better,” said John Clay serenely."

The Muppets

Sweetums (not actually a red-head), The Muppets

Muppets Treasure Island (1996)

The Great Escape (1963)

"Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when in high spirits."

Uzo Aduba (imdb)

Rashomon (1950)

It's free and the cops can't stop you (meme)

The Cosmere series, Brandon Sanderson

The Cosmere wiki time machine can be found here

The Adventure Zone: Balance (podcast series)

Star Wars

The Mandalorian (2019-present)

Star Wars: The Clones Wars (2008-2020)

The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022)

Cat Rating: 8/10

What Else Are We Reading?

The Residence (2025)

Severance (2022-present)

Civilisation V (Firaxis Games, 2010)

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins; read by Tatiana Maslany (audible)

Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins

The Wheel of Time (2021-present)

Next Time On Teaching My Cat To Read

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #3.15

Disco Elysium

Good Omens (2019-)

Nimona (2023)

Nimona, N. D. Stevenson

Gingerhaze (tumblr)

One Piece (2023 -)

One Piece, Eiichiro Oda

Knife of Dreams, Robert Jordan

The Gathering Storm, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023 -)

Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (2010)

Power Rangers (2017)

Jane Austen

Temeraire, Naomi Novik

The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis (our episode here)

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen (our episode here)

Emma, Jane Austen (our episode here)

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (our episode here)

Uprooted, Naomi Novik (our episode here)

His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik 

Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers (our episode here)

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (our episode here)

Hamlet, William Shakespeare (our episode here)

The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (our episode here)

The Old Kingdom, Garth Nix

Lirael, Garth Nix (our episode here)

Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells

Curse of Strahd (wiki)

D&D (wiki)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (wiki)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

Dracula, Bram Stoker (our episodes here and here)

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (our episode here)

Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett (our episode here)

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, Eoin Colfer

Artemis Fowl (2020)

This infamous line from Avatar: The Last Airbender:

Chuck Tingle

Monstrous Regiment, AMarguerite (ao3)

George Eliot

The Brontës

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (our episode here)

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Sheltie the Shetland Pony, Peter Clover

Eragon, Christopher Paolini

Star Trek

Odd even rule (trope)

Eragon (2006)

Robin Hood (2006-2009)

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Andy Serkis (imdb)

The Andy Serkis audiobook can be found here

Tom Bombadil; The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tolkien translation (our episode here)

Adapting The Locked Tomb by giving it to Steven Moffat is a reference to this post

Wheel of Time (2021-)

Game of Thrones (2011-2019)

Merlin (2008-2012)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014)

Benedict Cumberbatch’s name (meme)

Benedict Cumberbatch (imdb)

American Gods (2017-2021)

American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Discworld; Terry Pratchett

Going Postal (2010)

Going Postal, Terry Pratchett

Thin Sybil is a reference to the BBC The Watch adaptation of which we speaketh not, we’re still very angry about that

Sybil Ramkin; Discworld, Terry Pratchett

Nobby Nobbs; Discworld, Terry Pratchett

Glup Shitto (meme)

This Is How You Lose The Time War, Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

The Amulet of Samarkand, Jonathan Stroud

Bartimaeus, Jonathan Stroud

The Wind Singer, William Nicholson

Jeeves and Wooster, P. G. Wodehouse (our episode here)

Howl’s Moving Castle, Dianna Wynne Jones (our episode here)

Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie (our episode here)

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #3.14

The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (any page references are to the Reader's Digest edition, which is the only physical copy we have in the house)

Does the dog die (website)

Scooby Doo

The Hound of the Baskervilles wikipedia article

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983)

Basil Rathbone (imdb)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

Doctor Who (1963-1989, 2005-?)

Stranger Things (2016-?)

