Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais, as translated in one case by Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteaux and in the other by M.A. Screech, while drinking Benriach distilliery’s The Smoky Twelve.

In this episode:

Yes, we implied Rachel Barrie was a demi-god last time, so godmother may seem like a demotion, but consider this: we love her.

Three hours of waiting

Obligatory digression into Diogenes:

Ethan gets it wrong, Oscar the Grouch is (OF COURSE) the one based on Diogenes

This podcast stans Diogenes, just in case that’s unclear

Some close reading, which is always exciting

Rabelais is both marvelous and infuriating

Nothing is delightful

If the observer wants there to be causation, then there’s causation

A late-episode Coen Bros digression

Someone please write the paper about Rabelais fools vs. Shakespeare fools

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue discussion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais, as translated in one case by Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteaux and in the other by M.A. Screech, while drinking Benriach distilliery’s The Smoky Twelve.

In this episode:

If you don’t understand something, don’t get upset about it

Just accept it and find the humor in what you do understand

(These are not bumper stickers, just Michael sayings. But if enough people want, they could be bumper stickers)

Education, Education, Education and Stupid War

Freedom and Responsibility

Magic blood

The last seven minutes or so are pretty deeply embarrassing for Ethan, you can just skip it

788 fart jokes

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue discussion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan begin their discussion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais, as translated in one case by Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteaux and in the other by M.A. Screech, while drinking Benriach distilliery’s The Smoky Twelve.

In this episode:

Now listen. This episode starts with some pretty esoteric humor, even for us, but:

To our Calvinist listeners: sorry.

To everyone else: also sorry, but this DOES actually foreshadow some themes and later inside jokes and stuff, so… Michael forced it to be included

Novels: a novel discussion of novelty

Don’t worry, Ethan also isn’t sure if he did that “fruitful” pun on purpose

Sancho Panza content

An AIM reference! Relevance!

Also relevant: BLOGS!

Ethan dances around the edges of Marshall McLuhan

Pamphlet wars cage match!

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue discussion of Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Another special, in which Michael and Ethan set the table for the discussion of one of the books in literature which itself has perhaps some of the most tables set within it: this is the world of Francois Rabelais, and his Great (dirty) Book, Gargantua and Pantagruel.

In this episode:

Rabelais as Dirty Book

Ethan has one page of notes

Michael gets put on a Diet of Worms

Michael’s wife is the main character of this episode, really

We ram our heads into our time. Which is hardly a surprise

Distilling the zeitgeist into predicting the future

Putting a pin in Melancthon

Aphorisms. Ethan is trying to think of Aphorisms. Sorry this took so long

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin discussion of our next Mongo Book: Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

An Ethan-only special episode (sorry) in which Ethan gives us just a taster of the massive medieval Japanese novel The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, and makes his case that a Japanese woman may have written the first “true” novel.

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin discussion of our next Mongo Book: Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma, while drinking Benriach distilliery’s The Twelve.

In this episode:

The payoff to a secret joke

Obligatory D&D discussion, sorry

Sorry also to our Morning DJ audience

Maybe more pointing out than usual of things we don’t understand. shrug At least we’re honest

Leaping Christ figures

MaEiaRwS: avoiding the easy interpretation since 2016

Oh yeah, there should probably be a bullet point about animals

If we don’t incriminate ourselves one way, we’ll do it another way

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin discussion of our next Mongo Book: Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan begin their discussion of The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma, while drinking Benriach distilliery’s The Twelve.

In this episode:

Michael Prophesies

Ethan deconstructs

The Scotch… is

The Biblical allusions aren’t even trying to hide

This book is either a defense testimony, a gospel, a Kafka-esque absurdist novel, an apologetic, or none of those things

(The metaphors keep escaping)

The end contains a teasing question, and the setup to a future secret joke

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue discussing The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Nick continue their discussion of The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton, while two of the three of them drink Benriach distilliery’s The Twelve.

In this episode:

Michael does an unfair thought experiment, but at least it has a key

After an initial pledge not to discuss morality, most of the episode is about morality

Digression into D&D alignment types, obviously

Having ground his Lawful Neutral axe hard, Ethan also goes into his obsession with Victorian follys. Ugh

Ethan solves the genre mystery, thereby solving this series pair of episodes

Spoilers for Mysteries of Udolpho, but you’ve had over 200 years to read that one

Yet another entry in our series Fun With the Reading Group Guide!

Michael finally admits that Ethan is very clever

Nevertheless, Ethan mispronounces Chigozie Obioma’s last name right at the end, sorry

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Nick will continue discussing The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Nick begin their discussion of The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton, while two of the three of them drink Benriach distilliery’s The Twelve.

In this episode:

Nick makes a very good rule

Michael is provoked into asking a bad question and then the rest of the episode is about that

Ethan says “fantasy” a bunch of times when he probably should have said “speculative fiction,” feel free to sue him

This book is full of filth

Spoilers for the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the Hound of the Baskervilles, and a bunch of other stuff you’ve had 100 years to read

Fun old-timey ocean stories! Also, pretty violent.

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Nick will continue discussing The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of Filthy Animals, by Brandon Taylor, while drinking slightly different iterations of Redbreast Irish whiskey in sherry cask finishes.

In this episode:

MaEiaRwS: the podcast where nothing gets done

Ethan fishes a book with a chair (scintillating audio that the editor chose to leave in)

Trawling for references

The Case Against the Trauma Plot, by Parul Sehgal

Emotional Support Trauma Plot, by Brandon Taylor

We talk about what we talk abot

What is love?

The Queen’s Visit to the Exhibition, by William McGonagall

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin discussing The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton. Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Donate to our Patreon!

BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET!

Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and

Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett)

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.