EPISODE · Jun 30, 2025 · 1H 2M
The Call Is No Longer Coming From Inside the Closet! with Karolina, Eoin, and Ana
from Game Academy
In collaboration with the IGDA LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group, we planned a micro-conference themed around queer monstrosity in games. But we never do anything obvious: we made it a podcast instead! That resulted in a gloriously unhinged series of interviews with brilliant academics sharing their research on horror, queerness, commodified death, mental illness, and maybe some giant fleshy orifices.Three scholars joined me for the madness:Dr Karolina Szpyrko opens with a look at Squid Game and the commodification of death as entertainment. As Netflix sanitises the game for its digital format, she unpacks how boredom itself becomes a monstrous force, with only a slight detour into late-stage capitalism. Not quite as queer, but still as monstrous! Then Dr Eoin Murray takes us into the punishing climbs of Celeste, discussing how the game’s mechanics and narrative are a metaphor for mental illness as well as trans allegory. What followed was an earnest conversation about what it means to be queer and all the mountains that need climbing. Finally, Ana Laura Torquato delivers the tentacle-shaped cherry on top with a deep dive into the intersection of genital horror and queer monstrosity. From Silent Hill to The Last of Us, she explores how the monstrous, the fleshy, and the queer are often rendered indistinguishable, how upsetting that can be at times, and how that discomfort that might absolutely be the point.As the queer horror devs are game jamming with the IGDA, we theory jammed instead. But, of course, that's Game Academy: smart people, weird topics, and probably slightly NSFW!Links & Shoutouts:🌈 Learn more about the IGDA LGBTQ+ SIG: https://igda.org/sigs/lgbtq/Check out our guests:Karolina Szpyrko - https://www.regents.ac.uk/about/our-people/karolina-szpyrkoEoin Murray - https://eoinm94.wordpress.com/Ana Laura Torquato - https://www.instagram.com/analaurarte📧 Want to be a guest or submit an abstract to a conference-that-becomes-a-podcast? Email: [email protected]🐦 Follow my descent into theory-induced madness at https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/twoleft.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What this episode covers
In collaboration with the IGDA LGBTQ+ Special Interest Group, we planned a micro-conference themed around queer monstrosity in games. But we never do anything obvious: we made it a podcast instead! That resulted in a gloriously unhinged series of interviews with brilliant academics sharing their research on horror, queerness, commodified death, mental illness, and maybe some giant fleshy orifices.Three scholars joined me for the madness:Dr Karolina Szpyrko opens with a look at Squid Game and the commodification of death as entertainment. As Netflix sanitises the game for its digital format, she unpacks how boredom itself becomes a monstrous force, with only a slight detour into late-stage capitalism. Not quite as queer, but still as monstrous! Then Dr Eoin Murray takes us into the punishing climbs of Celeste, discussing how the game’s mechanics and narrative are a metaphor for mental illness as well as trans allegory. What followed was an earnest conversation about what it means to be queer and all the mountains that need climbing. Finally, Ana Laura Torquato delivers the tentacle-shaped cherry on top with a deep dive into the intersection of genital horror and queer monstrosity. From Silent Hill to The Last of Us, she explores how the monstrous, the fleshy, and the queer are often rendered indistinguishable, how upsetting that can be at times, and how that discomfort that might absolutely be the point.As the queer horror devs are game jamming with the IGDA, we theory jammed instead. But, of course, that's Game Academy: smart people, weird topics, and probably slightly NSFW!Links & Shoutouts:🌈 Learn more about the IGDA LGBTQ+ SIG: https://igda.org/sigs/lgbtq/Check out our guests:Karolina Szpyrko - https://www.regents.ac.uk/about/our-people/karolina-szpyrkoEoin Murray - https://eoinm94.wordpress.com/Ana Laura Torquato - https://www.instagram.com/analaurarte📧 Want to be a guest or submit an abstract to a conference-that-becomes-a-podcast? Email: [email protected]🐦 Follow my descent into theory-induced madness at https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/twoleft.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Call Is No Longer Coming From Inside the Closet! with Karolina, Eoin, and Ana
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