Episode 140: That Ain't Plot: On Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away,' with Meredith Michael

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2023

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is one of those rare films that is both super popular and super weird. Rife with cinematic non sequiturs, unforgettable imagery, and moments of horror, it is an outstanding example of a story form that goes all the way back to the myth of Psyche and Eros from Apuleius's Golden Ass, if not earlier. In this type of story, a girl on the cusp of maturity steps into a magical realm where people and things from waking life reappear, draped in the gossamer of dream and nightmare. Musicologist and WS assistant Meredith Michael joins JF and Phil to discuss a strange jewel of Japanese animated cinema. Support us on Patreon and get early access to Phil Ford's new podcast series on Wagner's Ring Cycle. Sign up for JF's upcoming online course on Shakespeare's Macbeth on Nura Learning. Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop REFERENCES Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away Kyle Gann, Robert Ashley Robert Ashely, Perfect Lives Apuleius, “Psyche and Eros” from The Golden Ass Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will Kentucky Route Zero, video game Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, video game Jean Sibelius, 5th Symphony Quentin Tarantino, film maker Mark Rothko, American painter Giles Deleuze, “What is the Creative Act?” GK Chesterton, Orthdoxy Herman Hesse, Siddhartha Andrew Osmond, BFI Guide to Spirited Away Special Guest: Meredith Michael. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.8	For more episodes or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdstudies.com. Hi, welcome to Weird Studies. This is Phil.
0:53.7	In this episode, our intrepid production assistant
0:56.6	Meredith Michael is back on the mic, joining us to talk about Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film
1:03.2	spirited away. If you heard Meredith in our story swap episodes, numbers 118 and 119, or at our
1:10.7	live show at Illuminated Brew Works in May 22,
1:13.9	you know you're in for a treat. Meredith is a doctoral student in the musicology program at the
1:20.0	Indiana University Jacob School of Music, writing a dissertation on musical mythologies of outer space
1:26.3	in the 20th century. I think the first conversation
1:29.6	I ever had with her was about Jane Austen, and it immediately struck me that she was possessed of a
1:34.8	literary imagination of a sort unusual among musicians, effortlessly projecting herself imaginatively
1:41.4	into the spaces and places that novelists fashion in writing.
1:45.6	In our conversation on Spirited Away, Meredith brings that same sensitivity to imaginary spaces.
1:51.3	Space is no less real for being imaginary, I might add.
1:55.1	Early on, she raises the question of Spirited Away's narrative messiness.
1:59.6	The film is somewhat notorious for a plot de
2:02.1	numam that feels like a hasty improvisation, and this sets us off on a long chase after the
2:08.4	distinction between plot and story. To that end, I quoted something that the avant-garde composer
2:14.3	Robert Ashley said on the subject, and I'd like to take this opportunity
2:18.1	to recommend watching Ashley's TV Opera Perfect Lives, which can be found in its entirety on
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Phil Ford and J. F. Martel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Phil Ford and J. F. Martel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.