Cupful
What fills your cup? Join Justin and Kandace Tyler as they sit down for conversations exploring fulfillment and what drives people. They desperately grasp for purpose outside of wrangling children, being amateur chicken nugget chefs, and making awkward small-talk with the supporting cast members of their lives.
Cupful
Listening to fairy smut in public places
Ever found yourself turning beet-red in public as your audiobook unabashedly proclaims the steamier side of fairy smut literature? Yeah, Kandace too. Welcome to a world where fantasy romance novels like Sarah J. Maas's ACOTAR are the talk of the town, and where your preferred medium—be it print or audio—only enhances the magic. Kandace and I are here to sweep away the embarrassment and celebrate the joy of these little pleasures, even when it means surviving the occasional public faux pas. So if you've ever hidden your screen or turned down the volume with a guilty smile, this episode is your invitation to the club—no secret handshake required.
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@_iamkandace
Is fairy smut, basically porn. Today we're going to talk about a couple of popular fantasy romance novels and also just talking about things that you know a lot of people might feel ashamed about, like, about their interest or feel embarrassed by, and we're here to tell you that there's no reason to feel embarrassed about the things that you like unless it's harmful to others. I'm Justin Tyler.
Speaker 2:And I'm Candace Tyler.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Cupful Podcast.
Speaker 2:I didn't say a single bad word in the intro. Okay, that's good. Shit, fuck, shit, fuck, shit, fuck, shit, fuck. So if you would have asked me this years ago, I would have made fun of the series that I'm going to talk about today, which is the ACOTAR series, a Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Moss.
Speaker 1:Thank you for spelling that out, because I had no idea. I keep forgetting what the damn series is called.
Speaker 2:It's difficult to keep saying A Court of Thorns and Roses. Acotar is its official, you know.
Speaker 1:So, from what I can tell, that there's multiple acronyms for each of the books that people use, though there are.
Speaker 2:There's like akamaf, akawaf, akafas, akasf so is there?
Speaker 1:is there like a singular term that people use to describe the entire series, or is it just? Is Akatar like the main thing, basically?
Speaker 2:yeah, akatar is the main, like when referring to the actual series, and it's also just the first book in the series, similar to Game of Thrones. People just call it Game of Thrones series and all of that which I mean.
Speaker 2:That was a song of ice and fire, but true that that's the official series name, but I feel like when people are referring to it, you know that's the first book in the Game of Thrones series, is just called Game of Thrones and just kind of morphed into oh, have you read the Game of Thrones series?
Speaker 1:Do you ever wonder if authors like that would like so? Game of Thrones is a perfect example. Do you ever think that George RR Martin thought when he wrote the first book, like I'm going to call, I'm going to make a whole series of this and I'm going to call it a song of ice and fire, like do you think that is, or is that something that comes afterwards, as people are kind of you write something that just kind of clicks with you, like oh, that is this saga, it is a song of ice and fire. I'm going to call the whole series that.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I think he knew what he was doing in all. You know all those times writing all his curvy works, and we love it.
Speaker 1:We love all of those works. I think if he knew what he was doing he would be finished with the last fucking book by now.
Speaker 2:Is that even still a thing? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm just hoping at this at this point. I think that he's trying to outweigh everybody being pissed off about the ending of the series.
Speaker 2:I think is what's happening, so that people get hyped up for the book again because people might kind of fell flat a little bit. Yeah, um, because everyone loved the show so much. But but yeah, that I mean that's a whole different episode. We can get into all of the game of thrones stuff it could probably like.
Speaker 1:There's aspects of it that could probably fit into this episode. There's a lot of sword talk, there's a lot of uh incest, there's there's a lot of incest, a lot of sword talk.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of incest. There's a lot of just like sexy times and all of that.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of that there's a lot of drinking and knowing things.
Speaker 2:There's no fairies, but to be fair, is there not?
Speaker 1:What about the wood children of the forest? Is that what they're?
Speaker 2:called. Those are kind of fairies aren't they?
Speaker 1:They're kind of yeah, they're like fae.
Speaker 2:They're fa they're called. Those are kind of fairies. They're kind of yeah, they're like fey, they're fey, yeah, okay, or are they more elvish?
Speaker 1:no, I think that they're more like in line with fey. I don't know if it ever describes them as such, but if I had to, to place them somewhere, I would say they're kind of more fey, like they're magical in nature, okay well, it's funny because I act.
Speaker 2:You know, reading has always been. You know we had been talking the last couple of episodes like what helps you decompress, what helps you kind of zone out and find peace in the moment, and really the only one that I have that's more of a distraction is reading. So my whole life I've been a big bookworm, always loved reading. So my whole life I've been a big bookworm, always loved reading, and I used to be one of those really pretentious people that would be like, oh, I only read physical books, I love their smell and I love to turn the pages, and I just used to be one of those really annoying people. So, looking back, I think that's annoying. I think any way you want to consume media is perfectly fine.
Speaker 2:So, long story short, I never did audiobooks. It's not that I wasn't interested, it's just the whole you know me being pretentious thing. I just wanted to own the book, I wanted to have it on my shelf, I wanted to physically see the words, because I feel like seeing the story helps you resonate better with it. At least, that's what I thought before. Well, my own rule of not consuming, you know, audio books or anything like that kept me from reading for literally a span of a year and a half. So I went a year and a half. You know, I started the last Outlander book. I only got midway through it and, mind you, that's one of my favorite series and I just didn't have time to pick it back up for a year and a half.
Speaker 1:And for those of you unaware Outlander is, you could also probably describe that as a smut, but more historical it's, it's historical fiction.
