Galaxies and Goddesses: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bookcast

Novella November Recap
Introduction to Novellas
Andrea: I’m Andrea.
Elizabeth: And I'm Elizabeth.
Andrea: Join us as we chat about sci-fi and fantasy books and beyond.
Elizabeth: Looking for a little escape from reality? So are we.
Andrea: Welcome to Galaxies and Goddesses.
Elizabeth: On this week's episode we'll be discussing novellas.
Andrea: Specifically the best one we read in the past month.
Elizabeth: Along with perhaps a holiday novella suggestion.
Andrea: Let's get started.
Defining a Novella
Andrea: So I thought it'd be helpful to frame this episode by talking about the definition of a novella, 'cause it seems like there's a lot of gray area. Would you agree, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: Like even some of the books that I did read over the past month. When I first looked it up, like just kind of googled it, of them said it was a novella, and I was like, cool. Then I'll read that this month. Now as I'm going back to remind myself, is this actually a novella?
Elizabeth: I'm getting different answers. I think the answer is that no one can definitively say that each individual book is yes, a novella, or no definitely not a novella. There are some that are generally considered novellas, and then there are probably some that some people think it's a novella, some people think it's a novel.
Andrea: There is a definition followed by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association that gives out the Nebula Award.
Andrea: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and the Hugo Awards both define a novella as at least 17,500 words, but fewer than 40,000 words. So there's a consensus between those two awards, the Nebulas and the Hugos, for the length of a novella, which gives it a little bit more credibility that they agree.
Elizabeth: Yes, I suppose that if that's then the better definition is because these two agree on what the definition is.
Elizabeth: Okay. 'Cause then, according to Google and novella is 50,000 words.
Andrea: But then where's Google getting their information from?
Elizabeth: Exactly! Is it hallucinating? Now this is a question you have to ask yourself all the time with regards to AI.
Elizabeth: But Google says 20,000 to 50,000.
Elizabeth: Obviously Google knows all, and Google said up to 50,000 words. So what's the difference between the 40 to 50,000 word range? Like what is it? Is there some sort of magical thing that happens between 40 and 50,000 words that then suddenly a book to some: more of a book book and to others is less of a book or something? As I was looking at all the various short books, whether short novels or novellas, over the last month, some of them could be considered novella length, but more often considered a novel. Sometimes it would explain it a bit almost, as if depending upon the complexity and the depth of the story and character development, even if it were still short, it is more likely to be considered a novel.
Elizabeth: Maybe this is a question that the English literature academics fight about all the time.
Elizabeth: And we're just sort of stumbling upon this question of, “what is a novella, what is a novel?”
Andrea: Right.
Andrea: So I guess all of this to say that I think there is a fair amount of gray between what is a novel versus a novella. How many pages is 40,000 words?
Elizabeth: Well, it depends upon your font size and the number of words on the page. Hah.
Andrea: Exactly.
Andrea: How many pages there are and how much the font and text is spaced out, I feel like that can inform whether you feel like a book is a novella or not.
Andrea: To me, a novella is anything less than 200 pages and certainly anything less than a hundred pages I consider a novella.
Andrea: Anything more than 200 in my mind is automatically a novel. What do you think about that, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth: I think I could agree with that as well.
Elizabeth: Just as I was reading these books over the past month, there was one that I read, I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel. I guess would count as a novel, but I'm sort of counting it in the novella length 'cause it was 203 pages. But there was a lot of white space, like the chapters were really short.
Elizabeth: Some of the chapters were only a page long and sometimes there'd be a single page chapter followed by a single page chapter followed by a two page chapter. And some of the single page chapters were a short paragraph. That maybe if you're reading it and you're like, well that felt like a novel. It's like, you know it when you read it.
Andrea: Right.
Novella Stats
Andrea: How many novellas did you actually read?
Elizabeth: So, just to be clear, we're recording this very close to the end of November, but there's still a couple days left. I have a long weekend over Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping that I might be able to read two more.
Elizabeth: By the end of the month I know I will have read seven for sure.
Andrea: Ooh.
