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Book Club: Goddess of Filth · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and all coo stuff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I never told you protection of iHeartRadio, and today we
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: have a book club for you.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It is a it's kind of a spooky book.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: So we sort of missed Halloween, but we like talking
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: about spooky things.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: All year round.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Yes, and I think we need to extend it because
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: I feel like we didn't get in as much as
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: we typically do. I feel like we were off maybe
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: because I was sick and I'm missed out on a
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: couple of episodes. Yeah, and I feel like I'm missed out,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: so I want to extend it.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, anytime I'm there, the listeners might be like,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: oh no, but.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I am there.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I did really enjoy this book. You can see our
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: episode on the Craft in our recent episode on Who
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Gets Possessed, which I did do without Samantha.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: And I think we should return to I said, I'm
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: missed out on so many things.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Yes, and I have, like.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I have watched a lot of horror movies because I've
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: been behind recently, and I got even more thoughts about that,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: so I can return.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I'm ready.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Also content warning, We're not going to go to in depth,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: but there is some discussion of sexual assaults.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's it.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: There's some death, there's some dead menacing.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Murder, missing murders, vigilanteism.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Perhaps a few of that happens. A few of those
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: things been of sexual content.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Sexual content, yes, Okay, So today we are talking about
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one novel by The Cash Show got
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Us of Filth.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: This has been on our list for a while. I
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: think it came out.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: We've kind of continuously been like, maybe this one, maybe
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: this one. It follows five friends, lord s Fernanda, Perla, Anna,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: and Pauline, a group of friends about to graduate high school,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and they are fans of the movie The Craft, which
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: is why go listen to that episode? And so they
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: get together to have seance together, and of course it
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: doesn't quite go like they want it to. The story
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: is largely told from lord Ess Herpiave, with some snippets
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: from Fernande, and they're really great friends, but in some
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: ways opposite, Like they're very much like lord ES's the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: bad girl and heavy quotes, and Fernando's like the good
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: girl who's going to go to college and like succeed.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: And so there's that diet dichotomy. But what happens as
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: a result of this night of this seance changes all
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: of them and touches on issues like sexuality, adolescence, friendship, religion, faith, colonization, justice, sexism, racism,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: all with elements of horror.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so from the book quote. V Castro is a
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Mexican American author from San Antonio, Texas, now residing in
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: the UK. She is a full time mother, a LATINX
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: literary advocate, and co founder of Freight Girl Summer, a
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: platform to amplify marginalized voices. She writes LATINX novels of horror,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: erotic horror, and science fiction, including her most recent Hairspray
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: and Switchblades.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Ooh, and I wanted to ask because we were talking
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: about this a little bit before. So Samantha usually listens
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: to the books. I usually read them, which is helpful
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: in terms of pronunciation for me. But you were saying
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: you listened to it on the plane.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: I did. I did.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: I knew that it was a horror, but like we
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: have so many different genres of horror when we listen,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: like we've had the one where it's still haunting, like
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: the one where she goes into the castle with a
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: family member whatever and like gets caught up in there, can't.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Leave a good one.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: So you have that which is like haunting but nothing
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: really graphic, just like to do what's going on weird?
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Moving on.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Then we've had the short stories, which have different versions
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: of things.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: That's very classical short stories. We had the was it the.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Snow white one that was not snow white? It was
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: the fairy tale one, not the fairy tale one, which
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: is good, but all those things so you never know
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: when you come into something that seems gothic and you
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: just kind of go with it. And the Goddess have
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: felt such a great name. By the way, that's a
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: great title. Yes, And I was like okay, and I started,
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: and of course it jumps in very quickly with the possession.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: I was like, oh, d okay, that was a question.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: That was real quick.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: The unexpected part with the period, I was like, huh,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: that's not written. It's not typically like horror movies talk
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: about it, have any windows sorted, make jokes about it.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: But the habit as like a point plot or something
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: that shows a like like that was really interesting. So
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: hearing this, I was half asleep part of the time,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: because I was also very tired, but like parts of
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: it would just wake me up and be like what
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: what what?
