Modern Religion, HP Lovecraft, and Sun Eater (w/Christopher Ruocchio and Austin Freeman)

In episode 261 of the Parker's Pensées Podcast, I have Christopher Ruocchio (author of the Sun Eater science fantasy series) and Dr. Austin Freeman (Author of Tolkien Dogmatics and others) on to talk about science fiction, fantasy, HP Lovecraft, Theology, and Modern Religion. It's awesome!
Check out more from Chrisopher Ruocchio here: ‪@SunEaterBooks‬
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[@aspiringgoldsoul]

This is the kind of discussion “booktube” needs more of

🙌🙌🙌 thank you!!

[@samm8190]

Christopher claims to not be an expert on theology, but every time he opens his mouth and speaks about faith, philosophy or culture it strikes me as being seriously thought out and deeply profound.

[@Belemrys]

Agreed! His conversion story is amazing!

[@iWizard]

Agreed!

He really is a brilliant dude. You can see it in how quickly he responds too. The dude is sharp and knows his stuff

[@Belemrys]

@ you can tell he be as considered all these questions previously with proper care.

[@AnalysisWithAlex]

Absolutely one of the most lit episodes! You gotta get more stuff like this out there. The people demand it. Awesome job!

Let's goooo

[@daviddockery1953]

I think the reason people sometimes believe fictional stories are real is because they perceive something real in them, namely, their value structures. Fictional stories do present ideals in their truth--heroism, bravery, goodness, etc. But they don't present the empirical reality that those real values are instantiated in.

[@daviddockery1953]

Last comment, I promise: Christopher's comment on "subconscious writing" reminds me of something Richard Weaver wrote in "The Ethics of Rhetoric." He argued that an author's style ultimately reveals the way they think. This holds true in fiction, I find.

Lol bro feel free to leave 100 more. It all helps my video!

[@daviddockery1953]

Thank you for answering my question. I think Sun Eater threads the needle between Lovecraftian and Christian views of the cosmos beautifully. Disquiet Gods is especially good at this. *Disquiet Gods Spoilers Below* I think the Quiet and the Watchers are an interesting synthesis of the two. On one hand, they are cosmic entities we cannot fully comprehend. On the other, they aren't all hostile or indifferent from us. The Quiet cannot fully be understood but like God, does care for the cosmos. The Watchers likewise fill the role of angelic beings. I think Sun Eater reveals that there is a conceptual connection between Lovecraftian and Christian myths. Both are full of beings too great for humans to understand, but one cares for humanity and one doesn't.

[@LordTywin-yh5ne]

Due to my non belief I struggled with Chapter 40 ( not 38 and 39 , those struck me as clear masterpieces). I felt that it gave off an apologetic nature. I guess it felt a bit too familiar , it was not the content itself that bothered me. I now see it as a good exploration of Theology. But it didn't change my opinion of the chapter or the book as a whole. It was brilliant from start to end. One of the best books I've ever read. Best of the sun eater for sure.

[@robertdeforest9682]

Just bought the last copy of Tolkien Dogmatics on Amazon, excited to get to read it and enhance my love for Tolkien through faith

Awesome!! It's great

You can hear us talk about it here kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHPFdIV3gL1kipI

[@robertdeforest9682]

@ Thanks, I’ll be sure to check it out! Although my expectations are sky-high when it comes to Tolkien companion books, Professor Verilyn Flieger wrote “Splintered Light” decades ago and I have yet to see anyone do better. On a side note, are you aware of Richard Rohlin and his works? He’s an Orthodox Christian who writes a lot on Beowulf, the Middle Ages, and theology. He reminds me a lot of your friend Mr. Freeman

[@callum7081]

I'd love to see another episode with these two, also reading sun eater which is how I found your channel and really enjoyed this conversation.

[@whitecrow1583]

I like it when genre authors have read a lot of classical/literary fiction. Nice video Parker!

Totally agree. It improves their own writing and helps us connect with them when we catch their references

[@jeffhannah1250]

Fascinating conversation! I enjoy Christopher's stories, but even more importantly, he seems like a good man! I'm rooting for his continued success. Austin seems like a very knowledgeable, chill guy. I'm also hoping for success for your channel, Parker. Keep it up 👍

Thanks so much! Very glad you enjoyed this and I totally agree!

[@iWizard]

Dude, this is awesome!

Bro, I keep thinking how sick it'd be to get like you, Austin, Jared Henderson, Mike's Book Review, and Christopher all together to talk

[@iWizard]

Oh man, I'd love that. Let me know when you want to do something like that and I can likely get Mike on board. He's been on my channel probably more than any other guest with the exception of Christopher.