Elizabeth: One of the shorter books that I read in the month of November is The Outsiders by SE Hinton. And that is considered a classic of young adult literature. When you Google it, it calls it a novel even though it's I think like 48,000 words or something. So once again, depending on what your definition, is it 40,000? Is it 50,000? Or is it slightly different because it's a young adult quote unquote novel that maybe then it doesn't take as long of a book to then be considered a novel if it's young adult.
Elizabeth: I did a lot of mental gymnastics about novel versus novella over the past month.
Elizabeth: Ooh, another one that I think technically counts as a novel, Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan. It won the Booker Prize. It was published in 1998, and it does say novel on the cover, but it's 193 pages. So once again, and it's got pretty big font, so I'm counting it. But the Booker Prize people definitely count as a novel. Anyway, so I definitely by the end of the month, we'll have read seven of what I'm counting.
Elizabeth: What about you?
Andrea: I only read two novellas, but then I also read two books that were over 400 pages. So I feel like I would've been able to read more novellas had I…
Elizabeth: Not gotten caught up in the longer books.
Andrea: Yes.
Andrea: So, two, but with a caveat,
Elizabeth: Well and also A Psalm for the Wild-Built technically read that in October, but that was very recently and that was definitely a novella.
Andrea: Yes, I read that in October.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Even though it was our November book pick I actually read it in October. So I did not count that…
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: As one of the two novellas.
Automatic Noodle Review
Andrea: I started a couple of novellas to see like, okay, which of these do I wanna like read and talk about? And so the one I'm gonna talk about today is the one that gripped my interest the most out of the three novellas that I picked up.
Andrea: I do wanna finish the other two, but it might not be immediate. The one I liked the best was Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. It was about, robots.
Andrea: So I kind of, wanted to read this because I was just off finishing Psalm for the Wild-Built, I was like, oh, I could read more books about robots. So it's a band of robots that come together to set up a noodle shop in San Francisco, but it's set in a dystopian future, in a post-war California.
Andrea: California has separated from the rest of America. It doesn't define specifically, I don't think what the war was about, but AI robots played a big role in it.
Andrea: I don't think that everybody is gonna enjoy this book. I enjoyed reading it. Sometimes I go to sci-fi and fantasy because I don't wanna think about the real world. And this book had you thinking about the real world and politics almost constantly because it was talking about marginalized communities and AI and immigration in this dystopian future.
Andrea: But in a way that was fun so that it wasn't too hard to read. It's sort of like if you're watching John Oliver, he talks about really hard, depressing topics, but he does it in a fun way. And I feel like this book does a similar thing. So I really enjoyed it, but, I don't think every reader would necessarily enjoy it.
Andrea: I gave it a four star review overall.
Andrea: I think I would've liked it more if I could connect a little bit more with the actual places in San Francisco. I've never lived in San Francisco, I've gone to visit. To somebody who lives in San Francisco and knows the places that are referenced, I think they would really enjoy reading this book.
Andrea: And another thing that influenced me wanting to read this book is I saw that it was one of the Goodreads Choice nominees. It was published this year.
Elizabeth: Oh nice.
Andrea: And it was only 163 pages, so I felt like that firmly fits into the novella category.
Elizabeth: Definitely. Definitely. It really makes me want some noodles in San Francisco right now.
Andrea: Oh my gosh. I had to make noodles for myself when I was reading this book. I had ramen it was like this special, like Momofuku ramen. I'm like, oh yeah, it's got this special spicy packet with it. And I added some bok choy and they even talk about bok choy in the book.
Andrea: I'm like, oh yeah. Eating my noodles while I read the book? It, it did add a nice element to it, I'll admit.
Andrea: So yes, I think the book makes you hungry. That's what Becky Chamber said about the book. She said, "This book will make you hungry. It will also keep you warm." And I thought it was quite fitting that was the next book I read, you know, after [A] Psalm for the Wild-Built was a book that she has a little blurb on the back.
Andrea: It has the whole dystopian element that could be off-putting to some people, but it also has this bit of nostalgia to it. I kept thinking about the movie, The Brave Little Toaster.
Elizabeth: I love the Brave Little Toaster!
Andrea: Did you watch that growing up?