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: The person who read it and acted it out did
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: a nominal job, very very great on point. She is
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: a Latin creator, I think, an actor, a voice actor.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: So it was really really good. But yeah, it was.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: It was shocking different parts. I was like, Oh, wasn't
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: expecting that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. It's a short it's a
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: short read, but it packs in a lot. Yes, in
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the in the story. Uh, and I really really liked it.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: I did also love that as a throwback, so it
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: doesn't happen like today. It happens almost in the timeframe
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: of when the Craft was released. So you hear her
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: talking about the fashion and the music and all that
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: during that point.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know I love that stuff.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all right, So let's get into the plot.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: The book opens, yes, with a group of friends on
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the cusp of graduation meeting at for a seance, which
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I don't think I ever did anything like that. When
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: I had my seance, I was in middle school.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think so either. I think of mine
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: was middle school elementary. We did live as a feather
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: stuff as a bool. We actually lifted a girl, but
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: I couldn't tell because there was like eight of us
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: and this girl is like ninety pounds, so I don't
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: know if if something happened, because we actually did. We
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: lifted her up a good like six inches off the ground,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: and then we dropped her because we ficked out. Sorry
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: to that girl. I think it was Christina. Sorry Christina,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: not our mother, different Christina.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I know, yes, yeah, There's been a lot of signs
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: about that, so I'm sure.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sure. Well, anyway, did not do this.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: So lord S, who does most of the narrating and is, yeah,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: like I said, the wild one who has to support
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: her family and can't afford college at least in this moment,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: takes the lead, as she is used to doing in
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: terms of most of her relationships, and she asked for
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: an old spirit to contact them. And then Fernanda, who
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: is the innocent, sheltered one who is going to college
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: who was Saluturian, seemingly as a fit and starts talking
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: in a different language and bleeding as though she's on
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: her period. Lordess offers to stay with her, knowing that
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: they'd all get in trouble since they'd been drinking, they
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: weren't supposed to be out. Fernanda's mom particularly is very
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: very strict, so she would not have liked this. When
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Fernanda wakes up, she's a little op, mostly back to herself,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: but it soon becomes clear that all is not what
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: it was with Fernanda, and through snapshots of Fernande's POV,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: we learned she is sharing her body with an ancient goddess,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: the Goddess of Filth, that speaks only Nahuatl, which none
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: of them understand. Fernande's strict and religious mother blames Fernanda's
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: friend group and especially Lordess, and calls in a local priest,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: father Moreno, who runs in fear after the encounter he
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: has with Fernanda by himself. Fernanda's eyes shift, she is
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: often found masturbating in the garden in the heat. Her
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: friends are determined to help her, especially Lordess. Eventually, Fernanda's
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: mother relents and lets Lordess see Fernanda, who asked to
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: go to the club that night, also requesting that her
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: crush Ruben show for them. Fernande seems to be more
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: or less herself, though far more outgoing and in sex
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: with their clothes than was her norm. Lordes finds her
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: in the bathroom quote sucking out the sin of a
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: man who drugs women and rapes them. After a heated discussion,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Lordes is convinced to take the money he had on
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: him and tell the bartender there was a drunk man
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: in the bathroom in need of help, and Lordes revelle
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: she's been having dreams to Anna, who ultimately realizes they
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: need to contact someone who's nuhatl Lordes contacts a local
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: college professor who speaks the language and convinces her to
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: come see Fernanda. The professor is shocked and they start
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: talking to the entity inhabiting Fernanda's body, who the professor
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: eventually determines to be an ancient goddess, perhaps incorrectly known
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: as the Goddess of Filth, who basically claims people of
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: sin but also represents fertility after death. The professor also
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: encourages lord Es to pursue her writing, and they grow
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: closer and closer, and through talking, Fernanda and the goddess
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: seem to get better and better. But while this is happening,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: we learned that Fernanda's mom is not her biological mom,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: and she has been struggling with how to tell Fernanda that.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: And the priest killed a woman earlier, has kept her
