Book Report: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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Hello and welcome everyone to another edition of The Book Report. I am Adam, joined as always by our, uh, not dungeon master, our dungeon teacher, but master teacher. Caitlin? No, when it's your book report, I will always be your dungeon teacher. It just sounds cooler. I don't know why we haven't just gone with that.

Everyone start calling her Dungeon Teacher. Who actually is no longer a high school English teacher as of a couple days ago. Yeah. Yeah, that's new. I'm going to have to totally recalibrate my... Not my personality, just my sense of identity. Yeah. 14, 15. I'm making the transition out of the classroom. Going to start working from home. Yeah. I love it. I love it. I know.

I'm going to live your lifestyle, Adam, just to be able to work from home. That's pretty nice. I will admit. Won't have to answer weird questions like, no, I cannot give you a Z-Pack or please put that back into your pocket. And that's used in many different ways. There'll just be other weird questions like our kids saying, Mommy, why is this coming out of my butt or something? Yeah.

Just replaced with other weird questions. Yeah, it's going to be quite the transition. But I'm still going to need to stay within the realm of education, doing what I love. And again, you'll always be an English teacher at heart. Forever. And for us, you'll always be our dungeon teacher. So we are here tonight to discuss Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. By Robert Louis Stevenson. But before we dive in...

I just wanted to hang for a bit, Kate. Oh, well, let's do it. Because a peek behind the curtain, we already talked about Robert Louis Stevenson. Yeah, we've done this guy. What book was it? Treasure Island. Treasure Island. The one that I was able to, it was a last minute. edition so it really was one of our like side one shots that bertram and

Penny went off on a little thing. Yeah, it was a Bertram Penny one shot. Yeah. I have like a jewel of some tiger's eye or something. Oh, shit. I gave you something on that? That's been... Oh, and I gave Penny proficiency in... knot tying or in ropes, something like that. I can't remember. We've had a lot of kind of random side adventures. I know Bertram has that one. Bertram turned into a cockroach with Awen at one point.

The shenanigans we get up to because someone is out of commission or we're on a break for some big life event for at least one of the cast members. In fact, we're about to go on break here for our own recording. Yeah, another peek behind the curtain. We've recorded three episodes of our next arc, which I won't share now, just in case you guys haven't...

No, I mean, if you're here, you should know what it is, right? Or maybe not. I won't say it just in case. Just in case. Just in case. But we've already recorded the first three episodes of that. But if you know, you know. And Ewen...

Awen. I always say Awen because Aaron and Awen are so damn close. They're very similar in sounding of the names. Aaron and his wife are about to have baby number three and he's going to take a little break. We've had so many babies during the show. It's been going on for four years. And so you and me never get a break, though. No, we don't. We never get a break. So during summer, we'll have a couple episodes of this next arc. And then.

Maybe we'll start, we'll do another little side adventure, even if it's just you and me. Yeah. The adventures of Bertram. Yeah. I mean, Kimmy will join in for it. We're figuring that out right now. But just as we've done before, we'll have some fun side adventures. You know, last summer when the same thing was happening when Kimmy was off for her.

maternity leave we we that's when we did poo and we did Alice in Wonderland was that two summers ago I don't remember it was a while ago yeah something or it was because Aaron moved I know I don't, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But yeah, we do a lot of like kind of.

Side adventures to help out the cast members if they have something going on in their lives. Yeah. If you're listening to this and you have a recommendation of something we should do. That would be good for like a one shot. Either involving the characters you already know and love or.

completely different you know when we did Alice in Wonderland we were we were just yeah it's honestly easier not to connect it to the book of lore it's easier just to be its own thing less work for me yeah we don't have to connect it to the world and the mythology so if you have a random story that, you know, sometimes people recommend really

Amazing sounding books. Yeah, I still have my running list. Oh, you do? Fantastic. Because I have the books that are going to make up the main arc already planned out. You know, that's been taken care of before now. Only three books left. I know. Spoiler. I know. But other than that, I have, let's see, I have an ongoing list.

There's 20. She is on her phone right now. She is searching for something. No, the request of stories, there's 20 of them. Okay, let's hear them. Uh... One Native American tale called The Boy Who Ran. Quite a few people have requested Dante's Divine Comedy. Yeah, that'd be sick. So, you know, that's it.

trilogy so i would guess they they're really thinking of caitlin's holding that in her back pocket just in case she accidentally kills one of us we're definitely doing that it's like all right we're going to we're going to hell we're going to climb out of hell we have um aristophanes the birds Rabelais, Gargantua, and Pantagruel. M.G. Lewis is the monk of romance. Something called Master and Margarita. A Chinese tale called Legend of the White Snake. Another Chinese tale.

called Journey to the West, Virginia Woolf's The Lighthouse, Agatha Christie's The Secret of Chimneys. I am so sorry how I'm about to pronounce this. Journey. Oh, that. Oh, never mind. I already said it. So I've gotten Journey to the West twice now. The Tale of Sinbad. Camilla. OG Dracula, basically, but femme.

by Fanny Burney, House of the Seven Gables, Zorro, Jane Eyre, Weathering Heights, Dracula, Alan Quartermain's stories. Yeah, there's so many good ones. And then a few other Agatha Christie's. I love the idea. If I'm going to DM again... like I did for Winnie the Pooh, I do love the idea of doing a Poirot and having you be Poirot and then I'm just everybody else. You would have me be Poirot. It's like, all right, do Poirot's voice. Well, the one accent I can't do. Be Belgian.

And Monsieur Poirot. It's an interesting. I can't do the French. I can't do the French accent. That's really hard. I could butcher it and try. But anyways, if you have other recommendations we should add to this running list, please let us know. I'd like to have it in my back pocket. And even once we finish Book of Lore, which has been such a huge thing to bite on, and we take a break and figure out what we're doing after that.

I still want to come back to literature and play adventures through that. If in a different, if not in the same format where it's like this large sweeping story. Yeah, maybe smaller things. A bit more and a bit more on the like kind of. episodic. Yeah, because Book of Lore has been massive. I remember when we first started planning it out, we were like, maybe it'll be a year or two. It's been four years later. Another sign of like, hey, you cannot pace. Good Lord. Yeah.

The moment when we started having arcs that you were like, this will be like five, six episodes. It ended up being 13. You're like, okay, this is going to take a while. It was worth it, though. There's so much content. I have a question for you, Kate. Okay.

So I've been talking about books. I just finished my first ever reread of the Harry Potter books. Okay. It's my second time through them all. I just finished Deathly Hallows yesterday. And now Caitlin has been recommending and talking about Harry Potter fanfic. Caitlin is deep into fanfic worlds. Oh, I've been since my like sexual awakening, my coming of age. Tell the audience. 12 to 13 year old. Tell the audience. What were you reading?

