Pretty in Podcast: Transcripts from an ill-conceived podcast exploring the early works of John Hughes & Marginalia, Vol. IIII

The END OF THE PODCAST: By the time it came to research and write about Sixteen Candles, I’d spent roughly four years researching the world of John Hughes. And while I think his later films are worthy of study, they have also recieved plenty of attention. As I learned more and more about Hughes, I also learned more about the films his work inspired (through both admiration and as a response) and enjoy see those same themes that Hughes so meticulously identified and defined updated through the eyes of newer generations of filmmakers. I decided that my time was better spent there. (For overviews of Hughes’ later films I can’t recommend highly enough Kirk Honeycutt’s John Hughes: A Life on Film (Race Point Publishing, 2015).) I will miss the opportunity to talk about how Hughes work gave voice to teenagers (and girls in particular) and to examine how much of that was driven by Hughes recognizing an untapped market vs. the stories Hughes wanted to tell (and which his later work hints at). As for what THIS book is... I’m not sure. It is a collection of the podcast episodes (+ hastily gathered footnotes) and the decision to leave the book unedited is INTENTIONAL. It is also a way of looking back at what I was up to during the time I created the podcast AND to see what narrative, if any, emerges. Let’s find out...