Method and Madness

Melee 11
The brilliant moonandmouth joins me to talk about poetry, magic, holes, astral travel, and her magnificent new collection of poetry CATCALYSM MOVES ME I REGRET TO SAY out now from House of Vlad.

Buy the book.

Follow her on substack or on twitter.

An audio recording of Richard Connell “The Most Dangerous Game.” Long considered one of the most popular short stories of all time, Connell’s thriller has influenced countless stories and at least one serial killer.

Episode 9.2
In this episode, I go in depth on Ellroy’s stylistic forebears, play a little Glass Bead Game between AMERICAN TABLOID and a (not so) very different book, give the quick and very dirty history of CONFIDENTIAL MAGAZINE, and go full-on true crime telling the ‘real’ story of Chuck Rogers.

Episode 9.1
The brilliant and magnanimous Jacob Everett, the mastermind behind Apocalypse Confidential, joins me to discuss AMERICAN TABLOID by James Ellroy—a masterful classic of paranoia, carnage, and the real deal behind the forces of history. We talk the potency of Ellroy’s style, crime fiction as high art, the resonance of the JFK assassination, Ellroy contra Quentin Tarantino, and figure out which more recent unsolved mystery is prime to spawn its own subgenre in the coming years.

Follow Jacob on Twitter.

Apocalypse Confidential is one the best literary mags out there. You should be reading it closely.

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Cairo Smith is the founder and EIC of Futurist Letters, host of The Futurist Letters Show, filmmaker, and author of the forthcoming novel SCENEBUX, out September 6, 2025 from New Ritual Press.

We talked about the New Wave, a certain LA literary party that made headlines, what happens when no one puts you in check, the Idaho Basque, some of the books that have been most influential on Cairo and his work, and much, much more.

This will be on the free feed next week.

Pre-order SCENEBUX at Cairo’s website.

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Menagerie #2
An audio recording of Jack London’s “Love of Life” first published in McClure’s Magazine in 1905. All the classic Jack London themes are here: the Yukon, survival, the cold, and wolves.

Following down just some of the many rabbit holes in John Fowles’ THE MAGUS. Hypnotism, Magic, Cruelty, and the so-called Real World.

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Alexandru Constantin joins me to talk in depth on John Fowles’ classic 1965 novel THE MAGUS. A postmodern bildungsroman that’ll remind every former sensitive young man of himself in his cringier days—and a mind-bending trip through a beautiful labyrinth.


https://substack.com/@deceneus

Don’t miss Alex’s podcast, the Black Ibis Social Club: https://blackibissocialclub.substack.com/

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The incredibly talented author Andrew Edwards joins me to talk about his upcoming novel CROWBAR, his absolute banger of a novel KING OF DOGS, the philosophy of survival, and much more.

Support Andrew’s crowdfunding effort for CROWBAR:https://substack.com/@goldengoatguild/p-166445394

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Website: https://www.goldengoatguild.net/

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Brian Patrick Eha is a widely-published essayist, journalist, and critic. In this expansive conversation we talk Gustave Flaubert as a precursor to Modernism, the method of free indirect discourse in Madame Bovary and the madness of The Temptation of St. Anthony, as well as a few under-appreciated books from Brian’s personal canon..

https://x.com/brianeha

Essays by Brian that we mention:https://www.city-journal.org/article/madame-bovary-author-gustave-flaubert

https://www.city-journal.org/article/alfred-hayess-fiction-retains-contemporary-relevance

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