Ep 25: Irish Stories - The Secret of Kells & Dubliners

In this episode of Parallel Fiction, Heather and Jeff bring stories from Irish artists into focus as they celebrate St. Patricks Day.  Pulling inspiration from the green holiday, the hosts made sure to feature work that was created outside of their home in the US.  Heather and Jeff talk about the critically acclaimed animated film The Secret of Kells and the Eveline portion of James Joyce’s masterpiece Dubliners.

Heather starts first in the presentation portion with the Eveline short story of Dubliners, a novel that is broken up into many separate (parallel) stories of Irishmen and women of all ages in the early 1900’s.  Heather commends the nuance and heartbreak of the main character Eveline, and her struggle to move from Ireland.  The ending particularly stuck with Heather, as writer James Joyce struck a nerve with all of the short stories of Dubliners that stick with most readers long after they have finished the book.

Fun Fact!  The standard "This movie is a work of fiction" disclaimer gets a little twist at the end: "Nobody was robbed during the making of this movie. Except you."

Jeff brings us back into the second portion of summaries with the animated feature film The Secret of Kells, which is the fictionalized story of the real life Book of Kells.  Set in the 800’s, the film depicts a ton of medieval Irish lore that often times gets forgotten in pop culture.  Jeff notes that all of the imagery and legends mentioned in the film inspired him to look up more and go down a rabbit hole of research.  An Oscar nominated film, The Book of Kells is much more than the children’s move it pretends to be.

True Story!  While the plot of the film is fictional, the Book of Kells is very real.  We highly recommend you google it and take a look at some of the pages.

Following these reviews, Heather and Jeff dive into commonalities between the two works such as traditions, culture, landscape, personal growth, and Irish pride.

Listen in to hear Jeff and Heather’s candid thoughts on the masterpiece scenes of each story, how Dubliners and The Secret of Kells compare, and how Jeff and Heather relate the two. Enjoy this episode in St. Patricks Day and every day after for some stories from the Emerald Isle!

Heather’s rating for Dubliners:  Very Nice – Even though there is a heavy feeling to every short story, they are all so well written.  James Joyce’s writing style is something to be celebrated.

Jeff’s rating for The Secret of Kells: Very  Nice – A great animated movie worth your time on its visuals at minimum.  That being said, there are some problematic depictions of POC.

Watch The Secret of Kells here:https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Kells-Brendan-Gleeson/dp/B00AA468WU/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+secret+of+kells&qid=1615944264&sr=8-2

Read Dubliners here: https://www.amazon.com/Dubliner-James-Joyce/dp/1072913003/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/135-2331684-7260936?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1072913003&pd_rd_r=b0a18a68-a0a6-49a7-8b22-06cfa10b8a29&pd_rd_w=uTlM4&pd_rd_wg=13Ohw&pf_rd_p=2eae1586-a44a-4b21-997a-1dfc1740e496&pf_rd_r=015TC1MWAMR2QCCJTDEE&psc=1&refRID=015TC1MWAMR2QCCJTDEE

About Parallel Fiction:

Parallel Fiction is the perfect supplemental companion to all of the stories you consume. We will be covering movies, television, books, graphic novels, video games, and music whenever it applies. Learn more about things you love, and get to know us a little bit better as we give you a peak into our lives and opinions.

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