"Dr Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered:

'Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!'" p. 153, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Looking into the camera like you're on The Office (meme)

The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Sherlock (2010-2017)

Sherlock is Garbage and Here's Why, hbomberguy (youtube)

Moon's haunted (meme)

"One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects—if, indeed, one may call it a defect—was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment. Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise those who were around him. Partly also from his professional caution, which urged him never to take any chances. The result, however, was very trying for those who were acting as his agents and assistants. " p. 273, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Conan Doyle's belief in fairies (wiki)

Grimspound, Dartmoor (wiki)

Beowulf (our episode here)

Yeth-hound (wiki)

Buckfastleigh (wiki)

Bond Boys/Girls (wiki)

Piers Morgan

"I would have got away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids" (wiki)

a surprise tool that will help us later (meme)

Spiritualism (wiki)

Harry Houdini is an actual wizard (this post, wiki)

A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (our episode here)

Miss Marple; Agatha Christie

Miss Marple parlour scene (this trope)

Found footage (wiki)

Dracula, Bram Stoker (our episodes here and here)

As far as I can tell, the G. K. Chesterton Afterword for the Reader's Digest edition of A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles is an amalgamation of the essay "A Defence of Detective Stories" from his book The Defendant, and an essay simply called "Sherlock Holmes" that can be found in G. K. Chesterton: An Anthology, ed. D. B. Wyndham Lewis.

Steven Moffat (imdb)

Mark Gatiss (imdb)

Jeremy Brett (imdb)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988)

Ian Richardson (imdb)

Donald Churchill (imdb)

Brian Blessed (imdb)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981) (youtube)

Elementary (2012-2019)

Elementary Season 2 Episode 18, "The Hound of the Cancer Cells"; Season 4 Episode 16, "Hounded"

Buzzfeed Unsolved (youtube)

Hamlet, William Shakespeare (our episode here)

Benoit Blanc; Knives Out (2019), The Glass Onion (2022)

Eugenics (wiki)

Phrenology (wiki)

" 'It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.' " p. 142, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Knives Out (2019)

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Hamlet, William Shakespeare; Act I Scene 5

Benny Hill theme tune (youtube)

Benoit Blanc in the no-smoking zone (youtube)

Rian Johnson (imdb)

Leverage (2008-2012)

This moment from Leverage Season 5 Episode 10, "The Frame Up Job"

" 'Funny weather we're having, isn't it?' he said, lamely.

'Is it?' said Crowley. 'I honestly hadn't noticed.' And he reversed back down the country lane in his burning car.'

'That's probably because your car is on fire," said R. P. Tyler, sharply." p.338, Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (2006 paperback)

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (our episode here)

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (our episode here)

Cat Rating: 7/10

What Else Are We Reading?

The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Wheel of Time (2021-?)

Bernadette Banner on Wheel of Time (youtube)

Anno Dracula, Kim Newman (our episode here)

Next Time on Teaching My Cat To Read

Q&A

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #3.10

Alanna: The First Adventure, Tamora Pierce

The Song of the Lioness quartet, Tamora Pierce

In The Hands of the Goddess, Tamora Pierce

The Immortals quartet, Tamora Pierce

The Protector of the Small quartet, Tamora Pierce

Tempests and Slaughter, Tamora Pierce

Sabriel, Garth Nix (our ep here)

Ursula K. LeGuin

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K LeGuin (our ep here)

The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan

Joss Whedon (imdb)

Timeline of allegations against Joss Whedon

Joke Rowling

“God blessed me by making me transsexual for the same reason he made wheat but not bread and fruit but not wine: because he wants humanity to share in the act of creation." Julian K. Jarboe

Everyone On The Moon Is Essential Personnel, Julian K. Jarboe

This post summarising Tamora Pierce's position on trans rights, aro-ace lead characters

The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett

Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson (our ep here)

Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson (our ep here)

Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Anon (our ep here)

I cannot find the post about Alanna throwing her life-force into everything while every other Gifted mage in Tortall is doing finicky things with runes and shit, I literally reblogged it at some point in the last six months but Tumblr Search Is A Nightmare - if you see it, let me know!

If anybody knows the Naruto fic Eli's talking about, give us a shout!

Survival is a Talent, shanastoryteller (ao3)

Wild magic, D&D

Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss/Mansplain Manipulate Malewife (meme)

Spidey-sense (wiktionary)

The Provost's Dog trilogy, Tamora Pierce

Rent-lowering gunshots (meme)

Cat Rating: 5 1/2

What Else Are We Reading?

The North Remembers,qqueenofhades (ao3)

In the Hands of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like A Man, Tamora Pierce

Thief in the Night, K. J. Charles

The Gentle Art of Fortune-Hunting, K. J. Charles

Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

The Lost Metal, Brandon Sanderson

Next Time On Teaching My Cat To Read

Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, Garth Nix

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #3.9

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Gawain Poet (all quotations from the Simon Armitage translation)

Merlin (2008-2012)

The Sword in the Stone (1963)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Geoffrey Chaucer (wiki)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (wiki)

Beowulf (our episode here)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, J. R. R. Tolkien; read by Terry Jones (audible)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Simon Armitage

"...alliteration is the warp and weft of the poem, without which it is just so many fine threads", p. viii, Introduction to the above

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, J. R. R. Tolkien

Beowulf, George Jack

De Excidio Britanniae, Gildas

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Gandalf; The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Beowulf, Seamus Heaney

Beowulf, Maria Dhavana Headley

chivalry etymology (wiktionary)

The campfire quote Eli is thinking of here

Leon Gautier's rules of chivalry here

Chosen people - Eli is referring to this post

Culhwch and Olwen (wiki)

Owain (wiki)

Merlin in his tree phase (wiki) Apparently sometimes he's also just...in a hole with a rock on top of it? Less cool, much funnier

Monopoly

"no evil in either of them, only ecstasy", p. 72

Courtly love (wiki)

relationship anarchy (manifesto, wiki)

"So I ask you again, come and greet your aunt and make merry in my house; you're much loved there, and by me more than most", p. 112

The first branch of the Mabinogi (wiki)

The Green Knight (2021)

Dev Patel (imdb)

a slitherer-outerer - from Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

"If you stand for nothing, what will you fall for?" "Aaron Burr, Sir", Hamilton (spotify

The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson

Postcolonial interpretations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (wiki)

Mansplain, Manipulate, Malewife/Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss (meme)

This meme cw. rape mention

Jason Mendoza; The Good Place (2016-2020)

The Jason Mendoza school of problem-solving can be summed up by this gif:

This scene from Wednesday (2022- )

This scene from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005 -) [image found]

Merle Highchurch; The Adventure Zone: Balance

The Merle Highchurch approach - referring to a scene in the TAZ: Balance arc Petals to the Metal in which Merle rolls to seduce a sentient plant

The Adventure Zone: Balance

This scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Blorbo from my shows (meme)

Cat Rating: 8/10

What Else Have We Been Reading

Bold of you to assume i can [x] (meme)

The Ashburnham House fire (wiki)

Batman, DC Comics

Pandaredd (youtube)

just me against the sky, magneticwave (ao3)

Rule 63 (meme? trope? piece of internet lingo?)

Tim Drake, DC Comics

Poison Ivy, DC Comics

This meme:

Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson's secret lockdown projects (polygon)

The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

The Bands of Mourning, Brandon Sanderson

Next Time on Teaching My Cat To Read

Alanna: The First Adventure, Tamora Pierce

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.11.5

Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie (our episode here)

Hercule Poirot, fictional detective; Agatha Christie

Sherlock Holmes, fictional detective; Arthur Conan Doyle

Dr Gregory House; House M.D. (2004-2012)

The Rivers of London series, Ben Aaronovitch

The London Eye

The River Ankh, Ankh-Morpork; Discworld series, Terry Pratchett

Mudlarking (London Museum website)

River Thames whale (wiki)

Only Murders in the Building (2021-present)

The Royal Festival Hall (website)

Sabriel; The Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Abigail Pent; The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Wei Wuxian; The Untamed (2019)/The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, MXTX

The Untamed (2019)

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, MXTX

Blorbo from my shows (meme)

Lirael; The Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix

Yo dawg I heard you like x (meme)

Magnus Quinn; The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Bold of you to assume x (meme)

What Else Are We Reading?

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher

Ursula Vernon

The Magician's Nephew, C. S. Lewis

Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

The Southern Reach series, Jeff VanderMeer

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.11

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (our previous episode here)

As before, 'ware spoilers below the cut:

His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire), Naomi Novik (our episodes here, here and here )

“You still prided yourself on three things: firstly, bloody-minded composure; secondly, an inhuman intellect for necromancy; thirdly, being very difficult to kill.” Ch. 4

They are triangles to me fanart of Harrow and Gideon - I haven’t been able to dig this up - if any of our listeners know it send us a link!

