Book Spider

• The proper level of shame one should feel for liking the television show Friends.
• Whether we would antagonize the rich hosts of a dinner party thrown by tech bros - should we somehow find ourselves invited.
• The big and messy and fascinating ideas - and bargain basement humor - of Drew Hayden Taylor's play about authenticity, and whether it is possible to decide what is or is not authentic.

In this episode, Chris, Hans, and I discuss John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor, an epic tale that might be an historical novel, a satire of an historical novel, or both. It's witty and hilarious, but also serious and touching. Check it out.

In this episode, Heather, Jedd, and I discuss Vonnegut's third book, a sci-fi novel that satirizes wealth, inequality, and the human sense of purpose. It's hilarious, and it affords me the opportunity to go on a rant against Sam Harris and pirates.

In this episode, Hans, Chris, and I discuss the fantastic Zeroville. This novel follows autistic protagonist Vikar as he becomes a film editor in 70s-era Hollywood. It's hilarious, moving, and tragic.

In this episode, I discuss Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed with Jedd Cole and special guest Heather Cole. The Dispossessed is a thought experiment that explores an anarcho-syndicalist society on the moon Anarres, which orbits the planet Urras. Urras is much like Earth, with capitalist nations controlling much of what goes on.

In this special episode, Hans, Chris, and I discuss Janet Frame's strange, mind-boggling novel The Carpathians. Since I found reading it like looking into opaque glass, Hans and Chris discuss the novel at length before we veer off into a larger discussion of language, the technological singularity, and forms of life.

In this episode, Hans and I discuss Cormac McCarthy's novel The Crossing, which details a teenager's confrontation with "the perfect cohesion of darkness," an indifferent world constructed on borders both artificial and natural.

In this episode, author Hans Burger and I discuss A Naked Singularity, a giant, hilarious novel that criticizes the judicial system.

In this episode, I discuss the classic Of Human Bondage with Chris Malmberg. Topics addressed include tendencies in post-structuralism and the question of free will.

In this episode, I discuss Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick with special guest Chris Malmberg.