web01.fireside.fm Sun, 03 May 2026 03:18:43 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Weird Studies - Episodes Tagged with “Parenthood” https://www.weirdstudies.com/tags/parenthood Wed, 31 Mar 2021 10:30:00 -0400 Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." en-us episodic Art and philosophy at the limits of the thinkable Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." yes weird, art, philosophy Phil Ford and J. F. Martel admin@weirdstudies.com Episode 95: Demon Seed: On Doris Lessing's 'The Fifth Child' https://www.weirdstudies.com/95 e056650e-a9f4-4eb1-b9b7-a4710c647943 Wed, 31 Mar 2021 10:30:00 -0400 Phil Ford and J. F. Martel 95 Demon Seed: On Doris Lessing's 'The Fifth Child' full Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Phil and JF discuss Nobel Prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing's unsettling story of a woman who gives birth to a monster. 1:25:36 yes Doris Lessing's uncategorizable oeuvre reached strange new heights in 1988 with the publication of her short novel The Fifth Child. The story couldn't be simpler. In the England of the 1970s, a couple determined to live out a dream that many of their generation have rejected -- the big family in the old house with the pretty garden -- conceive a child that may or may not be human. From that moment on, the boy, their fifth, becomes the alien force that will tear their dream to pieces. Profoundly ambiguous and unsettling, The Fifth Child is a weird novel that raises questions about parenthood, family, and the impenetrable depths of nature. Header Image: The Changeling by Henry Fuseli (1780) Additional music: "Fast Bossa Nova: Falling Stars" (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dee_Yan-Key/latin_summer/Fast_Bossa_Nova_Falling_Stars) by Dee Yan-Key REFERENCES Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780679721826) Doris Lessing, Shikasta (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780394749778) M. R. James (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._James), weird fiction author Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780345337665) Weird Studies, Episode 67 on “Hellier” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/67) Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780674012448) David Icke, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Icke) conspiracy theorist Deros, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharpe_Shaver) underground beings from the fiction of Richard Sharpe Shaver Hieronymus Bosch (https://www.hieronymus-bosch.org/), Dutch Renaissance painter Weird Studies, Episode 86 on “The Sandman” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/86) Slavoj Žižek, The Puppet and the Dwarf (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780262740258) Louis Sass, “The Land of Unreality: On the Phenomenology of the Schizophrenic Break” (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0732118X88900116) Louis Sass, Madness and Modernism (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780198779292) Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780804732185) Richard Thorpe (dir.), The Wizard of Oz (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/) Frank L. Baum, The Wizard of Oz (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780142427507) Weird Studies, bonus episode on Adventure Time (https://www.weirdstudies.com/88b) James Hillman, The Soul’s Code (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780399180149) Doris Lessing, Ben in the World (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780060934651) Roman Polanski (dir.), Rosemary’s Baby (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063522/) Richard Donner (dir.), The Omen (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075005/) Donald Cammell (dir.), Demon Seed (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075931/) doris lessing, fifth child, analysis, symbolism, parenthood, motherhood, goblin, demon Doris Lessing's uncategorizable oeuvre reached strange new heights in 1988 with the publication of her short novel The Fifth Child. The story couldn't be simpler. In the England of the 1970s, a couple determined to live out a dream that many of their generation have rejected -- the big family in the old house with the pretty garden -- conceive a child that may or may not be human. From that moment on, the boy, their fifth, becomes the alien force that will tear their dream to pieces. Profoundly ambiguous and unsettling, The Fifth Child is a weird novel that raises questions about parenthood, family, and the impenetrable depths of nature.

Header Image: The Changeling by Henry Fuseli (1780)

Additional music: "Fast Bossa Nova: Falling Stars" by Dee Yan-Key

REFERENCES

Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child
Doris Lessing, Shikasta
M. R. James, weird fiction author
Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire
Weird Studies, Episode 67 on “Hellier”
Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets
David Icke, conspiracy theorist
Deros, underground beings from the fiction of Richard Sharpe Shaver
Hieronymus Bosch, Dutch Renaissance painter
Weird Studies, Episode 86 on “The Sandman”
Slavoj Žižek, The Puppet and the Dwarf
Louis Sass, “The Land of Unreality: On the Phenomenology of the Schizophrenic Break”
Louis Sass, Madness and Modernism
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life
Richard Thorpe (dir.), The Wizard of Oz
Frank L. Baum, The Wizard of Oz
Weird Studies, bonus episode on Adventure Time
James Hillman, The Soul’s Code
Doris Lessing, Ben in the World
Roman Polanski (dir.), Rosemary’s Baby
Richard Donner (dir.), The Omen
Donald Cammell (dir.), Demon Seed

]]> Doris Lessing's uncategorizable oeuvre reached strange new heights in 1988 with the publication of her short novel The Fifth Child. The story couldn't be simpler. In the England of the 1970s, a couple determined to live out a dream that many of their generation have rejected -- the big family in the old house with the pretty garden -- conceive a child that may or may not be human. From that moment on, the boy, their fifth, becomes the alien force that will tear their dream to pieces. Profoundly ambiguous and unsettling, The Fifth Child is a weird novel that raises questions about parenthood, family, and the impenetrable depths of nature.

Header Image: The Changeling by Henry Fuseli (1780)

Additional music: "Fast Bossa Nova: Falling Stars" by Dee Yan-Key

REFERENCES

Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child
Doris Lessing, Shikasta
M. R. James, weird fiction author
Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire
Weird Studies, Episode 67 on “Hellier”
Victoria Nelson, The Secret Life of Puppets
David Icke, conspiracy theorist
Deros, underground beings from the fiction of Richard Sharpe Shaver
Hieronymus Bosch, Dutch Renaissance painter
Weird Studies, Episode 86 on “The Sandman”
Slavoj Žižek, The Puppet and the Dwarf
Louis Sass, “The Land of Unreality: On the Phenomenology of the Schizophrenic Break”
Louis Sass, Madness and Modernism
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life
Richard Thorpe (dir.), The Wizard of Oz
Frank L. Baum, The Wizard of Oz
Weird Studies, bonus episode on Adventure Time
James Hillman, The Soul’s Code
Doris Lessing, Ben in the World
Roman Polanski (dir.), Rosemary’s Baby
Richard Donner (dir.), The Omen
Donald Cammell (dir.), Demon Seed

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