Speaker 2:I like it for the historical aspects is what I'll say. But no, um, yeah, you're right, it falls into the same type of category, just without fairies. Um, but basically I, after a while, I started reviewing, like you know what are my hobbies, what are my interests, and I got really sad because I thought I can't say that I love reading if I literally haven't picked up a book in a year and a half. You know, my job at the time was working with books, so I think that was part of it is I didn't have free time to do leisure reading.
Speaker 2:Eventually, you know, it became last late fall, our kids were doing a lot of sports several nights a week. They were in taekwondo and taekwondo is pretty long and, you know, pretty boring sometimes to sit there and watch, download Audible and I'm going to re-read slash, listen to the Outlander series. So I did that, starting with finishing the book that I had never finished, and after I finished I was blown away because I was like, okay, this was great because I flew through the last part of this book, because I was able to listen while I was doing dishes, while I was, you know, doing random chores around the house, while I was driving while I was sitting at the kids' taekwondo practices. And it was so nice because that was a time for me to just zone out and decompress and, you know, feel like I was doing what I loved again.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this Do you because I know that I struggle with this and this is one of the reasons that I it's not that I'm against audiobooks, I have done audiobooks, but I tend to not like that, tends to not be my preference Are you, do you struggle with having to replay certain parts of it over and over again, because you'll kind of get lost in thought and stop listening and suddenly you're like, oh shit, what was happening?
Speaker 2:So you learn to know when to pause At first I did you need to know when it's a good time to be listening or not. If it's a time where I'm a little distracted or not fully paying attention, I would pause it and say you know what? This is more of a music opportunity, not really something I can, you know, focus my brain on right now, but you learn the type of activities, like you know, doing dishes, things like that. Driving, that's a great time, to listen to audiobooks, taking a walk is a great time. But you know, I finished, you know, rereading slash, listening to Outlander, and I got a little, you know, because you like this, you may like this, and it was the Accord of Thorns and Roses book by Sarah J Moss and I had seen it on BookTok a lot. Never really knew anything about it, though, I just knew, oh, that's a, you know, pretty popular, I guess, series. I went ahead and read the synopsis and it's, you know, basically centered around a young woman centered in a, you know, fake land. It's not true.
Speaker 1:Fantasy land.
Speaker 2:I can say fake land, can I not?
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't want to say fantasy too many times in this episode.
Speaker 1:I just didn't want you to offend our two listeners. Yeah well, we gained a listener since the last episode by the way Did we?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. Hey, mom, I hope you're not listening to this episode.
Speaker 1:This one's about to get a little freaky.
Speaker 2:Well, basically it centers around and there's no real spoilers in this a young woman who is fighting to provide for her family through these terrible times. She resorts to hunting for all of their food and she ends up killing a fey wolf. And because she did that, it starts her along this you know domino effect and journey, where she gets kidnapped by a high fey, they take her to over the wall away from the human realm into prithian, which is filled full of fairies, fae, and basically she's taken to pay for her crimes. That's not typically what I would read, although I love fantasy. You know fairy romances and stuff. You know different mixed romances like different species, and I guess you would call a mixed romances like different species, and I guess you would call a fairy a species, right?
Speaker 2:That's not really my thing, if I ever thought like, oh, what would I like to read today? But when I started it, it was one of those things where at first I was like wanting to make fun of it. So I was like, oh, this is just a temporary like I want to make fun of this, but it's entertaining. Well, that snowballed to be, I couldn't wait for the next time to press play. All I wanted to do was talk about it, and then, after a while, I realized shit. I really like this series and it's actually getting up on par with some of my favorite series. So what do I do other than, you know, find someone to talk about it.
Speaker 1:Just really quick. Going back to the synopsis that you just read off for us, one of the things that I really enjoy seeing online is you'll see like these bookstores that will do just bad descriptions, like purposefully bad descriptions of books, and I found one for this and I just wanted to like, see, like, does this basically sum it up a little bit? So A Court of Thorns and Roses illiterate girl kills a wolf. Now she's trapped with a man who plays the fiddle. I love those.
Speaker 2:I actually I see those all over the place and and they crack me up. Just the amount of just like memes and TikToks out there about this series kill me, um. And I just love how the algorithm knows somehow where I'm at in my reading and I never get spoilers. I'm only served TikToks for exactly where I am in the series at that moment and I find that awesome. Like that is so considerate of the algorithm to you know, not feed me those future spoilers.
Speaker 1:It's getting scary how good the algorithm and AI are becoming. It's super scary. They're coming for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, you know, other than watching TikTok videos about, you know, relating to the book series or breaking down the book series, I realized I really want somebody to talk about this series with because it started, you know, consuming all of my thoughts. Like you know, I finally started getting into a new series and I started getting excited about something, but also it's, you know, technically a fairy porn basically is what everyone classifies it?
Speaker 1:as You're just going straight in and answering the question from the beginning, then yeah, and once you know.
Speaker 2:once I looked more into it I realized, okay, maybe you know in the first book, maybe I hadn't gotten there yet. But I realized, okay, what I'm throwing myself into is a fairy porn. So how do I bring this up to people and just start talking about it without sounding just fucking weird?
Speaker 1:So you never. You never thought to yourself like, oh, I could, I could get Justin into this book. That wasn't like a thought that crossed your mind. You're like, oh yeah, no, that that would be awful, I'm going to, I'm going to look elsewhere for this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't think I could talk to you about it, cause I'm like for one, anything that I say is just going to sound hilarious to him because he's not reading it.
Speaker 1:So you're, you're not wrong. There was a this and then, I think, another book that you were reading kind of right before, like physically reading, where I would look over your shoulder every once in a while Like it's not so, no, no, no, no. So you're listening to this one, but you were. You started reading what was the other fairy smut book series that you started to kind of get into. I bought it for you for Christmas.
Speaker 2:Fourth wing.
Speaker 1:Fourth wing yeah, like there was. There was a period where, like you were physically reading that one and I would just look over your shoulder at like weird spots and start reading things You'd get so pissed.
