how to win the lottery: a book club podcast

our un/adaptable season concludes with the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger, which is cinematic, yet never adapted. (shreds explains why.) we talk about having not read this for a while… and, wow! what a book. shreds offers insight into salinger’s background (and his intentional choice to not write a war novel, as well as how that relates to kurt vonnegut’s experience re: slaughterhouse-five. we discuss catcher as a book about trauma (in many ways), its status as one of “the” high school books (and one of the most-banned books), and how it leads to so many books we love. joey talks about the sadness of holden’s (for lack of a better phrase) career aspiration. shreds laughs about phoebe’s single puff on a cigarette. we praise the novel’s willingness to introduce great characters and not return to them later. salinger defends digressions, and shreds defends salinger defending digressions. we ask: where’s the salinger vault?

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our final “adaptable” book is the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder. this one feels somewhat unadaptable, but given that our next (“unadaptable”) book is inherently adaptable, we are maintaining a balance. we talk about what charlie kaufman can bring to the adaptation, why this is the exact right type of story to adapt, and what lily gladstone could bring to this role.

we detail how the memory loss on the island likely works (and why it doesn’t quite seem to add up), how the novel is reminiscent of george orwell’s work, and whether the story is global by design or if we’re missing details that make it specific to japan. we talk about the meta chapters (the story within the text), whose ending is more preferable (the narrator or r’s), and the cumulative effect of the text and the subsequent removal of memories.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our next undaptable novel is your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff, which is a very tough book to discuss — and also one that feels like a culmination of our podcast so far. we talk about how modern the book feels, the specific in-jokes she’s making to the literary world, and how the authors treat their readers with kindness. we sort of struggle to describe what this book is “about,” and we discuss whether or not dewitt and gridneff lost the plot. joey offers a brief joke watch recap. egg’s email inspires a lot of varied conversation, both about this book and otherwise. does this book make more sense as a 2008 or 2025 release, or is that irrelevant? does the large text section show up even bigger in large print editions? once again, we excitedly preview the table for fortune module.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our next soon-to-be-adapted title this season is the chain by adrian mckinty, soon to be a damon lindelof show starring jodie comer. it’s a palate cleanser book that is all plot, but did we have a split decision on its successes? (sort of.) we talk about the very specific time (with regards to technology) that this book exists in, which features: a blogspot blog! tor browser! bitcoin! glaring tech plot holes! we talk about how megan boyle would be in deep trouble if the chain were real, how funny it is that ginger uses the chain for booty calls, and how damon lindelof could level this story up (and where it could go if you were to expand its world or continue its story). is “bang a uey” really that hard to parse? joey heaps praise in the “joke watch” segment. the egg checks in.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our second “unadaptable” novel this module is antkind by charlie kaufman, which is in (somewhat) rarified air: we’d both already read it. after talking about whether this book is designed to disappoint you, to not satisfy the reader in any way, we talk about how kaufman said he wrote this to be unadaptable. did he succeed? joey reads some of the wikipedia plot summary to demonstrate the novel’s surreal world before we explore the complexities of b. rosenberger rosenberg and praise kaufman for the most successful installment of “joke watch” we’ve had to date.

we discuss brainio, unseen puppets (and the many, many other ideas kaufman puts into the text), and the novel’s profound sadness. we do our best to not routinely compare this book to charlie kaufman’s films, but we also use the comparison to discuss his aesthetic, as well as what we’d want out of future novels.

there’s one footnote in the book, so we have to talk about that. joey briefly discusses this piece about amy wallace. is kaufman one of “our guys”? what do we think about the title?

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our next “soon to be adapted” novel this module is detransition, baby by torrey peters, which marks a first for the podcast: it’s already been discussed! (sort of.) after shreds explains why he wants more of an ending (and why this doesn’t fly in the face of his past stance on endings), we talk about the novel’s two protagonists and how neither is the likely gateway character for most readers. we discuss the baggage and layers and emotional complexity found in all areas of the text and how much there is to learn from the story.

joey brings back his joke watch segment and then accidentally conflates this novel with euphoria. we think about how this will be adapted – and whether it’s possible to do without exposition dumps – and how we hope werner herzog shows up in the film. shreds talks about katrina’s intermittent and surprising levels of understanding and empathy. we attempt to solver a listener’s mystery about a previous episode. also, a note: there are cat issues throughout this episode.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our first “unadaptable” novel this module is the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner. should this have been in the new jersey module? we discuss. also, we talk about its ties to the odyssey, mark leyner’s surprising age, and how he approaches writing about “the gods” differently than neil gaiman.

in talking about why it’s unadaptable, we discuss the punishingly repetitious nature of the novel, the difficulties of writing a recursive text like this, and the little amount of action that actually takes place. we also discuss the specificity of the celebrities referenced, the literary device/role that xoxo plays, and how the sugar frosted nutsack ties into other book we’ve read (as well as one we have coming up later this module).

joey talks about the new thing he’ll be tracking in our books. shreds discusses the free association that leyner has on display, and meg writes in about what the audiobook helped with/hurt.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

our second adaptable/unadaptable module kicks off with a movie in theaters this weekend: the odyssey by homer, as translated by emily wilson. after suffering a disjointed start (in more ways than one!), we spend a while discussing emily wilson’s new translation — and the text’s first 90 pages, covering both her intro and her translator’s note — before talking about why the always-angry internet seems to dislike this version, as well as why this translation is no less authentic than others. we explore emily wilson’s take on repetition and the oral tradition and her personal connections to the text.

then, we pivot to the text itself to ask: does every hero’s journey owe itself to this story? shreds talks about odysseus as “the king of lies” when really he just makes up a bunch of convoluted stories. joey asks: are we supposed to like odysseus? we talk about the lack of disbelief about people simply becoming owls, as well as the ways in which the book is (and isn’t) horny.

how will this be adapted? the structure is weird, and characters are often in disguises. will this translation be reflected at all? we review the casting and offer up other options of our dream directors of the text. the egg sends in two emails.

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition, baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

it’s time for another “full” season of lottery pod, and we’re returning to a familiar well: un/adaptable books. we discuss the timeliness of this module (hello, christopher nolan’s “the odyssey”!) and what happened to the adaptations we covered the last time we did this type of module. (it was a mixed bag.) shreds offers some new comic book recommendations, and we wonder: will the salinger archives ever open up?

reading list for season twenty-one

the odyssey by homer, translated by emily wilson
the sugar frosted nutsack by mark leyner
detransition baby by torrey peters
antkind by charlie kaufman
the chain by adrian mckinty
your name here by helen dewitt and ilya gridneff
the memory police by yoko ogawa, translated by stephen snyder
the catcher in the rye by j.d. salinger

we’re talking about american psycho by bret easton ellis. given that it’s almost the 4th of july, we’re also talking about american opulence, the connective tissue between this and the great gatsby, and the paradox of american exceptionalism. we discuss what happens when patrick bateman interacts with people outside his circle, the purposeful lack of a memorable ending, and the timothy price “fakeout.” shreds talks about what ellis’s writing means to him (and its inclusion in the pre-podcast module) and reads the novel’s manifesto (if such a thing exists).

we praise the successful film adaptation (and note where it falls short), talk about how bateman’s nihilism ultimately wins out, and discuss the possibility of whether patrick bateman is gay. we also talk about sean bateman, alison poole, and the intertextuality on display in american psycho. how much of this book actually happened? what’s up with the patty winters show? do people consider this a great american novel?