Elizabeth: I’ve seen it so many times. Haha.
Andrea: Yes. It's a great movie. I could not tell you the last time I saw it, it was a long time ago.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: But it has a similar feel. It's like this band of misfit robots that are coming together to run a noodle shop, in Brave Little Toaster, they're coming together to go on an adventure.
Andrea: It's kind of a similar idea.
Elizabeth: Aren't they trying to go home?
Elizabeth: No, they're trying to go home!
Andrea: Or find their owner or something?
Elizabeth: Like accidentally get sold…
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: to like a pawn shop or maybe not accidentally, but then they're trying to make it home. Sort of like, Homeward Bound, like the dog and…
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: The cat.
Andrea: Even though this was set in the future, I felt like there was a bit of nostalgia reading it and thinking about The Brave Little Toaster. Some interesting ideas and I would recommend it.
Andrea: So that was Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
The Outsiders by SE Hinton
Andrea: What, what was your favorite novella that you read this past month?
Elizabeth: Of the ones that I have finished, I would say probably the, and I, I, once again, this is a book that I'm just counting as a novella, even though I think Google said that it's a young adult novel. But The Outsiders by SE Hinton, it's a classic. Originally published in 1967, and it is a coming of age novel of this young kid, Ponyboy, that's his name. Yeah. Ponyboy. That's like actually his legitimate name too. He even at one point in the book says it that like, that's his name on his birth certificate is Ponyboy, one word.
Andrea: Where does it take place?
Elizabeth: I wanna say in New York City. Yeah, New York City. If you imagine like somewhere between West Side Story and Grease minus the musical, it's not a musical obviously 'cause it's a book. There's no romance either.
Elizabeth: So it's 1967, that sort of era in New York City. And I wanna say he's like maybe 13 or 14 he's in this gang of other young hooligans. There's like fighting between different gangs. What's also really cool about it is that SE Hinton is woman. The main character Ponyboy is a boy. SE Hinton wrote it when she was 15 actually. And so it is very age appropriate when she wrote it. Is then also just sort of in terms of like having that sort of a point of view. Yeah, and it's just, it's just a classic.
Andrea: Has she written anything else? I don't think I've heard of this author.
Elizabeth: Yes. Written some other young adult novels, from the 1970s into the 1980s. By 1982, her four novels had sold over 10 million copies. And then it says, I mean, this is from the Wikipedia article, but like then from the 1990s to the two thousands, she wrote some children's and some adult books as well. In 2004, she released her first adult novel, Hawk’s Harbor. I haven't read anything else by her, but... it was a book that I found on the shelf of, know, take a book, leave a book style in a hotel in Europe, in Lisbon, Portugal. When I picked it up off the shelf, I was like, I kind of recognize this, you know, and I had one of those covers that is clearly a reprinting or a republication, like a classic book. You know, that they'll often have a cover that makes it look like a, was considered a classic, you know? And so had that kind of a cover. My sister was with me and she said that she read it fairly recently and she's like, oh yeah, it's a classic. And so I was like, okay, sure, why not? It's just, you know, for free on a shelf in a hotel, so sure, I'll just take it.
Elizabeth: So I did enjoy it. I can see why it's a classic.
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Elizabeth: But then the other one that I imagine the time I finish it, 'cause I'm a little more than halfway through it. I was hoping I'd finish it today. The nice thing about reading novellas is you can read 'em real fast and be like, oh sure, I can finish this now.
Elizabeth: Definitely. Is Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan and I think…
Andrea: Hmm.
Elizabeth: Also technically on the cover it calls itself a novel, even though it's 193 pages and like 48,000 words. So it by some definitions could count as a novella, it won the Booker Prize. It seems like the Booker Prize would not be awarded to a novella. So the Booker Prize folks definitely think Amsterdam is a novel, ' cause they gave it the prize in like 1998.
Elizabeth: How would you describe it?
Elizabeth: They're these two main characters that used to both be the lover of this woman that just died. It starts out where they're meeting each other, like they've known each other for a long time, but they both have had affairs with this woman throughout their lives. They're friends otherwise. They're meeting each other just after she was cremated…
Andrea: Oooh.
