Gideon the Ninth Act I Chapter 5. Harrow and Gideon prepare for the challenges ahead.

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (any pronouns) dig into Ninth monastic paint, the relationship between the Ninth and the other Houses, the extractive nature of necromantic war, Gideon's early childhood, and the role of propaganda.

Content Warning: death, addiction, war, suicide

Further Reading:

"Achille Mbembe: Necropolitics" (2020) Antonio Pele

"Necropolitics as Accumulation: Enforcement and Enclosure in Brisbane During COVID-19" (2023) Julia Caroline Morris

"Combat Cuties: Photographs of Israeli Women Soldiers in the Press Since the 2006 Lebanon War (2012) Eva Berger & Dorit Naaman

"Yank Magazine Created a Unique Record of American Soldiers' Roles in World War II (2022) Peter Zablocki

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and get our attention with #NunPod.

If you’d like to support our show with your voice, share NunPod with a friend or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to use money to support us, we encourage you to think of the amount you’d like to send us on Patreon each month and then instead send it here. Let us know that you did!

Gideon the Ninth Chapter 4. Harrow has a job for Gideon. Gideon is not into it.

Claire Beans (main gauche fist) and Han Koehle (main gauche additional sword) have a combined 25+ years of sword fighting and are excited to talk about the weapons systems of the empire and what they tell us about the world. Gideon's ambiguous status comes into play again. We get clues about animal agriculture and class differences in clothing on the Ninth.

Cover Image by Eerna.

Content Warning: brief discussion of injury related to abuse and combat, medical injustice, slavery, war, calories

Further Reading:

"Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0: Refusal" (2022) Elisha Chi

"A million other factors killing us": Black women's health and refusing necropolitics-as-usual during COVID-19" (2023). Megan A. Carney, Debi Chess, Deyanira Ibarra, Kianna Dieudonne, and Michelle Rascon-Canales

A Feminist Theory of Refusal (2021) Bonnie Honig

The Art of Swordsmanship (1482) Johannes Lecküchner

"Hostess" (1951) Isaac Asimov

"Reconciling the Privilege of a Few with the Common Good: Sumptuary Laws in Medieval and Early Modern Europe" (2009) Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli

"Tetanus" (2025) Sawbones

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and get our attention with #NunPod.

If you’d like to support our show with your voice, share NunPod with a friend or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to use money to support us, we encourage you to think of the amount you’d like to send us on Patreon each month and then instead send it here. Let us know that you did!

Gideon the Ninth, Act I, Chapter 3

Gideon is having just the worst day. Harrow gets a surprising message. Ortus and Glaurica change plans.

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (any pronouns) explore why skeletons go to church, fatphobia in the myriadic year, and social norms around death on the Ninth. Claire waxes poetical about cosplay. Han wants to know the provenance of the Ninth prayer. Tamsyn Muir is a troll (complimentary).

Content Warning: death, suicide, physical abuse, fatphobia, body size, suggestive themes

Further Reading:

Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World (2013) edited by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro and translated by Fábio Fernandes

"Dehumanization is a Feature of Gig Work, Not a Bug" (2022) Eric Anicich

Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition (1992) Jack Snyder

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and share your art with us using #NunPod.

If you'd like to support our show, leave a review, share Nun Pod with a friend, or visit rescue.org and donate whatever you would have been willing to spend on Patreon to help Palestinians get life-saving healthcare, hygiene supplies, and cash aid. We'd like that a lot.

Gideon the Ninth, Act I, Chapter 2

Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus offers Gideon a tempting deal. Gideon thinks it's a trick. It's a trick.

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (any pronouns) talk about lies, Gideon and Harrow's relationship, developmentally appropriate goblinry, the relationship between the imperial military and economy, and what it's like to fight Too May Guys. Claire wants to know how blood sweat works. Han has a Theory about Gideon's immortality. Both are perpetually confused about the thanergy/thalergy system.

The audio quality in this episode is not where we'd like it to be. There was a thunderstorm through most of the recording session and Han's microphone got real weird about it. Sorry about that, and we promise it's better in episode 3.

Content Warning: death, decomposition, blood, fictional and real-world injury, slavery, war, emetophobia, value-neutral mention of specific weight.

Further Reading:

William Shakespeare (1623) Hamlet (especially Act 5, Scene 1)

Charles Dickens (1861) Great Expectations

Peter Kropotkin and N.O. Bonzo (2021) Mutual Aid: An Illuminated Factor of Evolution

Zach Norris (2020) We Keep Us Safe

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and share your art with us using #NunPod.

Gideon the Ninth, Act I, Chapter 1

In the early morning darkness on the barren and remote planet of the Ninth House, Gideon awaits the shuttle that will help her finally escape from her life as an indentured servant.

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (any pronouns) discuss the ambiguity around Gideon's status, the economy of Drearburh, and what's happening with the Ninth's population. Claire puts porridge in a sandwich bag. Han has questions about space Alcatraz. Anything is necromancy if you try hard and believe in yourself?

Content Warning: brief mentions of death, torture, slavery, racism, war crimes, genocide

Further Reading:

R. F. Kuang (2018) The Poppy War

Achille Mbembe (2011) Necropolitics

Angela Davis (2003) Are Prisons Obsolete?

W.E.B. Du Bois (1903) The Souls of Black Folk

Michel Foucault (1975) Discipline and Punish

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License.

Tamsyn Miur's Locked Tomb series (so far, Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Nona the Ninth) offers a rich, humorous look at power, agency, and relationship under empire. Join Claire Beans (she/they), Han Koehle (any pronouns), and guests as we reread the Locked Tomb series chapter by chapter, analyzing Miur's universe and characters and connecting them to the real world through theory and fandom.

Spoilers will be spoilt.