My Heart Is a Chainsaw (2021) | Episode #63

In this episode, hosts Katherine Troyer and Toni Tresca discuss the 2021 horror novel My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones.

Episode Highlights: We talk about the character of Jade as the broken and beautiful Final Girl that we do not deserve, but that we so desperately need. Toni praises the use of the extra-credit essays between chapters, and Katherine admits that they were brilliant additions but reminded her a bit too much of grading. And we explore the ways that this novel forces us to confront both the power and limitations of this genre we so desperately love. 

A Dose of Scholarship: If you enjoy Jones' investigation into the Final Girl, we encourage you to read Carol J. Clover's discussion of this pivotal character in her 1992 work Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. In the episode we also reference the 2021 article "Pandemic Practice: Horror Fans and Morbidly Curious Individuals are More Psychologically Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic" by Coltan Scrivner, John A. Johnson, Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, and Mathias Clasen.

This podcast episode first aired on February 13, 2022.

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