Kappa: A Novella by Rionosuke Akutagawa

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This is like a new kind of art form that I feel like I want to know more about. It's just told because this one, actually, I think maybe all of them, they're all narrated by one personBecause in this case, it is just this woman's cassette tapes to, sometimes there's other sound effects and you might hear other voices, but it's just this woman. So I don't know, you might, this could be one that we put in the bank for another time, but it is, I was so impressed with, and kind of inspired by it.

The Summer of Cormac McCarthy continues – this time we dive into his one piece of non-fiction, the short essay “The Kekulé Problem.” How does our unconscious mind solve problems that conscious deliberation can’t crack? Why does it often work elliptically, in code, rather than giving us the answer directly in language? Is McCarthy right that the unconscious doesn’t trust language because it’s such a newcomer to the human brain?

Plus we select the finalists for our listener selected episode – thanks to our beloved patrons for all their terrific suggestions!

"The Kekulé Problem" by Cormac McCarthy

Pinker & Bloom 1990

Dijksterhuis & Strick 2016