This 2013 novel generated a cantankerous debate in the world of literary criticism over the quality of fiction and how we define it. We look at Tartt's writing process and themes to try to understand whether this book deserved the praise and awards it received.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Goldfinch

Additional Resources:

• It's Tartt—But Is It Art?
• The Goldfinch is a bad movie because it is based on a deeply flawed book
• Donna Tartt on The Goldfinch, Inspiration, and the Perils of Literary Fame
• Why the backlash against Donna Tartt's 'The Goldfinch' was so extreme (2014 Year in Review)
• I HEART DONNA TARTT: 10 FACTS ABOUT MYSTERIOUS AUTHOR OF 'THE GOLDFINCH'
• Pulitzer Prize–Winner Donna Tartt on Writing The Goldfinch
• Donna Tartt shares The Goldfinch's secret history
• Donna Tartt's multicultural fantasy: How "The Goldfinch" got away with its disgraceful racial politics
• https://newrepublic.com/article/156282/not-write-book-review

This 1969 double-album has been described as both "unlistenable" and "one of the greatest albums of all time." We discuss its volatile production while trying to understand its composition and how it influenced another fifty years of weird music.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Trout Mask Replica

Additional Resources:

• Some notes came from secondary sources listing Mike Barnes' 'Captain Beefheart' and Bill Harkleroad's 'Lunar Notes: Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart Experience'
• Burundo Drumbi! - John French's Series of Q&As, 2000/1
• Captain Beefheart, a.k.a. Don Van Vliet, dies at 69
• AllMusic Review by Steve Huey
• The Case for Why Captain Beefheart's Awful Sounding Album, Trout Mask Replica, Is a True Masterpiece
• Why this awful-sounding album is a masterpiece
• The Dust Blows Forward: 'Trout Mask Replica' at 50
• Why Captain Beefheart's 'Trout Mask Replica' Still Sounds Like Tomorrow
• Frownland by Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band: Analysis

This 1999 cannibal-horror-comedy film went through three directors in a troubled production. We discussed how it successfully critiques American consumption and Manifest Destiny despite its financial failure.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Ravenous

Additional Resources:

• ''Creative differences'' shake up Hollywood
• Film: They all but ate me alive!
• FANGO Flashback: "RAVENOUS"
• Robert Carlyle Interview
• ANTONIA BIRD'S RAVENOUS IS A DARK CANNIBAL TALE - BUT WITH JOKES!
• To Serve Man: Why 'Ravenous' Is the Greatest Cannibal Western Ever
• Women in Film: The Tonal Balancing Act of Antonia Bird's RAVENOUS
• Why You Should Chew On 'Ravenous' (1999)
• Forgotten Flick Ravenous Is the Best-Ever Manifest Destiny Cannibal Comedy
• Ravenous - 20th Anniversary
• DiMarco, D. (2011). Going Wendigo: The Emergence of the Iconic Monster in Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and Antonia Bird's "Ravenous." College Literature, 38(4), 134–155.

This comic book series by Neal Adams is a strange combination of talent and narcissism, along with the realization that its lead character and its creator aren't as in control as they want to be. We discuss gun violence, Expanding Earth theory, and generational conflict to try to make sense of this one-of-a-kind experience.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Batman Odyssey

Additional Resources:

• Deconstructing the Complete and Utter Insanity of 'Batman: Odyssey'
• Batman Odyssey
• Ten Questions To Answer About Batman: Odyssey by Neal Adams
• INTERVIEW: NEAL ADAMS ON BATMAN: ODYSSEY
• WC10: Neal Adams Talks "Batman: Odyssey"
• Neal Adams ('Batman: Odyssey')
• NEAL ADAMS INTERVIEWS: Adams Defends 'Batman: Odyssey'
• Petit, Z. (2014). Stubborn. Aggressive. Positive. Print, 68(5), 18–21.
• Breaking down the complete and utter madness of Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul
• Neal Adams: Ultraviolence
• Did Artist Neal Adams Make an Ass Out of Wonder Woman—and Himself?

