Lit Century

The second part of a discussion between co-hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols about the first ten books discussed on Lit Century. How did suffering come to be seen as cool in the twentieth century? Is this related to the fact that most of the writers discussed had domestic help, and that the perspective of the people doing the cleaning is notably absent from their work?

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Co-hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols look back on the first ten books on Lit Century and what they tell us about the mindset of the 20th century. Why was the 20th century so obsessed with what is normal, and what is transgressive? How did normality become uncool? 20th century literature also tended to fetishize pain, particularly the pain of marginalized people. Why was this, and what does it mean?

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In this episode, writer, actor and director John Cotter joins hosts Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman to discuss Wallace Shawn's 1996 play "The Designated Mourner," about the fate of intellectuals during an authoritarian coup in an unnamed country.

John Cotter directed The Designated Mourner in Denver in 2013 & 2014. There's a chapter about one of the performances in his forthcoming memoir,Losing Music, which is due out from Milkweed Editions in 2022. Elisa Gabbert, who played the role of Judy in that production, wrote a book of poems inspired by the experience, L'Heure Bleue, or The Judy Poems, which was published by Black Ocean Books in 2016. 

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In this episode, Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman continue their discussion of V. C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic (1979) and the story behind the story—particularly the ableism Andrews encountered in how she was marketed to her readership, plus her strong opinions on gender that didn't stop her publisher from hiring a male ghostwriter to write under her name after her death in 1986.

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In this episode, Catherine Nichols and Sandra Newman talk about V. C. Andrews's Flowers in the Attic (1979), focusing on how the book is an allegory for the treatment of people with disabilities; Andrews herself had a serious spinal injury and used a wheelchair for most of her life. The hosts also discuss the book's notoriously transgressive subject matter, and how it's been dismissed as trash, largely because its fans were mostly teenaged girls.

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In this episode, author and editor Benjamin Dreyer joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss the all-time great haunted house novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

Benjamin Dreyer is the author of Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, a sharp, funny guide to style and grammar, which also happens to be a New York Times bestseller. He is also the copy chief at Random House, in which capacity he worked on Let Me Tell You, a collection of previously unpublished work by Shirley Jackson.

And for those who want to do extra reading, the Shirley Jackson biography mentioned in the podcast is Ruth Franklin's A Rather Haunted Life.

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In this episode, author and editor Benjamin Dreyer joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss the all-time great haunted house novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

Benjamin Dreyer is the author of Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, a sharp, funny guide to style and grammar, which also happens to be a.New York Times bestseller. He is also the copy chief at Random House, in which capacity he worked on Let Me Tell You, a collection of previously unpublished work by Shirley Jackson.

And some extra links: The Shirley Jackson biography mentioned in the podcast is A Rather Haunted Life; and here is Shirley Jackson's essay about the writing of Hill House, "Garlic in Fiction."

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Isaac Butler joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss James Baldwin's play "Blues for Mister Charlie" (1964), written to address the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till, In this episode we discuss the troubled performance history of the play. We also talk about how Baldwin approached the writing of a play (a genre he generally disliked), and his place in the history of African-American writers grappling with the problem of writing political literature that spoke to both white and Black audiences.

Isaac Butler is the author (with Dan Kois) of The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels In America, and also of the forthcoming The Method . He is also a theater director, most recently of The Trump Card, a meditation on the peculiar rise of Donald Trump; he also wrote and directed Real Enemies, a collaboration with the composer Darcy James Argue and the video artist Peter Nigrini, which was named one of the top ten live events of 2015 by the New York Times. He is the co-host of Slate's Working podcast.

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In this episode, Isaac Butler joins hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols to discuss James' Baldwin's play "Blues for Mister Charlie" (1964). It was written to address the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till, but Baldwin alters characters and events in surprising and significant ways, notably—and, at first glance, perversely—focusing the narrative on the moral struggles of a white lawyer. This week we discuss Baldwin's aims in making these choices, and how they come across in 2020.

Isaac Butler is the author (with Dan Kois) of The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels In America, and also of the forthcoming The Method . He is also a theater director, most recently of The Trump Card, a meditation on the peculiar rise of Donald Trump; he also wrote and directed Real Enemies, a collaboration with the composer Darcy James Argue and the video artist Peter Nigrini, which was named one of the top ten live events of 2015 by the New York Times. He is the co-host of Slate's Working podcast.

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In this episode about Sylvia Plath's 1965 poetry collection Ariel, writer and critic Elisa Gabbert joins the hosts to talk about the evolution of Plath's poetry and how her work turned into a cultural signal for "angry women" (see: Kat Stratford, 10 Things I Hate About You).

Content note: Suicide and self-harm are discussed in this episode.

Elisa Gabbert is the author of the poetry collections, L'Heure Bleue, The Self Unstable, and The French Exit. Her debut collection of essays, The Word Pretty, was published in 2018. The Self Unstable was chosen by the New Yorker as one of the best books of 2013. Gabbert's work has appeared in the New Yorker, Boston Review, The Paris Review Daily, Pacific Standard, Guernica, The Awl, Electric Literature, The Harvard Review, and many other venues. She lives in Denver.

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