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It's Lit!

It's Lit!

★ 9.0/10•2018•6m•Documentary
Similars

A series of smart, funny video essays from PBS Digital Studios about their favorite books and why they love to read. Host Lindsay Ellis delves into topics like the evolution of YA, how science fiction mirrors our own anxieties, and why the book is sometimes just a _bit_ better than the movie.

StatusReturning Series
Runtime6m
LanguageEN
First Air DateJun 4, 2018

Episodes

Episode 1 - When the Book is Better than the MovieE16m

When the Book is Better than the Movie

Which is better, the book or the movie? Explore the question with host Lindsay Ellis.

Jun 4, 2018

Episode 2 - The Evolution of YAE26m

The Evolution of YA

Young Adult Fiction (YA) is dominating literature, and more young people are reading now than ever before. Lindsay Ellis explores how YA carved a place in publishing.

Jun 26, 2018

Episode 3 - Why Sci Fi is a Mirror on SocietyE36m

Why Sci Fi is a Mirror on Society

While science fiction is associated with Mars, robots, and cyberpunk, its origin story is shaped throughout several centuries. Check out the origin of science fiction with Lindsay Ellis!

Jul 13, 2018

Episode 4 - An Ode to the Romance NovelE46m

An Ode to the Romance Novel

Love it or hate it, the romance novel is the highest grossing literary genre. Its history is long and winding (like your favorite romance novel), and romance novels are full of tropes reflected upon its history. It has been the subject of intrigue, derision, and shame in literary discourse long before the modern genre as we know it existed.

Jul 30, 2018

Episode 5 - How Fantasy Reflects Our WorldE56m

How Fantasy Reflects Our World

Fantasy novels are more than just hundreds of pages worth of swords and magic! Okay, there's some of that. But it's also a lens to what our society finds important to our pasts, our presents, and future.

Aug 21, 2018

Episode 6 - Why did they make me read this in High School?E66m

Why did they make me read this in High School?

What makes a book important? Why are some books required reading in high school, while others are lost to history?

Aug 30, 2018

E76m

Can You Judge a Book by Its Cover?

Despite the adage of not judging a book by its cover, there’s a lot of time, intent, and money spent creating memorable book covers. Get to know the story behind some of literature’s most iconic book covers.

Nov 21, 2018

E86m

Fear of Ghost...Writing!

You might being asking yourself-- Why do ghostwriters even exist? Isn’t that cheating? Isn’t literature supposed to be the result of one person’s agonizing need to create? Aren’t books supposed to be the blood, sweat, and tears of the tortured auteur? Well, the answer is more complicated than you think!

Dec 7, 2018

E96m

Unreliable Narrators

Who is the most powerful character in fiction? Villains may doom the world, heroes may save it, but no one has more control over the plot than the narrator - expositing the who, what, where, when and how directly into the reader’s mind. But how can you tell that the person telling you the story is telling you the whole story?

Dec 17, 2018

E106m

Food & Fiction: Memorable Meals in Literature

Food varies wildly from place to place and from culture to culture; since humans are such sensory creatures, using words to evoke the experience of eating is an excellent way to bring a text to life.

Jan 11, 2019

E116m

Death, Personified

Death as a character reveals how we process one of life’s greatest mysteries, and there’s a lot more breadth to how the grim reaper is depicted than you might think.

Jan 24, 2019

E126m

How Greek Mythology Inspires Us

Ancient Greek Mythology has worked its way into modern pop culture so deeply that it would be an almost Sisyphean task to compile every way it’s manifested!

Feb 7, 2019

E136m

The Beauty and Anguish of Les Misérables!

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is one of history’s most famous novels and one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history. On this special episode of It’s Lit! we explore how Les Miserable became both a national and revolutionary anthem, and so publicly adored that all 1,900 pages never went out of print.

Apr 18, 2019

Actors

Lindsay Ellis

Lindsay Ellis

Self - Host

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The Story of God with Morgan Freeman
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Similars

Literal
The Philosophical Cafe
Autoren erzählen
Terenci: La fabulación infinita
Die Geschichte der Fantasy
Ven Acá... con Eugenia León y Pavel Granados
Lecture Room
Boswell & Johnson's Scottish Road Trip
Odyssey: Behind the Myth
Insubmissa
Richard E. Grant's Very Modern Odyssey
The Great American Read
Sandi's Ireland: A Literary Journey
Do you have a library? And may I see it?
Wonderland: From JM Barrie to JRR Tolkien
Čtenářský deník
Hyouka
The Book Quiz
Bungo and Alchemist -Gears of Judgement-
Bungo Stray Dogs