For any listeners who have missed our longstanding tradition of almost unfettered rambling, we turn our attention this week to the questions of how and why certain novels and writers seem to hold up better than others, how younger readers can enjoy some older classics while completely tuning out others, and the difference between books that celebrate old traditions as opposed to books that seek to reinvent the field, or that are simply sui generis.

We touch upon a few novels from 50 years ago, like The Mote in God’s Eye, The Dispossessed, Dhalgren, and The Forever War, books that seem to find new readers in each generation, and writers who seem to fade away with time.