Books of Some Substance
106 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago - ★★★★ - 61 ratingsThe unofficial podcast of literary misfits everywhere who want to engage with books of "substance" (i.e. serious, respected, heavy, philosophical, classic), or at least considered such.
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Episodes
104 - Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
February 07, 2024 15:00 - 56 minutes - 52 MBNathan and David continue their exploration of control with Waiting for Barbarians, a 1980 novel by South African writer J.M. Coetzee. Empire! Torture! Manipulation! Control! Quite the book, and quite the episode.
103 - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (2/2)
January 03, 2024 15:00 - 1 hour - 62.6 MBOur second episode on Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, and again David is joined by Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List. Seth is here to nimbly unravel some of the meaning of this insane and insanely good novel, and he does an excellent job. But no matter what they tend to get lost along the way, as any analysis of the book will be "not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into." Join them as they knot into the brennschluss point, the inciting incident of what's happening w...
102 - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1/2)
December 06, 2023 15:00 - 1 hour - 74.2 MBIn our first of two episodes on Thomas Pynchon's 1973 masterpiece Gravity's Rainbow, David is joined, once again, by Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List to talk about one of his favorite ways to approach the novel. Seth brings an invaluable depth of knowledge and research to this episode, examining the novel as being primarily about America in the "long 60s," albeit taking place in Europe in the 1940s. They also discuss Pynchon's work at Boeing being a catalyst for his fascination with the ...
101: The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
November 01, 2023 14:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MBWelcome all and sundry to the first episode of Season 2: Control. Join us, David and Nathan, as we start this new season dancing to the beautifully strange rhythms of Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star. In between quoting and praising this novella, we discuss narrative techniques, metaphysical implications, symbolic deaths, co-existing interpretations, and a fall from grace. Listen in, tag us online to discuss the book, and call in to share your thoughts: (331) BOSS-BOT / (331)...
Season 2 Books Announcement
October 25, 2023 00:11 - 2 minutes - 2.41 MBWith the 100th episode behind us, and with Nick off exploring the world of dance music, David and Nathan have decided to try some new things. We're going into video (as you can see). We're going seasonal. And we will have a new website, logo, slogan, and much more coming soon. Each new episode will come out on the first Wednesday of every month. Season 2 - CONTROL Nov. 1 - THE HOUR OF THE STAR by Clarice Lispector Dec. 6 - GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon (part 1: an approach to th...
100 - End of an Era
October 13, 2023 13:22 - 1 hour - 71.1 MBOn this, our 100th episode, we answered some of your questions from our B.O.S.S. voicemail. Sadly we could not get to them all, but we talked about memory, books worth reading a 1,000 times, and childhood books. Sadly, we also said farewell to our founding father, Nick, who started this whole wild ride of a podcast and book club. He'll be out there, far from the internet, but still reading good books, still living a life of (some) substance. Godspeed, heavy reader! Enjoy the (meat)...
Special Announcement
September 14, 2023 04:50 - 2 minutes - 3.95 MBOur 100th episode is coming up. And we want you to call in and leave us a message, ask us a question, read a quote, file a complaint, suggest a book, or leave a cool noise (like a ghost or a fart or a ghost fart or something like that...). This episode will also, sadly, be Nick's final episode. Our founding father and the first heavy reader is hanging up the mic for other things. So call and say something nice to the man. Call: 331-BOSS-BOT or 331-267-7268
99 - László Krasznahorkai's Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming (Guest: Derek Maine)
September 12, 2023 02:20 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBOn this episode, David is joined by reader and writer Derek Maine to discuss Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming by everyone's favorite pessimistic, long-winded, Hungraian doom master László Krasznahorkai. By everyone, we mean ours. He's a favorite here at BOSS. And we are happy to be joined by Derek Maine, author of CHARACTERS, published by Expat Press in 2022. Join the two of them as they talk fear, form, apocalyptic shizz, and the faintest glimmers of hope. Check out Derek's book: C...
98 - Jon Fosse's Melancholy I-II
July 21, 2023 16:56 - 41 minutes - 39.8 MBDavid, Eric, and Nick read Jon Fosse’s Melancholy I-II, a mid-90s Norwegian novel in two parts that explores the connections between art, death, and the divine. Also discussed in this episode: what exactly is “the divine.” For fans of cyclic long sentences and also cyclic short sentences, Melancholy I-II is perhaps a slightly lesser known Fosse work to English-speaking audiences, but it makes a very convincing argument for reading as much Fosse as possible. We know we certainly will.