Speaker 2:Oh, and I hate that. It feels like reading my diet, like you're reading my private, like diary over my shoulder or something.
Speaker 1:If you hate me reading from these books out loud to you, you're going to really hate me later in this episode.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm, you know, because I felt weird, opening or kind of admitting to you that I'm actually enjoying this content.
Speaker 1:I don't think that it's so weird. I mean, you said a minute ago like this, like this type like style of like of story of like genre is not really a thing, Like I call bullshit on that, Like that's very much up your alley. So I mean you've always kind of yes and no.
Speaker 2:The fantasy I've I've always loved fantasy but, like I said, like I've never really read anything where it's like a fairy and a human doing it.
Speaker 1:Does that make?
Speaker 2:sense like it's usually between two humans or two dwarves or you know something like that. So I just felt like, okay, what am I getting myself into?
Speaker 1:I can't talk to anybody about this so, before we get too far into this, is the is the fairy? Is it a male? Like the main fairy that, like she's hooking, like it's a human girl hooking up with the male fairy, is that?
Speaker 2:yes, and now that you mention it, um, someone pointed out to me that they, specifically, they refer to them as males and females, and I thought that was weird there's two genders well, there's multiple genders but, for example, if they're describing um, you know, a regular book would say like and the man man did this. The author always says the male or the female and I started thinking why do they say that? It feels so weird, until I realized it's because they're literally not men. They're, they're fairies and they're males.
Speaker 2:So I felt kind of dumb because I, you know, was talking to somebody and I was like I just hate how the author always refers to them as males and females, because they're not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not men, they're male and gender, they're not humans, yeah.
Speaker 2:According to their species. Exactly so it makes sense.
Speaker 1:Is there any like kind of you know how, like with men, with human men, there's the whole thing of like the size of your hand correlates to the size of your dong, kind of thing Is there like with fairies? Is there like a correlation to like their wingspan?
Speaker 2:So what's interesting is there's subspecies of fairies in the book. So not all fairies are the same. Some have wings, some don't, some have different powers.
Speaker 1:We call them eunuchs.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, there's all different types of fairies, so none like all different cultures basically, of fairies as well. So but yeah, but before I get too into that, We'll come back to that, Basically everything that you know I'm unleashing on you. I was like, what do I do? So I have a friend who you know we're pretty compatible with the types of books that we read, Typically you were both into Outlander which, as you said, was kind of the lead into but she also likes Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 2:She also loved Harry Potter, she. You know what I mean. So we, we also love all the same shows. So I'm thinking, okay, she just finished a series and she always recommends me some titles. I'm going to fucking blow her mind and recommend this and then see if she still wants to be my friend afterwards.
Speaker 1:So you didn't feel as nervous approaching her about this as you maybe would somebody else.
Speaker 2:I did, true, but I did still feel like I had to justify it, like hey, um, you should check this series out. It's fucking weird, but I mean, it's a, it's a page turner, it's a. You know passes the time, you should just try to throw it on while you're doing this. Um, basically, don't judge me, but this is what I've been reading. Check it out. So she checks it out and I just start getting texts from her Like what the fuck? Like so the first book, it's a lot of what the fuck. And why are their bowels always watery? Why does the author always write everyone's bowels always being watery? Why does everyone have diarrhea?
Speaker 1:So, there was just a lot of. Is that what that means? That they have diarrhea?
Speaker 2:there's just a lot you know. So we started at first joking about the writing, basically like oh it's, we like this, ironically type of.
Speaker 1:So is this kind of this? This kind of goes back to in the, the first episode of the season we were. We were talking about twilight and kind of, just like you, you liked it, ironically and it's, it's, it's notoriously it's bad writing yes, but it's the world that it sets up and it's like. It's like kind of that cringe that you can't look away from yes it.
Speaker 2:I couldn't look away or stop listening, and and neither could my friend, and so, at first, were just making fun of the writing, which, to be fair, isn't bad the content is sometimes just fantastical.
Speaker 1:But yeah, the writing isn't bad I would hope that the writing is not bad, because it seems like she's written us. It was sarah sarah j moss okay um, it seems like she's written quite a bit, so how many books are in this series? There's five just in this series, and then she has another series that's pretty big too.
Speaker 2:She has multiple series, and I mean all of her books, are huge hits.
Speaker 1:Are they all kind of in the same realm of fairy smut, or some of them kind of lean more into like, okay, this is fantasy book to be fair, I haven't looked fully in.
Speaker 2:I do know one of her series is within the same world as akatar it's just based on different characters and maybe even a different point in time entirely, but she has another series that's not based on this at all, so I'm not sure if it deals with fairies. She seems to always have a strong female heroine and it seems to be the main theme, like no matter what series it is. So I mean, people love it, they eat it up, it's fun, it's juicy, but eventually my friend went from making fun of it with me to, you know, us sending each other just like fun TikToks about it all the time there are so many memes out there so many memes.
Speaker 1:I'm not even familiar with this, but I definitely. I see memes. I'm just like I don't understand this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she'd send them to me. We just we're just cackling together all the time. She'd update me like hey, I'm, you know I'm here now and it's gotten to the point where she's actually finished the series, I'm pretty sure. And now I'm way behind her because I've gotten busy. So it went from her like what the fuck did you recommend? To? Like she'll text me and be like hey, just to let you know. Uh, page uh 246,.
Speaker 1:Make sure you're alone for that one.
Speaker 2:And so you know I'll be like, okay, I'll let you know when I get to that page. Nothing really comes of that. I let her know hey, I read page 246. But yeah, I mean that's, it's fun. So I wanted to ask you this, because you know this is explicit content and it's, you know, two friends talking about. Hey, you know, make sure you read this part, Make sure you're alone, Make sure your kids aren't around. Do you feel like there's anything that you like that's awkward to admit to? Or you feel like you're almost wrong for like reading it, listening to it, like any sort of media?