Gideon as Johnny Bravo fanart here

This comic

This comic

“‘Hell, no! I’m going to pull your whole ass off,’ I said. ‘You want that? You want Harrow to grow you a new bone ass where I pulled off the old one? Let’s dance, Tridentarius.’

‘This can’t be happening.’

‘She’s not even into you, okay? It’s just the bones. She’s into bones.’

‘One of the many aspects I possess that you now tragically lack.’” Ch. 48

Draco in leather pants word of god

“‘Why did you ascend to be a Lyctor?’

‘Ultimate power - and posters of my face.’

Fair.” Ch. 48

“It was Ianthe of all people who said, ‘How can you say that? Will you not even try?’” Ch. 52

“‘If you killed me, I don’t think he’d forgive you, you see,’ said Augustine. The easy, confidential tone of voice had gone. It was now flat and immovable and bored. ‘But if I killed you - if I stubbed you out beneath my foot, which would still be more than you deserve - then I am convinced that it would take me a mere hundred years to get John to say, I know why you did it, old chap, and I’m sorry, and for everything to come up Augustine. You have shot your bolt too many times.’

‘How dare -’

‘You have rendered yourself unlovable, Mercy,’ said Augustine.”

Alecto the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (as yet unpublished)

Plains of Asphodel (wiki)

As Yet Unsent, Tamsyn Muir (reactormag)

Nona the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

“‘The Nine Houses are gone,’ echoed Mercy. ‘ It is over…it is done. We always planned for a mass evacuation…but I had my moment…and I took it.’” Ch. 52

“The Emperor responded with perfect gravitas: ‘Let us imagine that the magma is full of unkillable man-eating magma fish. Two problems arise. The first is that beings of flesh and blood immediately die in magma. The second is our vulnerability to man-eating fish.’

Your tolerance for man-eating magma fish would have been tested sorely by anyone who was not God. His divinity earned God, you thought, about sixty more seconds.” Ch. 6

“‘Harrowhark, no theorems!’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. She can’t be using theorems,’ said Mercy. ‘She’d be barely awake and it’s totally beyond her at this poi- John, stop her, she’s using theorems!!’” Ch. 7

“‘I may have been Sextus’s necromantic superior; but he was the better man. You are not even so worthy of that brain as to wipe its bloodied remnants from the wall,’ said the Ninth.” Epiparodos

Parodos (wiki)

A definition of epiparodos (essentially, another parodos), along with other features of Greek tragedy, can be found here

“‘But, Harrowhark - even as the product of two obvious geniuses - you are a walking miracle. A unique theorem. A natural wonder.’

You looked at him, and you said: “I have just told you that I am the product of my parents’ genocide.’...’Harrowhark, nobody has the right to know,’ he said fiercely. ‘Nobody has the right to blame you. Nobody can judge. What has happened, has happened, and there’s no putting it back in the box. They wouldn’t understand. They don’t have to. I officially relieve you from living in fear. Nobody has to know.’” Ch. 14

“‘Is that the truth, or the truth you tell yourself?’ asked Augustine.

‘What is the difference?’ said God.” Ch. 51

‘“Why did you tell me?’

That rueful smile again, like the shadow of old joy.

‘Because I wanted you to know all the truth,’ said the dead daughter of the Seventh. ‘The whole, unpackaged, slipshod truth. Truth unvarnished and truth unclean. Pal and I were always zealots, in that line.’” Ch. 53

“Sixth for the truth over solace in lies” - Epigraph; Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir.