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: body in the freezer and plans to do the same
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: to Fernanda. He arrives at the Professor's house and fatally
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: shoots the professor, kidnaps Fernanda. Lordesk goes to confront him
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: at the church and witnesses the goddess use her power
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: to resurrect Martha, the woman the priest had killed, and
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: use her to incapacitate but not kill the priest. Fernanda
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: and the goddess reach an agreement. They reach an agreement
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: to work together. Lords learns that the professor sent her
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: a recommendation letter that basically waived her tuition fee, and
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Fernanda confronts a couple that had tried to give her
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: a ride earlier in the in the book and realizes
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: that they were the ones behind the spate of missing children,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: and along with the Goddess, kills them.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: End of books. Yes, I really liked it. It was good.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: It was more like the shocking scene with the priest.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: You knew there was something off because that way she
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: portrays him immediately like his obsession and then being called
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: out because it's kind of the u an exorcist scene
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: where an exercise like I See Yourself end like you
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: see it every time, and then that happens with this
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: this priest and then you find out that he's obsessed
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: with like the virginity slash purity of women, and so
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: if he finds someone that he thinks that he can
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: preserve the purity by killing them. Turns out she had
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: two kids and the husband, and like he was still
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: they were still coming to his church.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Little twisted it was, and there were very few chapters
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: from his point of view, or maybe even just sections.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: There wasn't too much, but it was like enough for
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: you to be, Oh.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: You're like, this is our criminal minds. Yeah, that's what
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: my thought was.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: This guy needs some real help here, and he's at
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: first presented as like a real paragon of the community
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and like someone people respect.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: But then yeah, but then.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: So we do.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: There are a lot of themes in this. I think
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: one of the big ones is friendship. Obviously, so we
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: have some quotes five of us sat in a circle
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: doing our best to emulate the girls in the craft,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: hoping to unleash some power to take us all away
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: from our home to the place of our dreams. But
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: we weren't witches. We were five Chicanas living in San Antonio, Texas,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: one year out of high school. So like, immediately it
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: really sets up. Just with the language used, it really
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: brings you in. I was like, okay, okay, let's see
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: what happens here. Here's another quote. Fernanda giggled at my
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: sudden onset of clairvoyance. She always said, I was so dramatic.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Yes I am, was my response. When your insides are
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: egg white soft, you learned to develop an exterior tougher
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: than fossilized dead things. I mean, again, that's just great writing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: That's so good. They also have a note there is
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: a through line of periods and kind of just womanhood
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: throughout this, but there is the line of all their
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: periods being in sync. When Fernanda has her well, they're
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: not sure is a period or not. They're kind of like, wait,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: wait a minute, we normally have them at the same time,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: which that was funny.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: And here's another quote. What drew me to these females
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: was their love for each other, the strength within each
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: of them to withstand the fires they live with and
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: the fires to come, so many fires you will have
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: to endure if your generation survives, right, Yeah, So just there.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I did really like that as Fernande was, they knew
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: something was wrong. They really never gave up on her
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: despite all of these roadblocks, and they they would contact
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: each other and like just like the scene with Anna
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: and Lord us what they like figure out about the language,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Like they were just very never giving up on each other.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: They didn't.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Uh, I just had a connection about the book that
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I kind of separated they just now.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: I was like, oh, that's what that was.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Because I was thinking about the memorial scene, like all
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: these young girls were being were missing and it was
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: always Latina girls. So they came together and they were
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: really said that Fernanda wasn't there, you know, because she
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: would have been right there praying with them and being
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: a part of this. And then like, uh, that's when
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: one of the friends, I don't know it was Anna
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: a Parla's like, a we need to go check in
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: on her.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Is she okay?
