Van Gogh’s A Corridor in the Asylum
It’s time for the second episode of the Ontological Geek Podcast! In addition to talking about a few specific game soundtracks, this episode delves into horror games and the use of the “insane asylum” as a recurring, uninterrogated trope therein. Special guests this episode are Amsel von Spreckelsen, longtime OntoGeek friend and games-blogger, and Rowan Noel Stokvis, a disability rights advocate. Join us for some serious analysis of why insane asylums are used so frequently in horror games, what they mean, and what this trend says about our society’s attitudes towards the mentally ill.
If you’d like to listen to a version of the podcast which has complete cuts of all the musical tracks which are simply sampled below, head on over to http://www.mixcloud.com/ontologicalgeek/ and listen to that version there!
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00:00 – Introduction
01:36 – Mashup of Thief music by Eric Brosius
05:20 – Horror and horror music in Games (Amnesia: the Dark Descent, et al.)
27:35 – Asylums in games (Outlast, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Batman: Arkham Asylum, et al.)
1:34:26 – Roundtable discussion (Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons, Dark Souls, To the Moon)
- Amsel’s blog: http://www.madnessandplay.blogspot.com
- Download Eric Brosius’ Thief Soundtracks and Scores: http://www.thief-thecircle.com/media/music/ ; http://www.jaybmusic.net/Eidos/Thief_2_Soundtrack_by_Child_Of_Karras_Single.zip
- Blog on neuro-atypical experiences where Rowan is co-admin: http://ioncehadaneurotypicaltellme.tumblr.com/
- Kieron Gillen’s article on the Shalebridge Cradle: http://gillen.cream.org/thecradle.pdf
- Super Bunny Hop Critical Close-Up Video on Dark Souls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcBCCVGbVfA
The podcast is still technically “under review” from iTunes before it can be formally listed on the store, but in the meantime, you can manually subscribe to automatically download new episodes with this RSS feed: http://www.ontologicalgeek.com/feed/podcast