Do You Like Reading Fiction?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - There we go.

00:00:06.800 | Are you a fantasy guy, Jesse?

00:00:08.300 | - Yeah, yeah I am.

00:00:11.240 | - Do you read fantasy books?

00:00:12.640 | - I read a lot of science fiction right now.

00:00:17.760 | - Oh, I see.

00:00:18.600 | I feel like I should be more into fantasy.

00:00:22.940 | And I've read some, like the classics,

00:00:24.440 | but I think I should be a huge fantasy fan

00:00:28.120 | just given my demographics.

00:00:30.040 | It's like a semi-nerdy, computer science,

00:00:32.800 | whatever, guy who reads a lot.

00:00:36.000 | And I don't know, I lose steam.

00:00:38.400 | But I've read the classics.

00:00:39.240 | I've done "The Lord of the Rings."

00:00:40.240 | I'm doing Ursula Gwynn's "Earthsea Cycle."

00:00:43.980 | Oh, I'm reading at least the first one.

00:00:46.160 | Just why not?

00:00:47.160 | I like "Name of the Wind."

00:00:48.800 | So I like Brandon Sanderson's book.

00:00:50.600 | I mean, man, it's long.

00:00:52.760 | But I like that.

00:00:54.100 | But I've tried a lot of other things that I've just,

00:00:57.480 | I don't know, I can't get in.

00:00:58.320 | I tried Robert Jordan.

00:00:59.800 | - How is "Lord of the Rings?"

00:01:01.440 | - I reread that again at some point, and it's cool.

00:01:05.400 | It's written in a mythological meter,

00:01:08.580 | if that makes sense, right?

00:01:09.640 | So he writes it almost like you're reading,

00:01:13.440 | because he's an expert in Old English,

00:01:15.340 | like it's mythological,

00:01:18.160 | where now things are more boldly expository.

00:01:21.080 | Like I'm the third-person observer

00:01:23.400 | just explaining everything that's happening.

00:01:24.640 | But this had a more,

00:01:25.920 | especially the first "Lord of the Rings" book,

00:01:27.600 | I don't know, there's more of like a mythological,

00:01:30.400 | than I remembered, meter to it.

00:01:32.040 | The language is a little chewy.

00:01:33.640 | It kind of sets the scene,

00:01:37.320 | and it's not all just pure action,

00:01:39.920 | and sometimes the description feels more mythological

00:01:42.500 | than modern, just objective description of what's happening.

00:01:46.920 | So it's a very impressive, very impressive book.

00:01:49.760 | - Did you like the movies?

00:01:51.440 | - I kind of get bored in the movies.

00:01:53.880 | I don't know, did you like them?

00:01:55.280 | - I did, yeah.

00:01:56.120 | - Yeah.

00:01:57.040 | I just, that's my memory.

00:01:58.000 | I re-watched some of them recently.

00:02:00.480 | It's my memory in the theater was getting a little,

00:02:03.560 | a little antsy.

00:02:04.400 | Here's my, okay, here's the "Lord of the Rings" question

00:02:06.240 | about the movies.

00:02:07.440 | Because I don't know, no one else seems to agree with this.

00:02:09.900 | But to me, and this is probably unavoidable

00:02:14.320 | because of budgets,

00:02:15.840 | the world seems so uninhabited.

00:02:18.600 | It's all just empty fields and mountains,

00:02:22.440 | and then they'll eventually come to like a city with a king,

00:02:24.600 | but it'll be 70 people in the middle,

00:02:27.840 | like a giant empty field or this or that.

00:02:29.560 | It just feels like there's no people in that world.

00:02:31.960 | And so is that supposed to be because after ancient warfare,

00:02:35.680 | it's like largely depopulated

00:02:37.000 | or it's just a very sparsely populated country,

00:02:39.520 | but nowhere in the "Lord of the Rings" universe,

00:02:42.040 | in the visual movie universe,

00:02:43.280 | you ever have this feel of like medieval England

00:02:46.320 | or something where there's big cities

00:02:48.880 | and villages and stuff.

00:02:49.980 | It's just, everything is so empty.

00:02:52.840 | Was it that way in the books?

00:02:54.340 | - I'm trying to remember.

00:02:57.000 | Yeah, I don't know.

00:02:59.520 | I don't remember.

00:03:00.360 | It's a good question.

00:03:01.280 | I mean, I think the,

00:03:02.720 | I read a book about "Lord of the Rings."

00:03:04.720 | This part, a couple of years ago,

00:03:07.160 | I read a book about the making of the movies.

00:03:11.360 | That was actually kind of an interesting book.

00:03:13.000 | Like what, everything that went through,

00:03:14.620 | like the movie rights and how Peter Jackson got them

00:03:17.360 | and how they filmed it and where they found it.

00:03:20.360 | Like to me, that was actually more interesting.

00:03:22.600 | And I think the reality is like, they can't afford to,

00:03:25.840 | you can't make medieval England.

00:03:28.240 | It's just too many people.

00:03:29.900 | So it's easier for it to be sparsely populated.

00:03:31.960 | - Yeah.

00:03:32.800 | - But let's add this to our list of directions

00:03:36.540 | for us not to go with this podcast.

00:03:37.940 | Next two, we had from last week,

00:03:40.320 | becoming like a hardcore sports talk radio show,

00:03:43.480 | but the premise is I know nothing about sports,

00:03:45.360 | but I'm very enthusiastic about it.

00:03:46.960 | And like Pat McAfee, we're a tank top and stand up and yell,

00:03:50.320 | I know nothing about sports.

00:03:51.880 | And then two, let's not become a like hardcore fantasy

00:03:56.880 | discussion podcast.

00:03:58.720 | This is gonna be a lot of like, I don't know.

00:03:59.920 | I didn't like it.

00:04:00.920 | I didn't read it.

00:04:02.480 | I don't know.

00:04:03.320 | Those are on the list.

00:04:06.040 | Our list is growing, Jesse.

00:04:07.160 | Our list of things we should not try to discuss

00:04:08.840 | on this show is growing, growing with each week.

00:04:13.840 | Fantasy book reviews with Cal and Jesse.

00:04:18.480 | Like, I don't know.

00:04:20.240 | Seems kind of nerdy.

00:04:21.320 | What's next?

00:04:23.840 | We out of here in like a crisp five minutes.

00:04:27.480 | (upbeat music)

00:04:30.080 | (upbeat music)

00:04:32.660 | (upbeat music)

Do You Like Reading Fiction?

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