Violet Lucca, web editor for Harper's Magazine and the host of the publication's podcast, is the special guest for an in-depth discussion of Terry Zwigoff’s 2001 comedy Ghost World, based on a running segment within Daniel Clowes’ comic book series Eightball. The screenplay by Clowes and Zwigoff was the first comic book adaptation to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Violet and I discuss the experience of feeling Extremely Seen watching a movie (in both positive and critical ways), how the film depicts the decline of a close friendship between two young girls as they transition into adulthood, the film’s critique of what Zwigoff termed “contrived consumerism”, and how the story arcs of Enid and Rebecca parallel the subsequent careers of Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson.

Plus: speaking of 20th anniversaries... the Taliban is running Afghanistan again.

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Violet hosts The Harper’s Podcast.

Trailer for Ghost World (Zwigoff, 2001)