Channel Title: Feral Historian Channel Description: Stories are cultural artifacts, whether it's epics on clay tablets or big-budget films. Those artifacts can tell us a lot about the time and culture that made them if we take a few minutes to shake them and see what falls out. To that end, an independent scholar goes rogue from academic respectability, wanders out into the wild, and talks to the trees and rocks about science fiction and its place in historical study. Grab your hiking pack and get your nerd-on, we've got a lot to talk about. <video> Battlestar Galactica : Rebooting Cain Description: The original 1978 Battlestar Galactica introduced Commander Cain in the 2-part episode Living Legend. The reboot brought the character back as Admiral Cain with a much harder edge in keeping with trends in television at the time. Viewed together, the two Cains provide some insight into how American culture has shifted in the intervening decades, specifically with the deconstructing of heroism coupled with a surprising rigidity of perspective that has become increasingly apparent in the political sphere since the series aired. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian Shilling for my own book, Ninti’s Gate. 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 02:08 In The Face of Desperation 04:38 States Unto Themselves 06:54 Razors 11:25 Closing </video> <video> The Prince : Anatomy of a Revolution Description: Jerry Pournelle’s collection “The Prince” includes many stories written over the course of decades. In this video I’m taking a look specifically at the revolution depicted in “Go Tell the Spartans” and “Prince of Sparta” because it captures some essential themes of insurgencies in general, and particularly Leftist revolutionary movements. B-roll is taken from an assortment of movies that . . . have nothing to do with this book but the clips kind of fit and it breaks things up a bit. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian Yep, still have a Ninti’s Gate plug here. 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 01:10 CoDo, Sparta, and the Revolution 06:18 Outside Support 08:18 Destabilization 10:26 War Going Backwards 12:42 Revolutionary Archetypes 15:20 In The Name of Justice 17:18 Foot in the Establishment </video> <video> Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome : The Past is Fluid Description: Thunderdome is a layered film, riffing on law, religion, and cultural development. And it does it against the backdrop of a history that morphs with each film in the series, a post-apocalyptic future without a consistent past. This one is not monetized, because Warner Bros are like that, so thanks to the channel’s patrons over at Patreon for supporting this content. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And a reminder that Ninti’s Gate is still available on kindle and paperback, 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 intro 00:57 Bartertown 03:25 The Tribe 04:48 The Past is Fluid 07:55 Messiah Story 10:45 Cutting Losses and Fading Away </video> <video> Walking Dead – The Ones Who Live : On Ideology and Revisionism Description: The Civic Republic has been a thread woven through the Walking Dead for years, and with this 6-episode spinoff it finally sees some resolution. In the process it plays with pseudo-science as a justification for atrocities and the post-war desire to move on. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian Ninti’s Gate, available on kindle and paperback, 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 01:01 State Secrets 03:04 Fan Service and Infiltration 05:15 Bogus Science and Ideology 06:46 Clean Endings and Revisionism </video> <video> Firefly and the Lost Cause Description: I’ve often been questioned for making Civil War comparisons when discussing Firefly. Here I explain why Firefly not only reflects but is based on the Lost Cause mythology of the Confederacy. EDIT: There's a further explanation of the "fighting for slavery" question here: https://youtu.be/FUidnzasyeA For further background on how secession was framed at the start of the American Civil War, battlefields.org has plain text copies of several of the Confederate States' declarations of causes for secession up at https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states You can see how slavery is mentioned _a lot,_ but often framed in terms of the second-order effects of Northern policy damaging their economy, infringing on sovereignty, etc. It varied by state of course, Virginia kept it vague with references to the Federal government "perverting said powers" granted it, while Mississippi was very clear about slavery being the cause. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And the obligatory Ninti’s Gate plug. 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 01:12 The Lost Cause 03:27 Selling the Peace 05:28 Causes 06:59 Firefly as a Lost Cause </video> <video> Drakon : 4th in a Trilogy Description: I’ve never known anyone who said that Drakon was their favorite Draka book, but it does have some interesting elements both on its own and in relation to the earlier novels. Let's have a look back at Gwen and Ken's old-timey '90s adventure. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And for something quite different from Drakon, Ninti’s Gate is available on kindle and paperback, 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 01:12 Gwendolyn Ingolfsson 03:17 Weaponized Environmentalism 05:52 “We’ve known her since she was a kid” 07:03 Ken and Gwen 10:50 Possibilities 13:28 Dead End </video> <video> “And Another Thing” #1 : Lost Cause Addendum Description: Bonus video - A companion piece to the “Firefly and the Lost Cause” video from a few weeks back. I address the main criticism of that one, the question of whether Confederate soldiers “fought for slavery” or some other primary motivator. See the original piece at https://youtu.be/CX39cPDWJbc </video> <video> A Canticle for Leibowitz and Cyclical History Description: A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller’s 1959 novel of long-term nuclear war aftermath, is a modern classic. It also presents us with a cyclical view of history that poses some questions for us today. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And a reminder that Ninti’s Gate is still available on kindle and paperback, 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 00:30 Fiat Homo 03:43 Fiat Lux 06:18 Fiat Voluntas Tua 08:38 Cyclical History </video> <video> The Federations : It’s the Same Picture Description: I find it curious that Star Trek's United Federation of Planets is often held up as an aspirational positive future for humanity while the United Citizen Federation in Starship Troopers is framed as an authoritarian pseudo-fascist dystopia. They're very similar in most respects, and I think the major difference comes down the the underlying assumptions about what drives human decision-making on an individual level. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian 00:00 Intro 01:05 The US is a Federation 02:27 Post-Post-Apocalyptic 04:39 Call to Serve 07:40 Selection 09:05 Taking us as we are </video> <video> Fatherland : Alternate History with a Point Description: The 1992 novel by Robert Harris is a great example of the otherwise generally mediocre “Germany won WWII” alternate history premise. By removing the regime from its current almost mythologized status as a unique and singular evil, instead portraying it as merely a repressive state in a Cold War, Fatherland illustrates an uncomfortable truth about realpolitik and atrocities. CORRECTION: Somehow I put up a picture of Bormann when I was talking about Buhler. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And my own book, not alternate history, Ninti’s Gate is available on kindle and in paperback, 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 00:55 The Case 02:20 Out of Myth, into the Mundane 06:13 Detente and Bureaucracy 09:11 HBO’s Adaptation 10:01 Ignoring Inconvenient Truths </video> <video> The Prisoner : “It Means What It Is” Description: The Prisoner is one of those rare television series that is both completely rooted in its particular time and yet somehow timeless. It’s 1960’s Orwell-meets-Sargent-Pepper style speaks to themes of authoritarianism, social atomization, and malicious technocracy just as well today as when it was made. And while it’s been analyzed from every angle in the intervening decades, I’d be remiss if I didn’t contribute something to discussion of The Prisoner. Collin Cleary’s essay on The Prisoner, covering mostly different aspects, can be read here: https://counter-currents.com/2014/06/patrick-mcgoohans-the-prisoner/ I'm not endorsing anything else hosted on that site, just linking to an interesting article about the Prisoner that has been referenced in several places but not hosted in full anywhere else I could find. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And the obligatory Ninti’s Gate plug. 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 02:00 Antimodernism 04:30 Politics and Subversion 06:55 Mandatory Fun and Pathologized Dissent 09:00 Rules and Suspicions 11:15 It Means What It Is 13:50 Once Upon a Time . . . 15:00 Fallout 18:57 Looking Back </video> <video> Fitzpatrick’s War and the the Narrative of History Description: Fitzpatrick’s War tells the story of the rise and fall of a dictator, formatted as a largely critical memoir, interrupted repeatedly by annotations from a regime-lackey historian writing later. It’s interesting as much for its structure as its story, and it deserves more recognition than it gets today. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And the obligatory Ninti's Gate link. 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 01:05 The Yukons 05:03 Timermen, Revisionism, and Sources 08:23 Rise and Fall of Fitz 11:08 Cyclical History. Again. 14:33 Out for a cappuccino </video> <video> The Cabin in the Woods : Industrialized Blood Sacrifice Description: The Cabin in the Woods (2011) is on one level a skewering of the trope-filled horror genre. But more than that, it comments on the horrific and micromanaged nature of our own world. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And I’m still shilling for my book, Ninti’s Gate. 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 00:30 Society needs to crumble 02:57 Modern Horror 05:40 Worth saving? </video> <video> Dies the Fire and the Founder Effect Description: The first book in S.M. Stirling’s Emberverse series, Dies The Fire yanks modern technology out of the world and sets the stage for a multi-faceted exploration of how distinct cultures emerge from small isolated groups and the profound effect individuals can have the societies that coalesce around them. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And the obligatory Ninti’s Gate plug. 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 Intro 01:28 Founders 03:37 Desperation 04:51 Flawed Assumptions 07:05 Composites and Rhymes </video> <video> Event Horizon : Chaos and Evil Description: There’s a fan theory that Event Horizon is a Warhammer 40K movie, which leads me to several questions starting with “why equate chaos and evil?” Pulling on that thread reveals, I hope, a few interesting insights into the story and the assumptions it builds on. 🔹 Patreon | patreon.com/FeralHistorian 🔹 Ko-Fi | ko-fi.com/feralhistorian And for some sci-fi with no horror elements at all, Ninti’s Gate is available on kindle and paperback, 🔹 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYXH9BWD 00:00 intro 00:30 40K and Chaos 01:25 Back to Event Horizon 03:20 The Gateway 05:20 No Guilt, No Visions 06:52 Weir 08:00 This Side of Chaos </video>

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Stories are cultural artifacts, whether it's epics on clay tablets or big-budget films. Those artifacts can tell us a lot about the time and culture that made them if we take a few minutes to shake them and see what falls out. To that end, an independent scholar goes rogue from academic respectability, wanders out into the wild, and talks to the trees and rocks about science fiction and its place in historical study.

Grab your hiking pack and get your nerd-on, we've got a lot to talk about.

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