“‘I firmly believe that the Kindly Emperor knows nothing of that undiscovered country. He never claimed omnipotence. I longed my whole life to give him my findings,’ [Abigail] said meditatively.” Ch. 45

“Something rotten in the state of Denmark”; Hamlet, William Shakespeare; Act I Scene 4

“And [Ortus] had said thoughtfully, ‘Sometimes I imagined him coming back to life so that I might watch him die myself. The fantasy was a relief.’” Ch. 47

“‘D’you know, Abigail broke up with me when we were seventeen? I kept a ripped-up corner of her dance card for three years. It didn’t even have any writing on it, or her initials, or mine. Just a ripped-up corner of card.’” Ch. 49

“‘There’s a difference between keeping a shred of dance card,’ said Harrow Nonagesimus, ‘and saving the last dance.’” Ch.53

“‘The only thing that ever stopped me being exactly who I wanted,’ [Dulcinea] said, ‘was the worry that I would soon be dead … and now I am dead, Reverend Daughter, and I am sick of roses, and I am horny for revenge.’” Ch. 47

“[Ortus] had formed a violent passion against the heroic knight of the Seventh House; she thought it was nice he had a hobby.”

The Good Place (2016-2020)

The Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lirael, Garth Nix (our episode here)

“The Sleeper tossed this gun to the side, broke suddenly into a run, and threw her haz-suited body into a diving handspring, jackknifing feet-first off the ground with a fluid agility that would have made even Camilla Hect erupt in a wild ‘Okay.’”

“Your voice did not feel like it belonged to you when you said, ‘I saw your corpse.’

‘Well,’ said Camilla Hect steadily, don’t tell everyone, or they’ll want to see it too.’” Ch. 33

Benoit Blanc; Knives Out films

Sherlock Holmes; Arthur Conan Doyle

Cordelia Cupp; The Residence (2025)

The “Have you ever been married?” scene is from Episode 5: The Trouble With Harry, about 12 minutes in

The” better than taxes worse than birds” conversation is from Episode 2: Dial M For Murder, about 8 minutes in.

Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple; Agatha Christie

“You weren’t wearing gloves. And it bit your damn thumb off.

Again, let me say: sorry. It was not my thumb to let them bite off. I admit completely that this was my bad, but these motherfuckers had a hunger that only thumbs could satisfy.” Ch.46

Correction: Tamsyn Muir when asked had to think about whether discussing the in-universe erotica was a spoiler (AMA screenshots)

It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to - lyrics to It’s My Party by Lesley Gore

Cat Rating: 9/10

Next Time On Teaching My Cat To Read:

Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.10 (Part 1)

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

Given the heavily spoilery nature of this episode and its references:

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (our episodes here and here)

The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

I hardly know 'er (urban dictionary)

"It's a lovely day in the village and you are a horrible goose" - blurb for Untitled Goose Game (2019, House House)

A second x has hit the y (meme)

Inigo Montoya; The Princess Bride (1987)

"I don't want to join your beastly polycule" is a reference to this Jeeves and Wooster post (

"Your memory hadn't happened to me, and even if I'd had a front-row seat for most of it, it was like watching a play through a blindfold. If I wanted to know something, I had to deliberately go looking through your shit." Ch. 44

"You never could have guessed that he had seen me." Ch. 33

" - you didn't know the exact technical word. It was a pommel though." Ch.6

"At the termination of each wire was a single canine tooth, and the end - pommel! - was a soft, worn knob of black-dyed bone." Ch. 16

"He used the butt of his sword - it would be lying to say that you now regularly called it the pommel - to smash the first construct's skull to powder." Ch.19

"You held it with the swaddled flat on your shoulder, your hands cupping the bottom of the hilt - still the pommel - and you did not strap on the rapier that the Emperor had given you." Ch. 22

"You drifted through the Mithraeum with your great sword on your back and your hand never far from the end - pommel - of your rapier." Ch. 25

"You immediately pressed yourself to the wall, out of direct sight if it opened, and Ianthe tightened bony fingers on the shining end - pommel - of her Third House rapier", Ch. 29

"...and you folded in half, and you upchucked violently all over the hospital tiles." Ch. 1

"Your only settings were power-vomit and murder", Ch. 4

"The air was hot and wet, like the inside of a mouth." Ch. 32

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (our episode here)

"I support women's rights and also women's wrongs" - if you search for a source for this boy howdy do you get a lot of people selling t-shirts. It's been floating around tumblr for a while.

"'Hi, Not Fucking Dead,' he said. 'I'm Dad.'" Ch. 50

"'I hate you all,' said Mercymorn passionately. 'I have hated you for millennia...except you, my lord.'

