Ken and Robin Consume Media: Pseudo-Pagan Goddesses, 60s K-Horror, and the Science Fiction of James H. Schmitz
May 27th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
The Pinnacle
Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation (Nonfiction, Ronald Hutton, 2022) Hutton applies his forensic scholarship to the genesis and spread of mythology concerning Mother Nature, the Fairy Queen, the Lady of the Night and the Cailleach, with an expose of the Green Man as a 20th century invention for dessert. Through these examples, and thorough kickings to the ideas of surviving paganism and the Frazerian monomyth, Hutton provides a compact, indispensable guide to the relative newness of supposedly ancient traditions, the surprising migratory paths of folkloric concepts, and the rapidity of their adoption, expiration, and revival.—RDL
Recommended
A Bloodthirsty Killer (Film, South Korea, Yong-min Lee, 1965) The undead revenant of a mining magnate’s first wife wages a campaign of murder and mayhem against his family. A constant stream of supernatural bedlam hurtles from the screen in this wild, dreamlike serving of early K-horror.—RDL
Bullet Train Explosion (Film, Japan, Shinji Higuchi, 2025) Intrepid crew members and station managers of the Kyoto to Tokyo bullet train discover that, copycatting a 1975 incident, someone has planted a bomb that will explode if it decelerates to 100 km/hr. The director of Shin Godzilla reverses its institutional nihilism with a celebration of can-do on-the ground management in a rail travel thriller that keeps the obstacles coming.—RDL
Cartouche (Film, France, Philippe de Broca, 1962) Puissant 18th century street thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo) becomes head of a brazen gang of Parisian bandits and wins the heart of a loyal counterpart (Claudia Cardinale) but can’t shake his yearning for the security minister’s wife (Odile Versois.) Glamorous satirical swashbuckler shifts into a study of existential compulsion.—RDL
The Hub: Dangerous Territory (Fiction, James H. Schmitz, 2001) These ten stories, written between 1955 and 1969, range from the amiable what-was-it “A Nice Day For Screaming,” through the brilliant heist-plus-alien-monster mashup “The Searcher,” to the absolute Pinnacle novel The Demon Breed, which pits one of Schmitz’ trademark capable heroines against an invasion force of water-worlders. Ecology, bluffing, and mutant otters: this novel has everything.—KH
I Called Him Morgan (Film, US, Kasper Collin, 2016) Documentary recounts the heartbreaking story of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his wife Helen, who rescued him from the dregs of heroin addiction but wound up fatally shooting him.—RDL
Telzey Amberdon (Fiction, James H. Schmitz, 2000) In six pieces written between 1961 and 1971, Schmitz introduces us to his psionic super-heroine Telzey at the beginning of her adventures. The long novelette “The Lion Game” is an outstanding re-skin of “Red Nails” to psionic SF adventure; its (non-Telzey) prequel “The Vampirate” (1953) appears here under a differently bad title. Schmitz’ sense of scope, comfort with his future, story geometry, and believable heroines manifest throughout to good effect.—KH
Good
One Cut of the Dead (Film, Japan, Shin’ichirō Ueda, 2017) Realism-obsessed director Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu) tries to shoot a low-budget one-shot zombie film during a zombie attack, but things aren’t what they seem. Without giving away the twist, go into this movie expecting more comedy and camaraderie than your standard zombie film and you’ll probably find yourself charmed if not precisely enchanted.—KH
Okay
I Met Him in Paris (Film, US, Wesley Ruggles, 1937) After saving for years for a trip to Paris, a sensible clothing designer (Claudette Colbert) is whisked to snowy Switzerland by a glib novelist (Robert Young) and his pal, a sardonic playwright (Melvyn Douglas) bent on keeping them apart. Winter sports hijinks pad out a charming but slight love triangle romcom.—RDL
