e382. How Catch ’em? Exploring the Inverted Mystery

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The VoxPopcast

Vox Populorum

407 episodes

5 days ago

Vox Populorum is a blog and podcast devoted to pop culture criticism. We believe that the best way to understand culture is to discuss it. But we also believe that it's a lot more fun to have these conversations throwing back a couple beers at the bar rather than in a classroom. Please join our weekly round table of media critics, academics, creators, artists, professors, students and fans for an engaging discussion about movies, novels, comic books, television, video games, music or whatever else we happen to think of!

Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.

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e382. How Catch ’em? Exploring the Inverted Mystery

The VoxPopcast

3 months ago

e382. How Catch ’em? Exploring the Inverted Mystery

One of the most tried and true genres of fiction is the Whodunnit mystery. The premise is simple, a crime is committed and the reader or audience watches the a detective solve the mystery. They are our eyes and ears. We know only what they know, and we must solve the crime along with the detective. This is not an episode about those. Instead, we want to talk about a related genre, the Howcatchem, aka the inverted mystery. There are a surprising amount of entries int he pop culture landscape about crimes where the audience is fully aware of details of the crime that the detective is not. Often, we may even see the crime committed in the opening scene. On this crossover episode with the Protagonist Podcast, Mav is joined by returning guests Joe Darowski and Stephanie Siler to explore this phenomenon and what makes it great. Why do we enjoy mysteries so much when what is traditionally thought of as the defining trait of the genre is rendered moot? Listen and then let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Citations and Links:

* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme

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