'Thanks,' said God.

'I merely want to put you in a jail,' said his Lyctor, now meditative, 'and fill up the jail with acid once for every time you made a frivolous remark, or ate peanuts in a Cohort Admiralty meeting, or said,'What would I know, I'm only God.' Then at the end of a thousand years, you would say, 'Mercy, I have learned not to do any of these things, because I hated the acid you put on me.' And I would say, 'That is why I did it, Lord. I did it for you, and for your empire.' I often think about this,' she finished." Ch. 36

"It was the first time you realized God could not understand you." Ch. 25

"What dismantled you - you bereft idiot - was not even the God who made the Ninth House, the Emperor All-Giving, the Kindly Prince; your end appeared in the form of a grown adult telling you that they might have liked you for their own." Ch. 37

"Ortus dropped his book. He rose from the chair. He put his arms about her. The dead cavalier held her with a quiet, unassuming firmness; he petted her hair like a brother, and he said, 'I am so sorry, Harrowhark. I am sorry for everything...I am sorry for what they did....I am sorry I was no kind of cavalier to you.'" Ch. 45

Rashomon (1950)

"There had been another girl who grew up alongside Harrow - but she had died before Harrow was born." Ch. 3

"'There was so much I wanted to ask. So much I'd assumed! I sought a deliberate pattern in your choices when, perhaps, none existed, which is a shameful mistake for a scholar.'" Ch. 43

"'You are being haunted,' said Abigail calmly. 'I had assumed you had picked this battlefield deliberately, and raised an army to fight alongside you. I didn't quite know why you'd chosen us. Now I know, but it seems you did not.'" Ch. 43

"'Oh Harrow, bless you, I always was a busybody,' she said smilingly. 'Don't thank me for sticking my oar in. You asked me to come, and I came. I understand you didn't ask on purpose, but I like to think there was a grain in your soul that saw yourself in need, and perhaps thought to itself, I wish I had Abigail Pent. It takes a great deal of ego to be a psychopomp. Thank you for letting me be yours.'"

Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

"Harrow regretted not making take a solemn pledge of silence, to walk the place as the mute and intimidating bulk his father had been; but only a very obedient idiot of a cavalier would have stuck with that." Ch.18

A secret third thing (meme)

"You clawed my face so bad that my blood ran down your hands; my face was under your fingernails." Ch. 51

This is a surprise tool that will help us later (meme)

"'She's not into you. She's into bones.'"Ch.48

"Behind you, the Kindly Prince was saying, in far more ominous tones than you had ever heard him use: 'Six days. No sleep. She still manages a full skeleton commencement from diluted marrow. What else have you failed to see, Mercymorn-?'"Ch. 25

"'It's impossible. I won't believe this. How could you even -'

'Mercymorn,' said Augustine matter-of-factly.

'I didn't even-'

'Mercymorn,' repeated Augustine." Ch. 50

The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (our episode here)

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir, Moira Quirk (audible)

Moira Quirk (imdb)

Brandon Sanderson

The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

"'So I'm shut in here - walled in, really - to prevent the Nine Houses becoming none House, with left grief.'" Ch. 37

"As I dithered, Pyrrha sandblasted me with the calm, 'Your mother would have picked the bullet.'

'Yes, well, jail for Mother,' I said." Ch. 52

"'Well, I tried, and therefore no one should criticise me,'" Prologue

The glowing cats we're referring to were a proposed solution to the problem of creating nuclear waste warnings that could still be read in 10000 years - see this episode of 99% Invisible for more details.

Kill James Bond (podcast)

Mansplain Manipulate Malewife/Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss (meme)

"Which was Tridentarius all over. She got one choice, and not only did she blow it, but she blew it in such a huge fucking spectacular way that you would've been impressed had you not hated her for it. Ianthe, throwing her lot in with the guy who had lied to everyone about everything. Ianthe, backstabbing her own cavalier all over again. Ianthe, with the world in the balance, reaching her hand out an dpressing down on the weight marked BAD." Ch. 52

Noah Wyle (imdb)

Agatha Christie

Ursula K LeGuin

Octavia Butler

Doctor Who audiobooks (wiki list)

What Else Are We Reading?

The Pitt (2025-present)

Severance (2022 - present)

The Foundation trilogy, Isaac Asimov, William Hope (audible)

A Memory of Empire, Arkady Martine

The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins, Tatiana Maslany (audible)

Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins, Jefferson White (audible)

Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie

Next Time on Teaching My Cat To Read

Moooooooar Harrow the Ninth

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.9.5

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (our episode here)

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

The Muppets (wiki)

Teacher; The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Aiglamene; The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Muppets Treasure Island (1996)

Sam the Eagle; The Muppets

Gonzo and Rizzo; The Muppets

Cookie Monster; Sesame Street (1969-ongoing)

Beaker, Dr Bunsen Honeydew; The Muppets

Palamedes; The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Sabriel (character); The Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix

Sabriel, Garth Nix (our episode here)

"There's a horse! Loose in the hospital!"; Kid Gorgeous (2018), John Mulaney (youtube)

Mogget; The Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix

I hardly know 'er (urban dictionary)

Protesilaus; The Locked Tomb series, Tamsyn Muir

Skill issue (meme)

Touchstone; The Old Kingdom series, Garth Nix

Lirael; The Old Kingdom series

Lirael, Garth Nix (our episode here)

The Disreputable Dog; The Old Kingdom series

isekai (wiki)

Damn bitch you live like this (meme)

Abhorsen, Garth Nix (our episode here)

Barry Bluejeans; The Adventure Zone: Balance

The Adventure Zone: Balance (podcast)

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.8

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games (2012)

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

Hello naughty children time for death (games) - seems to be classic tumblr lingo, but can't find a specific source

"OK, this looks bad." Hawkeye comics; Matt Fraction and David Aja (2012)

FUCK J. K. ROWLING. SUPPORT TRANS WOMEN NOW.

The Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer

The Divergent series, Veronica Roth

Malorie Blackman, author

Tatiana Maslany (imdb)

Orphan Black (2013-2017)

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (our episode here)

The Wheel of Time series, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Degrowth (wiki)

“If you could press a button that would give you a great deal of money, but it would cause someone you don’t know in a distant part of the world to die, then you would have a good model for how our current economy works. Welcome to Night Vale.” Welcome to Night Vale, Episode 105: What Happened At The Smithwick House (spotify)

Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce

"In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times." The Svenborg Poems, Bertolt Brecht

This scene from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Panopticon

Amandla Stenberg (imdb)

Star Wars: The Acolyte (2024)

With the power of incredible violence - referring to this copypasta:

"How I Defeated [X] With the Power of Love Chapter 1: The Power of Love The first step in my journey was realizing that it is impossible to defeat [X] with the power of love. Chapter 2: The Power of Incredible Violence"

"How can those who are starving go on a hunger strike? Non-Violence is a piece of theatre. You need an audience. What can you do when you have no audience?” Arundhati Roy

"The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House," essay by Audre Lorde (text)

Claude Cahun (Making Queer History)

Shout-out to "Nothing Ever Just Disappears," by Diarmuid Hester, which also has a chapter on Claude Cahun and is where M first heard of them.

Blueprint for Revolution, Sroja Popovic and Matthew Miller

Rrose Sélavy (wiki)

"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold" - first line of Ch. 1 - Tumblr post here

His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik (our episodes here here and here)

Lirael, Abhorsen; Garth Nix (our episodes here and here)

Terry Pratchett, author

Benoit Blanc; Knives Out Mysteries

Cat Rating: 4/10

What Else Are We Reading?

How To Keep House While Drowning, K. C. Davis

The Cemeteries of Amalo series, Katherine Addison

The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison

The Adventure Zone: Balance (spotify)

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

The Wheel of Time (2021-present)

Next Time

The Adventure of the Red-Headed League, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[teachingmycattoread]

Things We've Yelled About This Episode #4.7

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

"Reader, I married him." Ch. 38

Michael Fassbender (imdb)

Jane Eyre (2011)

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Anne Brontë (wiki)

Emily Brontë (wiki)

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë (our episode here)

Pathetic fallacy (wiki)

"If it isn't the consequences of my own actions" (meme)

This line from Brokeback Mountain (2005)

"Man hands on misery to man, it deepens like a coastal shelf" - "This Be The Verse", Philip Larkin (poem)

"'I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed...People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!" Ch.4

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen (our episode here)

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or to laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex." Ch. 12

My Immortal (holy shit it has a wikipedia page!)

