Ep 037 - The Unnamable, by Samuel Beckett

November 12, 2013 / Guest User

No plot, no characters, no setting. Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable sounds like it's about nothing, but it's more than just the Seinfeld of novels - or so Craig tries to convince Andrew.

Beckett, a Nobel Laureate, is likely best known for Waiting for Godot, a play in which "nothing happens, twice." It stormed the theatre scene in Paris, London, and New York in the 1950s, inspiring a generation of theatregoers and angering countless more. Listen this week to find out which play angered Andrew the most.

Join us also for a discussion of Twitter followers, movie previews, and cricketing.

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Ep 036 - Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami

November 04, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

Another Hunger Games movie is right around the corner, but you just can't wait. You need to read a heartwarming tale about tweens and teens who are all dropped down on an island by a repressive government and forced to kill each other, and you need to do it now.

That's why special guest Suzannah Rosenberg joins Andrew and Craig this week for a discussion of Koushun Takami's Battle Royale. Join us for a discussion of romance, violence, birthdays, and cat whispering.

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Ep 035 - No Exit, By Jean-PAUL Sartre

October 29, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

Hell is sheeple, hot cocoa, interventions, mannequins, French pronunciations, and gin.

Also, hell is other people. Or so wrote Jean-Paul Sartre in his famous existentialist drama No Exit .

Join us this week as we travel to Hell to figure out what, exactly, the hell Sartre meant when he penned that infamous quote.

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Ep 034 - Don't Go Back to School, by Kio Stark

October 21, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

We tried something a little different this week—instead of reading a novel or play, Andrew read Kio Stark's crowdfunded handbook Don't Go Back to School. Stark interviews artists, writers, and entrepreneurs of various stripes who all have one thing in common: they've found success despite not having the credentials conferred by traditional educational institutions.

What followed was a discussion not just of the book, but of our own personal experiences building careers without graduate degrees. This is a fascinating topic, and if you have any of your own stories to share we'd love to include them in future shows.

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Ep 033 - The Stand, By Stephen King

October 14, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

Did you know that Stephen King's The Stand isn't a taut legal thriller? It's just one of the many things that Andrew and Craig learned about the book this week!

Special guest Giaco Furino walks Andrew and Craig through the apocalyptic (and then post-apocalyptic), Lord of the Rings inspired, vaguely supernatural "complete and uncut edition" of the book, which the author himself describes as "boss."

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Ep 032 - A Visit from the Goon Squad, By Jennifer Egan

October 08, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

Rock and roll, PowerPoint slides, African dictators: all succumb to the inexorable march of time in Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad .

Join us as we discuss the most recently published book we've read yet. Also: passive aggressive behavior, stories in the second person, and Craig admits to an unhealthy appreciation for Bryan Adams.

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Ep 031 - The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

September 30, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

The relationship between interior evil and its effect o one's external appearance isn't new to the show, but it's explored pretty explicitly in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. A much darker affair than The Importance of Being Earnest, this book is the closest examination of morality in Victorian England that we've read since Jekyll and Hyde.

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Ep 030 - Medea, By Euripidesv

September 15, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

What's there to enjoy about a 2400-year-old tragedy? Is it the ekkyklemas? The god-chariots? Or is it the protagonist so wounded by her husband's actions that she's driven to commit atrocities only Breaking Bad's willing to put on TV?

What if there's nothing to enjoy? Maybe that's why Euripides received third prize out of three when he submitted Medea to the annual Athenian theater festival in 431 BCE. Join us this week as we debate the tragedy's merits, bumble our Greek vocabulary, and make the obligatory Tyler Perry joke.

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Ep 029 - The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde

September 09, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

Andrew wanted something short and funny for his selection this week, and he got it in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. It's up for debate whether Wilde actually meant to say anything with this farcical comedy, but if there's one thing to take away from it it's "stop taking everything so seriously all the time."

We tried to wrap this one up early and then accidentally got into a sort-of-personal talk about the nature of marriage. Enjoy!

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Ep 028 - The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

September 02, 2013 / Andrew Cunningham

Ray Bradbury once described his first novel, The Martian Chronicles, as a collection of short stories "pretending to be a novel." In fact, many of the Martian stories were published individually, and it wasn't until 1950 that Bradbury stitched them all together.

This patchwork storytelling made it hard for us to get a bead on Chronicles . Craig liked it, but we found it hard to discuss why without the benefit of a central character or singular narrative. That said, you can still join us for a lively talk about colonialism, space travel, Fearing the Bomb, and twerking (for some reason).

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