Hello! I’m excited to share my first podcast of the year :)

As a quick reminder, here’s how I’m approaching Lit Visions for the next few months:

* I’ll be publishing twice per week:

* News2Novel on Tuesdays

* Essays, podcasts or speculative fiction on Thursdays

* All posts will be themed around fiction, reality and the liminal space in between

You can help me out by sharing Lit Visions with friends, family, colleagues and anyone else who might find it interesting:

Thanks a ton for your support. Now, onto the podcast.

If you have ever procrastinated on the internet, then you'll probably relate to this conversation with Jordan Castro.

He is a novelist whose debut novel is actually called The Novelist and it is just fascinating. The story is set over the course of a single morning, where a writer is trying to pen an autobiographical novel in Google Docs. But just keeps getting distracted by Twitter, Instagram, daily rituals and his own mind. Each act of procrastination prompts an intriguing and often comedic psychic reflection on the nature of language, consciousness, technology and addiction.

Now in our conversation, we discuss Jordan's book and dive into a number of tangential topics such as:

* The power of saying a lot, using little

* Attention spans and whether they are actually on the decline

* Social media and how as we build it, it is building us

* Drug addiction and lessons from sobriety

* Infinite universe theory and what it means for the novel

* and lots more...

What struck me about Jordan was not just how he thinks but also his humility. He's a really chilled out guy and has a rare talent for traversing complex terrain in a way that's light and super fun. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and YouTube.

Where you can find us:

Jordan on Twitter: twitter.com/jordan_castro2Dhru on Twitter: twitter.com/dhrupadkarwa

Mentioned in the episode:

The Novelist by Jordan Castro

Lit Visions - for essays, podcasts, speculative fiction and novel suggestions

Frost by Thomas Bernhard

The works of Tao Lin

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Cat Country by Lao She

Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin

The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich

Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich

Show notes:

0:00 - Introduction02:08 - What fiction means to Jordan02:56 - His journey as a poet05:30 - The art of distillation07:15 - Time well spent08:05 - Attention spans and social media17:40 - The Novelist by Jordan Castro25:30 - On machines and AI34:24 - Animals, Objects and Animism43:15 - Reality, Paradoxes and Individualism48:09 - Infinite Novel Theory51:30 - Drugs and lessons from getting sober56:45 - Lightning round

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit litvisions.substack.com