Oh, at that time, my gateway into fanfic, it was The Phantom Menace. Yes. Yes. Wait, what was the romance? I think at this one it was Obi-Wan. As a Padawan and some different aliens. Oh, no, my sexual awakening. What is this? What are these feelings? Darth Maul wasn't there with a double-sided, you know. No. And granted, not all of them were sexual. Oh, that's true. You were 13. I was 13, but there were some.

Whereas you as a little boy were discovering porn and I was discovering the femme porn, a.k.a. smut. Yeah. Different roads, different strokes for different. I shouldn't say strokes. Anyways. Pardon me. We're off on the wrong foot here. You're like, let's hang out. Five minutes later. I know. But. I trust you. And I love the world of Harry Potter so much. I love these characters and I'm sad to say goodbye to them.

And you're like, man, you don't have to. I got some books that are like maybe even better. Awesome writers. Like you see. So real quick, as you start describing them, I was going to ask you, you don't have to look them up and say the name and everything. Oh, no. She's already getting Google. She's getting prepared. I was going to say, give me your top three. This is a conversation we were going to have on the couch no matter what. Yeah. Let's bring the audience into this. What are the top three?

Well, the very first one, okay, because I'm a Jermione girl. I am. Which is Draco and Hermione. I love Draco and Hermione as a pairing. I find it so much more. fascinating and then hermione and ron yeah which is like me or it feels milquetoast man feel free come at me if you feel strongly about that um But in a lot of these up-and-coming writers, too, I will say... Step into the dungeon. Step into the dungeon with the dungeon teacher. But there are so many...

good sources of like writing where you discover these up and coming writers. And then eventually they put out their own original works as well. And you're like, I was with you when you were doing basically these specs, you know, you were doing these fanfics or like original. properties you know other other people's ideas and then I saw like something in how you crafted these characters that I for some of them I like better than than what

She Who Must Not Be Named is writing. I like the portrayal of some of these characters way better than in the original content. And so that latches onto it. So I think in this case...

It's hard because it's like within even like the realm of HP, which fanfics are the best. I'm just going to say like one of the branches of that. So Dromione. Okay, so we're only exploring Dramini. Just for now. Because you mentioned to me, you threw out like a Percy... Oh, Percy Pansy Parkinson. Love that pairing. Okay, but for this. Written way better in fanfics than you would ever find. But for this, we're going.

I'm going to say because that's the one I keep coming back to it. It's like my comfort itch. You think I'd enjoy these? I think you would. I don't know. I mean, you were down for some of the other ones. And, you know, you were there for my Reylo ride. You were there for like Pride and Prejudice, too. There's a lot of like similar tropes there. I liked, what was that? Coffee and... Coffee and...

Killing Peaks, Killing People. What was that called? Coffee and Killing People. What was it called? Are you talking about the comfort fantasy? Yeah. Oh, Legends and Lattes? Is that what it was called? That book? I thought that was the sequel. No, that's... Legend of Lattes is the OG. And then there is... Oh, I can't think of it. Is it Legends and Lattes? Maybe it's Legends and Lattes.

I mean, that's the one we for sure have read. Okay. I don't know why that was the second one. No, Travis Baldry wrote that one first. If I remember it, it'll come up. Anyways. Anyways, yes, I enjoyed that book. So anyways, yes, tell me about top three Draminies before we actually get into the main topic at hand. If you're here and you like this show, you're down for this conversation, hopefully. Damn, yeah, you are down for it.

You join me on AO3, and we are good to go. I think my favorite is, there's this author, Loves Bitka 8. Shout out. Who is working on content of her own as well. But she wrote this series called the Rights and Wrongs series. And I first read this one. It's called The Right Thing to Do. And it takes place like.

I want to say 10 years after the end of the seventh book. Okay. Something like that. And it's like the redemption arc for Draco and kind of that whole idea of like when you have somebody in the public eye and like what a... Redemption arc looks like from like a PR perspective and like versus what is actually happening behind the scenes. Love that one. So a lot of good angst. Great smuts.

And a lot of like restructuring how you look at the original contents and like going back to like moments in there. It's like, actually, you could look at it this way. Oh, interesting. So that's and there's like. She's created like a whole series within this little mini world that she's creating. focusing on different characters. And even there's an alternate timeline one, like what if Voldemort had won and Harry lost? It's called the auction. It's the same.

version of these characters in this alternate timeline, too. Oh, I think you're talking about that one. Does Draco buy her or purchase her? Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, no. But not like that. Not like that. Not like that. So that's one. There's another one that I think is actually a great entry. If you want to try out Jermione, and it's more like lighthearted, and it's more of a rom-com. Okay. Oh, God. Hang on. Who's got owl mail?

Oh, no. Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love. And it's got all the rom-com tropes in it, but you have in this case, once again, they're older. You have more of an involvement of the muggle world for both like both Draco and Hermione. We're at Oxford. I'm already there. You have Oxford as setting and I'm. I'm sold. You know, I'm reading right now like a story that's set in Oxford as well from in the 1880s. And it's scratching all the itches for me. So that that's number two.

Is it just top two those are top two those are top two now if you want to swing the other way of like You don't want something feel good. You want something dark that like kicks you in the nuts I would say Manacled by Senlan Yu. Is this another Germini, though? It is. Oh, okay. It is. It's giving... Oh, shoot. That... It's funny when you're when you're put on the spot and like all the thoughts rush out of your head. Yeah.

That show where they wear the red capes and... Oh, Handmaid's Tale. There we go. It's given Margaret Atwood. Interesting. Okay. So, yeah. All right. Thank you for the three recommendations. I want to start reading one of these and I'll report back. And if you're like, this isn't the pairing for me, I'm like, I've got others for you. Or you're like, this is the pairing for me. I'm like, let's go down this path together.

If you're listening out there and you have any Harry Potter fanfics, I should be reading. Or just like in general. Any like great fanfics. My gosh, we were looking for like good Baldur's Gate 3 fanfics. I know. But it was so early on. You got to kind of wait. It was all super smutty. You got to kind of wait. Like, my current guilty pleasure is Fallout. Oh. TV show. Ghoulsy? I'm ghoulsy.

I'm not ashamed. There is no guilt in this guilty pleasure. Walton Goggins is so hot right now. Make him look like a burn victim and you do it for me. But yeah, so because it was like in the early stages, you really had to do a lot more like going through. There was an established list. There wasn't recommendations.

I should go back to that now that it's been maybe a bit more, a little more time has passed. Yeah, so when more time has passed, you get a lot more good collections. Cream rising to the top. Yeah, exactly. So it's fun to kind of pour through that. Well, I know that I have you as my fanfic girl who can give me all the insights. I'll give you all the good hashtags, the good tags. And now that I've asked my important question, now we can get to, what are we in?

About 15 minutes in, let's get to the topic at hand. Oh, right. This is a book report and an actual classical work that is...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Are you going to tell me there's probably not a love fanfic between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Oh, yes, there are. Anything out there, there's a fanfic for. Yes, there is. There is a community for everybody. So we talked about how I mentioned earlier. how we already talked about Robert Louis Stevenson with...