[@AustinMFreeman]

Sounds interesting

[@earmit007]

Really appreciate these conversations are happening and that I am blessed by being able to listen!

🙌🙌🫡🫡

[@tr5676]

We are so here!

🫡🫡🫡🙌

[@Chris_Traylor]

Legendary discussion, thank you so much for this

🙌🙌🫡🫡

[@jmace2424]

It’s so nice to hear other people who loved Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh like me!

Lol we out here!

[@waltlongmire6277]

Top notch 🤙

🫡

[@MrVidrineM]

Love the stuff, but as someone who has just discovered Empire of Silence, please for the love of Earth, put spoiler timestamps in the description

My bad! I'll still figuring out how to be a nonfiction "booktuber" 😅😅😅

[@alittax]

I'd love to see a book tour! :) Seems like you've got a ton of very interesting and beautiful books. Like is that Great Books of the Western World to your right?

[@b.melakail]

We are the in age of the shaman...yes sir, I like this Austin guy I will always be a Ruocchio stan. Hope you can bring him on again sometime with Jonathan Pageau Great convo Parker

I love these guys, so glad to put them in touch! Thank you!

[@MacScarfield]

To give you a sample: As a Man of the Humanities, you might have caught that in «Howling Dark», Kharn Sagara says to Hadrian «Sibylla ti theleis». I am 100% sure that is a reference to the Epigraph of T.S. Elliot’s famous poem «The Waste Land» (which in a loose narrative deal with death and rejuvenation, faith and post-war depression, with multiple allusions and references to Ancient Literature, Religious Texts and Arthurian Myth), itself lifted from Petronius’ «Satyricon», meaning «Sibyl, what do you want?» (The Sibyl being a Roman Oracle, this specifically being the Cumaean Sibyl who in «The Aeneid» guides the Trojan Hero and Roman Ancestor Aeneas through Hades and who had been granted immortality (though importantly without eternal youth) by the god Apollo, being spoken to in Greek, to which she replies «apothanein thelo»: «I want to die»)!

[@ceruleanscole8271]

Where do you get Austin's nerdy t-shirts

[@Seraph777Iscah]

Ooooo i love lovecraftian cosmic horror

[@jesseausthof9121]

Hey Parker, Great show. I think we are about the same age Did you grow up watching Mark Kissler? The drawing guy. Your like a young dead ringer

[@insomnolant6043]

You should probably have done an audio only conversation, because the Internet connections clearly couldn't handle the video, leading to lag and stuttering which caused unnecessary interruptions and talking over each other. Which is a shame because this conversation was really good aside from that.

[@insomnolant6043]

Bad takes on large language models, though.

[@kahnlives]

✋👍

🙌🙌

[@ChristopherCopeland]

Can anybody tell me more about this bootleg lord of the rings thing? I couldn’t understand enough keywords to be able to Google it well 🙏🏻❤️

Ace softcover edition of Lord of the Rings from the 70s

[@Illiterati_Templar]

The idea that Kirby is some kind of genius writer who created the wonderful canon of Marvels' most famous characters is a nonsense people somehow have adopted as gospel without looking at his actual writings. He was an illustrator, and a good one, but he was not a good writer. His ideas as a writer were derivative at best, I wish people would stop just going with the flow and actually think about what they're told.

Who said he was a good writer? I think he's the godfather because of the characters he created

[@Illiterati_Templar]

Drawing a character does not equate creating a character. It equates creating a character design. I'm not replying to anything you said in particular, just reacting to general Kirby-worship

[@kahnlives]

Thanos vs Darkseid, …hummm 🤔 Darkseid would be like “Hold my beer” I’m about to smash this derivative wannabe into oblivion!

Lol yeah maybe

[@fatjay9402]

I dont want it to sound like a loaded question ... but how does it work in the USA with awards ... because I think clearly if you openly say you are a Christian and you are not "woke" you will not get any awards ... or at least not as much as you should. Or I am totally wrong. Because a lot of the books I like are written by some really woke people, I know what they write about other authors, sometimes especially how unhinged they are when it comes to religion and politics.

[@raiden_187]

51:30 this guy is so out of his depth when it comes to comics, because dc quite literally does do random changes, Just inserting the new update of Twitter opinions into any story with no sense whatsoever. (I mean to be fair he's mentioning stuff like rebirth where back then the stories where great) I get his point but still to say dc doesn't do it is out right wrong. It's literally the reason the industry is dying.

[@whitecrow1583]

Freeman's arguments against Lovecraft are bad. Even if the latter's arguments are also bad.

[@alananimus9145]

He is a professor of excuseagetics. why does KZbin keep recommending me this evil crap.