This went from a reasonably straightforward review of a book I did not like — Patricia Lockwood’s 2021 novel No One Is Talking About This — to a whole… thing. A manifesto? In any event, an episode that was going to be me talking about how one lousy novel indicated some of the problems with contemporary English-language letters has turned into a longer spiel as I try to explain what I think is wrong, why, and what alternatives might look like. In my observation, critical podcasts — not just literary criticism but film and tv criticism, “cultural criticism” more broadly, which tips into political discourse which has the same issue — lays out a few broad lines of agreement, usually shared enemies, and expects the producers’ twitter following to get what it all means through social context. Well, I haven’t got a twitter. So I need to explain it all.

I said I was going to paywall odd-numbered episodes, and I am, but I’m going to start at 005 instead, as this is late, and something of a statement of my program. If you want to see all my content — all the podcasts, all the reviews, all the cat pics — subscribe at the Citizen level or above at Melendy Avenue Review. Subscribe for free for half the podcasts and some of the rest of the podcasts.

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