Treasure Island. So go back to that if you want to hear more about the guy, the man, the person, the legend and who he was. Really interesting, dude. Let's talk just about the book itself, maybe. And it's significant. in literature sure yeah so strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde as you as you have already mentioned it is this 1886 gothic horror novella so it's really small very quick read which is one of my selling points for it

And your narrator is this dude, Gabriel John Utterson, who I did not use in that because I'm like, eh. He's, eh. Yeah. Yeah, he's just there for me to. hear the story that's really it um but he's this london-based lawyer who investigates a series of these like strange occurrences and murders um and he sees like it's involving his old friend dr henry jekyll somehow and then there's this murderous criminal named edward hyde

And he's like, what is the connection between these two? Why do I always see them together? Why do I always hear their names together? But really, this is a story that a lot of people have heard of, even if many people have not read it. Yeah. You know, it's had like a sizable impact on pop culture. You know, we even just like that phrase, Jekyll and Hyde. It's...

It's like the English vernacular is an idiom, right? We like someone who's outwardly good, but sometimes like shockingly evil in nature and like this, this duality to us, which is kind of what Stevenson was getting at. Like he had been.

long intrigued by the idea of how human personalities can reflect this interplay of good and evil. And so he actually wrote this while he was super sick, like he was bedridden. And he had been living for a couple years in Dorset, specifically in Bournemouth. and he was trying to benefit from the warmer climate and the sea air. You know what you used to do when you were sickly. He's like, let's go and live in the sea air and recover.

Anyways, apparently he got this idea for the story in a dream. So in 1885, so a year before this book was written and published, he supposedly... according to his wife um he had had this detailed dream that inspired him to write the story and it was so impactful to him that like he woke up from him screaming so like his his wife fanny heard him cry out in his sleep and so she like woke him up like rolled over him like hey um but then he was like

he said he's like hey why'd you wake me up i was dreaming this he said it was a fine the scottish guy right so he's like it was a fine bogey tale um i was in the middle of a great nightmare what are you doing uh and so the next day like he wrote about the dream he kept it down he wrote an essay later on titled a chapter on dreams and in it he writes this is a direct quote from stevenson in his essay he said i dreamed the scene at the window and a scene afterwards split into

which Hyde pursued for some crime, took the powder and underwent the change in the presence of his pursuers. So it's like he was dreaming about this already, like someone taking some kind of drugs, turning into something new, someone else different from him and like just... going ham on on the local citizenry sounds like a parallel of the subconscious of of coming in and out yeah i'm wondering like to what extent like is he as he's going through this horrible sickness like is he

having this idea of like, there's something else in me. But, um, then there, his stepson, so Fanny's son, um, Lloyd Osborne, um, wrote about this later on too, cause he was living with them. He said, I don't believe that there was ever such a literary feat before as the writing of Dr. Jekyll. I remember the first reading as though it were yesterday. Lewis came downstairs in a fever, read nearly half the book aloud, and then while we were still gasping, he was away again and busy writing.

I doubt if the first draft took so long as three days. Dang. So he did. He actually, he wrote the first draft and then he rewrote it all. And the whole thing took about six days.

Did you say that he wrote it when he was sick? Yeah, he was super sick. No, he got the idea and then he started right away. So he had the dream, he wrote about it, ruminated on it, and while he was still in this... invalid state wow so like he was that's he was still coming downstairs and like what are you doing out of bed it's like let me read to you what i just wrote um now according to legends stevenson burned like the first draft

Because when he had come downstairs and read it out loud to his wife, she said, you've missed the allegory. Like, what's the whole point? What's the story you're really telling here? And so he's like, fuck it. And so he burned the draft and started over again. Now, it's not really known whether this event actually occurred or if it's just like built up in this mystery around the book's creation.

But it's what his wife later on posthumously said about Stevenson. But even Stevenson avowed that he did. He wrote... in a fever for three days straight without stopping when he was doing like the second draft of this of the story so it's great i mean it's a novella it's a it's a very very quick read but still just like to have such vivid imagery in your head

And then try to make something of it and just going nuts and like staying upstairs, really. Who knows if he's really eating that much and not coming back downstairs until you have like a better finished product. I've always, as a writer myself, I've always heard of those. Those kinds of stories I find super frustrating because you're like, man, how are you churning out this in such a short time? I think about...

There's a sidebar, but I know there was a saying that apparently P.T. Anderson, one of my favorite directors, when he was writing Magnolia, he was at a cabin and... there was like a snake outside that he was scared of and so he just didn't leave and he wrote the entire three-hour movie.

in like less than a week and i don't you you don't know how if that's like a first draft and it sucks and you actually end up writing a lot more right you don't know how much but hearing that you're just like oh my god how did you write how do you people write these things so fast well don't feel too bad because

A number of later biographers have alleged. Said it was bullshit. No, they have alleged that Steve is. No, they don't. They think it's true that he did that. But they have alleged that he was on drugs during the frantic rewrite. Like William Gray's revisionist history called a literary lie. of he was on cocaine to feel better said he did said he used cocaine and other biographers said he used this like kind of shroom called ergot like so

He was on cocaine. He was on shrooms. He had a fever. I mean, there was something like Stephen King just churning out books high on cocaine. Yeah, it's in the fire. It's not it's out. It's in. Yeah.

So just to kind of give you an overview of what the finished product is, what the story is, it's based in Soho and London's West End. And this Dr. Jekyll is this. large, well-made, smooth-faced man of 50 with something of like a slyish cast, as Stevenson writes. And he sometimes feels he's battling between the good and evil within himself. And you see him talk about that in a lot of monologues at the beginning.

And so it leads to this struggle between his dual personalities that come out of that of Henry Jekyll, the OG guy, you know, the scientist, and then Edward Hyde. And so he spent a great part of his life trying to repress these evil urges that were not fitting for like a man of his stature, someone who is learned in the academic community, as well as someone who has money and is like on the upper crust of society. And so he creates this like.

serum or this potion in an attempt to separate this hidden evil from his personality so he's trying to eradicate This part of him where he's like, why am I having these urges to kill? Why am I having these urges to maim? Why am I wanting to do this? Like a good person in society shouldn't have these urges. So I'm going to create this medicine to get rid of the urges.

Well, in doing so, Jekyll transforms into Hyde. He transforms into this like smaller, younger, cruel, remorseless and evil person. And so after taking the potion repeatedly. he no longer relies upon it to unleash his inner demon. So before it's like, I drink the potion, I become Hyde. And then it eventually wears off and I become myself again. And I have no recollection of it.

So it's like creates this idea of the alter ego, right? But eventually this alter ego, this hide, it grows so strong that Jekyll becomes actually reliant on the potion. to just remain conscious throughout the book. So it actually turns around where he has to keep turning into Hyde because Hyde keeps taking over so that he becomes himself again.