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: And this is when Lord Desk is like, I'm not sure,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: So I'm not gonna tell him anything yet. Yeah, because
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: I still don't know either, but try to try to
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: say everything. But they all they all care for each other.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: They don't get mad or blame with each other, try
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: to pin each other against each other. So that's nice,
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: like uncraft like something. Yeah, that's good, no mean girl here.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: But then I connected with the couple. I was like,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: oh that was the couple. Oh okay, so the couple
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: at the end of the book that gets killed who
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: never met Fernanda at there, but Lordez.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Knew was off. She's like these people look familiar? Are
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: these people?
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: And something was off because she was the woman was
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: trying to take something from the memorial and they're like
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: this is this is an odd interaction And then coming
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: back to us like, oh, that's who that was because
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: I've never understood the significance of a couple, like what
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: was that? And now I'm like, oh, yeah, so spoiler
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: at the end who died. That's the couple who showed
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: up to the memorial or to the vigil rather vigial
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: and was a part of this. But yeah, it was
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: a good scene to like having Lord is trying to
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: be the forefront and making sure everything's controlled as well
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: as the fact that she was for a mom who
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: her mom was Fernanda's mom was controlling and over the top,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: and then finally kind of like like, okay, I'm the
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: one who sinned, like this is my fault type of
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: thing to whatever will help bring whomever you need to to,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Like I need to confess my sons to all these things.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: But like having lord Asby in the forefront and then
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: having the good friends in the background talking and trying
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: to like convince the right way to go, and then
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: all of them coming together to celebrate their graduation in college.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: It was like, oh but oh yeah.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah they really stuck together. And I liked that a
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: lot because yeah, in the craft, they.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Really did it.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: I did not did not.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: So another theme of course, coming of age and identity.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Here's a quote, all right, hold hands, don't let go.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: I want you to believe in your hearts. We can
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: be heard. What I meant was I need to be
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: heard because my thoughts barely carried over the pop of
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: the deep fat friar during a double shift. I was
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: sick of feeling like splattered grease stuck on the wall.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Again. Yeah, it was just really good writing, Like BT dubs.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: They have like Sonic in play and I really loved it. No, no, no,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: not the music, just the restaurant. They talk about the
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: Sonic a lot.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: Oh, oh, I see the restaurants.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Like oh sound effect.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: No, she worked so slushy. Yeah.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I was like, they're actually using a company. This is
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: hysterical because I've been there.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I have too, and I hate that feeling foolishly walked through.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I walked through the drive through, and that's just not
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: a thing you do with Sonic. I guess I don't know.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I didn't have a.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Car, and then I realized they had like tables, but
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I thought you had.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: To walk through anyway. Anyway, I was in high school
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: at that point.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: Were you trying to be funny?
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: No, I wasn't trying to be funny at all. I
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: thought I didn't know what else to do. I didn't
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: have a car.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: That's perfect oka anyway. Anyway. One thing about lord Us
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: is definitely that she's angry, and she gets told that
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: being angry isn't pretty. That something she hears a lot.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: She's also pressured into doing more than she wanted when
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: it comes to dating, and then again being told like, oh,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: you're angry when she says no or something like that.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: She's also like trying to learn more about her roots
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: because she doesn't speak Spanish and that makes her feel
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: like incompetent or bad. And then when she meets the professor,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: it's like this connection that maybe she could be a
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: writer and learn more about this stuff. There's also a
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: a whole thing throughout with lord Es about class and
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: not being able to afford college, about having to stay
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: and care for her family, and yeah, that dutiful daughter
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: bit of like very much being expected to take care
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: of her family and parentification, which we've talked about before
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: on here, and for her specifically feeling like you can't
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: confide in anyone ask her help because she does like
