The Curator's Mythology with Owen King | S3 Ep12

KnotWork Storytelling

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Our Story

According to the New York Times, Owen King’s new novel The Curator is “a horror-tinged historical fantasy set in a city upended by revolution." Owen joins us to read an excerpt that highlights both the social landscape and the mythology and folklore he created for the story. And yes, it most definitely involves cats.

Our Guest

Owen King is the author of The Curator, Double Feature, and We’re All in This Together: A Novella and Stories. He is the coauthor of Sleeping Beauties and Intro to Alien Invasion and the coeditor of Who Can Save Us Now? Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories. He lives in upstate New York with his family.

Our Conversation

• In the story, cats are considered as holy creatures by many people in the society, particularly in the lower classes. Owen consciously chose not to sentimentalize or anthropomorphize them and let them do “cat stuff” that hints at magic or higher knowledge.
• The act of world-building and creating a mythology “from scratch” as a novelist, including the creation of the “oral tradition.”
• Stories as a way to make meaning in life.
• The Curator is a heroine’s tale, to some extent, not just because it has a female protagonist, but because Dora’s ability to move about is limited by her gender in this Victorian-like society. How her character transforms through the course of the story.
• The various old women and crones in this story - the lady who reflects the truth, the evil twins outside society, and the otherworldly “fate” like being
• Audiobooks and the power of a narrator, particularly the “wildly gifted storyteller” Marin Ireland

Our Music

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy, a Celtic Fiddle and multi-instrumental duo based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The traditional Irish reel we play at the start of the show is called "The College Groves." billyandbeth.com

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