So it's like, it's a lot like that, like, you know, drug usage of like. Yeah. It's very controlled at first. Losing yourself. Yeah. So this has been, I mean.

There's been so many adaptations of this. You know, I found like over 120 stage and film versions alone. There's even like a musical from 1990 that was made. And it was pretty much right away. Like there was a stage version in 1888. So just a couple of years after the book came out. And the actor who portrayed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Richard Mansfield. He was even accused of being Jack the Ripper. Oh.

Because he did it so well. So an 1888 staged version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde coincided so perfectly with the onset of the famous Jack the Ripper murders in London that the public was convinced that that actor, Richard Mansfield. Had to be him. Must be the culprit. That sounds like a fanfic right there. Probably, right? There's got to be a book for that. Now, the truth of this accusation was never confirmed. So technically, we don't know. But...

What happened was Mansfield's transformations during the play were so realistic and were so passionate that many audience members were like genuinely horrified by the performance. So it's like a little bit of body horror, a little bit of like moving his body around a little. physicality and the acting as well because like in the book it's like he shrinks like he looks different yeah what you what surprised me because I feel like all the adaptations I usually hear about is like Hyde becoming

Almost like a monster. Yeah. A larger version. Was it the mummy one? The one with, was it Tom Cruise? Is there? Oh, yeah. That like little monster universe they were trying to. Yeah. Who was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Crow? Russell Crowe? Was it Russell Crowe? I know he was in that. Yeah, I think he was Russell Crowe. But oftentimes when they do that, they make Hyde bigger. And they make him like kind of what you see with the Hulk, right? Yes.

like turns a different color or like bulges out kind of like this what we think of like this monstrous thing that is physically threatening and more animalistic. Whereas in the book, it's like he becomes a leprechaun. Really? Yeah. He becomes smaller and younger. But also, supposedly, like... We see Stevenson was also inspired by an actual mental patient when he was. So there's this dude, Louis Vivette. He was one of the first recorded cases of split personality disorder.

And the study of his condition was published shortly after Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And so many of his biographers, many people who have studied Stevenson, believe that he used this guy, Louis Vivette. As a model for the novella, in addition to Deacon William Brody, this Scottish guy who was an upstanding figure in the community in Scotland. And then you found out like he'd been like murdering people at night. So apparently.

um vivettes two recorded personalities were like polar opposites of one another so one was actually paralyzed from the waist down and the other could walk perfectly like even just physically they were different so um So, you know, in the case of Deacon William Brody, Scottish guy I just mentioned, he chose to live a double life. Vivek's case was medically similar to the sudden transformation of Jekyll into Hyde. So a lot of people think like that was kind of like you have.

Stevenson taking these stories that he knows of his home country and then also like cases in the news and all that and taking it as like, ah, what if I put this into my story? Tell me about...

I mean, it sounds like they had a play come out pretty quickly after the book came out. It must have been well-received. Stevenson's stories did a lot of that. Stevenson was definitely one of those authors who knew his audience and was writing more fantastical stories. appealed to a wider audience. What was was it just I know I always kind of ask the difference between popular with.

critics and popular with the public? Was it kind of both? I don't see too many notes on critics, academically or literary-wise. Why is it taught in schools? Or why has it stood the test of time? What's made it stand apart? I can tell you like what... The gothic genre for me was not just of a personal interest, but having studied it myself in college, then getting to teach the gothic genre.

Later on for high school, this is considered one of the defining works for the gothic horror genre at the time. It kind of perfected it and it fine-tuned it and it's very short and easy to approach.

It has all the right tropes there. But then later on, so maybe not at the time, but later on, you have a lot, especially once you have like... freudian theory in literature for for critical theory um it's just so cool to look at through that so there's a lot of ways to approach this which i think comes back to him taking uh

his his wife's suggestion like you need to make the allegory stronger you need to have more windows for people to look in to see themselves so like have layers for this you know so there's a window you can look in to see like this is the super ego and id you know this is um the super ego the ego and the id you you can look at this as like this is a a look at like the

duality of Victorian society and like how hypocritical it is you can look at it as like alcoholic abuse and alcoholism itself and then later on like drug abuse there are people who even see like there it's it's a great criticism on the treatment of lgb as well because there there really are like like it is like only really men in the story and you see like a couple women it mentioned and one of the victims is a woman but

Not in the same way that like men are treated. So it's like this taking out this frustration and interest towards men. Oh, I thought you were going to say maybe about like this man transforming. Well, unable to be himself. Right. Like even like there's a person who realizes in the story like the truth. And they find it too late. And like the guy has like.

He's died in his laboratory or something like that. And it's just because he learned the shocking truth and his heart gave out. So this idea of people finding out the truth behind who you're hiding about yourself and they can't take it anymore. But I love that idea. My favorite part of it is this story that explores dualities, which is so integral to Omamam as well. We do that a lot in our arcs over and over again.

In Freudian lit theory, specifically, like thoughts and desires are banished to the unconscious. And that's that motivates the behavior of the conscious mind. So like banishing evil to the unconscious mind in an attempt to achieve like perfect goodness. can result in the development of like a Mr. Hyde type aspect to one's character. Um, some scholars, I also really love it. Like that the sim scholars arguing, like,

There's a level of addiction or substance abuse, and it's a central theme of the novella. Even like Stevenson's depiction of Mr. Hyde is like reminiscent of descriptions of substance abuse in the 1800s. Really, it's a great look at the context in which it's written. So it stands the test of time with literary critical theories, but it's a perfect historical novella as well because it's...

You need to look at the context of its setting of Victorian London, which Stevenson seems to make a comment not only about the dualism. Dualism, dualism, dualism, dualism, um, present in every individual, but also like in society.

as a whole so we have like this aristocracy that's superficially genteel and it's refined but it's the one that had dark secrets to hide behind the like high walls of the mansions in which they lived so it's Yeah, once again, it's a great story for you can find so many windows to look in and all of the windows are looking into this like gothic mansion and you see horrible things inside.

I want to transfer to a game. Let's play a game. Unless there's something else you wanted to share. No, I'm just saying like, and it's a short read, kids. If you want like classic horror. Oh yeah, we need the thumbs up of approval. Total thumbs up. Yes. That's resounding. Total thumbs up. Like you've got to see why like so many, even like modern horror movies still pay homages to Steve.

How many pages do you think it is? Like 100? Is it shorter than Gatsby? Oh, yeah. Oh, I need to read this then. Hang on. You tell me this and... I tell you what. You tell me how we're playing. 88 pages. Oh, it's super short. It's 88 pages. It's so easy. All right. I need to read that.