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: as much as the friend group helps each other out.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: Lord Es definitely is like, I don't want to worry anybody,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: which makes sense if you're in charge of keeping the
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: peace in your family. But she's like, let's know, I'll
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: wait and tell them about this until later. I'll wait
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: and see. Here's another quote. Be smart but not too smart.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Be beautiful but not so pretty as to make other
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: females mad. Be successful but not bossy or overly ambitious.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Nobody likes a mouthy brown woman be a decloued kitten,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: which yeah, again goes back to like how it clashes
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: with who she is and how she interacts with the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: world and her anger that she feels, and rightfully so.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: But I love the writing. I think it's so good.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: And they of course have a big thing about faith.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Of the group, it looks like Lordez is the one
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: that is the least religious, talking about how she doesn't
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: believe in any of this and why she doesn't believe
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: in any of this.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Here's a quote.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: I was as broken faith as I was in pocket.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: This was a time when you had ice storming around
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: like possessed stormtroopers on crack, people getting shot, trying to
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: learn or pray or buy milk, stories of people going missing,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: bodies of displaced people washed up on riverbeds and coastlines
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: for all to see to cry about, but ultimately forgot.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember when the young boy, the picture
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: of the young boy, refugee boy who had been found
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: on shore, because I like, that's the first imagery I
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: actually popped in my head when we had that huge
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: conversation about refugees and constant like inhumane language, when things
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: like that would happen.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: So yeah, that's the first thing I thought. I was like,
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: oh damn.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: And also the line I was broken faith as I
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: was in pocketing. Yeah, excellent. Here's another quote. Being a
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: young woman isn't a crime. This wasn't Salem. But at
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: the same time I knew this wouldn't be let go.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: It's about how visible you're v are beneath your skin
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: and what hangs between your legs. If I didn't feel
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: absolutely before, I did now And so this is that
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: was in regards to realizing like, oh, they're going to
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: be blamed for this because they're not religious enough, or
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: because they're women, or because they aren't white, because they
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: want sex, or that they've had drugs or maybe they've
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: had alcohol, like all of those things that idea of like, oh,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: I will I will be blamed for this. I will
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: not be believed when it comes to what happened to Fernande.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: There's also a lot of Christian imagery in this. There's
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of like virgin candbells, which I thought was
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: pretty on point. Here's another quote, purity in mind and
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: purity and heart you are for your husband in Christ,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: and no one else was the preacher's mantra every Wednesday,
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Every Wednesday. Who goes to church on a Wednesday. I
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: watched my mother, who wouldn't carry a note, seeing happily
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: in church choir because her man was happy. She bounced
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: around up here. I glowered at the sight and sound.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: It seemed so inauthentic.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like the Wednesday, but yeah.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: And I love that. I feel like so much of
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: what Luridas is saying is like she's seeing through the
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: superficial veil that is up. She's seeing through like you're
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: going to church almost for it, like putting on airs,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: like you're going to church on Wednesday. But we all know,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: like you're not your mantra. We're not following that, no one,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: and we all know it. It's an open secret, like
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: we're just pretending, right.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: Which is religion in itself. It's especially more now. And
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: then it goes goes on with another one. The only
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: thing you hear where I come from is don't get pregnant.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Don't get pregnant, because that is always the beginning for us,
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: a prophecy, a failure come true. All the pointed fingers
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: could say, see not just stereotypes. Another one is born.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: We were modern girls. We knew where planned parenthood was,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: at least the ones that remained open. True, it made
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: me almost wish I had been born without a womb,
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: so that no man would want me and no God
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: would expect me to be leashed. The rest of me
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: could be mine and mine alone.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Ah yeah, oof, it hits hard. Here's another quote, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: this is about the Goddess of Filth. Everything about her
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: could be considered a nightmare. But I wasn't scared. She
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: glowed with fury, beauty and power. Half woman, half beast.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: This was no ghost or demon. She was everything I
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: wished I could be. Fire and anger, with bitterness wet
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: my lips, my soul wanted to fall to its knees