This 1996 film is a purported biopic about a famous painter by another famous painter, Julian Schnabel. We ask whether the narrative this movie presents is an inaccurate portrayal of its subject because it exploits him or because the director is commenting on his own place within the world of fine art.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Basquiat

Additional Resources:

• Jim Jarmusch Explains Why He Refuses To Watch Julian Schanbel's 'Basquiat'
• Basquiat: Julian Schnabel's Radiant Child
• Julian Schnabel Asks Why White Filmmakers Shouldn't Tell a Story About a Person of Color
• "Basquiat" and the Art of the Biopic
• Basquiat
• SCHNABEL AND HIS DOUBLES by Charlie Finch
• "Basquiat' trivializes talented painter's life
• http://alienatedinvancouver.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-filmwork-of-john-lurie-interview.html
• "Time to Develop"

This is a repost of a 2016 episode.

In our 2016 holiday episode, we looked at the forgotten Christmas Eve tradition of telling ghost stories. M.R. James' work from over a hundred years ago best represents this Victorian trend, so in his honor we brought horror to academia and safe spaces.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

Additional Resources:

• How Did Antiquarians Become Action Story Heroes?
• Ghost stories: why the Victorians were so spookily good at them
• Christmas Ghost Stories: The Ghost of Christmas Past Goes Further Back Than You Might Realize
• M. R. James' Ghost Stories Work Eerily Well in This Graphic Fiction Form
• Telling ghost stories is a lost tradition on Christmas Eve

This 2013 novel is a sequel to The Shining. With guest Emily Lewis, we consider how King continues his own redemption arc through these stories about alcoholism and parenting.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Doctor Sleep

Additional Resources:

• Stephen King in Person The author speaks, receives Mason Award at Fall for the Book.
• Stephen King, "The Shining" and the crapper
• Stephen King Q&A: The author explores the origins of The Shining and its sequel Doctor Sleep
• Kathryn Schulz on Doctor Sleep, Stephen King's The Shining Sequel
• What Stephen King Isn't
• Shine On

This 2018 comic series by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan reimagines the cartoon character as a gay playwright at odds with 1950s American politics. We examine Russell's writing goals while considering a critical debate about the book: is it formulaic award-bait or character-driven commentary on our present circumstances?

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Exit, Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles

Additional Resources:

• 'The Snagglepuss Chronicles' is the best thing you'll read all year. Seriously.
• EXIT STAGE LEFT: THE SNAGGLEPUSS CHRONICLES Takes Home 2019 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book
• Snagglepuss: Exit Stage Left Is a Brilliant Exploration of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare
• The Snagglepuss Chronicles is the first great comic book of 2018
• DC Reviving Hanna-Barbera's 'Snagglepuss' as Gay Playwright
• Snagglepuss, LGBT hero: Legendary Hanna-Barbera character reborn in new comic series
• Review in progress: Exit Stage Left — The Snagglepuss Chronicles
• Mark Morales Demystifies the Art of Inking Comics
• "Exit, Stage Left" | Books of 2019, #4
• Queer Visibility: What SNAGGLEPUSS Could Teach Us About Resistance in 2018

Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week's topic!

This 1994 indie rock album means a lot to its fans as proof positive that you can survive a romantic breakup. We look at the small business that drove its creation and try to put ourselves in the shoes of the listeners who cherish it.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Foolish

Additional Resources:

• Superchunk release acoustic version of 'Foolish' w/ Allison Crutchfield, Owen Pallett, more
• Brian Paulson Studio aesthetics
• Rank Your Records: Laura Ballance Ruthlessly Rates Superchunk's Ten Albums
• Dusting 'Em Off: Superchunk – Foolish
• CHUNKY STYLE
• The Guide to Getting into Superchunk

This animated series was an MTV oddity, televised between 1991 and 1994 in a blur of non-linear, ambiguous chunks. We talk about how creator Peter Chung got this made while inserting symbolic references to the limits of 1990's storytelling. We also wonder why we're so nostalgic for a simpler time when our entertainment was more nebulous and weird.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Aeon Flux

Additional Resources:

• Aeon Flux: All You've Ever Needed From Sci-Fi
• SOUND Interview with Peter Chung
• The Peter Chung Interview!!!!
• Aeon Flux: An animated future from the past
• We Don't Need Another Live-Action Aeon Flux
• Peter Chung On Aeon Flux
• Marin, R., & Gegax, T. T. (1995). Holy Akira! It's Aeon Flux. Newsweek, 126(7), 68.
• http://scf.usc.edu/~huntleym/itp104/assignment6/mainpage.html
• CRAIG MATHIESON. (2006, June 23). Will the real Aeon Flux please stand up. Age, The (Melbourne), p. 9.
• Atkinson, M. (1996). Inside aeon. Film Comment, 32(1), 20.