All Over the World V.2: The Weirding
Weird Podcasts, Weird Reading Suggestions & The Best Weird TV Show You're Not Watching
What is the weird? When we say something is weird, what kind of feeling are we pointing to? I want to argue that the weird is a particular kind of perturbation. It involves a sensation of wrongness: a weird entity or object is so strange that it makes us feel that it should not exist, or at least it should not exist here.
- Mark Fisher, from The Weird and The Eerie
Weird has been having a moment. For reasons best explained by Alexander Billet, I find it incredibly grating that my fellow Americans have decided to start using the word “weird” as a political slur. As a result, weird has been slapped on countless forgettable memes and uttered with contempt by tittering news anchors resembling mean girls in high school locker rooms. But the word deserves more respect and consideration.
Weird (or Wyrd) has long been associated with the esoteric and uncanny. It’s used to describe a particular type of supernatural fiction written by authors such as M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert W. Chambers, and Clark Ashton Smith. It is also a label that has proudly been worn by some of our most innovative musicians and artists. American conservatives and right-wing politicians have historically stood in opposition to anything remotely weird and done their best to suppress it.
When it comes to politics I think clear and concise language is best. Why not call religious bigots exactly what they are? I’m too fond of the word weird and everything it represents to surrender it to the current discourse so please excuse me while I offer up some weird reading, listening, and viewing suggestions. I hope they’ll remind readers of the word’s unusual origins and the power of weird to take hold of our imagination and find refuge in our dreams and nightmares.
READING:
During the height of the pandemic, I discovered the fascinating world of BookTube where fellow reading enthusiasts share their passion for books. One of my favorite discoveries was CriminOlly, a channel started by Olly Clarke, a British BookTuber with reading tastes as weird and varied as myself. Olly is particularly fond of horror, crime, and romance fiction and like me, he collects vintage paperbacks that have long gone out of print.
When Olly announced that he was accepting submissions for inclusion in the first Garbology anthology based on his GarbAugust reading prompt that encourages readers to indulge in some trashy fiction during August, I wanted to be part of the fun. I submitted some art for inclusion in the book and was accepted. My piece was inspired by the Sluagh, a mythical monster found in Celtic folklore.
Folklore scholar Anna Mozzola describes the Sluagh as:
“… spirits of the unforgiven or restless dead who soared the skies at night searching for humans to pick off. Some believed them to be Fallen Angels. Others thought them the spirits of unbaptized children who had returned to seek their revenge.”
Fittingly, my interpretation of a Slaugh was selected for the Weird Menace section of the Garbology book and I couldn’t be more thrilled about that. Hopefully, my weird creature will inspire you to pick a copy of the book if you’re looking for some trashy, scary, spooky, sexy, weird, wonderful, and fun summer reading. It’s currently available from Amazon.
LISTENING:
Earlier this year I stumbled across the phenomenal Weird Studies podcast while doing some background research for a future blog post. The episode in question was number 161 titled Scene of the Crime: On Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's 'From Hell' and I immediately fell in love with the host’s thoughtful approach to their material. After spending the last six months leisurely exploring the archive of episodes available on their website, it has quickly become one of my favorite podcasts.
Weird Studies was launched in 2018 and is hosted by two smart, thoughtful, well-read, engaging, and occasionally very funny gentlemen who go by the names of Phil Ford and J.F. Martell. Both are scholars who have written books and they also teach, which makes them wonderful presenters. You need good navigators when you’re traversing the weird subjects that they cover every month, which include tarot, magick, UFOs, eerie music, strange movies, occult fiction, and uncanny art. Their reflective and immersive conversations are incredibly welcome at a time when irony and frivolity are king. Listening to them has, for me, become a kind of welcome ritual that fuels my imagination and allows time for serious contemplation. I only wish they were my neighbors so we could enjoy weekend chats around a backyard fire pit.
The hosts describe Weird Studies as:
“…a scholarly field that doesn't and can't exist.
The Weird is that which resists any settled explanation or frame of reference. It is the bulging file labelled “other/misc.” in our mental filing cabinet, full of supernatural entities, magical synchronicities, and occult rites. But it also appears when a work of art breaks in on our habits of perception and ordinary things become uncanny.
