In which we struggle to talk about a text that is famous for generating endless discussion about how to talk about it. 

In this episode, the spiders discuss Julia, by Sandra Newman, which is a retelling of 1984, by George Orwell. Julia tells the classic dystopian tale from the perspective of the original's main female character, and in so doing, retcons the original in both positive and negative ways.

The Spiders pick over Otessa Moshfegh's novel Eileen, a novel whose protagonist's gaze might have its own spidery quality.

In which the Spider tries to unravel the tangled web of Miquel de Palol's The Garden of Seven Twilights, the Catalan language's addition to the canon of postmodern meganovelistic bricks like Infinite Jest and Gravity's Rainbow.

In this episode we discuss Lexi Freiman's new book, The Book of Ayn. We talk about objectivism, the relationship between humor and ideology, the difficulties of interrogating meaning through the perspectives of unreliable narrators, and the perpetual rightness of Patrick Barney. 

In this episode, the spiders are joined by a special guest, the author of several notable short story collections, David Nikki Crouse. We ask David craft questions about their most recent story collection, I'm Here: Alaska Stories. David gives insightful answers on a variety of topics, including class, identity, and the myth of Alaska.

In which the Spiders grudgingly admit to not connecting with Ben Okri's legendary The Famished Road, inspiration for the best early Radiohead song, and a novel which works much better in bits and fragments than it does as a unified whole.

In this episode, the boys discuss the future of literacy - in large part to avoid discussing Vinge's disappointing novel. We touch upon what the emergence of generative AI might mean for writing and reading, and we talk about the craft of writing about the future. 

The Spiders are unsure how to approach Richard Powers's Galatea 2.2, a novel which they find eerily predictive of the methods used to build contemporary AI programs like ChatGPT. Does the contemporary relevance of its scientific principles cause us to overrate its thematic depth, or to look in the wrong places for meaning? And can Chris and Hans forgive Powers's unique brand of ornate prose?

A discussion of Mary Beth Willard's "Why it's OK to enjoy the work of immoral artists," a philosophical text which advances the titular thesis, with a specific focus on Hans and Patrick's relationship to the classic early work of industrial-metal singer and alleged abusive partner Marilyn Manson.