Okay, well, now I feel a little less bad about him writing it in maybe like two or three days. No, it's... I mean, it's still 88 pages in three days. It's a... ton of pages but it's not a hero i thought i was thinking like man he wrote like 500 pages in three days no that would definitely be that would definitely be a lot of cocaine here's my game

I think it's going to be really easy. I always try and have a game that's in theme with the book that we've read. Okay. And so in theme, the theme of this book, or this book, this game is Arch Nemeses. Ooh, okay. And so in the arc with Oh Man Man, and we'll get to this in a little bit with our Q&A from listeners, but about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

And spoiler alert, if you don't know the major twist that happened, if you don't pause right now. Okay. The major reveal of the inclusion of Sherlock Holmes. And James Moriarty in our story now. So it got me thinking about other arch nemeses in pop culture. I have 15. Also, by the way.

And also, if you saw this in the, if you haven't, listen to it. Why are you listening now? Go finish Jekyll and Hyde first and then come back. Yeah. The arc, not the book. The arc. Our listeners are smart. They wouldn't just skip around. Right. Unless they love just listening to you and me be idiots. But no, I even chose to do that at the same time because it is. I mean, you and I talked about this as producers, but that they're one. One in the same.

That Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes are one person split. Oh, right. So it had to be like this book. Right. So it would fit in. And that's when the reveal happens. Oh, we'll get back to it. Ew. So I'm going to give you the, I want to say the hero, maybe for one or two of these. They're not technically the hero, but we'll say maybe these are our protagonists that we're following. Okay.

And then I have to name the antagonist? Yes. Okay. The main one, they're arch nemeses. Arch nemeses? Arch nemeses? Nemeses is the plural of nemeses. They're arch nemeses. 15. I expect you to get 10. Okay. We're starting off so easy here. Okay. And you can yell at me if you think I got some of these wrong. So let's start easy. Who would you say is Batman's main arch nemesis?

The Joker. Okay, perfect. That's one. You keep track of how many you get. One. This is going to be so easy, guys. Maybe get a little bit more difficult. Superman. Lex Luthor. There you go. Two. Another easy one. Just to get you ready and give you a false confidence. Oh, no. Harry Potter. Voldemort. Okay. Now, these still could be easy, but let's see. Professor X. Magneto. Okay. Four for four. Inspector Gadget. Oh, gosh. I just don't even remember. Did you watch that show?

Yeah. I remember him talking like this. Yes. I just don't remember the dude's name. And having a cat. It was like a hairless cat, wasn't it? No, you're thinking someone else will get to on this list. Okay. Dr. Claw. Dr. Claw. I would not have gotten that one. By the way, lots of doctors on here as the bad guys. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's a trope, especially for the idea of science. Yeah.

This fear of science, just like we're seeing a lot of tech giants are the bad guys now. Okay, so what are we at right now? We're at four for five. Four for five, yeah. Optimus Prime. Another one who talks like this. Hugo Weaving? Hugo Weaving? He does the voice of the bad guy. Really? Yes. Oh, I got one up on you. Yeah. You don't even know its name is Megatron. Yeah, but Hugo Weaving plays Megatron. A.K.A. Elrond, A.K.A. Mr. Smeeth. Let's go back to an easy one. Okay. Mario. Uh...

Wario? No, the main one since like the beginning. The one that Jack Black played. Madam. He has a shell. You don't know his name? Bamboozle. Oh, my good. Bowser? Bowser. Oh, my God. You didn't get that one. Uh-uh. So you've gotten three wrong in a row. Anything's possible. Four and three. Anything's possible. Sonic the Hedgehog. Jim Carrey. Who play, who portrays. I know. Guy with the squiggly mustache. Dr. Eggman or Eggman.

Dr. Eggman is his name? Yes. It's like a video game for kids. Yeah, that's true. He-Man. He-Man. Uh, She-Devil. Close. Skeletor. There you go. Yeah. Oh, man. I got you. I thought you were going to get maybe all of these. Here's an easy one for you. Peter Pan. There's someone listening right now, and they're like, duh. Captain Hook. Yay. You got one.

What's the score? Oh, you mean Lucius Malfoy? You mean my boy? You only have five right so far. I only got a few left. Is it Jason Isaacs? I don't know. Yeah, Jason Isaacs. Robin Hood. The Sheriff of Nottingham. There you go. Austin Powers. Dr. Evil. There you go. You're going better. So now you have seven? Yeah. You got to go three for three here in order to get 10. Woof. Bart Simpson. Principal Skinner. Good guess. But think about like an actual like arch nemesis.

I might count that because that's pretty good. I mean, Mr. Burns? Who's trying to destroy each other? Oh! Kelsey Grammer. Sideshow Bob. Yeah. Though I think I would count Principal Skinner. That's pretty good. Thor. Loki? Yeah. Okay. I mean, maybe. They're brothers. They're brothers. Last one. Wile E. Coyote. Roadrunner. Yo, man, you you you had me scared there for a bit you got You got five you got four right? No, you got Yeah, you got four right

You got five wrong in a row and then you got six right at the end. And then you totally redeemed yourself. All right. That was fun. I hope you enjoyed that playing at home. Let us know what score you got. I want to know how good you are. And if this was like the easiest question, the easiest quiz ever. How many of you were yelling at me as you were listening?

We have a few questions from listeners, specifically from our patrons. Thank you out there, people who are listening, but also thank you for our patrons who help finance the show.

And to, like, just love on us in many different ways. Yeah, and love on us and talk to us in our Discord. And so if you want to become a member of our Patreon, you can go check it out. We have links below in the show notes. And for only... few dollars a month or whatever you want to give you can hop on our discord and chat with us the other listeners of the show you also can get early access to episodes you can get

Ad for listening. Ad for listening. You can get the after show, which is where all of us, we talk after we record an episode about what we just did. Periodically. Periodically. Aaron, Kimmy and I like talk about books and hang out and have a little book club. Yeah. So there's actually bonuses on there for you and it means a lot. And so we just really appreciate.

Our listeners, all of our listeners, but really, really appreciate the people who are our patrons. Part of the Oh Mam Mam Fam, as we call them. Oh Mam Mam Fam. So this is from one of our new members of the Oh Mam Mam Fam. Annika, they sent in two questions. They sent in two questions. The first one's a simple question, just about us personally. They ask, how does everyone bookmark their physical books?

I have all these fancy ones I've gotten as gifts, but I feel like most of the time I'll end up using a random sticky note or something by accident. Let's see. I'm thinking of like the last books I've read. I just finished Tenet Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, and that had one of those ribbons that's built into the book. Oh, cool. So that's nice. And then I've just begun Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, I want to say. And in that one, I'm like, I had that.

moment of like, I have nothing to put in here. I was across from you at the coffee shop today. So I was rumbling around, rummaging around in my backpack and I found a bumper sticker. Oh, OK. An unused bumper sticker with my alma mater, Go Colgate, on it. And so it's bigger than the book itself. But I'm like, this will do. It's flat. And so I have a bumper sticker.

hanging out and i don't even remember why i had a bumper sticker so yeah i will use whatever i have i i use receipts i use post-it notes i use scraps of paper i have if i can find like a cool picture that is you know a hard copy of a picture i like that Like I have some books that are on our shelves that I come back to periodically for different reasons. And those definitely have pictures inside. I'm very much the same way. If I had a bookmark.

