S2E4- 🌕♊️ Pollinating Pleasure & “Subversive Smut”: A friendly chat about {ACOTAR} with Burju

(This season contains spoilers for the show“Severance”- season 1 aired in 2022 on Apple, and this episode contains spoilers for the romantic fantasy (romantasy) series “A Court of Thorns and Roses” (ACOTAR) by Sarah J Maas)

How can we increase intimacy with someone by opening ourselves to the stories that are speaking to them?  What can we learn about our own liberation when we engage in acts we have been conditioned to think of as “taboo”?  How can sci-fi and fantasy stories become our guides and companions to help us grapple with the realities of our world?  How can an author’s strategic use of attachment biology and “contact nutrition” enable readers to completely shift their allegiances?  What makes romantasy so fricking compelling, anyway!? 

Kristyn with a Why sits down for a friendly and integrative chat with her friend and fellow “movement fantasy baker” Burju about creativity, romantasy, and grappling with late-stage capitalism through the lens of “ACOTAR.”

0-17:39: Intro, connection to Severance, pollination and polyamory

17:45-28:41: Intro to Burju, Burju answers the pod’s 3 questions

28:45-45:40: Why we love ACOTAR/How Fantasy helps us see our life 

45:40-1:04:28: Our overview of ACOTAR

1:04:28-1:16:13:Fiction and Desire/Romantic love as metaphor for a creative practice, secure attachment for the sake of creating

1:16:13-1:25:11:Fantasy/Symbols are psychological, not literal/remembering that wealth is a symbol/side-eyeing the hoarded wealth of the romantasy genre’s  justice-minded revolutionary love interests

1:25:11-1:33:50: Kristyn breaks down “Contact Nutrition under the Mountain”- how stories wield the tools of attachment to change readers’ minds 

1:33:50-1:46:04:Power/TheDionysian roots of Rhysand 

1:46:04-2:22:30: “Subversive Smut,” locating ourselves in a story, how romantasy can radicalize readers to feel solidarity with CEO assassins, grappling with what it is to have power and own a business in late-stage capitalism

2:22:30-end: When people/practices we thought were the destination end up being stepping stones, how the Feyre character in ACOTAR can help connect us to our own agency

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Grateful for all the learning and inspiration in today’s episode:

Sophie Strand’sSubstack and Writings onDionysis 

Natalie Wynn’sContrapoints video on Twilight/Romantasy

Celeste Davis’Substack onElizabeth Gilberts’ discussionof degraded vs divine masculine and feminine

Carmen Spagnola & courses on Secure attachment & Contact Nutrition on The Numinous Network, preorder herbook here

Roadmap to Liberation withRev. angel Kyodo williams

Recommendation for healing for patriarchal males- bell hooks

As always:----------------------------------

Thankful for the musical inspiration for the theme song:

Hadestown by Anais Mitchell, specifically“Our Lady of the Underground” andOrpheus’ Song

“Hedwig’s Theme” by John Williams

Shout out for the artistic assistance of:

Matt Schubbe (Logo)

Kevin Carlow (Music and sound editing)