Roman talks with José Vergara about Joyce's influence on Soviet and post-Soviet Russian literature. We talk literary heritage, the dangers of translating Ulysses under Stalin, the birth of Social Realism (and its ugly stepsister, Capitalist Primitivism), the schizophrenic nature of the late Soviet period, émigré writing, and Joyce's continued influ…

We're in a moment of rapid, disorientating change: the fourth industrial revolution, Web 3.0, machine learning, unregulated capitalism, climate change--the list is long and challenging. Roman and Rob share some of their recent readings/investigations and how it's helping them think about technology, economics, and art in a world that seems to chang…

We talk with Sergio Pitol translator George Henson, who is the first translator of the Mexican master's work into the English language. We discuss why Pitol is largely unknown in North America (something we hope to change!)and why you should love and treasure Pitol's "The Trilogy of Memory." In January 2022, Pitol's 1984 novel "The Love Parade" wil…

We chat with Greg Gerke, the writer and founder of the literary journal "Socrates on the Beach," about his new essay (link below), a cri de coeur about the state of publishing today and why information can never be literature. Read Greg's essay: https://greg-gerke.medium.com/for-feeling-bookish-podcast-why-i-created-the-literary-journal-socrates-on…

We talk Thomas Mann and "The Magic Mountain," and agree (oh boy) to start reading the work Mann considered his masterpiece, "Joseph and His Brothers."由Feeling Bookish Podcast

We're back with a truly new episode, wherein Roman introduces his theory of "Roaming Entropy," to describe the unplanned, inspired meanderings of a unprogrammed reading life. Rob is also thinking about the Eastern Mediterranean of old, with his reading on the Ottoman Empire, Orhan Pamuk's "Istanbul" and the minor classic that is Lawrence Durrell's …

A conversation from March that we only now just published. We're a bit over-read, over-worked and feeling the general wear-and-tear of COVID-19 and related challenges. We talk about the Philip Roth bio (prior to revelations about the biographer); Raymond Smullyan; the new bio of the painter Lucian Freud; the challenge of directed reading; and the P…

In our latest episode, we talk with writer, director and producer Daisy Eris Campbell, a leading counter-cultural voice in the U.K. We explore the legacy of Robert Anton Wilson and Ken Campbell, the cult classic Illuminatus novels and their legendary 9-hour theatrical adaptation, Daisy's play Cosmic Trigger and the mad fun it spawned, the KLF and b…

We talk about the "The Diaries of Emilio Renzi" by the Argentine writer Ricardo Piglia with Piglia translator Robert Croll and the publisher of Restless Books Ilan Stavans. We discuss how these books fit into both the Argentine and Latin American literary tradition, along with Piglia's use of the Renzi alter ego, his artistic integrity and "the dou…

Robert Fay's newest audio essay is inspired by an Alexander Theroux piece titled: “Theroux’s Metaphrastes: An Essay on Literature."Robert tries to understand why American fiction remains so linguistically stingy and wedded to "realist" and "minimalist" modes of expression. He looks at America's protestant inheritance, and finds interesting divergen…

We welcome special guest Mauro Javier Cárdenas, the author of the novels "Aphasia" and "The Revolutionaries Try Again." We discuss his place in the Latin American literary tradition alongside Roberto Bolano and Julio Cortázar; the influence of Thomas Bernhard's prose style; the subject matter of his yet unpublished third novel; why, as a native of …

We speak with Finnish translator Douglas Robinson about his "transcreation" of the unfished manuscript "Gulliver’s Voyage to Phantomimia" by Finland's modernist master Volter Kilpi. We talk about Finnish literature, Aleksis Kivi, the "found manuscript" motif in literature, Vladimir Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin, the influence of Nabokov's …

We talk with Robert Musil translator Genese Grill about her new book "Theater Symptoms," which features the first ever English translation of Musil's theatrical criticism and new translations of two plays. We talk about legendary Musil translator Burton Pike, the importance of theater in 1920s Vienna, the staging of Musil's play "The Utopians," Mar…

We talk with critic Steven Moore, the world's leading scholar on William Gaddis and the man who helped edit David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest." We talk about his approach to criticism; his "hierarchy of reading;" the influence of Stuart Gilbert's book on "Ulysses;" his love of "Finnegans Wake;" the importance of Catholicism to Alexander Theroux…

The total or encyclopedic novel remains a rare and allusive find in this age or any other. In this audio essay, Robert Fay describes it as "the everything novel," and muses on Joyce, S. Yizhar, Tolstoy, Lucy Ellmann and the miraculous belief at the heart of the Catholic mass. In the end, Fay continues to ponder the unanswerable question: "What is t…