This scene from Riverdale (2017-2023):

"A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play; and when I draw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy you see a room in the George Inn at Millcote..." Ch. 11

"I waited now his return; eager to disburthen my mind, and to seek of him the solution of the enigma that perplexed me. Stay till he comes, reader; and, when I disclose my secret to him, you shall share the confidence." Ch. 25

This quotation from Charlotte Brontë re. the Brontë sisters' pseudonyms

A quotation from a contemporary critic in The Indicator, found here

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë (our episode here)

The suppression of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Charlotte Brontë after Anne Brontë's death (wiki)

"I would not be understood to suppose that the proceedings of the unhappy scapegrace, with his few profligate companions I have here introduced, are a specimen of the common practices of society—the case is an extreme one, as I trusted none would fail to perceive; but I know that such characters do exist, and if I have warned one rash youth from following in their steps, or prevented one thoughtless girl from falling into the very natural error of my heroine, the book has not been written in vain." - Prologue to the Second Edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë

"I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that every one may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to time in different people. I only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier, Edmund did cease to care about Miss Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny as Fanny herself could desire." Mansfield Park, Jane Austen; Ch. 48

Mansfield Park, Jane Austen (our episode here)

Kolinahr (memory alpha)

Phrenology (wiki)

"'...it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal, - as we are!'" Ch. 23

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (our episodes here and here)

Charlotte Brontë's early life and death

Hyperemesis gravidarum (wiki)

For context on the Brontës, M recommends "Take Courage" by Samantha Ellis. Mostly focused on Anne but it covers the whole family as well.

The Brontë Museum (website)

"Would [Henry Crawford] have persevered, and uprightly, Fanny must have been his reward, and a reward very voluntarily bestowed, within a reasonable period from Edmund's marrying Mary." Mansfield Park, Jane Austen; Ch. 48

"I had not seen "Pride and Prejudice" till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book. And what did I find? An accurate, daguerreotyped portrait of a commonplace face, a carefully-fences, highly-cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses." from a letter of Charlotte Brontë to critic G. H. Lewes, reproduced in Mrs Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Brontë".

Jane Eyre , read by Thandiwe Newton (audible)

Wuthering Heights, read by Juliet Stevenson (audible)

M is referring to this article about kink in Jane Eyre

Public Universal Friend (wiki)

Chartism (wiki)

Jane mentions a charter while she and Mr Rochester are discussing the possibility of his acquiring a harem in Ch. 24: "'I'll be preparing myself to go out as a missionary to preach liberty to them that are enslaved - your harem inmates amongst the rest. I'll get admitted there, and I'll stir up mutiny; and you, three-tailed bashaw as you are, sir, shall in a trice find yourself fettered amongst our hands: nor will I, for one, consent to cut your bonds till you have signed a charter, the most liberal that despot ever yet conferred.'"

At least one critic also accused the (then unknown) author of being a Chartist ()

This line from Muppets Treasure Island (1996)

The Muppets; Gonzo and Rizzo, Miss Piggy, Animal, Sweetums, Kermit, Statler and Waldorf

"It's not easy being green" (youtube)

"I know no medium: I never in my life have known any medium in my dealings with positive hard characters, antagonistic to my own, between absolute submission and determined revolt." Ch. 34

"It was my nature to feel pleasure in yielding to an authority supported like [Diana's], and to bend, where my conscience and self-respect permitted, to an active will." Ch. 29

This tumblr post:

"There's a horse! Loose in a hospital" from John Mulaney's Kid Gorgeous (2018) (youtube)

Little a salami, as a treat (meme)

Dig For Britain - Lotti is referring to the World War II campaign Dig For Victory (BBC article)

Cat Rating: 6/10

What Else Are We Reading?

Articles about kink in Jane Eyre (see above)

Severance (2022- present)

The Little White Horse, Elizabeth Goudge

Next Time

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins