In 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 V-2, his writing on race relations in "A Journey into the Mind of Watts," and general advice for reading the book for the first, second, or even third time.
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Books of Some Substance is on Twitter, Instagram, and our brand-new website.
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Seth is a non-authoritative devotee of anything and everything related to Thomas Pynchon and all varieties of difficult and demanding literature. You can find him on Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and Substack.
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Gravity's Rainbow is a groundbreaking novel by acclaimed author Thomas Pynchon. It stands as a masterpiece of postmodern literature, captivating readers with its intricate plot, rich symbolism, and thought-provoking themes. This iconic work delves into the complexities of World War II, war profiteering, corporate scheming, human nature, reflexes, mind control, State control, scientific advancements of the time, and science fiction. The novel offers a unique blend of historical fiction, science fiction, and satire. With its enigmatic characters and labyrinthine narrative, Gravity's Rainbow has become a literary classic, drawing scholars and enthusiasts seeking a challenging and intellectually stimulating reading experience. A world of paranoia, conspiracy, and intricate storytelling, Gravity's Rainbow remains an enduring and influential work in the canon of modern literature.
Welcome 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) 267-7268.
Nothing lasts, but a good book lasts longer.
Find us online:
https://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/
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https://www.instagram.com/booksosubstance/
With 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 the novel with Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List)
Jan. 3 - GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon (part 2: understanding elements of the novel with Seth from W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List)
Feb. 7 - WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by J.M. Coetzee
Mar. 6 - MALINA by Ingeborg Bachmann
Apr. 3 - THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
May 1 - TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
On 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) fireworks.
David, 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.
We 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 out some new designs that will help you tell the world that you’ve read Proust and you’re ready to launch into an extremely in-depth discussion about him at any moment.
In 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 at 43:20 is People Like Us.
In 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 Books, and we highly recommend grabbing a copy. It’s a wonderful read.
David, 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 to approximate real life.
Say what you will about My Darling Marcel™, but our narrator hero can still deliver quite the impressive take on art, time, and space.
Only one more volume to go — stay tuned for the coming finale as we wrap up our search and seek to regain all that time sunk into this podcast series.
David, 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?
Nathan, 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.
Seth — 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 the future of communication (cough, the internet, cough). But perhaps the most meaningful conclusion to draw from Pynchon’s work is the absence of drawn conclusions. It’s messy out there, readers.
Grab a copy, give it a read, give it another read, then take a listen. And make sure to check out Seth’s work at WASTE Mailing List’s Youtube and Instagram.
Writer, 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 of Fables.
Grab a copy, give this latest episode a listen, and check out Salis' work at The Collidescope. May your sentences be long, your word choices intricate, and your fables dark.
David, 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 the virtuous resolutions. Perhaps we are all lacking the ability to communicate across societal lines, forever content in our ever-shrinking castles after all.
David, 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 around that (infamous?) wrestling scene between Gilberte and the narrator and just exactly what was transpiring amidst the perspiring.
At the very least, this one is chock-full of wonderful Proust quotes, the beauty of which (we hope) carries the episode on its own.
David, 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 anguish. Kafka’s brand of malaise hits just as hard now as it presumably did one hundred years ago — and as it presumably will one hundred years from now.
So grab yourself a spot out in the sun, mix up a nice Mai Tai, and listen in as we discuss humanity’s unavoidable contract with the daily absurd.
No 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 the passage of time, and the tension between the world of the material vs. the world of idea; and by simply getting lost in passage after passage of beautiful prose.
If you enjoy this episode, know that there will be five more on their way. We’ll be releasing a Proust episode every two months as we continue reading this masterpiece. If you’ve always had In Search of Lost Time on your to-read pile, now is as good of time as any to dig in and join us. Come for the madeleines, stay for the memories.
Take the litmus test: Read some JLB, then be our friend. We’ll see you at the end (or at the beginning).
Renata 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 through this intriguing little book and try to define the indefinable.
Just 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 Books of Some Substance crew wish you the happiest of holidays. May you spend them reading and thinking about a man who walks around thinking about the things he’s read.
Bay 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.
Boy Scouts’ excellent new record Wayfinder is available now from ANTI- Records.
In 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.
Aatif 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 about why this movement of all movements is still a must-read.
You can find out more about Aatif Rashid here and you can find Portrait of Sebastian Khan via 7.13 Books.
Also, for anyone curious about the article Aatif refernces in the episode, here it is: "A Text of Arrested Desire: The Anticlimax of Extended Narrative in Anthony Powell's "A Dance to the Music of Time" (1988) by Lynette Felber
https://www.jstor.org/stable/
Ah 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 you what this novel is about, but one can only share knowledge, not wisdom.