Ep. 11: Zhang Yimou, Zack Snyder, & the Mythological Imagination
The Flummoxed Podcast: One Writer’s Journey Through the Sacred & the Profane, from Bashō to Bluegrass & Beyond
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Some of the topics mentioned in “Ep. 11: Zhang Yimou, Zack Snyder, & the Mythological Imagination”:
Introduction:
* My “2025 Year in Review” [https://theflummoxed.substack.com/p/2025-in-review]
* The ALSCW 2025 Conference [https://alscw.org/events/annual-conference/alscw-2025-conference/]
* Elijah Perseus Blumov [https://substack.com/profile/117110857-elijah-perseus-blumov]
* Zina Gomez-Liss [https://substack.com/profile/26126035-zina-gomez-liss] and The Beauty of Things [https://zinagomezliss.substack.com/]
* “The Beauty of Things” by Robinson Jeffers [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=77&issue=4&page=4]
* Zina’s ALSCW 2025 Conference write-up: “For the Psychopomps and Famous Letter Writers” [https://zinagomezliss.substack.com/p/for-the-psychopomps-and-famous-letter]
* My “Poetry and Mythology” panel paper: “Movies as Popular Poetry: Zhang Yimou, Zack Snyder, and the Mythological Imagination” [https://theflummoxed.substack.com/api/v1/file/6d3b9390-4c49-498c-9d7a-ec0c4224e1a5.pdf]
* Zhang Yimou [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0955443/]
* Zack Snyder [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0811583/]
On Movies and Popular Poetry:
* “Patronage” by Amit Majmudar [https://versecraft.buzzsprout.com/2052683/episodes/15573427-the-case-for-poetic-patronage]
* Plato [https://iep.utm.edu/plato/]
* The Republic [https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1497/pg1497-images.html]
* Homer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer]
* Aristotle [https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle/]
* Nietzsche [https://iep.utm.edu/nietzsch/]
* Thus Spoke Zarathustra [https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1998/pg1998-images.html]
* Cinema [https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/very-short-history-of-cinema]
* The Poetics [https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1974/pg1974-images.html]
* εἰκός [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=ei)ko/s]
* ποί-ησις [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=poi/hsis]
* Plato’s Forms [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/philosophy/_Texts/COPHP/20*.html]
* Tolkien’s “sub-creation” [https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Sub-creation]
* Heidegger’s “bringing-forth” [https://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil394/The%20Question%20Concerning%20Technology.pdf]
* Schopenhauer’s “representation” [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/]
* The Nicomachean Ethics [https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html]
* Xenophon [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diogenes_Laertius/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/2/Xenophon*.html]
* The Birth of Tragedy [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51356/51356-h/51356-h.htm]
* Pascal’s “Différence entre l’esprit de géométrie et l’esprit de finesse” [https://www.penseesdepascal.fr/XXII/XXII1-moderne.php]
* Heraclitus’s “unity of opposites” [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heraclitus/]
* Schopenhauer’s “will to life” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_to_life]
* Nietzsche’s “will to power” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_to_power]
* Civilization in Transition [https://maypoleofwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/civilization-in-transition-c.-g.-jung-gerhard-adler-r.-f.-c.-hull-z-lib.org_.pdf]
On Zhang Yimou:
* The NYT’s 2004 interview with Zhang Yimou [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/movies/MoviesFeatures/steamy-times-come-to-chinese-films.html]
* Virgil and his [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid]Aeneid [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid]
* China’s “Fifth Generation Filmmakers” [https://www.filminquiry.com/beginners-guide-fifth-generation-chinese-cinema/]
* Red Sorghum [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093206/] (1987) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093206/]
* Raise the Red Lantern [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101640/] (1991) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101640/]
* Hero [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/] (2002) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/]
* Shadow [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6864046/] (2018) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6864046/]
* Full River Red [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21148018/] (2023) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21148018/]
* The 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics_opening_ceremony]