The Weird is easiest to define as whatever lies on the further side of a line between what we can easily accept from our world and what we cannot. And it defines an attitude towards whatever lies on that side of the line: a willingness to remain suspended between explanations and abide in strangeness.”
The podcast is accompanied by the wonderful music of Pierre-Yves Martel, brother of host J.M., who creates saturnine and cerebral soundscapes that weave in and out of every episode, providing a momentary interlude for listeners to carefully consider the ideas being explored.
If you’re new to Weird Studies here is a list of a few favorite episodes (along with the previously mentioned 161) to spark your interest and hopefully encourage you to take a listen. All episodes are available for free but listeners are encouraged to support the show through Patreon.
Ep. 133: On Weirding, and the Virtues of Unknowing Everything
Ep. 156: The Only Possible End: On Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History'
Ep. 165: Tatters of the King: On Robert Chambers' 'The King in Yellow'
Ep. 170: Art is Another Word for Truth: On Orson Welles's 'F for Fake
Ep. 84: Mona Lisa Smile: On the Empress, the Third Card in the Tarot
Ep. 102: On Pan, with Gyrus
Ep. 143: On UFOs
WATCHING:
Crimson Rivers aka Les Rivières pourpres is the best TV show you’ve never heard of and weirdness courses through each episode. I’ve been singing its praises for years but my recommendation has mostly fallen on deaf ears. That’s unfortunate because this moody and evocative crime series should appeal to fans of True Detective, The X-Files, Hannibal, and Twin Peaks.
The series is based on the work of French author Jean-Christophe Grangé whose crime fiction has been described as containing “much plot weirdness, and clever juggling of rational science and the occult.” Crimson Rivers is the title of his best-known book and the basis of two unusual, creative, and highly entertaining French films. In Crimson Rivers (2000) and Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse (2004) actor Jean Reno plays Pierre Niemans, a Detective Superintendent tasked to solve weird crimes involving isolated universities, bizarre experiments, demonic forces, and rogue monks. If you haven’t seen either film drop what you’re doing now and go watch them.
The Crimson Rivers television series, which debuted in 2018, is an offshoot of these films featuring Olivier Marchal as the world-weary and scholarly-minded detective Pierre Niemans who, along with his partner and former student Camille Delaunay (Erika Sainte), must solve a series of even weirder crimes.
Pagan rituals, witchcraft, astrology, strange cults, deviant religious sects, plagues, and secret societies are just a few of the topics that are explored in this atmospheric series that takes place in remote French villages, crumbling church ruins, sprawling estates, and gloomy forests that hide macabre secrets. These locations form a stunning backdrop making Crimson Rivers one of the best-looking TV shows I’ve seen.
Here’s a formal description of the series borrowed from the official French site:
COMPLEX, NERVE-RACKING INVESTIGATIONS... Following the Guernon case (Les Rivières Pourpres aka The Crimson Rivers) in the mid-2000s, the emblematic Captain Pierre Niemans is transferred to head the Office Central contre les Crimes de Sang (OCCS). This new confidential unit deals with the most complex cases, where clues are few and serial murders must be solved as quickly as possible.
During one particularly difficult assignment, Niemans stumbles across his best pupil and spiritual daughter, Camille Delaunay. Specialists in the dark side of the human soul, an explosive duo with no less original methods, Niemans and Camille are sent to the four corners of France, to regions where legends, landscapes and traditions are intertwined with complicated murders and increasingly nervous and dense investigations.
Independent, efficient and with a rare courage, this tandem of shock blends into the scenery, not hesitating to sleep in the homes of locals to better uncover their secrets... As borderline as each other, they are lively, funny, efficient - and dangerous!
There have been four seasons of Crimson Rivers released with 32 episodes in total and they’re currently available to stream on PBS and Amazon. I believe the series may have recently been canceled (the last season was shot in 2022) but information in English is difficult to come by. Hopefully, I’m wrong and we’ll get to see the further adventures of Pierre Niemans and Camille Delaunay. In the meantime, I’ll be here pining for Weird Studies to do a deep dive into this exceptionally dark and unabashedly weird TV show.
I hope you enjoyed the second installment of All Over the World. If you did, please consider sharing this post with others, hitting the like button, and becoming a subscriber. Your support is greatly appreciated!
I also resent it being used as a slur, thank you!