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, I and you can find little bits of that in almost everything. But even like a lot of the anime that I watch, japanese culture is very different, japanese humor is very different and a lot of times, like there's just a lot of like just really pervy shit that goes on in anime and it's not like that's why I'm seeking it out. But sometimes it's hilarious and I I always feel weird, like sometimes because like there's a few shows that I I watch with our daughter margo, and like I'll always be like, oh, I don't remember that being good, like I don't remember that scene, but like there's it's. It's just like even when you have like something that is more geared toward toward kids, like a like I I can think of like one of the first animes I ever watched was a dragon ball like, and this is like og dragon ball goku's a little kid and in like the very first episode that you've got this little, this little boy who has basically been he's.
Speaker 1:He's grown up out in the wild with his, his grandpa, who has basically been. He's grown up out in the wild with his grandpa, who has passed away recently. So he's all alone. He's never known another human and he meets this girl and in one of the first episodes, like while she's sleeping, he's like oh, why doesn't she have a weenie like me? And he's like she's like asleep. And he's like pulling off her underwear and he's like what the fuck is this?
Speaker 2:Are you serious? Yeah, and he's like pulling off her underwear and he's like what the fuck is this kind of thing he's never seen?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's this this is a kid's show, kid's show. Japanese culture is very different, so like that's, that's. I guess that's an example of like one of those things like where you're like, oh, like, I'm always wondering, like with certain shows, if I'm, if I'm watching something and it says something out loud and you're maybe in the kitchen, um, like doing dishes or something like that or whatever the fuck it is that you do in the kitchen, um, I'm always wondering if, like, you're like paying attention to it, or if you're like thinking yourself like what the fuck is he watching? But now I know you're listening to your book. You're not doing much better.
Speaker 2:I'm listening to, like what the fairy member did, the stiff member and the all of that.
Speaker 1:So I I think that for, for, for men, I think it's a little different. I I mean not that like, so I'm not, like I don't know, I'm not really like the like I guess typical guy who has like a group of guy friends that like I talk, sex talk and shit with, like that's never been who I am really um so that's how I almost feel with my friend, and I'm not that way either.
Speaker 2:Turns out. Girls are horny pervs yeah, I mean, I think that's why the series is a success, honestly, and I think women like react to things in a different way and they feel like, oh, this is a book, so it's okay, it's it's okay to. Does that make?
Speaker 1:sense. I mean, if you want to, if you want to get into that, like, if you're. So, what defines a book? Is it something with paper that you, you, you has pages that you flip, there's stories to it, cause I can say like there's go back to like pretty much I don't know just any, any edition of playboy that's ever come out Like there's stories there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, but I guess I don't know. I guess I don't know, I guess I'm not sure. I think women hide behind the fact that it's a book.
Speaker 1:Which is a little, a little hypocritical.
Speaker 2:See, I would agree with you there.
Speaker 1:So at the same time, like men, get a bad reputation for because like, so Like for watching porn, Men and women.
Speaker 1:And I'm just saying like and I'm not saying that like there aren't women who who enjoy porn as well. What I'm saying is like, traditionally, I think, like men and men and women are kind of driven by different aspects of sexuality, and for men a lot of times it's strictly physical, it like it can be, and I think that that's like where like a lot of the draw to like, just like to porn comes from and we get a lot of shit for like that being like a thing that we consume, even though there's there's just as many women out there who consume porn. The character's emotional, like story going as well, so it's not just the physical aspect.
Speaker 2:It's what the person's feeling. What does that make sense? Yeah, so I feel like women traditionally connect more to both.
Speaker 1:Fairy guy knocks on the door in his ups delivery outfit.
Speaker 2:He brought a fake pizza. It was made out of cardboard.
Speaker 1:I've got a pizza package to give to you, I'm going to give it to you wet in your stomach or whatever. Don't worry, baby, I'll give you CPR?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not like that. It's like there's a lot of buildup emotionally and then you get the physical payoff.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's a story. You could say that one is more of a drama or kind of uh, romance and nature, and you could say the ones. You can interpret it as a comedy. Yeah, yeah, you could. There's still a story, storytelling.
Speaker 2:It is still there's uh, you have, man inserts penis into vagina that does happen comes the end I was interested, um you know, to listen to the scenes and see that, other than being of, other than being a fairy, the males have the same anatomy. I was hoping for more of a shock factor, like some octopus tentacles yes, like basically basically they're just men that live forever and look forever young and beautiful yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:I was thinking because, like it it seems like so I didn't do. I tried not to look up too much into this series ahead of time. I did look at a couple of things, just because I've got some, some points that I wanted to kind of bring up in this conversation. There seems to be a lot of a lot of roaring that happens purring, purring and roaring.
Speaker 2:There's so much purring, yeah the roaring, like he roared at her, and I always wonder this is what me and my friend talk about Like are they literally roaring? Like are they making that sound or is it like?
Speaker 1:I'm curious about that. I, I, I tend to like, think, think, like, okay, well, this, this is cat, like in nature. So like, do these fairy have like cat penises? Do you know like what I'm talking about? How, like they have that like the hook, like the spikes, like they literally get stuck into the female.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's like terrifying, that is terrifying, that's terrifying it.
Speaker 1:That is terrifying. That's terrifying. It's a very scary thing, but yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:So like they're pretty anatomically close to a human male and female- yeah, so at least the like there's high fae and then there's just like the normal, like I don't know what would you call it, Just like the peasants, kind of like the peasant fey the low fey, yeah, the low, the low fey, the mid fey, there's like different middle class types yeah but the high fey. They seem to just look like humans, but perfectly beautiful and ultra strong, and they're immortal, so they're almost like vampires, basically but they can go out in the sun they can go out in the sun.
