The Rise and Fall of Monoculture

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There are so many more people who have a voice in any sort of discussion that it's, you know, monoculture. The idea of a story in the New Yorker causing a sensation is crazy. David Foster Wallace is going to live on in part because of his work and in part because he burned out rather than fate. People are just attracted to those damaged personalities like Jim Morrison or Kurt Cobain.

We double-dip a bit in this week's show, reading two short stories and proving that you don't have to have a ton of time to read something thought-provoking. The theme is "female authors writing about controversial-at-the-time ideas," and the stories are The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

One is about a misdiagnosed "hysterical" woman slowly going insane through lack of mental stimulation, one is about a seemingly innocuous small town that is slavishly devoted to its own traditions. Both remain subversive and retain their impact even today.

Oh yeah and we also talk about which grocery store animal mascot would win in a fight.

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