I specifically bought a nice bookmark. I know I would lose it instantly. And if I'm in between books, I don't know what I would do with it then. I guess I would just rest it on the shelf. Get another book! Well, for sure. I think what I do is, yeah, I'm reading Project Hail Mary right now, and I think I just have, I must have a piece of paper with me at some point, because I'm usually writing.

And then I'll just tear a square off of it and I'll shove it in there. Or if I'm at a bar or a cafe, I'll tear off a little piece of a napkin and put it in there. That's usually what I do. Seen you do it. I've seen, I like on TikTok, the thing we've seen where it's for people who are like, like to read smut or something like that. And it's a picture of like, it's like Jesus.

Kind of poking his head out to the side. It's like, yeah, what you reading there? It always cracks me up. I need to buy that for you. Annika also asked now a podcast question.

They said, Jekyll and Hyde is one of the shorter arcs with only three episodes. I know you've touched on this a little bit from the Island episodes, but does a book's length or breadth or content play a factor in how long its arc is? Or rather, does this play into how Jekyll and Hyde, or at least the twist, is such a well-known story? There's kind of a part two, but I'll start with that first part about why you made it a short arc, or why you chose that.

Right. And I said this before, like when I would have the island arcs, I had kept originally to like the naming conventions, the choosing names that had some form of what? Island or Robin. like so it was it was Robin Hood then it was Robinson Crusoe and then it was Swiss Family Robinson that's right and then

When now that the island is no longer viable, maybe even no longer existing, who knows? I still wanted to have like kind of a landing place for you guys to not only level up, but kind of like regroup.

And have important like background information answered. What was the arc when we were leaving and everything was going to shit and it was like blowing up? Jungle Book. It was Jungle Book. We were finishing up Jungle Book. Oh, that was Jungle Book. Yeah. It was just kind of like on the tail end of. You're right. And so that that plays a huge role in.

to the original like naming convention was big on the island arcs but um also another thing is i i wanted to keep it to a shorter work because yeah when it work is longer there's so much more material that I want to include into my planning of the arc. You know, right now we're working on an arc that I'm trying to keep to five episodes. Good luck. Trying.

We'll see. But there's so much material in that. And so, yeah, if it's a longer work, I tend to have more episodes to give me more space to include like. reflections of the original works like own like a plot arc plot diagram so you know when we did Count of Monte Cristo

I had things that lined up with where it was in the original story, in Dumas' novel. When we were doing Oliver Twist, I had things happen that lined up with the order in which they happen in Oliver Twist. So I... the the length of a book definitely helps that uh helps to dictate how how many episodes are in the arc but honestly too it's like kind of what's going on in our lives how much time do we have to yeah

Do we have time for longer episodes? Do we need to keep our recording shorter? We're trying to wrap up the book of lore in the next six or so months. Yeah. So we're not trying to do any more 13-episode arcs of books. Trying not to, yeah. Trying not to. We want to tell the proper story that... that dictates that the number of episodes it dictates to do that. And I think, but in the planning too, like when, when, when I was choosing which works to put where in the overall big arc, like of the.

what 13 plus stories we're doing. I forget how many stories we're doing total. Um, I tried to have the chunkier meatier works be earlier on. Um, and then the last works not be to, to, you know, They're going to be shorter works. It makes sense because the, I mean, you mentioned like the count of Monte Cristo. It, it, it was so early on that maybe there was like one goal to do like get.

a page or our rescue rescue crew or whatever and so there was so much freedom just to kind of like go into a random room come across a poop monster you know there was more freedom to do more kind of insane random things where i feel like now with the end goal in mind it really does kind of feel like the end game at this point where it's now just kind of

Finish the story. And finish it well. Yes. Find a good way to stick the landing. It would feel weird if you took the whole book of lore arc as a movie or a novel or whatever. It definitely feels like we're kind of at the climax, near the climax. So it wouldn't make sense to kind of have drawn out where we're, oh, we're learning how to.

break down the molecules of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde. And that's like a three arc where we're having to roll well to get the, as fun as that would be at a home campaign. yeah oh yeah i would approach i would approach planning so much differently if we were just playing this at home we're getting in and getting out like here's the bare bones yeah and dr jekyll and hyde so much and again we'll kind of get to that about

with a question coming up about that? Just jump in. Ask the question. Yeah, you're right. Actually, no, no. That's going to be the next question that's going to get more into the weeds of it. I'm going to hold off just a second to make sure we don't just... blow off the last question. But yeah, I think we're definitely where in the beginning, even though the arcs have never closely followed the books.

Like Frankenstein, the arc was not Frankenstein, the book, obviously, but you could fit more in and Moby Dick and things like that. It feels like now. our oh ma'am ma'am story is dictating more of like how we use the book as opposed to the books dictating the arc one's kind of taking one's taking

precedence or one's taking importance over the other? Yeah, yeah. I mean, O'Mama has always taken precedence. That's true. It's just, it's a loose fanfic that I'm writing. Yeah. So it's meant to be like, if you know the source material, then it should tickle. Yeah.

oh my gosh, I know who that is, or of course that line would be there, or of course this would be happening now, or I know the twist, but other than that, I'm not rewriting Stevenson's work. I'm not rewriting... um Shakespeare's work I'm not I think it's hard at this point I know when you when we were kind of loosely talking about this arc and kind of what to do with it

I know it's hard for you just to be like, what are you? So here are the things we need to accomplish in this arc. And now you have to like squeeze a book into it. And I bet that has to be really hard. With like, I guess I'm just going to use names when I can. Four years in and it feels so much more natural. It feels way better. Whereas before I was like, what do I do? My planning documents were way different than they are now. It feels more intuitive.

For sure. The other part of Anika's question was, how does everyone balance a mystery like Dr. Jekyll's situation when the players probably already know, but the characters don't? Right. I think it's it's I'm alluding to a video essay that Adam made on Entertain the Elk a couple of years ago. when you were going over Alfred Hitchcock's bomb theory, where you show the audience the bomb, and you show them where it's hidden, and then you let the audience stew.