Elizabeth: And then it goes into other affairs that she had. It turns into this moral dilemma. The way that it's written is really interesting I think.
Elizabeth: I've heard somebody else say this before, that sometimes that if book is written in a really interesting or unique way that people who choose Pulitzer Prize winners might give that more weight. So when you read Pulitzer Prize winners, it's like, I don't know if that was the greatest book to read. I don't know if I really enjoyed that reading, that it was an enjoyable of a read for me, but I find more often Booker Prize winners are in my experience more often, really good books to read. This one, Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, is written in kind of an interesting way. It's hard to describe, but it is a really enjoyable the way that it's written. Shifting perspectives of the omniscient, narrator and how different scenes are written.
Elizabeth: So I imagine by the time that I get to the end of it, soon I will be like, that was a good book.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Andrea: The idea of, how do people talk about you after you pass away. That came up in the other book that I read, which I think you also read, right? The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Elizabeth: I did read it. Yes.
Elizabeth: Absolutely.
Elizabeth: How do people talk about you, what happens after you die?
Andrea: Cause I knew it was on your 10 before the end and when I started researching it for this episode. I started to get into it and I'm like, oh, maybe I should read this. Because I actually had it on my shelf. I don't know where I picked it up.
Andrea: I think I might have got it at a used bookstore. When I opened it, there was a little, post-it in it that said 50 cents. So I think I bought this for 50 cents from a used bookstore somewhere. I think we read passages out of it when I was in middle school, but I don't think I'd ever actually read the original book. Like I’ve seen so many interpretations.
Elizabeth: Yeah, it's definitely on the most enduring ever.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Not only as a book, but just the story. I mean, there's so many different versions of the movie plays and musicals. It exists in probably every medium.
Andrea: Well it was published so long ago that now it's part of the public domain
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: So it can be turned into so many…
Elizabeth: Sure. Anyone can do anything they want with it.
Andrea: Pretty much, yeah. And I was like, oh, maybe we could narrate this as extra bonus content. And then there's like, well, what other audio books already exist for A Christmas Carol, maybe I should look at those first. And the first one I found was an audio narration by Patrick Stewart. And he is such a great voice.
Elizabeth: Yeah he does.
Andrea: I was like, okay, there's no way we could top that. Let's just read the book. Enjoy the book. For those of you who are looking for audiobook, they should know that exists. And I had found it on Spotify.
Andrea: So that could be something fun to listen to around the holidays.
Elizabeth: Umm, he’s also in a version of a Christmas Carol.
Andrea: Oh, really?
Elizabeth: Totally. He played Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol from the movie from 1999.
Andrea: He must be a fan.
Elizabeth: Yeah, totally. What did you think?
Andrea: It is a classic.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: It wasn't always enjoyable to read. There were points where that could be like a little slow, but what made it interesting for me was that it was contemporary at the time, but it feels like historical fiction because that's when it was written.
Elizabeth: It's fiction that was written historically.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: So it feels like Historical Fiction but it is not.
Andrea: And it's well done. It's accurate because it was written at the time.
Elizabeth: And there are like coal shuttles that like something about like having extra coal in the coal shuttle, so you could put more coal for your heat during the, you know, 'cause like at the beginning.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: As Ebenezer Scrooge is like in his office and, is it Bob Cratchit that is the clerk.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: And it mentions that he's in his comforter.
Andrea: Oh, There were a lot of good words.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: They talk about eating gruel, the terminology of the time. Oh, the gruel was on the hob, like, okay.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah. Okay. So totally the gruel on the hob. Which, funny, we've talked about English, British words that we don't really use. Hob is totally one of them. Like they still use hob, all the time. And even though that's like a word that we as Americans do not use at all, and that just means like the stove top.
Andrea: Okay.
Elizabeth: You put your pan on the stove top as a hob.
Andrea: Okay. 'cause I totally pictured, like, oh, they must have a special device in the fireplace. I pictured, a cauldron, like a specific cauldron for gruel.
Elizabeth: I'm guessing that it's, just like, on a woodburn stove there's a raised platform on the top. I think that probably in that context is the hob I'm guessing. And now just it's turned into like, the modern use of hob is then just like, the, the round part.
Elizabeth: The round thing that you once again still put your, even though it's not like raised anymore, often on an electric, or perfectly flat stove top, that everything's contained within the thing. So it's all like glass top.
Elizabeth: No, I just had to Google it. Comforter. Yeah. 'cause it's talking about Bob Cratchit. He's wearing his comforter and so it's clearly meant to be like a article of clothing and not like on top of your bed.
Andrea: I totally picture them carrying around a blanket like Linus in Peanuts, like carrying his blankets around. That's what I saw in my mind, even though I'm like, this can't be right, but that's how I saw it.
Elizabeth: A comforter is a long, thick wool and scarf worn around the neck to protect against the cold. unlike the modern meaning of a bed comforter.
Elizabeth: So he has a thread bear comforter as in like a thread bear scarf.
Andrea: That makes more sense. I was also like, maybe they meant like a robe, so I'm like, I know that he doesn't have a blanket, even though that's what I'm picturing is probably not a blanket. So maybe it's a robe, but I couldn't get the image of a blanket outta my mind and it's like I just kind of gotta go with it at certain point. Right?
Elizabeth: Yeah. The one that stuck out to me was like a Welch wig. But that's actually more like 18th century, you know, like the white curly wigs that I think what like…
Andrea: Oh.
Elizabeth: English barristers still wear in court today. You know, like the judges wear those wigs or …
Andrea: I was thinking like maybe it was a hairstyle, you know,
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Elizabeth: No. No.
Andrea: Oh.
Elizabeth: It's like a beanie hat, some people call a took or a toboggan or a woolen winter style hat, but it has a specific look to it. And then as soon as you google it and look at the images, it's like, oh yeah, of course you see that like sometimes costumes for like poor people, in historical films. 'Cause it's got this…
Andrea: Okay.
Elizabeth: These funny little like bits but…
Andrea: Interesting.
Elizabeth: Once you look at it, then it's like, oh yeah, sure. You'll see that in movies and stuff. A Welsh or a Welch wig is a hat, not like Moira Rose who wears a wig as a hat. It is actually a hat.
Andrea: So yeah, what did you think of it?
Elizabeth: I did like it.
Elizabeth: It makes me wonder like, what was it like when it first came out for this, new story, because it is so well known that it doesn't feel new.
Elizabeth: Even to me, who's never read the book before, it's not a new story. It's a very well known story. I wonder what it would've been like for that, to be a brand new story and to read it for the first time. I bet it would've been, a lot different experience.
Elizabeth: I've seen it in a lot of different forms and I think probably we all have. Right? I don't know if I've seen it on stage as a play, but it actually is being put on by the Grand Street Theater here in Helena, Montana. From December 12th to the 16th. And as I'm saying this out loud, I'm thinking to myself, I should buy a ticket.
Andrea: Just something fun about it being at this time of year…
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: And I think it does help get in the holiday spirit.
Elizabeth: Totally. Similar to like the Nutcracker, right? The Nutcracker always is a holiday tradition that you can find all over the country and the world.
Elizabeth: When it becomes sort of part of the Christmas tradition, then it does help you get into sort of the Christmas spirit.
Elizabeth: It helps reinforce the Christmas season.
Elizabeth: Having seen it in many different forms, they really follow the story. Oftentimes, when they're turning a book into a movie or play or whatever, that they'll take some artistic license and they'll do some things to make it easier to put into film version or play version or TV Change bits around and whatever. But all the different versions I found are, remarkably faithful to the story. Now, of course there were a couple of things I think that, umm, I don't know that I've seen a couple of parts of the, the book that I haven't seen in movies.
Andrea: There are a few surprises.
Andrea: Let's just say that there are a few things that I feel like don't get captured in the remakes because they're a little strange.
Elizabeth: A little strange.
Andrea: Yeah, A little strange.
Elizabeth: And like Ghost of Christmas Present whisks him around the world really rapidly for a bit. Maybe he kind of whisks him around to different vignettes, different scenes that they pop into and see what people are doing during that Christmas at that moment.
