Episode 16: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

There are few things Better Read than Dead enjoys more than owning dipsh*ts/watching dipsh*ts get owned, which is why we were so psyched to read Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820). Irving’s spooky (no, hilarious) short story is about a tall dipsh*t who gets owned by a Headless Horseman. Or a pumpkin? Or, really, just the Dutch version of Gaston. Also, did you know Irving was the OG flat-earther?? He sure was! Chemtrails -- google it, folks. We’re talking genre, colonial histories, Cotton Mather, and more. We read the version of "Sleepy Hollow" in the Oxford edition of The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., edited by Susan Manning. We don’t get into this aspect on the show all that much, but David Anthony’s article “‘Gone Distracted’: ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ Gothic Masculinity, and the Panic of 1819” offers an interesting reading of the connections between Irving’s treatment of gender and the story’s immediate historical context. Find us on Twitter and Instagram @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at [email protected]. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.

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