Surrealismatron Podcast

Finding an object in the grass, something like a lost camera full of someone’s decade worth of photographs, and using the magic of social media to reunite them with that lost object sparked a thought in my mind about a particular kind of trope that is tied back to lots of fiction and plays a curious sort of role in magical realism fiction in particular. I spent my day thinking about lost things an...

A lot of science fiction or fantasy authors have written stories about found pathways between worlds. Thresholds into alternate universes or alternate dimensions—and sometimes these are stories are meant to be explorations of the actual travel between worlds but often, too these are more stories of allegory that are meant to speak to us about choice, about destiny, about fate, or about the “what i...

If you’ve never seen an improv show, it’s simple. The rules vary but generally actors have neither script nor characters. They come to perform but do so at the whims of a theme or a host or a vague set of rules. And that’s where I come in. The other night we were at a show where my daughter was doing High School improv theatre sports, a kind of competitive, point-scoring performance with judges an...

A thing I wrote in my previous episode got me thinking about the topic for this next one, an episode about trying to wrap my mind around a definition for magic. And to wrap my mind around that definition inside the context of fiction that fits into the category of magical realism—and also adjacent sub-genres like surrealist fiction, science-ish fiction, and paranormal stories. See, in my last epis...

I wanted to dip into a pop cultural example of modern surrealism and film and continue that talking by talking about a film that I think embodies some of the characteristics of a modern surrealist fiction. I get into some thoughts on my basic understanding of surrealism and then dig into Wes Anderson’s ASTEROID CITY, a 2023 film starring his usual cast of eccentric character actors -- and also kin...

I guess I should start by telling you that's just who I am. A writer. A guy with a quirky imagination. A cold Canadian dad who types fast with a cup of coffee by my side and who reads slow by the fireplace. This is a bit of an introduction and a long-trailer for a new podcast where I explore surrealist fiction, magical realist fiction, fringe science fiction, and all the history, philosophy and hy...