Bonus Episode 22 on the Crying of Lot 49: “Why should things be easy to understand?”, or, the Whole Dutch Thing, feat. Boyd Beaver and the Chums of Chance

Second of three episodes on the Crying of Lot 49, I'm joined by Dr. Pig Bodine aka CJ (@Pussy___Teeth) and Boyd Beaver (@Boyd_Beaver) to discuss Thomas Pynchon's 1966 novel, the Crying of Lot 49. In this episode, Boyd walks us through the surprisingly interesting and relevant 16th century Dutch revolution and its importance to the novel. He explains to us how postal systems and intelligence went hand in hand and how many of the characters from the confounding Jacobean revenge play of the novel are real people. Boyd lays out what Pynchon is getting at, and does a fantastic job doing the deeper dives into history that Pynchon's novels encourage of its readers. To conclude, we go out with another one of CJ's loving renditions of Pynchon's songs.

Episode 2 Song:

Serge's Song by Pussy Teeth