Speaker 1:They eat real food all of that, okay, okay okay, but yeah.
Speaker 2:so one awkward thing, though, too, is and it never fails, it's always the most explicit scenes. Do you ever listen to something like maybe music on Spotify or something, and you'll take your earbuds out or whatever, and then your app will somehow just start playing from your phone again? So that has happened to me a couple of times, because sometimes, if I'm listening, if I'm in a public place, if it starts to get like too intense, I'm like I feel really awkward listening to this and I'm paranoid that someone will somehow hear it through my earbuds, they see your face.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh, I know what you're listening to.
Speaker 2:What do I do with my face? I don't know what like face to make in those moments. So I'll go ahead and, you know, put my earbuds away, thinking I'm stopping it, and instead my Bluetooth will, just, you know, switch off and just start playing the scene on my phone at full volume at the YMCA during Taekwondo.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that that's happened to me quite a few times, even though I'm trying not to make it happen to where I'll hover my finger over the play pause button to make sure, but sometimes I'll inadvertently just play it and it would have been fine if I just didn't have my finger waiting there. And it's always like he growled at her and then inserted his fingers into her anus and her vagina at the same time.
Speaker 1:He bitch, slapped her with his fairy wings while he unsheathed his velvet sword.
Speaker 2:And then her bowels went watery and I'm like shit. And then I just feel really weird and yeah, that that's happened a few times, so it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've gotten burned, even even when that that mishap doesn't happen, like even like even when you you aren't exposed to the world, sometimes you just feel weird with what you're listening to around other people or what you're watching around other people. I don't know if like this I'm assuming this happens to you quite a bit but like being in a public space and and listening to these, or sometimes like I don't know, like when I'm flying on a plane and I'm watching a movie on, like the on the screen, and a sex scene comes on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have something that's just a little off-putting. Luckily I've never had like and, to be fair, I don't really watch a lot of movies on the plane. But when I do I try to go with something that's kind of safe. But you never know, Because you know people are always looking over your shoulder at what you're watching.
Speaker 2:Yes, especially me. And some people have no shame. I literally I was flying to Tampa one time and there was a guy like in front of me, diagonal, so I could just see everything on his phone base. Basically he was watching. I don't even know what he was watching on his phone, but it was like very graphic sex scenes. And then he would pause and just like stare at it and I'm like dude, like this dude just doesn't give a fuck.
Speaker 2:He has no shame With me if I were watching something if I'm watching something I'm like hiding, you know, like at least trying to hide what I'm watching.
Speaker 1:I almost feel like that draws more attention than trying to.
Speaker 2:He's just like hanging out in the aisle, just like pausing, looking, rewinding, and I'm like dude, we're just on a plane, get those snakes off the plane oh, oh yeah, no, like it's.
Speaker 1:It's definitely though it's. It could be weird to kind of like consume certain it's not like. And it's not like one of those things. Like you know, most people, I would hope, are not watching porn like straight up porn in public, but sometimes, like you're watching a movie or a TV show or listening to a book or reading a book, even and somebody, there are people around you who are paying attention to what it is that you're consuming and like that can make it be a little awkward.
Speaker 2:Well, it's also like um. On last week's episode we were or it was last week or the week before um we talked about, you know, getting past surface level conversations with people. That's one interest for me that I have a hard time bringing up to a random person, because if all they've ever seen is like, oh, it's very smut, they're immediately just going to be like, oh, that's who that person is.
Speaker 2:And I don't know if I want that to be the only thing people think about me. So it's it's hard to navigate, like what do you share with people, what do you not share with people? Because just because I read, that doesn't mean I don't also like other types of books.
Speaker 1:I can and I can, I can get why. That's one of those things where like, okay, like I do want to be myself around people, but there's certain things that like, maybe I don't share that on the first date, maybe maybe my first day of work, I don't just bust into this bitch being like I love fairy sex but at the same time then you go on to a podcast to talk about it to our three listeners we gained another one since the beginning of the episode our three listeners we gained another one since the beginning of the episode. But you get onto the podcast to talk about it and potentially, you know numbers and numbers. Numerous people are hearing that. So what's the difference between being completely open with somebody about like some of your interests and like the things that you might be a little more ashamed of? I guess what's the difference between that and you know getting onto a podcast to talk about it?
Speaker 2:It's the same way that people hide behind social media and are braver on social media. I think there's things that people would say on Instagram or Facebook that they would never say to someone's face. I would probably never have this conversation with an acquaintance, but if they listen to it on the podcast it's okay, because I have a buffer of I'm not really with them. They're just listening to it and they can take it or leave it. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess Now I just want to walk up to random strangers, like maybe if I see an old lady reading the newspaper, I'll just walk up to her and be like, hey, you like reading, well, I've got something for you. And just hand her the book and see where it goes. I don't know.
Speaker 2:You never know. That is. One of the funny memes that I follow is seeing people reading ACOTAR in the wild. Basically, people will take photos of people that don't look like they would like the series, like reading it, and they're just very into it and people just post their picture and it'll be like an old man at the airport reading ACOTAR on a bench and someone will snap a photo or something like that.
Speaker 1:I know I saw one a while ago. It was a photo of I believe it was a Congresswoman, like during, like, like Congress was in session, like there was a very heated debate going on and everyone's like screaming at each other. And she's just sitting there reading one of the books from this series.
Speaker 2:Well, that sounds like an amazing person.
Speaker 1:Vote for this. Ok, I shouldn't endorse this person. I know nothing about their politics, they could be awful.
Speaker 2:They could have been a Republican, but I don't even know who it is, but they sound awesome. Looking, um, but I don't even know who it is, but they sound awesome. Like just not giving a fucking zoning out and reading this like high fantasy romance?
