• outside in by doug cooper
    Jul 17 2025
    our ohio module continues with outside in by doug cooper and some “ohio facts” (island facts?) about the town of put-in-bay. after learning about island culture in ohio — we want to go so bad — we talk about an inciting incident that the novel does not reflect on at all, how shep shows no signs of darkness at all (and no flaws), and our issues with dialogue and the female characters in the novel. we explore the q&a found at the end of the text, as well as the noticeable lack of editors. is “the name game” really transgressive? shreds talks about what this novel has in common with 1980s comedies, then makes a twin peaks connection. we compare outside in to bret easton ellis’s less than zero, and we look at doug cooper’s other novels. producer meg “the egg” writes in a damning email. reading list for season fourteen the bluest eye by toni morrison omensetter’s luck by william gass outside in by doug cooper ohio by stephen markley
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    52 mins
  • omensetter's luck by william gass
    Jul 3 2025
    our ohio module keeps on truckin’ with both a pop quiz about the state and a discussion of omensetter’s luck by william gass. we talk about the difficulty in reading the novel (and how the first two sections sort of fake you out a bit), what william gass is “doing” in this text, and why regional writing tends to be set back in time. shreds explains why the novel made him feel unbearably sad and hopeless — and how surprised he was by the way gass’s life turned out. we discuss the afterward (and whether or not it’s true) and how william gass (among others, including authors we have already read like john barth) pushed the postmodern genre forward. we talk about casting an adaptation and create an ambitious new module idea, because why would we ever want to do anything the easy way? reading list for season fourteen the bluest eye by toni morrisonomensetter’s luck by william gassoutside in by doug cooperohio by stephen markley
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    40 mins
  • the bluest eye by toni morrison
    Jun 19 2025
    our ohio module kicks off with a known quantity: the undeniably great debut novel from toni morrison, the bluest eye. after briefly reflecting on the states so far, we talk about famous people from ohio as well as whether the bluest eye feels specific to ohio. we talk about its thematic ties to ryan coogler’s sinners, as well as the text’s generational trauma and its characters who can afford to be nice. why isn’t joey bothered when his least favorite trope in movie-making pops up in books? we discuss. we admire toni morrison’s mastery of dialogue — especially kid dialogue, as well as kid behavior. we talk about her writing this novel from the perspective of an editor and the merits of introducing great literature to high school students (even if it’s lost on them). egg writes in a great email. reading list for season fourteen the bluest eye by toni morrison omensetter’s luck by william gass outside in by doug cooper ohio by stephen markley
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    48 mins
  • season fourteen theme and reading list
    Jun 12 2025
    it’s time for another card drawing on lottery pod, and even though we don’t say it in this episode: suck shit, sufjan stevens. after we struggle to remember which states we’ve already covered, we make picks and predictions for both the states that we’re most excited about and the states we think will come up in the drawing. (spoiler: shreds is almost right.) we figure out what we’re reading. shreds recaps fantasy baseball news from eight months ago. (note: after recording this episode, we decided to swap in the bluest eye by toni morrison for beloved.) reading list for season fourteen the bluest eye by toni morrison omensetter’s luck by william gass outside in by doug cooper ohio by stephen markley
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    11 mins
  • open water by caleb azumah nelson
    Jun 5 2025
    we’re closing out our second-person module with one of our strongest books yet: open water by caleb azumah nelson. after talking about the pitt (and the mount rushmore of tv), we talk about the lack of irony in open water and the way its naturalistic style makes you forget it’s written in second-person. we talk about the way nelson writes about media (and how it feels like a barry jenkins movie), how good he is at describing music, and the good lineage of books with “water” in the title. we ask: what would this be like if it was set in the u.s.? we admire the amazing circumstance of the main characters’ meeting, how glad we are at what this book did NOT become, and the shortcut nelson uses to existing art (and the intertextuality it has with other modern media). would this make a good movie? we reflect back on the mixed bag of a module. reading list for season thirteen interior chinatown by charles yu if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney suicide by édouard levé the malady of death by marguerite duras how like a god by rex stout the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida the night circus by erin morgenstern a man asleep by georges perec open water by caleb azumah nelson
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    35 mins
  • a man asleep by georges perec
    May 22 2025
    our penultimate book in the “you” module is a man asleep by georges perec, which is a return to form as it’s once again french as hell. we talk about how it compares to suicide by édouard levé and the malady of death by marguerite duras, as well as the refreshing nature of variation in the module. shreds talks about the other short story in the collection (things) and the act of lucid dreaming. we discuss perec describing the act of playing solitaire, whether the end is a call to action (or defeatist), and life as a street performer. shreds talks about bosho’s hakus (and how different “english haikus” are), and then he predicts the title of elif batuman’s next novel. reading list for season thirteen interior chinatown by charles yu if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney suicide by édouard levé the malady of death by marguerite duras how like a god by rex stout the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida the night circus by erin morgenstern a man asleep by georges perec open water by caleb azumah nelson
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    31 mins
  • the night circus by erin morgenstern
    May 8 2025
    our “you” module is winding down, so it feels like the perfect time to cover a book that shouldn’t be in the module at all: the night circus by erin morgenstern. first, though, we talk about the film magazine dreams (with heavy spoilers): what makes it a mess, what went wrong, and how shreds would have ended the movie. then, we pivot to the night circus to discuss our issues with the text on its own and for the module. shreds explains how it made its way into the module in the first place. joey talks about the biggest issue in writing about illusionists. we both agree on how the second-person could have worked. we talk about how the text is humorless, sexless, and themeless, as well as the recipe of three things that add up to a thing that shreds hates. joey explains how it’s like the hunger games (and every other “baby’s first uprising” book). shreds has an issue with time. egg writes in to talk about the book’s assumption that you just deeply “know” tarot. reading list for season thirteen interior chinatown by charles yu if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney suicide by édouard levé the malady of death by marguerite duras how like a god by rex stout the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida the night circus by erin morgenstern a man asleep by georges perec open water by caleb azumah nelson
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    42 mins
  • the diver's clothes lie empty by vendela vida
    Apr 24 2025
    shreds continues to physically fall apart on our latest episode as we talk about the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida. joey rejoices as we finally hit a book this module that he loves, and we wonder if there’s a module we can built around the central element in this novel that he loves. we talk about how young and modern this novel feels, its connection to the last book we covered, and how it may be reminiscent of another book we covered a long time ago. we empathize with the specific types of frustration and dislocation in this book, debate whether the main character grows or evolves, and share who we pictured as the actress. we identify the point at which shreds no longer loves the book, take a detour and forget how we got there, and heap praise on beth morgan. could shreds find books for joey to read he hates more than giles goat-boy? reading list for season thirteen interior chinatown by charles yu if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney suicide by édouard levé the malady of death by marguerite duras how like a god by rex stout the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida the night circus by erin morgenstern a man asleep by georges perec open water by caleb azumah nelson
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    47 mins