Memory as time travel. Enigmatic lovers. The comfort of objects. A ghostly romantic comedy. Each, one of Yasunari Kawabata’s Palm of the Hand stories under discussion. Each description merely a scratch at the surface of meaning and depth found in these subtle, quiet works.
On this shortened episode, as B.O.S.S. prepares for Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain, David, Nathan, and Nick look at four of the reductionist vignettes: “A Sunny Place,” “Sleeping Habit,” “The Silver Fifty-Sen Pieces,” and “Immortality.”
Between poetry and prose lies a different form. Between the past and the future is the now. Within the now is all time, all meaning. Or, something like that…
As always, read the stories and give us a listen.
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From death and dying to life and living. On this full length episode, we examine the humor, the horror, the existential, the wonder, and even the disagreeable in the lost and found (and possibly changed) madcap protagonist Eugene Henderson of Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King.
With Nathan out sick, Nick and David are joined by Eric Heiman, official B.O.S.S. Book Club member and unofficial Bellow buff.
As always, read the book and give us listen.
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It’s an exceptionally smart man who isn’t marked forever by the theories he reads in passing from books, and we aren't all that smart.
On this shortened episode, we discuss the Bellow short stories "Leaving the Yellow House" and "A Silver Dish." There's rugged individualism. There's death and dying. There's the spin from that great wheel of fortune we all eventually spin and the bright, shiny electric one Nick may spin on broadcast television.
As always, read the stories and give us a listen.
Check out http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/
Follow us on twitter @BooksOSubstance
In this episode, we talk through the (beautiful?) mess of madness that is Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Listen as Nick argues against the false binaried balance of Good and Evil, as David floats in the abeyance of cold medicine, and as Nathan grows into the role of curmudgeon and questions the punk-rockitude of Nick and David.
David, Nathan, and Nick discuss Mikhail Bulgakov's satiric novel Heart of a Dog and come to some conclusions on the difficulties of understanding and changing our natures, whether proletariat or bourgeoisie, man-dog or mad-scientist.
The premier episode of the B.O.S.S. (Books of Some Substance) Podcast! Join Nick, David, and Nathan--three bearded white dudes--as they talk about Zora Neale Hurston's black, feminist novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and try to figure it all out.