Yeah. And so lies the suspense of your waiting. And so for you guys, I didn't have to keep it. a secret or worry about that it was a secret of like oh do do do adam aaron and kimmy already know that jekyll and hyde are the same person i think they're what they're talking about is just maybe the twist of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is such a popular book we know the twist first of all when I'm playing on it it's like I have that

duality of like when i'm doing this you guys know that twitter i was oh sorry you're right you were saying that sorry i was i was you were thinking of the audience yeah no i was thinking and so it's it's more like It's fun to have that planted. And so for you guys coming in, you don't know when he's going to change. Yes. So to kind of have that be the suspense of if you already know what the twist is, you don't know when the twist is going to happen or how.

it's going to play out yeah how you're going to deliver it so you find out the facets that that my audience wouldn't know and then play that up um and then yeah if you can have like a secondary a second bomb drop that might even be bigger in this case moriarty you know who that is um then that would take precedence over it and if it can thematically link to the story

a person being the same person you know split personality um so you have yes the reveal that Hyde is Jekyll which I expected a majority of people to know going in but I did not expect people to know that Sherlock Holmes is HS and Moriarty is WD. And that they're also the same person. Yeah. I think what really works, same thing, I was even thinking of Moby Dick.

There's going to be a whale there. There's going to be a whale. You're going to have Captain Ahab want to take that whale down. But I think what you do is you say, yeah, you probably know this. But I'm also not making it the most important thing. Yeah. Like you, Bertram, Penny, and Awin are the most important because they're our protagonists. But there's also twists along the way. There's different romances or relationship dynamics. In that case.

someone was cursed for Moby Dick. That's my favorite twist I've ever done. That's my favorite take on it. That's my favorite fanfic that I've done so far in this series. It was really good. It was really good. It's like, why is he hating Moby Dick so much? it was a demon whale it was fucking sick it was really cool and so in this case dr jekyll mr hyde of course we know that's coming but also

For me, sometimes it's almost like get it out of the way because we know it's coming. Give me everything else around it because everything else is going to be interesting. Let's get into the last question because I think this is going to be it.

Seiko, right? Seiko basically wants to talk about Frankenstein's redemption arc. And the major twist about WD, Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes, HS, and have the same person. They want to know, what was it like planning those things?

sitting on it for as long as you did and then like what it feels like to finally reveal it i was nervous uh because yeah like from day one you know we were figuring out okay which literary characters do we want to be big players in this yeah and so you and i when we were doing the initial planning before we even began to approach

Kimmy and Aaron, before we even recorded, before I started writing the first module. It's like big picture. Who are our two sides, you know, on this chessboard, really? And so, you know, we figured Robin and Marion. on one side, kind of more on the good side. We figured Macbeth and Lady Macbeth would be cool on the other side, but then to have kind of like that puppetry. like, really what's behind the scenes. And so, you know, when pairing...

One antagonistic pairing that you and I both enjoy is Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. It's classic. Yeah, it is. It's a classic pairing. And so it's like, how can we have a twist to that? And so then what if it's the same person? What if? Because why else would there be this type of conflict that's there? Yeah.

You know, the Sherlock Holmes that we know from literature wouldn't be like, I'm a mastermind and I'm at the head of a network and people are working under me. That's not the dude. Right, right. But that is Moriarty, so what can we do with that? And then I love a good motif. I love a good... image that pops up like in a symbolic sense over and over and over again through a work. And so one image, one motif that I've had from the very beginning is duality.

Um, with mirrors, um, you guys have walked through multiple mirrors, um, twins. So, uh, even with like Elizabeth having the twin of Valentine that you guys see in, in, um, kind of Monte Cristo. um with uh this idea of even like uh the the triune spirits three and one um and so the naming conventions the upside down um Just a lot of that over and over and over again. And then it's going to hit huge. It's a big part.

coalescing into the next arc like that's that's that's a heavy motif mirrors duality oh yeah and opposing sides coming together yeah and so Anyways, it was fun, like, figuring out how can that be revealed. And so, you know, you have these two letters, you know, Sherlock Holmes, SH, and then Professor Moriarty, PM.

They actually are great letters to... flip around and what do you do with sh when you flip it around it still looks like an hs if it's capitalized if you have wd was a little bit more complicated because wd was undercase or lowercase no it's still a capital p

It looks like a lowercase like WD. That's what I'm saying. Lowercase. That was like you and me just playing around on papers and writing it out and flipping it around and seeing what we could do with it. So that was a that was a fun realization. Now, sitting on it, yeah, and realizing, like, how can you drop hints so that if somebody were to, like, go back and listen, other than the mirror motif, you know, every single time, like, WD's mentions.

to like every single time you have like communique from either WD or HS on either side. I was putting in like references to different Sherlock Holmes stories. Um, even like the beekeeping at one point, I think is, is that that's like when Sherlock Holmes, like, uh, in one of the stories when Sherlock Holmes, uh, what do you call him? retires like he tries to get into beekeeping to what Professor Moriarty taught in the books.

this like theoretical mathematics to even just in Gatsby's party. Just have him there. Have him actually have a chance to like see the three of you and observe you up close. Kind of like as an undercover boss. So, you know, just little things that happen along the way that it's fun for me while I'm doing it. But then not making a big deal out of it. I bet that was hard.

I thought it went really well. And I'm sure it was hard for you with the pressure of, I have been sitting on this for four years. I'm finally revealing it. And you're like, is it the right time or does it hit? Or like, this better makes sense. Because the last thing you want is for the players and the audience to go like, what? Yeah. I'm like, okay. Or who?

You want to be like, oh, shit, that makes sense. Like, you want to be rewarding. And I think it paid off really well. And I hope. All my love to the multiple people who asked, is WD Walt Disney? Walt Disney. Sorry it wasn't. Sorry it wasn't. That'd be interesting though. Great idea. I think that was the scariest moment maybe on the show just because so much of it has been resting on that large mystery.

since almost the very beginning or maybe near the beginning. It's been, who is this? Who is this? And I hope it pays off in a really satisfying way. I still loved how when we went to Moriarty's... It was very quick how you described a nearby chessboard, and in it, it really conveyed so much, almost...

It almost gave, in one quick image, it almost conveyed and described everything our characters have gone through in this entire... arc with pawns gone i think you mentioned about both both queens maybe even being gone yeah uh both both of the both of the queens are gone yeah and so you're you're alluding to these

larger pieces and macbeth and robin were the queens i love it yeah these these pieces being gone though macbeth oh lord macbeth yeah lord macbeth yeah but then there's still like the kings that are there I just love the way it conveyed very quickly what he's been doing as Moriarty and Holmes in that office almost, just kind of playing this little game of chess.

has turned into everything that we've been enduring for years on a grand scale. I found that really fascinating. And I think it's really cool. So I think you did a good job. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I hope it made sense to our listeners. I hope they liked it too. Hope so. Yeah, we're getting close to the end here. How is it feeling for you?

We got like three arcs left. We're already in the middle of the third arc. It's exciting, but also just nerve-wracking. Yeah. Because you and I have...

watched many a series where they perhaps lingered too long and they stumbled at the end. And I don't want that to happen. So. there's still a lot that's up in the air you know you kind of have this nebulous idea of how it's going to end but you still are unclear of how the players are going to get there and the cool thing with actual play you know kind of having that hybrid of like we are We are scripted in that I know the big sweeps that are going to happen.

but we are still actual play in that. I have no idea what you guys, the players are going to choose to react to that. Yeah. I don't know how you're going to react. I don't know who's going to die or who, you know, with a very few exceptions. I don't know who's going to survive. I don't know who you're going to spare, who you're going to kill, who you're going to interact with, who you're going to glom on well with and you're going to get attached to. That's true.

