As we are reunited in Dublin's fair city, we discuss the works of one of its most famous literary sons, its morals, its aestheticism and why Wilde rulez.

Correction: It's Emily Brontë, you idiot!

Recommendations:

Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mister Ripley

Will Self, Dorian (again)

Wilde (dir. Brian Gilbert)

Marie Antoinette (dir. Sofia Coppola)

A brief appraisal of Edgar Allan Poe's classic spooky poem.

Special Musical Appearance by SONICONOCLASM: http://www.soniconoclasm.net

We dive into Pynchon's paranoid world of conspiracy, madness and of course... mail delivery.

Recommendations:

Thomas Pynchon, V.

You Must Remember This

Philip Roth, The Conspiracy Against America

The Lobster (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

Making America great again is not a novel idea, as we see in Ayn Rand's gigantic tome. We talk about its merits (few), its fans (lots) and why we personally never found out who John Galt actually was.

Recommendations:

Matt Ruff, Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy

Kurt Vonnegut, "Harrison Bergeron"

Those explodey movies with RDJ and Thor

Belated Halloween greetings from us, as we discuss the grandfather of modern vampire literature, its documentary style and its deep-seated fear of foreigners, women, homosexuality and basically everything else.

Recommendations:

The Exorcist (dir. William Friedkin)

Octavia Butler, Fledgling

Near Dark (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)

Michael Talbot, The Delicate Dependency

Unfortunately not able to give you a proper episode on Zadie Smith's novel, we still talk about it a bit, do a bit of housekeeping and tackle the two most blighted things we could imagine: technical issues and the Irish *shudder*

Recommendations:

Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children

The Fountain (dir. Darren Aronofsky)

Following countless teenagers over the past 65 years, we talk about JD Salinger's only novel, its unique voice, its New York setting and wanting to slap the whiny out of Holden Caulfield.

Recommendations:

J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

David Mitchell, Black Swan Green

The Music of the early 00s

We discuss Rabelais' satirical masterpiece, in all its gross, fascinating and surprisingly relatable aspects.

Recommendations:

Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Walter Moers, The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear

 

The most mature and most challenging play by contemporary drama's most prominent voice, Crave gives us opportunity to talk about character identification, the definition of drama and whether Aleister Crowley was a Satanist.

Recommendations:

Sarah Kane, Blasted

William Shakespeare, King Lear

While you might say we talk about nothing every time, this episode we discuss it as a parable, as a book for adolescents and whether nihilists have to be assholes.

Recommendations:

Mean Girls (dir. Mark Waters)

Jostein Gaarder,The Solitaire Mystery