97 - Franza Kafka's Diaries (Guest: Ross Benjamin)
June 05, 2023 21:00 - 1 hour - 61.9 MBDavid is joined by Ross Benjamin, translator of Franz Kafka’s Diaries in its most authentic form to date. Listen in as they discuss Benjamin’s start in the field of translation, his love for Kafka’s craftsmanship and humor, and why a new edition of Kafka’s diaries needed to be released. Benjamin’s translation is available now via Schocken Books and is a must for any Kafka fan (read: the hosts of this podcast).
96 - Marcel Proust's Time Regained (In Search of Lost Time #6)
May 12, 2023 20:27 - 1 hour - 65.9 MBWe have (finally) found the lost time! It was inside us all along! Listen in as Nathan, David, and Nick complete their tour through Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, concluding with a discussion on the final volume, Time Regained. Topics include: memory, the purpose of art, and . . . BDSM? In the event that you anticipate going through withdrawals after completing your own In Search of Lost Time journey, might we recommend some Proust gear? Head on over to the B.O.S.S. store to check...
95 - Henri Lefebvre's The Missing Pieces (Guest: Tom Comitta)
April 04, 2023 15:57 - 58 minutes - 55.3 MBIn this episode Nick is joined by Tom Comitta, aficionado of citational fiction and author of The Nature Book, newly released and available now from Coffee House Press. Tom selected Henri Lefebvre’s The Missing Pieces as the work of focus for today’s discussion, so listen in as we talk through the history of authors remixing words, Lefebvre’s ability to invoke emotion with lists, and the apparent popularity of the destruction of art in antiquity. Post-script: The remix artist referenced a...
94 - Anton Chekhov's Difficult People (Guest: Bob Blaisdell)
February 28, 2023 15:47 - 50 minutes - 49.1 MBIn this episode Nick is joined by Bob Blaisdell, Professor of English at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough College and author of a new work on Anton Chekhov titled Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius. Listen in as they talk in depth about the story Difficult People, as well as Blaisdell’s approach to digging into Chekhov’s most prolific years of 1886 and 1887. Chekhov Becomes Chekhov: The Emergence of a Literary Genius is available now from Pegasus Boo...
93 - Marcel Proust's The Captive & The Fugitive (In Search of Lost Time #5)
January 29, 2023 18:28 - 1 hour - 88.1 MBDavid, Nathan, and Nick continue on their expedition for misplaced minutes, this time tackling Marcel Proust’s fifth installment, The Captive & The Fugitive. Topics this time around include: the endless cycle of the narrator’s obsession and apathy toward Albertine; the errors and inconsistencies of this posthumously published work (and whether that matters at all); the ability of different readers to find different points of connection in a lengthy work so packed with details that it begins ...
92 - Han Kang's The Vegetarian
December 30, 2022 19:44 - 36 minutes - 35.1 MBDavid, Eric, and Nick dive into The Vegetarian, a 2007 novel by Han Kang that, after its English translation, won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. This compact work will appeal to anyone interested in tightly architected narrative structures, complex questions of individual agency, and visceral scenes situated right next to moments of quiet contemplation. One’s ability to choose, well, anything at all is not quite so black and white, is it?
91 - Marcel Proust's Sodom and Gomorrah (In Search of Lost Time #4)
November 14, 2022 15:35 - 45 minutes - 41.9 MBNathan, David, and Nick tackle Sodom and Gomorrah, the fourth volume of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. They discuss how groundbreaking it was at the time to so openly write about homosexuality, the noticeable increase in the narrator’s presence in the book’s happenings, and the increased level of action in play (at least in comparison to prior volumes, that is). Listen in as you continue on your own Proust journey and remember: It’s okay if you can’t pronounce French names either.
90 - Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (Guest: Seth of WASTE Mailing List)
October 09, 2022 00:15 - 56 minutes - 52.1 MBSeth — aficionado of difficult fiction and driving force behind WASTE Mailing List — joins the podcast this episode to chat with David about the endless gifts to be found within the endless layers of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49. Pynchon-lite it is not! Encompassing both the absurd and the prophetic, this early work by the reclusive author covers everything from embedded allusions to the cultural tumult of the 1960s, distrust of any and all formal systems, and a prescient view of th...
89 - Marcel Proust's The Guermantes Way (In Search of Lost Time #3)
September 17, 2022 23:32 - 1 hour - 62.9 MBDavid, Nathan, and Nick continue their journey through Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, this time discussing the third volume, The Guermantes Way. While this one might very well be “a middle book” — and by proximity, this episode “a middle episode” — there is continued brilliance to be enjoyed (if one can make it through the marathon salon scenes, that is). Come for the deep dives on The Dreyfus Affair, stay for the masterful ending. And just remember: You’re halfway home.
88 - Alexander Theroux's Fables (Guest: George Salis)
August 21, 2022 18:26 - 49 minutes - 45 MBWriter, interviewer, and heavy reader George Salis returns to the podcast, this time to discuss Alexander Theroux’s Fables with David. The two tackle a list of maximalist topics: deep cuts of vocabulary (real and invented), the forever ongoing inclusions of edits and additions that make a work expand even after being published, and, well, lists themselves. Salis also provides insight into the world of Theroux via his past interviews with the writer and involvement in the publishing process o...
87 - Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle
August 07, 2022 21:43 - 36 minutes - 50.1 MBDavid, Eric, and Nick seek out some mid-summer spookiness in Shirley Jackson’s acclaimed We Have Always Lived in the Castle and instead find a compact work that is much more complicated than the horror themes, accessible sentences, and vaguely young adult-ish book cover (thanks Penguin Classics) lead one to believe. Cheers to Jackson for walking the line between genre and literary fiction and forcing the reader to sit with a story that has all the trappings of a murder mystery, but none of t...
86 - Marcel Proust's Within a Budding Grove (In Search of Lost Time #2)
July 04, 2022 19:43 - 1 hour - 65.8 MBDavid, Nick, and Nathan reconvene to continue their Proust pilgrimage, this time tackling the second volume, Within a Budding Grove. There is discussion around the narrator’s age — whether it be twelve or twenty-two, Proust certainly has a knack for combining the idealism and naiveté of youth with the insight and wisdom of adulthood. There is discussion around the book’s repetition of similar events and themes and how it is used to advance the book’s common aesthetic. And there is discussion...
85 - Franz Kafka's Short Stories (The Judgment, A Country Doctor, In the Penal Colony)
June 07, 2022 18:48 - 58 minutes - 53.2 MBDavid, Eric, and Nick spend a beautiful Saturday doing what they love: wading into the tides of the irrational, crushing systems in which we have existed, currently exist, and will continue to exist. In other words: Discussing Franz Kafka! Three of Kafka’s short works provide more than enough to chew on, whether it is The Judgment and its quick turn from mundane to surreal, A Country Doctor and its full-blown phantasmagoria, or In the Penal Colony and its melding of mental and bodily a...
84 - Marcel Proust's Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time #1)
May 01, 2022 21:22 - 1 hour - 57.1 MBNo more searching is necessary. It’s time. It’s time to read In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, that is. And we here at Books of Some Substance will be doing just that, starting off with this episode on the first volume, Swann’s Way. Listen in as David, Nick, and Nathan begin this long journey by attempting to summarize the actual events in the book (likely to be a recurring challenge); by scratching the surface of the concepts of remembering via the senses, attempting to slow down t...
83 - Bohumil Hrabal's Closely Watched Trains
March 09, 2022 21:39 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBDavid, Nick, and Nathan dive into Bohumil Hrabal’s short novel Closely Watched Trains in this latest episode of the podcast. One part coming of age tale, one part (somewhat) epic tale of resistance, and one part celebration of life’s beautiful banality, this compact work will have you simultaneously smirking and wincing as Hrabal somehow weaves the lightness of youth in with the darkness of living under Nazi occupation in World War II. Grab a copy, give it a quick read, maybe even watch the b...
82 - Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths
February 08, 2022 04:47 - 1 hour - 62.3 MBIt is a homecoming of sorts. Sixteen years after David made Nathan read Jorge Luis Borges, the two return to discuss the great Argentinian writer in an episode that has as many labyrinths (well, not quite) and is as infinite (also probably not true) as every one of Borges’ short stories. And while this episode does have a finite beginning and a finite end and can only focus on three of the hits (Tlön, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius, The Library of Babel, and The Garden of Forking Paths), the two still...
81 - Renata Adler's Speedboat
January 20, 2022 18:38 - 41 minutes - 39.7 MBRenata Adler’s Speedboat starts and stops, accelerates and leaps, soars and crashes just like some sort of . . . well, you get it. Join David, Nathan, and Nick as they discuss this compact novel filled with vignettes of 1970s life and all of the sardonic observations that come along with it. But do the vignettes combine to create something more impactful? Is the book funny? And how does one define humor in literature anyway? Listen in for our own starts and stops as we talk our way throug...
80 - W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants
December 28, 2021 22:49 - 52 minutes - 50.5 MBJust because you bought a copy of W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants in the fiction section doesn’t make it fiction. Or does it? Join Nathan, David, and Nick for a conversation about fiction vs. non-fiction vs. creative non-fiction vs. journalism vs. memoir vs. Nick’s favorite genre of “who cares as long as you like it." Topics discussed also include: the way reading about memory triggers one’s own memory, the Nabokovian butterfly man, and a Sebaldian account of recommending Sebald to others. The...
79 - George Saunders' Tenth of December (Guest: Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts)
November 15, 2021 03:12 - 40 minutes - 57.1 MBBay Area musician Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts joins the podcast this episode to share her love for George Saunders’ The Tenth of December. Listen in as Taylor and Nick talk about the book’s use of absurdist mechanisms to move the reader, the connections between Saunders’ work and Boy Scouts, and their own attempts to explore new areas of art, despite any existing contextual baggage. Listening to this episode whilst going on a long walk is not mandatory, but nevertheless highly recommended. B...
78 - W.G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn
October 10, 2021 17:37 - 54 minutes - 51.6 MBIn this episode, friend of the podcast and book club Eric Heiman joins David and Nathan to talk about W.G. Sebald's Rings of Saturn. The three get into the melancholic depiction of entropy eating away so much of human life, the sense of historical vertigo, and the (un)fictionality of the novel. Join the three as they discuss the style, form, and substance of Sebald's enigmatic work.
77 - Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time (Guest: Aatif Rashid)
August 31, 2021 20:02 - 56 minutes - 53.7 MBAatif Rashid, author of the novel Portrait of Sebastian Khan, joins the podcast to profess his love for Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time. The one with, like, a million volumes? The one that’s jam-packed with the subtleties of human interactions, relationships, and communications (or lack thereof)? The one that you saw on all of those “great books” lists, but has since slipped away from the shelves of contemporary readers? Yes, that one indeed. Listen in as Aatif and David chat...
76 - Hermann Hesse's Siddartha
August 21, 2021 16:49 - 54 minutes - 51.7 MBAh yes, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. You probably read it in high school or college as a young seeker of truth, but have you read it later in life? Do the messages change after you too have gone out into the world and been both drawn to and broken by its sweet, empty promises? And most importantly, have you been pronouncing Siddhartha properly all this time? (We haven’t.) Join Nathan and David as they take another spin through Hesse’s most known novel. But just remember — we could tell ...
75 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 4
July 21, 2021 00:47 - 53 minutes - 51 MBDown with Napoleon! Long live Mother Russia! Ole Kutuzov and the gang aren’t the only winners here. Anyone who has read through the entirety of War and Peace — David, Nathan, and Nick now counting themselves as part of the club — knows that Tolstoy’s masterpiece and its ruminations on free will, history, and tragedy of both micro and macro proportions is and absolute joy and rather hard to stop thinking about. Join us for the fourth — and final — episode in our series on War and Peace and ...
74 - Santiago Gamboa's Necropolis (Guest: Mark Haber)
June 29, 2021 11:54 - 41 minutes - 96 MBNovelist Mark Haber joins the podcast to talk about one of his underdogs: Santiago Gamboa and his excellent novel Necropolis. Necropolis is a novel full of narratives, soaked in storytelling, and driven by a cast of colorful characters seeking some kind of redemption. Mark and David dive into the novel's plots and craft, and Mark touches upon his own conversations with Gamboa and Gamboa's other works of fiction available in English. Mark Haber's novel Reinhardt's Garden was published b...
73 - Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station (Guest: Ned Russin of Title Fight and Glitterer)
June 09, 2021 16:46 - 49 minutes - 46.4 MBMusician Ned Russin of Title Fight and Glitterer joins the podcast to share his love for Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station and to also chat about his own latest creations: Glitterer’s new record Life Is Not a Lesson and his first published novel Horizontal Rust. It’s an all-encompassing conversation on experience, reality, and authenticity — all topics that get more elusive the more one tries to pin them down. In other words: the best kind of topics. Life Is Not a Lesson is availabl...
72 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 3
May 21, 2021 20:27 - 54 minutes - 51.6 MBThird time’s the charm! David, Nathan, and Nick march on through Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, having now conquered Volume 3. Listen in as they talk through Tolstoy’s increasingly direct commentary on the nature of history, Pierre’s Christ-like and/or quixotic vibes, and how it all relates to . . . cryptocurrency? If Tolstoy gets to include lengthy digressions on beehives, maybe we can make a few experimental analogies along the way, too, you know? Stick around for the final War and Peace e...
71 - Hafiz's The Gift (Guest: Valerie June)
April 29, 2021 18:23 - 30 minutes - 30.4 MBIn celebration of National Poetry Month, singer-songwriter and poet Valerie June calls into the podcast and chats with Nick about her love of The Gift: Poems by Hafiz (Renderings by Daniel Ladinsky), the relationship between lyrics and poetry in her own work, and viewing the world through a positive lens. Additional topics include: Townes Van Zandt, time (i.e. what is it really?), and whether we humans will ever grow out of our comfort in discomfort. Valerie has just released her new r...
70 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 2
April 12, 2021 18:50 - 52 minutes - 48.6 MBDavid, Nathan, and Nick continue their journey through Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, this time tackling Volume Two. Characterized by a little less war and a lot more peace, this volume offers plenty of saucy romance, costume-fueled shenanigans, and overly long hunting scenes. Listen in as we recap the many love triangles, discuss the nature of moral fiction, and reveal who most identifies with the character of Anatole. If you are reading along with us: Do not give up the good fight! Epi...
69 - Cormac McCarthy's Suttree (Guest: Jesse Cash of ERRA)
March 24, 2021 15:17 - 44 minutes - 41.4 MBNick chats with Jesse Cash, guitarist and vocalist of the progressive metal band ERRA, about Cormac McCarthy on this latest episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast. The book at hand is Suttree, a tale of a troubled man who has left an affluent past to live in a dilapidated houseboat and hang out in the underbelly of society. The two discuss McCarthy’s masterful use of both complex and simple sentences, the vague origin of Cornelius Suttree’s deeply embedded pain, and also whether or n...
68 - Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Volume 1
March 12, 2021 01:29 - 46 minutes - 65.9 MBDavid, Eric, and Nick discuss Volume 1 of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in the first of four episodes on the heaviest of heavy books. Topics include: War and Peace as the ur-text for all war novels to come, the nature and role of translation, and how Tolstoy’s realism can be surprisingly light and humorous when dealing with dark subjects. But the question remains: Are there more casualties on the battlefields of Schöngrabern and Austerlitz or in the soirées of Moscow and St. Petersburg?...
67 - Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (Guest: George Salis)
February 28, 2021 14:13 - 58 minutes - 54.3 MBGeorge Salis, author of Sea Above, Sun Below joins David to discuss The Satanic Verses, the controversial, exuberant, magical, and magnificent novel by Sir Salman Rushdie. They discuss the poetry, the allusions, and the history of this "Everything" novel in their own labyrinthine and interconnected way.
66 - Amy Hempel's Collected Stories (Guest: Alfred Brown IV)
February 11, 2021 16:48 - 1 hour - 63 MBMeet Alfred Brown IV, educator and vocalist of the LA hardcore punk band Dangers. He’s into Amy Hempel. Like, really into Amy Hempel. Listen in for a deep conversation covering everything from the unintended emptiness of slogan-heavy lyrics to Hempel’s short story rhythm to questioning the need to categorize any type of writing — fiction, non-fiction, memoir, et al. — as anything other than just prose. Make sure you check out Alfred Brown IV as well as his work in Dangers and Cultural Mate...
65 - Kōbō Abe's The Box Man
January 23, 2021 21:12 - 48 minutes - 45.6 MBDear World, Kōbō Abe sees your absurdity and raises you one box! A box to live in, specifically. And a box to meld with the psyche of the inhabitant. If it’s not clear, we’re talking about Abe’s 1973 novel The Box Man, a how-to guide on how to construct your own box in which to dwell and/or a challenging narrative (or, perhaps, narratives?) on the nature of voyeurism and anonymity in modern society. Don’t worry, it’s not quite clear to Nathan, David, and Nick either. Listen in for another ...
64 - Clarice Lispector's The Chandelier
January 05, 2021 18:20 - 1 hour - 56.8 MBClarice Lispector’s 1946 novel The Chandelier is the topic of fervent discussion for David, Nathan, and Nick in this latest episode. Not for the faint of heart (but perhaps for those near to wild ones), this modernist work probes a deep abyss of metaphysical questions including, but not limited to: What is anything? etc. etc. Forever dividing a single moment of time into increasingly smaller slices of moments in time, Lispector asymptotically approaches the concept of defining a single ins...
63 - Thomas Bernhard's Old Masters (Guest: João Reis)
December 17, 2020 12:21 - 41 minutes - 38.7 MBOn this episode of the podcast, David is joined by author and translator João Reis, author of The Translator's Bride, to talk about lovable literary scamp, the warm and cuddly and optimistic Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard's Old Masters: A Comedy. They discuss the common aspects of Bernhard's style in general—a monologic riff rife with musical patterns of recursive invective as dark as it is humorous—and Old Masters in particular, which aims its hatred at, among other things: museum guides...
62 - Jean Cocteau's The Holy Terrors (Guest: Alexis Marshall of Daughters)
December 03, 2020 16:15 - 1 hour - 84.3 MBIn this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, Nick chats with Alexis Marshall, vocalist of the noise rock band Daughters, about Jean Cocteau’s 1929 novel Les Enfants Terribles (or as it is known in its English translation: The Holy Terrors). Topics of discussion include: Marshall's own approach to writing poetry and lyrics, how The Holy Terrors is a direct allegory of Cocteau’s addiction to opium, and how the atmosphere of this book is both nightmarishly dream-like and kinda like t...
61 - Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves Examined
November 17, 2020 11:30 - 1 hour - 87.9 MBTwenty years ago, Mark Z. Danielewski unleashed the labyrinthine horror novel House of Leaves, a work of fiction that would make both Daedalus and Derrida proud, a sprawling, convoluted, multi-narrative that pushes the bounds of reading and interpretation. But is there a minotaur of meaning lurking somewhere in the halls of the text? Or is it simply the narrative form of Nietzsche's maxim that "there are no truths, only interpretations"? Join David, Eric, and Nathan as they wander the ever...
60 - M. John Harrison's Viriconium (Guest: Brett Campbell of Pallbearer
November 02, 2020 18:13 - 59 minutes - 82.7 MBIn this episode of the Books of Some Substance Podcast, Nick chats with Brett Campbell of the Arkansas doom metal band Pallbearer about M. John Harrison’s Viriconium. They talk through how the themes of Viriconium made it into the band’s music, how Harrison’s use of shifting time and memory and place subvert expectations of genre fiction, and how it is an endless challenge as a human to try not to continually categorize and simplify complex things. And perhaps most entertainingly, the two em...
59 - J.G. Ballard's High-Rise (Guest: Alex Edkins of METZ)
October 20, 2020 02:28 - 39 minutes - 55.2 MBIn this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, Nick chats with Alex Edkins of the Toronto punk band METZ on the day that their latest record, Atlas Vending, came out. Alex highlighted J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise as a favorite, so we talk through the psychological, inner-space prophecies of the book and relate it back to our current technology-saturated landscape. Spoiler alert: we are all animals and the internet isn’t exactly helping. METZ’s latest full-length, Atlas Vending, is av...
58 - Hubert Selby Jr.'s The Room (Guest: Michael Berdan of Uniform)
October 07, 2020 21:44 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBIn this episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast, Nick chats with Michael Berdan from the New York City noise-rock-slash-industrial-metal band Uniform about Hubert Selby Jr.’s The Room. We talk about the importance of tone and aesthetic in both vocal delivery and fiction’s prose, about Berdan’s deeply personal connection to Selby Jr.’s writing, and, perhaps most importantly, about how art can be coarse while still delivering a message of hope and compassion. Uniform’s latest ful...
57 - John Steinbeck's East of Eden Examined
September 23, 2020 20:15 - 55 minutes - 51.3 MBHey you there, you listener of substance! All full of the choice whether to listen to this podcast and/or the choice to do good or evil. We get you. John Steinbeck gets you too, as proven in his 1952 masterwork East of Eden. One part character epic, one part soap opera, and one part philosophical tract on the merits and challenges of individual agency, this book undeniably occupies a special place in American fiction. But are the characters maybe a little too one dimensional? Is it a little ...