Michael and Ethan, finally alone, finish the discussion of their Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen.

In this episode:

Finally alone except for a dog and cat

Persuasion Chapter 53

Persuasion is either Much Ado About Nothing or Parks and Rec or both

Our highest aim on this podcast is “possible legitimacy”

Jane Austen can’t have anybody naked, even in the 1990s

People have been really gross and done really gross stuff for a long time

Did Lee Harvey Oswald kill Kennedy using the butterfly effect?

Novel + satire + socialist(?) class critique = Jane Austen is a genius

Mrs Smith and Zombies

Community comes out through conversation

How much of community is persuasion?

We still need each other whether we like it or not

No community has ever flourished without the possibility of people you don’t like

Michael brag brag brags

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss Glorious Exploits, by Ferdia Lennon! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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, with special wife guests Karen and Sarah, discuss their (somewhat slimmer than usual) Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen.

In this episode:

Again making use of our intern-generated, wonderful, thoughtful, very serious discussion guide

Karen definitely makes multiple references to to Mrs Jennings, a character from Sense and Sensibility and NOT this novel

A block of wood would be a better father than Anne’s actual father

Meanwhile, Ethan says “verb” when he clearly means “adjective” so I guess everyone’s a sinner

The wives get in some pretty good burns on Sir Walter, including:

Sir Walter is so obsessed with himself that he takes the opening of the novel away from Anne

Sir Walter is a toddler

From the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

NOTICE.

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR                
PER G. G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE.

Is Anne a real character with agency or just sort of a wavy balloon guy for the wind to blow around?

Karen is Anne, Anne is Emma, Sarah is the walrus, coo coo ca choo

Coming soon:

Persuasion and the Alien Invasion

Persuasion and Psirens

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue the discussion of their Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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.

In this episode:

What an excellent rule (sorry, Risha)

An unpopular opinion that captures several important things

Austen as a writer who maybe should be listened to at least as much as read?

Reading novels was basically the 19th-century version of Gameboy

JANE DID A CLIFFHANGER

Is Persuasion unfilmable?

VERY EXCITING DICTION DISCUSSION

Jane Austen: all sarcasm all the time maybe?

The Keira Knightley one, the one with the Dashwood Sisters, the one with the name we can’t say…

One very simple blockage: the miscommunication trope

The blockage is always the title of the book

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue the discussion of their Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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.

On this “special” episode, Michael forces Ethan to play his weird game, smooch/marry/kill, but with books. If it’s a bad episode, it should be emphasized, it IS Michael’s fault.

In this episode:

It almost turns into the Dune/Lawrence of Arabia show ALMOST IMMEDIATELY and that’s Michael’s fault

Michael references a “summer evening” which is relevant to when we recorded this episode but not to when it’s coming out, sorry

It also almost becomes a cocktail episode which is also Michael’s fault, and these bullet points are even before we get to the actual premise of the episode which Ethan is VERY salty about

Ethan and Psyche rout Michael’s little death trick

We don’t know what the MPA rating standards are for podcasts

Japanese cats make the most enticing smooches because you have to work for them

This podcast’s next t-shirt and also tagline: “Low demand, high fun”

EVERYONE BE COOL AND IMAGINE ROUND TWO IN WISHBONE TERMS

WE DON’T CONDONE NASTINESS

Hendiadys: one through two, and we love it

Old armchair smooch: a very real thing that people do say and have said

Tom Jones expected to be killed one of these days

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue the discussion of their Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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, with special guests Lydia and Christina (aka Stiners), discuss their (somewhat slimmer than usual) Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen.

In this episode:

Our intern wrote us this very thorough, very thoughtful, and overall excellent discussion guide

A sort of Damocles

True gnosis will lead you to a binary choice

Christina’s Walter Elliot thoughts

Captain Wentworth: a hot blank canvas

Lydia would maybe have to bully Wentworth

There aren’t any examples of persuasion in this book other than like 75 examples

Jane Austen: Unionize! (because it’s about marriage but also class solidarity)

We will be producing “Persuasion but it’s the Blair Witch Project” soon

Coming soon: Lydia’s Ramblings (maybe)

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue the discussion of their Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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, with special guests Erin and Risha, inaugurate their discussion of their (somewhat slimmer than usual) Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen.

In this episode:

What an excellent rule (sorry, Risha)

An unpopular opinion that captures several important things

Austen as a writer who maybe should be listened to at least as much as read?

Reading novels was basically the 19th-century version of Gameboy

JANE DID A CLIFFHANGER

Is Persuasion unfilmable?

VERY EXCITING DICTION DISCUSSION

Jane Austen: all sarcasm all the time maybe?

The Keira Knightley one, the one with the Dashwood Sisters, the one with the name we can’t say…

One very simple blockage: the miscommunication trope

The blockage is always the title of the book

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue the discussion of their Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy, while drinking Bunnahabhain 12yo single malt.

In this episode:

Michael is mean

As Likely to End the World as to Save it: Knowledge and Science in Cormac McCarthy, by Philip Bunn (this bullet point happened a few eps ago, but it deserves repeating)

Unconscious/subconscious, and what the difference is, and whether it matters

Trying to be the smartest person in the world, and also have companionship

The dangers of language, or, words are bad

Lotsa Gnosticism

William Blake, and a little bit Lovecraft, but mostly Blake

A memory of a stupid review

Like The Passenger, this book is secretly about the atomic bomb

Anaximander, who thought existence is a wrong done to the universe

Hurtfully, this book is Catcher in the Rye

Ethan gets the name of Pokemon Rollout deeply wrong right at the end, lol

Next time Michael and Ethan will the discussion of their Mondo Book for the year: Persuasion, by Jane Austen! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide.

Michael and Ethan begin their discussion of Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy, while drinking Bunnahabhain 12yo single malt.

In this episode:

We’re sleeping together on the couch/futon tonight

Cover blurbs, or, the marketing materials are contributing to the discussion of what these books are

Hot takes on Pynchon cover blurbs, with a side-route into conspiracy

Is Stella Maris a coda?

If you stretch, and stretch, and stretch, and bring in GK Chesterton, maybe anything can be repaired

Why do Bobby and the Thalamide Kid both have flippers replacing certain digits?

Is the story a Socratic dialogue, a Platonic dialogue, or a story where the character Alicia is constructing a Socratic/Platonic dialogue?

Mathematics vs. philosophy vs. the looney bin

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide.

Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy, while drinking Bunnahabhain 12yo single malt.

In this episode:

Concise answers, reining it in, etc

Is this book JD Salinger’s (incest) Franny and Zooey?

Is McCarthy’s body of work just him taking previous works and adding greater shock value?

Are these books Catcher in the Rye? If so, can Ethan deal?

Is Bobby socially inept or socially VERY ept?

Is Bobby Oedipus Rex?

Is Alicia the Virgin Mary, or Medea, or both?

Will Ethan get distracted by how overrated he finds Oppenheimer?

How did you get here?

Are you the passenger? Are we all the passenger?

Did Oswald kill JFK? And whether he did or not, why do we spend 30 pages of this book discussing it?

Does the climax of this book occur 100+ pages before the end of the text?

Is The Thalamide Kid a hallucination, an alien, a quantum agent of some kind, an angel, a demon, or a broken-off shard of Alicia’s consciousness?

Given every single thing these books are about, why are they such a delight?

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin to discuss Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide.

Michael and Ethan begin their discussion of The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy, while drinking Bunnahabhain 12yo single malt.

In this episode:

Some hot takes on The Road to start us off

A reading group guide

It takes a really long time to answer the extremely simple question of who the title character is

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in a work of fiction (also, obligatory Gene Wolfe reference)

As Likely to End the World as to Save it: Knowledge and Science in Cormac McCarthy, by Philip Bunn

Shifting and fuzzy definitions, somewhat intentionally

The Passenger of this book is literally this book

Is this book an 18th-century novel?

A NEW THING: Join us on GoodReads!

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin to discuss The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy! 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.

Join us on GoodReads!

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 Beloved, by Toni Morrison, while drinking Jura 12yo single malt.

In this episode:

The essay under discussion at the beginning is “Literary Conjure Woman,” by Stanley Crouch, which still doesn’t seem to be online, but is maybe in one or more of his essay collections?

Definitely see American Fiction if you’re like, at all interested in the things on this podcast

What are we if not self-deprecating?

Is the meta-narrative of this podcast “doing criticism in a way that is fair and not stupid”?

Listen, in the middle of this ep we say a lot of things about sex and trauma and whatnot that is all relevant, but not funny to make a bullet point about

Bamboozled, also very much worth watching

Next time Michael and Ethan will begin to discuss The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy! 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.