The Infinite Library

This week, John and Ben discuss Xiaolu Guo's "A Concise-Chinese Dictionary for Lovers". Topics of conversation include the Guo's use of film references, use of non-standard English in fiction, and the arc of modern Chinese history as observed in the show.

As always, we hope you enjoy our conversation!

This week, we're wrapping up our Modernist mini-season by reading "Three Lives" by Gertrude Stein. We discuss our relationships with Stein and other Lost Generation writers, Stein's tactile language, and why something so well written is also so painfully racist.

As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.

Our modernism mini-season starts with a conversation about "Dunfords Travels Everywheres" by William Melvin Kelley. Topics of conversation include the differences between modernism and post-modernism, the way Kelley pushes the English language, and the role language can play in liberation.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

This week we continue our exploration of the Gen X Horror guys by reading "Wormwood" by Poppy Z. Brite.

As always, we hope that you enjoy our conversation!

This week, John and Ben are joined by friend of the pod, Kara, to discuss Stephen Graham Jones' love letter to the Slasher genre: "My Heart is a Chainsaw".

Topics of conversation include SGJ's background, the slasher's place in American mythology, and the cyclical nature of violence.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

Friend-of-the-Pod Claire is back in the stacks to discuss the grandmommy of the Romantasy genre: "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas.

Topics of discussion include the genealogy of Romantasy as a genre, the politics of when and where sex appears on the page, and how many male writers can't write about women.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

What do you do if you live in the Electric Psychadelic Pussycat Swinger's Club, but you're the one cat too un-groovy to find it shagadelic? This is the vital question at the heart of Samuel R. Delany's "Trouble on Triton". John and Ben get weird, discussing science fiction, the nature of desire, and how this book compares to "The Dispossessed".

As always, we hope you enjoy our conversation!

It's the first episode of the Spring 2026 Season, and John and Ben are blasting off to the moon of Annares to discuss "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin. We discuss this classic of science fiction with a little help from "To Read 'The Dispossessed'" by Samuel Delany. Topics of conversation include John & Ben's relationship with Le Guin's work, her anthropological lens, and portrayals of gender & sexuality in science fiction.

As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

We'll be back in two weeks with a paired episode focusing on Samuel Delany's "Trouble on Triton"!

John and Ben cruise down the California highway to the end of this season of The Infinite Library as they read Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays". Topics of conversation include the portrayal of California in literature, mimesis, and Didion's place as a literary "cool girl".

As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation!

Another year comes to a close and, as is tradition, John and Ben get together to tell you about their favorite books they read in 2025.