Speaker 1:so would you say that this is like as in current day, as an adult, is this like one of the? Is this like the thing that, like you're ashamed of, that you're really into that? Like, like you do you wish that you could just like be more open with this about people, or like.
Speaker 2:So I'll tell you why I'm the most ashamed. And it's not even honestly like the sexual aspect of it People have sex. It's more of the literary aspect of it, because it's such a big series and it's it's a huge series for people that don't typically read and they're just like, oh, I love romance, or does that make sense? And yeah, and it kind of I, I don't want to be lumped in.
Speaker 1:It's not. Romance is kind of the secondary genre to this, though. Isn't it like there is an actual storyline?
Speaker 2:there is I kind of mean more the more of the people that have never picked up a book other than to read some sort of paperback romance.
Speaker 1:Like our mom's generation that read all of the books that had Fabio on the cover art.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, that's a whole.
Speaker 1:My mom read a lot of that shit.
Speaker 2:I never understood what the appeal was, but apparently that's yeah, but they've never read like anything else, ever but those which that's fine honestly, I'm like at least they're literate, unlike the, the protagonist of this story and I and honestly over the years I've grown less pretentious when it comes to books and stuff I honestly I'm like if it's cool and you like it I think whatever you want, people like whatever they want.
Speaker 1:There are a few things that people should be ashamed of.
Speaker 2:Well, and I feel like I don't. I basically don't want to be lumped in with that group who, if I meet somebody who maybe is really into reading too, and they're like, what are you reading right now? And I say, oh, I'm, I'm on like the fourth book of the ACOTAR series, then they might shut down the conversation and be like, ooh, okay, I see what kind of reader you are not really a bright one.
Speaker 1:So I think that you get a pass for several reasons. First off, like I just said, like what you like, who the fuck cares If people are going to be judgmental, you don't need that shit in your life. I think that finding a community, um, around the things that you enjoy is really important, and it gets harder as, like the older that we're getting, it does get harder to find people that you can kind of click with on on these sorts of interests. But you know they're still out there, um. So I would say, uh, another thing that I think gives you a pass you've written a book, you are an author, so yeah, but I mean, that doesn't make me the the like queen of books.
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't make you the queen of books, but I think like fuck anybody who would judge you for what you're reading. They've never written a book before.
Speaker 2:They might have.
Speaker 1:Depends on who you're talking to, but I know like so, like, for example, like and I'm I am very far removed from considering myself in the film industry. It's been years since I've like really worked in anything film or television related, um, but I'm still in like the the video production kind of uh realm of things, and I that's like like I know a lot of people who work in TV, like like TV and films, like they love watching trash TV like because it's just one of those things like you can just turn your brain off and it's.
Speaker 1:It's just mindless.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you, and that's what makes it so relaxing, I think.
Speaker 1:What's so? It looks like you're you're trying to move on to the next topic, but before you do, can you tell me what one of the most kind of like just compromising moments for you? Like you, you're listening to this book and you were in this situation where you were either around these people or you were here, or you were doing this, and one of these scenes pops up like what's one of the like the most like embarrassing moments that you've experienced with this sort of thing so far.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, have you ever experienced, um, when your Bluetooth is on in your car, so you're listening to something in your car, you expect that no one outside of your car can hear it until you might be walking through a parking lot and you can hear someone's full conversation while they're talking to somebody on their Bluetooth?
Speaker 2:Well, first off, they have their speakers turned up way too loud but it happens all the time and I remember being shocked one time because I could hear a full conversation of you know someone's in someone's car, basically with their Bluetooth going.
Speaker 2:So I kind of forgot about that one time and I was sitting. I was sitting in a parking lot right outside my daughter's our daughter's dance studio and there was a big crowd of just like young girls, teens, and then all the moms just standing around. They had just got out of dance, standing on the sidewalk and I was in the car feeling like, okay, I'm safe to listen to this. I'm just, you know, my kids aren't in the car, I'm just sitting here waiting for dance to be done. So I have it on at a good volume because I'm just vibing and, you know, just enjoying the 45 minutes of like me time. And then all of a sudden, you know one of those scenes is going on and I just start to see looks like. I just start to see like side eyes, like towards the car, and my windows weren't down or anything but you had it loud enough no-transcript, for that can go to hell.
Speaker 1:Honestly, they're doing the same damn thing. There's a reason these books are so popular.
Speaker 2:There are plenty of people out there so, speaking of popularity, um, there's been a lot of talks like, uh, there's been, you know, this series basically being made into a show. Um, I think at one point it was up for um, hulu was gonna yeah, it was canceled, but at one point there was talks about hulu adapting it. It's still in the talks. Everyone's really excited because, you know, margot Robbie is like producing now and she, you know, is a really talented actress and producer. She was recently spotted having a meeting with Sarah J Maas and everyone is kind of and this was after the Hulu cancellation. So there's a lot of speculation, a lot of that. If there was a show, would you watch it with me?
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean I would watch it with you if you wanted me to watch it with you. I watched Outlander. I got really into that for a few seasons until I got to the point where I was like, yeah, it's starting to suck now. You kind of gave up on it. It's starting to suck now. You kind of gave up on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, more so like not more so frustrations with just the showrunners kind of losing sight of what the show is supposed to be and like what makes like the story so good. I had listened, I had like watched you like read all of these books and like talk about it and like fill me in on these plot points and like things. Like there was, there was some really cool stuff that should have been happening and for whatever reason, the showrunners, like they, they just kind of put the wrong stuff in and focused on the wrong things and, um, so I kind of lost interest. Uh, you know, several seasons in, but I would, yeah, I would get, I would give this a shot um, would you ever read it?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't read it. But I, I will say, in doing my very minimal research on the series, I found a story about a girl who was on a long drive like a 12 hour long drive with her husband to colorado and she like, basically, like he, he's like, she like I think she said like he's not the kind of person that, like he doesn't like read at all and she kind of said like, hey, like I'm going to throw this audio book on, like she had already read it, but she, like as an experiment, like I said like okay, I'm, and he was like, oh, that's fine, you know, 12 hours in he's listened to essentially the entire first book. She's tricked him into consuming this book and he's like all into it. He's like, well, shit, I gotta find out what happens in book two.