We discuss a number of books from Roman's library, including 'Ferdydurke' by Gombrowicz; 'Under the Volcano' by Malcolm Lowry; 'The Mass Psychology of Facism' by William Reich; 'The Letters of Rainer Marie Rilke;' 'Hunger' by Knut Hamsun; and 'The String Quartet' by Paul Griffiths. We also touch upon Masha Gessen, William T. Vollmann, Shostakovich …

We examine the problem of great writers who were bad men, why Louis-Ferdinand Céline is a compelling, important writer for 2020, the paradox of Roman's essentialism versus relativism view of literature, and once more, we try to tap the mystery of how great books affect the business of living.Music attribution: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used…

In the second installment of our Audio Essay podcast, Robert Fay remembers August of 1968 when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. In that time of epic political turmoil, the Czech playwright Václav Havel, using imagination and his faith in writers and literature, took a surprising approach to the chaos and danger; an important model for our t…

We launch our new "Audio Essay Edition" with Robert Fay's meditation on the writer-diplomat tradition. The list is illustrious, and includes Stendhal, Chaucer, Octavio Paz, Washington Irving and Pablo Neruda--and almost included Marcel Proust. Find out why this tradition has been overlooked and what similarities run through both crafts. You can als…

We report back on various reading projects; marvel at Isaac Babel's Red Calvary stories; Rob is disappointed with Agustin Fernandez Mallo; and Roman remembers his first brush with Stendhal. We also wonder what political role, if any, the literary artist can play in 2020, as (some) western democracies lean rightward. Additionally, we muse on the abs…

Our special guest is writer/scholar Yelena Furman, who guides us through the richness of today's Russian-language literature, with a particular look at women's literature both in Russia (and environs) and in the western diaspora. We talk about Elena Chizhova, Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Liudmila Ultskaia, Ksenia Buksha, Alisa Ganieva, Svetlana Alexiev…

Writers and thinkers such as Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, Raymond Smullyan, Gary Snyder, Alan Watts, Scott P. Bradley and Allen Ginsberg have been influenced by Zen and Taoism. We explore the effects Eastern Religions have had on western culture and writers, as well as their role on our life experiences. Roman talks about Chinese Taoist poets such …

We speak with Dr. Pancho Savery of Reed College and explore the relevance of African-American literature during this unique moment. We ask who these books were written for and whether African-American literature still exists today. We talk about Black Panther, Thelonious Monk, Langston Hughes, Alexander's The New Jim Crow, racism in Boston, the Art…

Days of civil unrest in the U.S. over the death of George Floyd. We have a conversion. We talk RFK in '68, Edgar Allen Poe, Piketty's examination of economic inequality, James Baldwin, James Fenimore Copper, the political and spiritual path of Simone Weil and why Roman always returns to the humor of George Carlin. Please note: video of RFK speaking…

A wide-ranging discussion on the humor of Arno Schmidt, Jean Giono under Nazi occupation, the poetry of Harold Norse, the literary talents of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, our feelings about Thomas Mann and why Roman's Russian father always suspected German soldiers were hiding in the basement. Plus, the big picture of why COVID-19 is forcing readers and …

As readers we surround ourselves with books, but some of us fetishsize books while others don't. We talk about book collecting, marginalia, breaking the bindings [yes, it happens], bookshelf porn, e-books, and the books of novelist David Markson at the Strand. We also reference the late Christopher Hitchens and this lovely video tour of his D.C. ho…

To conclude our reading of Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities," we talk with Musil scholar and translator Genese Grill. She helps us think through Musil's use of metaphor, the book's mysterious incompleteness, the nature of Musil's German prose and how he aimed to bring us to the edge of the unknowable. Please see Episode No. 22 for more on …

We tackle Musil's big, modernist behemoth, but this episode isn't just for Musil readers, it's for anyone who has ever questioned what is modern life and what is it doing to us. We discuss fragmentation in the arts, the disappearance of the sense of a soul and the overriding sense that modern life is unreal, and there is little we can build a found…

In preparation for our upcoming Robert Musil podcasts, we discuss the creative explosion in Vienna before World War I. We talk about Musil, Gustav Klimt, composer Alban Berg, and others. We also look at the parallels between U.S. decline and decadence and that of Habsburg Vienna. We also make curious references to Tim Leary's cosmos prophecy as wel…

What is the role of the writer and intellectual in a culture of crass commodities and pop culture? Should we be thankful for the disappearance of the public intellectual in America? Can we be optimistic that a new literature and a new literary culture can come from our digital age? With special guest writer and translator Josh Calvo we examine thes…

Being a serious reader brings many joys, but also nagging anxieties: Should I be reading a different book? Should I read more classic lit instead of contemporary fiction? Is it problem that I read multiple books at once? Do I abandon books too frequently? Are my online activities ruining my attention span and making me jealous of others and their p…

Author Greg Gerke is our guest and we discuss his book of literary and film essays "See What I See," We talk William Gaddis, Bergman's film Fanny and Alexander, the role of emotion in reading and loving literature and the time Greg flew to the Midwest to interview his literary hero William Gass...Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under …