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: and beg her to tell me her secrets.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: So I think that's great, Like the.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Kind of is that just unrestrained anger, and her being
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: the Goddess of Philth, being so unrepetent in who she
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: is and what she is, and how that really connected
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: with lord Ess and eventually Fernando as well, Like they've
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: become kind of best buddies in the same body.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Lordes was the one that was getting all the dreams
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: because the goddess felt the most connected with her, even
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: though Fernando was the one the most willing and open.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: So it was like an interesting and she needed both
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: of them. But of course this was because she was
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: trying to tell the whole point of her possessing Fernando's
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: because she wanted to tell her story in this original language,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: but because Fernando wasn't aware of what was happening. Lordes
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: was the original intent to write the stories, which is
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: why she went into college to learn this language, to
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: do all these things.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, which I love. There's also some themes of
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: female sexuality being taboo. We've talked about. There's homophobia in there,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: for sure. Here's another quote. I didn't want to bother
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: saving myself for anyone special, because my body didn't need saving.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: And then here's a quote about the preacher. So the preacher,
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: as I said, kind of like ran out in a
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: panic the first time that he spoke with Nanda after
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: she had been possessed. And here's a quote about that
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: from Fernanda Slash, the Goddess of filth. I asked him
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: if he wanted to eat my sin. She opened her
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: legs so I could see in the mirror. She wasn't
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: wearing any underwear. That man has just as much sin
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: inside of him as everyone else. She told me, who
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: is he to tell me I'm evil? Who anointed him?
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: And he does have There are a lot of kind
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: of cues that before you know what he did, that
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: something is amiss with him. And one is like he
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: always feels like his caller is choking him like his
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: priestly collar. He is obsessed with purity, and through that
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: you see kind of this whole conversation about colonialism and
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: religion and him thinking, you know, like he is the
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: better person.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: And it and all the kind of.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: The vigilanti stuff that for Nanda and the Goddess of
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: failt doing at the end, which is fun to kind
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: of remedy that or at least address that in some way. Yeah, yeah,
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I heard another quote. She is a fierce goddess when
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: I believe to be misunderstood but important. She is known
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: as the goddess of filth. She's the eater of sin
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: and the unclean. However, she also represents fertility after death.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: So I think it's interesting that late we mentioned earlier
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: that it's the Professor's kind of like it's it's sort
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: of a misnomer, like the name Goddess of filth, because
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: that makes it sound like she's filthy, but really she's
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: like eating yes the sin and has been misunderstood or
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: purposely misrepresented right since then. But yeah, here's a final quote.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I want to say that I no longer want to
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: be seen as crazy or a thing to be forgotten.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: My existence is more than a bloody, dirty rag you
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: cast away every month. I am here because would you
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: not answer a cry for help? I looked at My
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: language is something not everyone understands. But the stories from
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: the past are important. Human history has been one of chaos,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: and in chaos many things become lost. People are subjugated
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: and integrated, whether they like it or not. I am
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: here to revive those stories from the source. I have
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: traveled a long way through light and volatile startist. The
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: stars in the night sky are moll holes and space
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: time and the bodies of the larvae between each hole
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: are the means of travel. But here I am.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: I think it's like a great because it's a So
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: the theme is that that everybody's like she's possessed.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: By a demon.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: She's possessed by a demon in actuality, she's possessed by
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: a goddess and not like I don't think they actually
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: say possessed. I think they try to take that war
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: back they do because that implication possesses meaning like demon
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: because Fernanda does have a choice, for Nanda asks her
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: to stay because she loves this new power of freedom,
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: she loves finding herself as a whole woman. That like
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: we took it to see, Like I did really appreciate
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: the romance scene between her and Ruben and her choices
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: because everything was really slow in itself, and also everything
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: was like lovingly consented and I'm like, oh, wouldn't that
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: be nice if people experienced.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: That as their first time for will for real?