Speaker 2:Now yeah, I mean, that's how it happens so they listen to it on the way back if you have a good enough like hook, you gotta keep going and figure out like what happens I've, definitely.
Speaker 1:I've listened to worse things in the car with you, though I don't think we could.
Speaker 1:We could listen to that, uh, while the kids are there unfortunately we cannot but let's say, you and I end up traveling somewhere, though, and we've got a big travel day where we're on flights and blah, blah, blah. You and I often like times, we're like we'll split up, um, uh, the earbuds, like we'll have, you'll have one in your ear and I'll have the other one in my ear and we'll kind of listen to like we do that with podcasts a lot. We could do something like that and kind of just have a day where we listen to Barry Smut and then give each other weird looks when an awkward scene happens.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I've never. I think I do make fun of the intimate scenes more than get any enjoyment out of them. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like a lot of times it's just so over the top and you're thinking that didn't really happen, that didn't happen.
Speaker 1:I'm assuming also, I don't like every author is different, but the way that this author describes things, I'm assuming it's a little, it's a little much.
Speaker 2:It's, it's very over the top, and a lot of times you're like, oh, I wouldn't even want that, like just just, yeah, I don't know on that note.
Speaker 1:Um, I do have a just a small little sentence here from the, from the book that I'm gonna read, is it about? Bowels or I know it's not about bowels, but there's, uh, seems to be an obsession with with mountains in in the series and just mountains trembling to describe um, so, uh, is it rise, reese, reese, reese. Yeah, okay, oh, that's another remind me to come back to this. I'm gonna, I'm, I'm going to talk to you about, uh, audio book fans versus people who read the book fans.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Um, but so Reese, reese roared as he came, slamming into the hilt. Outside, the mountains trembled the remaining snow rushing from them in a cascade of glittering white, only to be swallowed up by the waiting night below like the fuck so it's a little much.
Speaker 2:It's extremely over the top and that's basically to show that, like he's not a human, he has so much power that the mountains are trembling because he came. Like it is very over the top and you're like wait, how does farah, the main character, how is she still living, like if he's slamming into her, making mountains tremble just like all of that, like it's ridiculous, so like personally I don't get any like thrill from it, if that makes any sense it's.
Speaker 2:It's extremely entertaining, like I love it. But like I have had someone uh randomly tell me like oh, like I had to change my underwear when I got home and I was like oh yeah, I have not experienced that, lucky for Candice, she hardly ever wears underwear. That's not true. I wore underwear last Thursday.
Speaker 1:You're weekly scheduled underwear wearing, yeah, so like it's kind of like and that's kind of a trademark for a lot of authors is like how they handle their descriptions and it seems like she's kind of found her like her way of doing it and some people tend to like there's either the camp of people who either really love it or the camp of people who really love to hate it and make fun of it there is an entire community like. So I don't know if you've ever looked at the akatar reddit before yes.
Speaker 1:It seems like they're mostly haters actually, but they love to hate it. And it's just, it's so much like just blasting, like they'll have like lines from the book that they're just tearing apart and like why is he purring? Why are they always like why? Oh, it's so, it's, it's. It seems like a pretty fun bunch, Like that group of people, the people who like love to hate it.
Speaker 2:See, that's I think that's how I started and to a certain extent, like I do still love to hate it, like it's over the top, but it's also quickly become I it's popular for a reason. Like it's quickly become one of my top, just favorite series so far because it really takes you into a whole new world. It's great If you're looking for escap. The world is so detailed, similar to like if you're reading like Wheel of Time or Lord of the Rings, like any of those, like they paint a whole world for you. It's similar to that where the author has done a really good job at just like building a whole fantasy world. So I have to give credit for that and I love you know people that do their research and it's you can tell a lot of thought was put into it and it's fun.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of split fandoms though so I kind of just briefly mentioned a moment ago there are the people who are physically reading the book, and then there are the people who are like there's a very large following of people who specifically listen to the audio books. For these types of books, Do you think that they're very different types of people?
Speaker 2:Yes, and what is crazy, is you one of the characters, Reese, that you mentioned. You were saying like Riz or Riz, and all of that. So that's the crazy thing that I realized. I kind of love audio books now because you hear what things are supposed to sound like and when you're reading it, you know you could read a series for years and be saying something, and then maybe the show will come out and you're like what the fuck? That's not how you say it know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's harry pooter, it's shit harry pooter.
Speaker 2:I've been saying harry potter all this time, hagrid, but yeah, does that make sense?
Speaker 1:like it almost feels like you've been lied to for so long but at the same time unless you're, I mean, I guess, on on like being on the internet and seeing all the memes and just people talking about it. That would probably fix this. I did see a meme that I was kind of cracking up at, like it has. Like on one side you have the book readers who know how the names are spelled, and then on the other side you have the audio book listeners who know how the names are pronounced and they're just in this constant like struggle, like Godzilla versus King Kong, like I'm right, and they're just in this constant, like struggle, like Godzilla versus King Kong, like I'm right, I'm right, I'm right, unless you're like me and you listen and know how it sounds, and then you also look up the names to see how they're spelled.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going to just say, like I am just so intelligent that I know how it's spelled, I just know.
Speaker 2:I spell it phonetically I hear it and I know it. No, I like to do my research at the same time, and just I need to know how it's spelled. I need to know.
