On 'The Secret Life of Puppets,' with Victoria Nelson

Victoria Nelson saw it first: Popular culture teems with occult ideas, vestiges of bygone belief, fragments of ancient magic disguised as common entertainment. Her 2001 work The Secret Life of Puppets is in many ways the ur-text of weird studies, so prescient and probing it is even more relevant now than it was when it first appeared. In episode 128 (https://www.weirdstudies.com/128), Phil and JF discussed Nelson's wonderful first novel Neighbor George (2021). In this episode, Nelson joins the hosts of Weird Studies to talk about the vision that drove her to write Secret Life along with its equally insightful follow-up, Gothicka. Listen to volume 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and volume 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2) of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel (https://www.pymartel.com) Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the new T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (https://www.redbubble.com/people/Weird-Studies/shop?asc=u) (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) SHOW NOTES Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets, Gothicka, Neighbor George M. R. James, [Collected Ghost Stories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheCollectedGhostStoriesofM.R.James)_ Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801491467/the-fantastic/#bookTabs=1) Sigmund Freud, [Civilization and its Discontents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CivilizationandItsDiscontents)_ Carol Clover, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (https://www.amazon.com/Men-Women-Chainsaws-Gender-Modern/dp/0851704190) Bruno Schulz, [The Street of Crocodiles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheStreetofCrocodiles)_ Stephenie Meyer, Twilight (https://stepheniemeyer.com/the-twilight-saga/) series William P. Young, The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity (https://www.amazon.com/Shack-Where-Tragedy-Confronts-Eternity/dp/0964729237) _ Against Everyone with Conner Habib (https://connerhabib.com/against-everyone/), episodes 202 (https://www.patreon.com/posts/74118938?pr=true) & 203 (https://www.patreon.com/posts/74427827?pr=true) James R. Lewis, _The Gods Have Landed (https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Gods-Have-Landed2) Anne Rice, [Interview with the Vampire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterviewwiththeVampire)_ Honoré de Balzac, "Séraphîta" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Séraphîta) L. Ron Hubbard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard), founder of Scientology Special Guest: Victoria Nelson.