With special guests Kelsie, Hannah, and Jessica from the Reading Revisited podcast, Michael and Ethan discuss “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, while drinking Craigellachie 13yo Speyside Single Malt..

In this episode:

First and most important: NO SNITCHING

There’s no rule that says you can’t mock husbands

Talking about the end first

Getting what you want vs. getting something better

Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain, by Ed Simon

Lowercase love vs. Uppercase Love

Myths and the myths behind them

Pride must suffer pain (mean)

If the deal is today-only, walk away

Potential uses for a mermaid’s tongue

If you haven’t been reading fairy tales, they’re actually very nice

Here’s one investigation into the alleged Einstein “read your children fairy tales” quote

One version of the Children of Lir

Andersen’s Fairy Tales as translated by Tiina Nunnelly

There’s still no snitching

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss The Seven Strings of the Lyre, by George Sand! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

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MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss the 1926 silent film Faust by F. W. Murnau, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt.

In this episode:

Quintessential film bro stuff

Everything is political with a small p, but some things are political with a capital P (especially in cinema of the Weimar Republic)

Faust is saved (spoilers)

Silent film may be the only genre less subtle than the musical

Ethan absolutely garbles a reference to Christopher Isherwood, partly by thinking he might be Herman Hesse. Isherwood was associated with Vedantic Hinduism and his novel Goodbye to Berlin was the basis for the musical Cabaret.

Emil Jannings shade (deserved)

Hitler’s Monsters, by Eric Kurlander

In case it was unclear: Ethan didn’t want to be watching this film, even as he was watching this film

All things are Star Trek (annoying)

Michael makes an unacknowledged “jam” pun

If you want to read along to our recurring unlistenable segment

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt..

In this episode:

Caliban and the Witch, by Sylvia Federici

Jack Faust is Goethe’s Faust and Marlowe’s Faust and a little bit Gounod’s Faust (which is also Goethe’s Faust)

Faust goes from a disciple to Pontius Pilate in one paragraph

What’s behind the door?????? (it doesn’t matter)

The Star Trek-ification of Faust

Faust decides he is God, something that always goes super well for everybody

Interjections at random times from our special guest, Michael’s cat

A fun triumvirate of epigraphs! (Including Jack the Ripper)

Tap into Poetry

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss F.W. Murnau’s silent film, Faust! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt..

In this episode:

The End of History and the Last Man (wiki page)

A theory of threads and tatters

Spoilers for Office Space and Fight Club, I guess

Then We Came to the End… of history?

Jack Faust was published in 1997, but it makes more sense as a 2026 novel

Turns out, reducing other humans to instruments of pleasure is extremely dehumanizing

Leaf, by Niggle, by JRR Tolkien

Ethan fails to call Michael out for using Latin, but here’s the phrase he uses (nerd)

Fiction writers across the board agree: don’t try to make yourself God

Speech from The Great Dictator

Tap into Poetry

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss the short story “Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day,” by Jonathan Howard, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt..

In this episode:

Shout-out to Jamie from the Chanhassen Total Wine

Very interesting Bluetooth headphone talk

A short story is somewhere between a tweet and a novel, but closer to a tweet

Putting the screws to Michael

Faust both is and is not a necromancer

Cabal both is and is not a D&D figure

What is a homunculus? or, Ethan is Frankenstein(‘s monster)ed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Fantasy Autism Hero

Mr Spock is the Star Trek guy, not Dr Spock, a distinction you need and Ethan doesn’t

Some remarks on “chatty” prose styles and TV writing

Inevitable Lovecraft discussion, sorry

Conclusion: TV writing predates TV

A third-person narrator can have an opinion (and a D&D alignment)

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Josiah discuss Gounod’s opera Faust while drinking Suntory Toki Japanese whisky.

In this episode:

We watched Opera de Lille’s production of Gounod’s Faust

This is a two-intermission opera

Josiah’s favorite aria

How sincere is Faust? (not a Romeo and Juliet discussion)

Also not The Age of Innocence podcast

However, it MIGHT be the “Tragedy of Marguerite” podcast

Misinterpreting the plot to make it more interesting

Did the devil make Faust do it, or did Faust make the devil do it?

The Romantic Era in literature is from when Michael said to when Ethan said; the Romantic Era in music begins a couple decades before the date Ethan said

Does Michael hate opera???

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Josiah (still/again!) will discuss the Gounod opera Faust! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Josiah discuss The Memory of Whiteness, by Kim Stanley Robinson while drinking Suntory Toki Japanese whisky.

In this episode:

The orchestra!

Lots of tree stuff, also snake stuff and lizard stuff

Curation vs collage vs other art stuff

We GOTTA talk about the metadrama

Vertumnus, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1591) (another trap for a date-pilled boy)

At least two topological surnames

All (or at least some) about Margaret

College is the time when men become deterministic

Margaret in this book is the scholars from Marlowe, Margaret from Goethe, Zeitblom from Mann, and also Horatio from Hamlet

Two-thirds of this podcast think the book is an anime

The score: 2 damned, 2 saved, 2 (????) (Enraging)

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Josiah (still/again!) will discuss the Gounod opera Faust! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)