Speaker 1:I will say I think that you're at an advantage being an audiobook listener and hearing how these names are pronounced, because, as I was doing the little bit of research that I did, I'm seeing a lot of the names from these characters and I, for the life of me, could not tell you how any of this fucking shit is pronounced.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, so I'm, I am glad.
Speaker 1:And I'm I'm a Tolkien fan.
Speaker 2:I think if I would have read it instead of listening, I would be saying just stupid shit, like instead of what it really is, it. It was a little jarring, though, that I think it was the first book had a certain um uh audio book like actress or voice actress, and then all of a sudden, the next book it was a different actress. That really messed me up to the point where I almost didn't keep listening.
Speaker 1:Um, because you kind of gain an allegiance, you didn't have to change your underwear after listening to the second book. It's just just didn't do it for you the same way.
Speaker 2:No, it wasn't that. It's that the way they voice the characters was different and I could tell the second actors tried to emulate the first actors, but they're two different people. She wasn't the same and it was to the point where I felt like the tone of the series changed because it was a different person reading it to me so they I'm assuming both, both female readers. They were both female okay um, and they.
Speaker 2:They kept the same like dialect and everything I could tell. The second voice actress really tried, but she just had a different tone to her voice and it's not. It wasn't bad, but for a minute I was like you know what? Fuck it, I'm not going to listen to her. She changed what the main character sounds like. I can't do this. On top of that, the pronunciation of some of the characters changed and I was like, wait, which one's right? And it really, really bothered me. But I got through it, I pushed through and now I can't remember what the first one sounded like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I just kind of got used to it. That happens to me a lot with like you have like your first season of a show or like your pilot season or pilot episode, and you're like, oh, I really like this. And then you get into like when the show finally finds itself and kind of changes things up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're like oh, I don't like it.
Speaker 1:At first you don't like it, but then like, you get so far and you don't even remember how awful the pilot was yeah, which is probably what most people are thinking about this podcast.
Speaker 2:So hopefully we hit our stride this season. I don't know, I think, uh, with the fairy smut porn we probably this has been a very enjoyable episode.
Speaker 1:And justin's like oh, I love talking about the fairy porn.
Speaker 2:Yes, let's, let's talk some more, do you?
Speaker 1:want me to read more to you.
Speaker 2:Um, but no, I I well, this is just a fun way. I think we I'm excited to do more episodes where we just dive deeper into different like movies, interests, hobbies, movies, books games.
Speaker 1:Um, you know the the 1976 May edition of playboy, we'll have an entire episode on that.
Speaker 1:Um, no, like it will. Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll have some fun ones. And that, um, no, like it. Well, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll have some fun ones. And I'm looking forward to like there's going to be a little bit of sprinkle of the um, just kind of like the more like lifestyle and in things that you know like maybe maybe we're struggling with and maybe we just need to, we need to talk about it and we might have advice or we might at least have like our take on it and kind of what's helping us through it not to say that we're professionals in any way and giving the right advice on anything oh yeah, don't listen to us at all.
Speaker 1:We also what's what's kind of nice is not only like so yeah, like we just spent the last hour talking about fairy smut, but it ties in to one of the topics that we like. It is kind of like how do you be your authentic self with people? And I think that's kind of what the theme of the show is A lot of fulfillment to fill my cup. The fulfillment for me comes from being my authentic self and being me and finding connecting with people who accept that and who also like can, can do that in return and who also like can, can do that in return. So that's kind of where I think that we're. We're kind of headed down that and kind of just exploring some of these topics and and interests and and things that normally we wouldn't, we wouldn't talk about.
Speaker 2:So Even if we can't talk about this with other people, talking about it to each other on this platform kind of makes it feel like we're having a larger conversation with other people, with listeners.
Speaker 1:I think because of this format, the way that we're doing it, we definitely probably say a lot of things in the moment that we wouldn't normally say and probably would regret putting out on a podcast. But guess what? I'm not letting you back out once it's come out of your mouth.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, there's. We don't have to overthink or like, did we overshare in that conversation Cause there's no one in front of us, there's just, you know, people who may or may not be listening, and if they're not, that's okay, cause we're having, you know, fun conversations together and that's what this podcast is all about.
Speaker 1:So, as we, as we start to kind of wind down now, were there any other topics or things that you wanted to discuss?
Speaker 2:It was mostly I didn't want the whole theme to be me just enjoying fairy porn, which there's nothing wrong with fairy porn. There's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this I do have something that kind of in this realm before I forget about it again, have you, have you gotten into and this this takes? This takes like any geekdom or nerddom whatever the word it is you want to use. This does kind of take it into a different level and I feel like, especially with the fairy smut stuff, there's an entirely different level to this. But have you gotten into fanfic for this yet?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I haven't, but is it something that you're willing to dive into once you're done with the series?
Speaker 2:I am so ready for that, I, but I've promised myself I just want to finish the last book. There's five books. I need to finish it, Then I will dive into all of that. That'll be the time where I just run wild and just like look at all the fanfic I can find. I love it.
Speaker 1:Smutamania is running wild on you, brother. Yeah, all right. Well, uh, I guess we're gonna. We're gonna go ahead and wind it down then. Um, I look forward to hearing about all of the the great fanfic that you explore. Um, this has been a great topic, like I know, it's something that, like, we kind of like joke around about uh to each other all the time, like when you will be listening to something or reading something, I'll kind of like poke fun at it, but it is nice to kind of like, just really like, have an authentic conversation and uh kind of like dive into these, these things that we're, that we're interested in, and hopefully, you know you listeners you've enjoyed it too and hopefully there's, you know, at least four of you. We gained one more person who are, you know, like you're able to connect to this and you kind of feel the same and, like I don't know, reach out. We'll talk about smut. We'll talk about it. Yeah, we'll talk about that. Well, I am Justin Tyler.
