Episode 18: Author Tom Ryan and Movies Being Too Literal

Will Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, or any of the other fictional teen sleuths ever grow up? We spoke with Tom Ryan, whose novel We Had a Hunch throws adult versions of kid detectives into several harrowing grown-up situations, from hunting a serial killer to the slow-dawning realization that they’ve become middle-aged. 

Plus: are the creative works of our era too literal? It’s no fun if a novel or a movie tells to your face the theme and meaning you should take away from it. That’s the message of our movie, Movies Should Not Tell You Their Meaning.

We Had a Hunch by Tom Ryan is out now.

Works Cited this episode:

Nancy Drew mysteries, Franklin W. Dixon/the Stratemeyer Syndicate
Hardy Boys mysteries, Franklin W. Dixon/the Stratemeyer Syndicate
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
Keep This to Yourself, Tom Ryan
The Treasure Hunters Club, Tom Ryan
Murder, She Wrote, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson, and William Link
The Silence of the Lambs, dir. Jonathan Demme
“The New Literalism Plaguing Today’s Biggest Movies,” Namwali Serpell, The New Yorker
Anora, dir. Sean Baker
Cinderella, dir. Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi
Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner
The Brutalist, dir. Brady Corbet
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
The Trial, Franz Kafka
Eradication, Jonathan Miles
The Housemaid, Frieda McFadden
Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
The Daydreaming Boy, Micheline Aharonian Marcom
Outbreak, dir. Wolfgang Peterson
Friends, created by David Crane and Marta Kaufman
Field of Dreams, dir. Phil Alden Robinson
Shoeless Joe, W.P. Kinsella
Mikey and Nicky, dir. Elaine May
The Parker novels, Richard Stark
Tender is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser