57: “Do More Crosswords!” The Sexual Politics of Language feat. Anna Shechtman

Jun 22, 2024

Writer and cruciverbalist Anna Shechtman discusses the sexual politics of language, feminist history of crosswords, and the pleasure in creating and solving puzzles. Topics include écriture feminine, psychoanalysis, Lacan's advice on crosswords, and the complexities of language, feminism, and sexuality. Plenty of puns, frank talk about therapy, and insights into the unconscious mind through crossword puzzles.

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Intro

00:00 • 4min

Exploring the Intersection of Crossword Puzzles, Psychoanalysis, and Feminist History

03:41 • 15min

Exploring Freud, Feminism, and Personal Growth

18:35 • 24min

French Feminist Psychoanalytic Thought

42:50 • 9min

Exploring Language, Feminism, and Sexuality in American Culture

51:30 • 25min

Exploring Crossword Puzzles as a Tool for Understanding the Unconscious Mind

01:16:22 • 5min

Exploring Masculinity, Sexuality, and Feminist Pedagogy Through Language

01:21:06 • 7min

Exploring Various Topics and Podcast Support

01:28:18 • 2min

Abby and Patrick welcome writer, academic, and cruciverbalist Anna Shechtman, author of The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle, a book that’s part personal memoir, part cultural history, and part meditation on what it means to care about meaning in the first place. In typically overdetermined fashion, the three talk about the complex interweaving of language, sexual difference, and the vicissitudes of our appetites for food, clues, accomplishments, “solutions,” and more. Along the way, they unpack the écriture feminine of Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva’s idea of the semiotic, Luce Irigaray’s critique of phallogocentrism, the writing of Jane Gallop, and more. Whether on paper or otherwise, why do people love to create problems for ourselves, and how does the pleasure of solving any given puzzle relate to our apparently limitless hunger for new ones? How does the latent, overdetermined, and unconscious structure what’s manifest on a grid in a newspaper, magazine, or online? What did Lacan mean when he advised young psychoanalysts to “do more crosswords”? And how exactly does a crossword get made, anyway? Plus: plenty of puns, both punishing and pleasurable, frank talk about psychotherapy, and more!

Anna’s book The Riddles of the Sphinx is available here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-riddles-of-the-sphinx-anna-shechtman/20143426

Have you noticed that Freud is back? Got questions about psychoanalysis? Or maybe you’ve traversed the fantasy and lived to tell the tale? Leave us a voicemail! 484 775-0107

A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Follow us on social media:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness
Twitter: @UnhappinessPod
Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness
Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness

Theme song:
Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1
https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO
Provided by Fruits Music