Elizabeth: There's some bits that you're like, well, I don't remember seeing that.
Elizabeth: What is your favorite version of a Christmas Carol?
Andrea: Oh, I don't know if I have a favorite version. Like, it's been so long since I've seen any of this. I don't know that I would have a favorite. I can picture, what's his name? Kermit?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: As, as a character, but I like if I've seen it, it's so, so long ago.
Elizabeth: And like tiny Kermit as Tiny Tim.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Oh, that's right.
Elizabeth: The Muppet version is my favorite for sure.
Andrea: Okay.
Elizabeth: At the beginning, Gonzo and Fozzie the bear, they're singing and the fruits and vegetables are singing. It's Michael Caine. It just great.
Elizabeth: And I follow this account on Instagram, called Muppet History, and was it there, or maybe I saw it somewhere else, but basically talking to Michael Caine interviewing him later and like, what was it like to work with the Muppets? and I think he was the one that said that very quickly, you don't think of them as puppets. You think of them as fellow actors.
Andrea: Wow.
Elizabeth: Your fellow actors who just happen to be puppets.
Elizabeth: The Ghost of Christmas present is this big huge guy that like, kind of gives you sort of like, Hagrid vibes almost the, you know, like the Jolly Giant. I really liked the Muppet version and it probably also helps that the Muppet version came out when I was like that age where it might have even actually been my first time seeing the Christmas Carol.
Elizabeth: Possibly it was maybe the Muppet version. So maybe there's also nostalgia to it too. But yeah, I really like the muppet version.
Andrea: Yeah.
Andrea: I also, it should be noted, didn't expect that they weren't called chapters because it's A Christmas Carol, like a song. The first chapter is actually called Stave one, Marley's Ghost. It's written in staves instead of chapters.
Elizabeth: I mean it’s like a Christmas carol. It's supposed to be a song.
The Fantasy Elements in 'A Christmas Carol'
Andrea: I think the last thing about A Christmas Carol I wanted to talk about was the fact that it fits under the theme of sci-fi and fantasy.
Elizabeth: Totally.
Andrea: It's technically fantasy. Yes. It's ghosts.
Elizabeth: It's ghosts.
Elizabeth: I was talking to my mom and my sister and I mentioned that because my mom said some sort of comment about like, well I don't really read science fiction and fantasy. And I was like, mom, you read more than you realize, you know? And I, think a great example is always like The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger? They're traveling through time and that's fantasy. And then people be like, oh yeah, sure. Okay. I guess you're right.
Elizabeth: And so yeah, once again my mom made this comment that she doesn't really read sci-fi and fantasy.
Elizabeth: And I was like, well mom, what about A Christmas Carol? And she was like, no. I was like, ghosts. Yeah, it's ghosts. Of course it's fantasy, it's ghosts. I mean, part of it is sort of the question of was he actually dreaming during the whole thing? But you know, maybe it wasn't a dream and he was actually visited by the ghost of Christmas Past and Present and Future.
Andrea: I was wondering, was he just hallucinating? 'Cause that gruel that'd been on the hob so long gave him food poisoning. I don't know.
Elizabeth: Fever dreams? Yeah.
Andrea: Technically it has four ghosts because there's the three spirits who visit him, and then there's Marley.
Elizabeth: Marley he was dead to begin with, but then he comes back as a ghost.
Elizabeth: 'Cause then it makes it clear in the book that Marley died seven years ago. It makes it really clear Marley's dead. And then he comes
Andrea: Yes.
Andrea: It also had some interesting things that don't get represented in adaptations of the book that are made into movies or other forms. I don't think it's ever explained why Marley was wearing shackles.
Andrea: Do you remember that? In the beginning of the book, when he is visited by Marley's Ghost, Marley has these, heavy chains that he is wearing.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: And it's because he is like shackled to the earth. That was something that was never explained previously. But they explain it in this book.
Andrea: I thought because his ghost is tethered by the weight of his actions in his life. Right?
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: It was sort of a moral lesson of like, don't live your life the way I did.
Elizabeth: Right. There was an explanation for why there are even ghosts to begin with. It was written really well and, had this really interesting moral point to it.