I think as that happens, I can only see one step ahead. That's it. The path ahead becomes clear one step ahead of you guys because I'm reacting to what you guys do.

In the game. If I can take credit for something. Take credit. It was on Valentine's Day. Maybe about two, three years ago. And I said, if Frankenstein comes back. He'd be really hilarious if Pip comes with him. Yeah, you did. You did say that. All of a sudden, Pip can talk. And we're like, holy shit, here's Pip. And I think even then you're like, I'm going to make him sound like butters. Even then I was like, I know what voice I'm going to use.

The things that you and me can talk about as producers and just sit on. And I think you know everything. I know most things. But there's room for surprise for me. So that way as I'm playing, I'm surprised. It's like you have dark vision. You can see things not like in daylight, but you can see like hazy. There's certain things, though, I keep you in the dark still. Yes, you do, for sure. And then Kimmy and Aaron are in the dark on most everything.

So it was fun even sitting on that with you with Pip. And I was like, I wonder when Pip's going to come back. I couldn't wait to do it. And for the longest time. You were so eager. Because I was prepping. I know. Well, as I was prepping too, I knew what I wanted him to say. first and so like that his little voice kept playing over and over again in my head like I remember the week before it's like five days before and I woke up and first thing as I come to consciousness

I hear Pip's voice in my head saying, Bertram, you son of a bitch. I was like, wow, you were ready to go. Bar Trouble, you son of a bitch. Yeah. It's so easy how you fall into that hard voice. It's such a difficult voice to do. I know. And Kimmy's like, fuck me. I know. Well, actually, I will say no more.

A little spoiler for the next arc. Yeah, it's been fun to hear all these things we've been waiting for in these... surprises that have been doled out time sprinkled throughout now it's at the end and I we're there almost man we'll see we'll see if you guys do it Or if you die and we have to do divine comedy. We always have the divine comedy. We always have hell. Well, thank you everyone for listening to another edition of the book report.

Thanks, Kate, for leading us through just behind-the-scenes stuff as the Dungeon Master and as an English teacher with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And, yeah, we just... If I can do a couple calls to action for you all listening, if you, like I said earlier, if you want to become a supporter of the show, be part of the OMAM fam and talk to us and get extra bonus episodes.

Just help us make the show. Oh, yeah, and something we just opened up on there, too, for everybody on our Discord. We have now available to anyone, no matter what level they are on Discord, this kind of like public gaming. So it's like this game night channel. Yeah, where people can hang out. And since we're going to be on a break, actually, I have something brewing for that.

And that's all I'm going to say. To play a game with us, then come on there. Check it out. Exactly. Be part of the Oh Man Man fam. If you have book recommendations for us, if you have Harry Potter fanfic ideas for me to read. Or just fanfics in general. That aren't written by... she who shall not be named, but just other people who

Oh, yeah. Enjoy the Harry Potter world still. Yeah, that's for Adam. For me, like I have just if you've got angst and you've got like jumping on that pain train. If you have Pride and Prejudice hand clenching. If you've got, yeah, mutual pining. Then email us. Reach out to us at omamamshow at gmail.com. Where else can you find us on social? Are we on social anywhere? I don't think so. I mean, there is a brief stint on TikTok. Not really.

Socials tire me out. I immediately start to lose steam. But if you want something that does help us also is just leaving ratings and reviews. Yes, wherever you listen to this. And it doesn't take long. It doesn't. And I want to read your words out loud because one thing I'm doing is I'm. if you do leave us a review so if if you if you hey if you could just

take a moment and you hit how many stars or hearts for, for ratings and you're done. Wonderful. Thank you so much. And then if you take a few moments more to write like a couple sentences or a whole paragraph, if you feel up to it about like what you love about the show. I will read your words out loud. You will hear your words and your name, your username, whichever one you use, at the break of a future episode.

And it's a perfect opportunity that if you just want to hear Caitlin, make Caitlin say something, you could say fart, fart, farts. I eat farts. And then she will have to say it. and then pair it with a five-star review, and then Caitlin will have to read it. Oh, happily. And then I'll clip it, and I'll add it to the end of the show after every episode. God, what episode was it where, like...

There was one episode. I got to go back and listen to it. It was the one where I think you farted in the middle of an episode. I can't remember which one it was, but it made us all just stop down, bust out laughing for so long. And so at the end, I just had you farting. I clipped you farting at the time. And then I had a one slow motion, slow down.

I remember the first time I played it for you and you and me were just crying. I need to go back and listen to that. I wouldn't even know what arc that was. That could have been Back of Gatsby. Can you remind me what it was? Yeah, what was the episode where Caitlin farted so I can go back and listen to it?

Where we got at least one response was like, you guys are sick. Yeah. Which is, hey, you know what? Fair. Last thing that you can do for us to help our little dumb show is to share it with your friends. People who love. Actual plays, who love Dungeons and Dragons, who love literature, classic literature. People who have a dark side that you secretly love. People who love dungeon teachers.

If they love dungeon teachers, then tell them I have a show that's got a dungeon teacher in it. Tell them one. You're one sick son of a bitch. Two, I have the right show for you. And also, if you have a friend who uses anything as a bookmark. Anything they find, just pieces of trash inside that book. This show's for them. High literature with trash in between. This is the show for them. On that note, thank you for listening. Thank you, Kate.

You are. I doff my cap at the. Oh, thank you. And we will see you all in the next arc that we will leave a mystery. Enjoy. Bye. The Fable and Folly Network, where fiction producers flourish. Cam Kander? Yeah, that was a strange thing. A prolific... creator who disappeared suddenly in 2020. Eccentric, weird, inscrutable. Cam Kander was like a 21st century Howard Hughes. Nothing is known. Cam Kander.

Man? Woman? Non-binary person? No idea. Cam Kander. An enigma. A cipher. A mystery. Was Kander a genius or insane? Is there a difference? And one day, Cam Kander vanished into thin air. Off the map. Off the radar. Like Amelia Earhart. From me, BK Will. in conjunction with Trojan Cat Media, a division of Corp. Leave me alone. I don't have anything to say about Cam Kander. Comes a shocking six-part documentary series. Cam Kander is a Rorschach test.

It's a MacGuffin stuffed inside a red herring, shoved down a rabbit hole that leads to a blind alley. Camcander is out there, waiting to make their glorious return. Like a cult leader. No, like a messiah. Discover Who is Cam Kander, a new investigative podcast coming Wednesday, September 1st, wherever you listen to podcasts.