Authors Die Twice

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan are joined by special guests James Martell and Erik Larsen to discuss Dead by Daylight. They discuss experiences with multiplayer games, ideas about horror and Lovecraftian tropes, and the ephemerality of that first time.

James Martell is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Lyon College, and was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge in 2025. He is the author of Beckett and Derrida (2024) and Modernism, Self-Creation, and the Maternal (2019), and the editor of Understanding Sade, Understanding Modernism (2025). His current projects are Thinking Surfaces in French Contemporary Thought and Foiled Reflections: Mirror Stages for Stupid Times in Literature, Art, Film, Psychoanalysis, and Philosophy.

Erik Larsen is an associate professor of Health Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester. His research and teaching focus on biopolitics, critical theory and medicine, and the many intersections of narrative and healthcare. He holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Notre Dame.

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Bryan and Nathan talk about the 2023 action role-playing game Lies of P. They think through some impressions (or lack of impressions) of it, wonder about the intertwined roles of the clown and the puppet in the game and in horror more broadly, and briefly touch on Heinrich Von Kleist’s 1810 story “On the Marionette Theater” to consider the relationship between the automaton and the human.

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Bryan and Nathan are joined by games writer Martin Dolan to discuss indie games.

Read Martin's essay "Indie Squeeze": https://strangematters.coop/indie-games-renaissance-is-over-what-comes-next/

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In this episode, Nathan and Bryan return to Ebisugaoka to talk more about Silent Hill f. They discuss the abstract nature of horror, Hinako’s two worlds, and the worst room in the game.

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Bryan and Nathan welcome back friend of the show Justin Carpenter to talk about Metal Gear Solid 3 and the larger Metal Gear saga. Here's a link to Justin's recent essay on Kentucky Route Zero (subscription or library access required): https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/abcsj-2025-0022

Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice

Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]