Andrea: So I felt like one of the things that I got out of reading the book, even after I knew kind of what to expect outta the story, was a little bit more of the backstory of why things were the way they were. Why the ghost had shackles and, a little bit more, meaning behind the action of the story.
Andrea: There is enough action to just read along and have a good time, but there's also more meaning behind it.
Elizabeth: Certain tropes that have formed over time about certain kinds of characters. You know, 'cause oftentimes there's the trope about ghosts wearing a sheet. But then with chains…Like, I feel like the chains has turned into sort of a modern, a trope about ghosts. I wonder if it all comes from a Christmas carol.
Andrea: With chains and has come from this, I can see that. Yeah.
Andrea: Well, I mean, I, I think that also applies to the name Scrooge. Like it was hard for me to read the name Scrooge and not associate with like this negative miserly old man. But when this was written at the time, people wouldn't have had that connotation.
Elizabeth: No.
Andrea: At the time when this was written, it'd be like reading a book that's about some other random last name. It wouldn't have that accumulative cultural context behind it. Right?
Elizabeth: Like it wouldn't have the connotation about being a Scrooge.
Andrea: Right.
Andrea: People probably don't name their sons Ebenezer because of this book. Right? Maybe Ebenezer was a more common name at the time.
Elizabeth: Fallen out of favor.
Recommending a Classic
Andrea: I think at this point, is it safe to say that you would also recommend people pick up A Christmas Carol, even though it's not a new book?
Elizabeth: Absolutely. Yeah.
Elizabeth: Just as a personal goal for myself if a book is considered a classic, that's usually for a reason and usually it’s a good reason. And so I personally would like to try to read most, if not all of the books that are considered classics. And it is a classic, so I think everyone should read it.
Elizabeth: Sometimes with classics, you may not know the story at all depending on, if they've turned it into a movie or a TV show. I'm pretty sure I saw the movie, like the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice before I read the book.
Elizabeth: So I knew the story, and then you read the book and it's like, wow, the book is so good. You can tell why it's a classic A Christmas Carol is a story that. Most people know because it is so widespread this time of year. I think it is a good book. I think everyone should read it.
Andrea: A worthwhile read.
Elizabeth: Yeah. I saw that you'd made a note about it, that Charles Dickens would actually read A Christmas Carol himself.
Elizabeth: Like he would, read it in different occasions. You said something to me before about maybe he would read it with his family every year or something?
Andrea: He would read it aloud.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And so I actually think it's a book that probably would lend itself pretty well to reading out loud, even though there is the cadence to it or certain words that are used or turns a phrase that old sounding because they are almost 200 years old, but that's okay. And you know the story so well.
Andrea: It seems like way too much to sit through. Like I could sit through maybe a couple of pages of somebody reading this aloud. I don't think I could sit through the whole book. But I guess that's what a play does in a sense.
Andrea: Right?
Elizabeth: When you sit through a movie, you're sitting through the story.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: So I think if you can read it out loud, in an engaging way.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: And use different voices and stuff, I actually, think people should read out loud more often. I think that's sort of a, sort of, not like a dying art. They used to read things out loud on the radio. And people would listen to stories on the radio and we have sort of lost our ability to pay attention that well, it seems.
Wrapping Up
Andrea: We can announce our December book, pick now.
Andrea: For December, we did a poll on Instagram, and by a slim majority, but it still got more votes was Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao and that was published this year and it was in the Goodreads Choice Awards and it made it to the second round of final nominees.
Andrea: I have high hopes because it was very popular book and people said they really liked it. So I'm looking forward to reading that.
Elizabeth: Unfortunately, that concludes this week's episode. We have reached the end of another cosmic journey on Galaxies and Goddesses.
Andrea: Don't worry. The adventure never really ends. There are always more stories to explore and let's be honest, more bookish, tangents for us to go on.
Elizabeth: If you love today's episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review and share the magic.
Andrea: Stay tuned. For our next episode where we'll be talking about our December book, Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao.
Elizabeth: And in the meantime, keep your mind fueled by the magic of stories.
Andrea: And never stop chasing the world's waiting for you between the pages. Thanks everyone.