* The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/dec/17/1]’s 2004 interview with Zhang Yimou [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/dec/17/1]
* King Zheng of Qin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang]
* The Tao Te Ching [https://theflummoxed.substack.com/p/the-first-three-poems-of-the-tao], Poem Two [https://theflummoxed.substack.com/p/the-first-three-poems-of-the-tao]
* “Man Jiang Hong” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Jiang_Hong]
* “Red River” by Yue Fei, translated by Ethan McGuire [https://www.newversereview.com/1-1-ethan-mcguire] in New Verse Review: A Journal of Lyric and Narrative Poetry [https://open.substack.com/pub/newversereview]
On Zack Snyder:
* The Aristophanic Adam Sandler [https://theflummoxed.substack.com/p/ep-9-adam-sandler-the-artist-pt-1] as discussed by Eric McDonough [https://substack.com/profile/4349155-eric-mcdonough], Sannah McDonough, and me
* Sndyer, as quoted by Rebecca Winters Keegan for TIME [https://time.com/archive/6685216/graphic-novels-are-hollywoods-newest-gold-mine/]
* The Tang Dynasty’s “new-style poetry” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulated_verse]
* Man of Steel [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/] (2013) [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/]
* Rebel Moon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Moon_(franchise)] (2023 and 2024) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Moon_(franchise)]
* “The Longhouse” [http://firstthings.com/what-is-the-longhouse/]
* Bronze Age Pervert [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age_Pervert]
* Leo Strauss on “understanding the low in the light of the high” (in his 1965 book, [https://cliffordangellbatesjr240849.substack.com/p/a-quick-thought-on-leo-strauss-on]Spinoza’s Critique of Religion [https://cliffordangellbatesjr240849.substack.com/p/a-quick-thought-on-leo-strauss-on]) [https://cliffordangellbatesjr240849.substack.com/p/a-quick-thought-on-leo-strauss-on]
* Homer’s epic meter [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylic_hexameter]
* Wagner’s operas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_for_the_stage_by_Richard_Wagner]
* Excalibur [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_(film)] (1981) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_(film)]
* Jesus Christ [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201&version=KJV]
* Nietzsche’s Übermensch [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch]
* Peter Lawler on “Plato and the Man of Steel” [https://thefederalist.com/2013/11/11/plato-man-steel/]
* The Antichrist [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19322/19322-h/19322-h.htm]
* The Anti-Christian [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Antichrist_(book)#cite_note-:1-1]
* Dawn of Justice [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/]
* “God is dead” (Nietzsche’s “Parable of the Madman”) [https://allpoetry.com/Parable-Of-The-Madman]
* Turki Al-Sheikh [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turki_Al-Sheikh]
* Aeschylus [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aeschylus-Greek-dramatist]
* Twilight of the Gods [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_of_the_Gods_(TV_series)] (2024) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_of_the_Gods_(TV_series)]
* The Twilight of the Idols [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52263/52263-h/52263-h.htm]
* Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks [https://klasrum.weebly.com/uploads/9/0/9/1/9091667/friedrich_wilhelm_nietzsche_marianne_cowan-philosophy_in_the_tragic_age_of_the_greeks-gateway_editions_1996_1.pdf]
In Conclusion:
* Yvor Winters [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvor_Winters]
* “All-Under-Heaven” [https://www.thechinastory.org/yearbooks/yearbook-2013/forum-politics-and-society/tianxia-%E5%A4%A9%E4%B8%8B/]
* Elijah Blumov’s “The Iron Lyre: Poetry, Heavy Metal, and the New Sublime” [https://newversereview.substack.com/p/the-iron-lyre]
* The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13wzvkk]
* My “Against the Rotten Tomatoes/Letterboxd Consensus,” Nietzsche’s “yes to life,” Plato’s Eros, and Dante’s Love [https://theflummoxed.substack.com/p/against-the-rotten-tomatoesletterboxd]
Other great podcasts to enjoy:
* Sleerickets [https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets]
* The New Thinkery [https://thenewthinkery.com/]
* Versecraft [https://versecraft.buzzsprout.com/]
* Poetry Says [https://poetrysays.com/]
The Flummoxed Podcast’s intro music is by Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice. The art is by Ethan McGuire and cottonbro studio.
Get full access to The Flummoxed at theflummoxed.substack.com/subscribe [https://theflummoxed.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]