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Like you know, I don't know, I don't know if
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: she meant to like taking what sexuality can be seen,
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: especially when it's a young woman with her first time,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: and instead of like making it sad or over the
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: top or like like really painful or hurtful or like
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: really damaging traumatizing, it made it this way. And I
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: think that implication was that, you know, the goddess helped
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: her to see what she wanted and then do as
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: she wanted and be able to be in control and
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: like have it being able to be outspoken on what
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: she did and didn't like, like I was like, oh,
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: and then also when she wanted to do something or
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: when she didn't. So I really felt like that was
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: a great turn in portraying these types of thcene because
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: we've seen it in so many different ways and it's
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: always like ugh, like that's you know, like just so
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: almost dismissive and almost things that you're like eh, but
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: like the goddess really helps her capture her own womanhood essentially,
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: is kind of the idea, and I love that. And
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: then in Fernanda, because like I couldn't bend this person
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: without you, please stay and the compromises, Yeah, we'll kill
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: some people and take film, but if you'll help make
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: him remain control, you know, those things with that also
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: telling her story, which is so important, Like I feel
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: like that's such a great conversation that we've had, like
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: women being erased in history in general, and then like
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: even we've talked about legends and how they've turned from
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: something that used to be cool to like this awful, sexualize,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: over the top thing or like very domesticated or subservient
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: creatures which they weren't originally supposed to be, like because
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: it was a narrative that fit patriarch. So I really
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: liked that idea too, like it just portrayed a lot.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: And then coming back to that being the demon part,
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: which is what the priest who is the center of
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: patriarchy thinking that he was going to prove everybody wrong
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: by showing that demons existed and he's the one that's
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: been given visions and that he can justify killing women
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: for their purity by saying I'm doing this because God
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: has put me in this place and I can see.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: It and it's like rah.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: So it was a really great turn of like flipping
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: so many of those narratives.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I really like to that whole like telling
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: your story bit that lord es you know, goes to
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: school for that and is learning this language and is
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: connecting to her heritage in that way. But also yeah,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: I mean the Goddess asks Fernanda like are you cool
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: with what happened with Ruben?
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Like are you good? She's like checking in.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: She's also kind of representative of just womanhood in general,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: like when she's talking about you know, and not every
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: woman has a period. But when she's talking about, like,
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: you know, every month here here, it is this idea
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: of her and that we've been shamed for being women
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: for so long, and she's like, no, no, no, that's
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: not what it was supposed to be and trying to
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: correct where that has gone wrong. But also it does
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: feel very as so many hard movies do that sort
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: of like oh, young women coming into age having their
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: periods being sexual. It's terrifying. But the Goddess turns around
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: and is like, no, this could be great, like let's
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: let's just make sure that this is what you want.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: And I do love that. I really really enjoyed that.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: And it's honestly, in the beginning when Fernande is like suffering,
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: it's because she's fighting the goddess and she's having to
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: deal with this priest. I guess when she sort of accepts, oh, no,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: this is what I want and this is who I am,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: that the pain and suffering starts to ease and she
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: starts to feel more herself.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: So I really liked it.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Liked it a lot, Yes, and I would definitely say
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: check it out. It's a great read. It's pretty quick. Also,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: as we're recording this it is Halloween, so quick shout out.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: My Thirteen Days of Halloween episode is out, yes, episode
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: six defense. I was also on an episode of Stuff
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: to Blow Your Mind where I was a monster hunter
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: in the most recent listener mail, so check that out
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: if you're still looking for Halloween stuff. And I don't
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: think we're done yet, so probably some more to come.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: But in the meantime, we hope that you whatever you celebrated,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: don't celebrate. You're doing well, You're having a good time
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: and we've loved to hear from you. As always, if
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: you have any suggestions for our next book, you can
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: emails at stephidm mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast, or
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: on Instagram and TikTok at Stefan Never Told You. We
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: have a tea public store. We have a book. There's
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of horror stuff in there as well. You
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: can get it wherever you get your books. Thanks as
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Ali's to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: and our contributor Joey.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
• 34:27
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