It has been a science fiction phenomenon. President Obama loved it, it's a perennial Powell's Books best-seller. We debate its merits and drill down on "hard" vs. "soft" science fiction. We talk about the Thucydides Trap, who fears aliens, the history of science fiction in the west and Roman's karma with Philip K. Dick. Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Sc…

We do it all the time as readers, but it's a great mystery: why and how do we get emotionally involved in fictional characters? It's a massive question and we bring in Spinoza, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Harold Bloom, Walter Isaacson, Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino to help answer the question. There is no one answer, of course, but we have fun chasin…

What happens when you swallow the American myth whole and try to be famous, virile and successful? Well, you might just write a sad, hilarious and enlightening fictional memoir filled with mental hospitals and boozy taverns. A Fan's Notes is a cult classic for those who eschew cult classics. The prose is electric. The characters unforgettable. It's…

We examine this underappreciated 20th Century classic. A cautionary tale of what happens when you stop being a tourist and truly become a traveler. Our conversation also stumbles upon Leonard Bernstein, Camus, Edward Said, A Farewell to Arms and Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess....Music: “October" from the album Chapter Four / Fall, by Kai Engel, u…

Let's go deep with fully-drawn tricksters, agitators, dreamers and faux intellectuals--it's Dostoevsky's Demons and we're talking God, Mother Russia, Shakespeare and why Demons gets under your skin. Join us for an extended conversation on the Russian master who previewed much of the psychology inquiry and political tumult of the 20th Century. Music…

We finally take on the South African master Coetzee. He's a bit intimidating to many, but we dive in, and look at his novel about a fictional Russian writer named Fyodor Dostoevsky. Heston Hoffman joins us, and we discuss Joseph Frank, the political atmosphere of 19th century Russia and whether Coetzee is an Afrikaner, African or Australian writer.…

We chat with special guest Josh Calvo, a writer and translator of Arabic and Hebrew literature. We talk about Israeli writer S. Yizhar's untranslated masterpiece "Days of Ziklag," the work of Kurdish-Syrian writer Salim Barakat and why so little of Arabic literature is translated into English, and why the works that are translated, are often read s…

The Beats writers were a force in American culture for decades. But are they still relevant today? Are they great writers or just curious cultural figures? Does anyone under 40 still care about them? We talk Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, along with other figures like Gary Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth and few words on Celine, Herbert H…

This is the book everyone is talking about. It's a 50-year-old book, just republished by the New York Review of Books Classics. We disagree sharply on the book's merit, while finding time to discuss the challenge of reading big books, why Thelonious Monk loved the Hudson River, what happened to Harold Brodkey and a new biography of the Chinese mast…

We venture into science fiction this week with a classic by Ursula K. Le Guin, We also welcome a guest host, the writer Heston Hoffman, who dispels our anxieties about approaching science fiction. We pursue a number of interesting tangents, including gender, sexuality, genre fiction and what Heston learned from reading only female authors in 2018.…

The Leopard is a classic of 20th century Italian literature. We dig deep into this novel of lost memories and aristocratic decline, while managing to reference James Joyce's sexy peaches, church relics, Soviet birth certificates and Michael Corleone.由Feeling Bookish Podcast

This week it's Hrabal's classic 1975 novel "I Served the King of England." It's earthy, bawdy, hilarious and wise. Roman and I talk Soldier Švejk, the glory of pub talk and coffee and cigarettes with Thomas Pynchon and Samuel Beckett.由Feeling Bookish Podcast

We're back to the German-speaking world with a brand new translation of "The Females" by Wolfgang Hilbig. We discuss divided Germany, gender, why capitalism used to be sexy and what the connection is between communist states and trash cans.由Feeling Bookish Podcast

We can all remember where we were when we read certain books. Today we talk about memorable (and critical) early reading experiences. What is it about a certain book that freezes time in our minds? We talk Robert Bolano, Philip K. Dick, Barrington J. Bayley, Somerset Maugham, Henry David Thoreau, Captain Cook and why Roman was always reading novels…

This week we look at a classic novel from the Austrian master Thomas Bernhard. "The Loser" chronicles the fate of two young piano prodigies who befriend and study with a fictional piano genius named Glenn Gould. Bernard spares no one in a book that is both hilariously funny and deadly serious. "The Loser" is a deep dive into the mind of an obsessiv…

We revisit a classic this week. In the 1950s, Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov had to teach literature at Cornell University to make ends meet. He lectured on canonical European authors and his lectures were eventually collected into this book. Nabokov takes an eccentric, personalized approach to reading literature and we take a close look.…

In our first podcast we look at novelist Tao Lin's new book "Psychedelics, Alienation and Change." We talk the history of drug literature, the logos, James Joyce, raw milk and more.由Feeling Bookish Podcast