Disappear here. (Into our podcast talking about one of the seminal works of the 1980s, Bret Easton Ellis's disaffected debut novel about an LA populated by narcissists and drug-induced zombies.) We will also touch a little bit on its sequel, 2010's "Imperial Bedrooms," where we learn the characters' futures are all far sadder than we ever could have imagined. Is this a novel about vain privilege, or is it a novel slyly trying to dismantle privilege? Could it be both? Join us for this discussion and more in part 2/4 of our exploration on the career of Bret Easton Ellis. 

We are dedicating an entire month to Bret Easton Ellis's work! Join us live from the Stardust Lounge in Seattle, WA as we discuss the author, his influences, and the zeitgeist defining bibliography he's produced over five decades. In this episode we'll be providing some insight into why we chose Ellis for this deep dive, exploring the author's background, and teasing out some of the more prevalent themes from his body of work. We will also be making a half dozen snide references to American Psycho, because how can you not? 

Who records a podcast 48 hours into a limo-chauffeured, bachelor party-fueled, drinking tour of Las Vegas? We do. Join us at some of our favorite off-Strip bars and literary haunts as we talk about Las Vegas, its innate masculine themes, and our deep, heretofore undisclosed, love of Tiki. Excuse the word salad and the janky edits, we really are on a Bachelor party and we really did lose a member of the crew during the recording. 

We wrap up one of our most listened to book discussions of the season with a bleak examination of the death of the American dream and a needless 2020-lensed exploration of a character's sexuality. Is this novella "pro-George" or "anti-Lenny," and other drunken debates to follow...

Get ready to coat the inside of your glove with vaseline, because we're going deep into... wait... let us rephrase. When it comes to this Steinbeck classic, we are going so far inside... nope. Okay, real talk, no one is 100% sure why Curly's glove is filled with petroleum jelly, but that's not going to stop us from speculating nor discussing it ad nauseam. We'll also touch on the tragic falsehood of the American Dream as it pertains to working class men and we finally give "Curly's wife" some due, even if she's never given a name in the narrative. 

We're going back to school this month! Specifically back to our collective High School curriculum as we explore some of the novels of our student days through the lens of adulthood. Up this season: Of Mice and Men, one of the all-time American classics. We'll analyze what it meant in the 1930s, and what it means today, all while unraveling its male characters' complicated masculinity. No mice, rabbits, or ranch hand's wives were harmed in the making of this episode. 

We get blitzed on martinis and talk about our favorite books from this year so far... and we re-write the high school comparative literature curriculum while we're at it. Tune-in for a preview of what's to come this season and marvel at how fast our bartender delivers those martinis to us. 

A little sympathy for the devil in this one as we try to get into the core mechanics of this novel's horrible protagonist. What does this narrative have to say about our society as a whole and what impression did Nabokov really wish to leave us. 
We promise we'll have some lighter episodes from here on out, but we're grateful to all of you for joining us on this exploration of one of the great works of the English language. 

We get more entangled in the uncomfortable themes of Lolita, while also uncovering more of the brilliant wordplay baked-in by Nabokov... which is, exactly what the author intended. We also stopped drinking "Pins" altogether because while we okay tackling challenging subject matter on this podcast, drinking terrible drinks is just not something we are willing to do. 

We take on one of the most controversial novels ever put to print this month, Nabokov's "Lolita." It's the novel you've always thought you should read, but for understandable reasons you've avoided it until now. 

In this episode we go into detail on the author (who he was and why he wrote this) and touch on some of the literary craft on display. A work of genius or a troubling tale of immorality? Perhaps both.
We also answer the age old question: What do Snoop Dogg and Humbert Humbert have in common? (A: they love gin and juice)