Books of Some Substance

With Nathan still motorcycling through the Americas, David and Nick are joined by Johanna, a wonderful and informative member of the Books of Some Substance bookclub, to discuss Heinrich Böll's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Or: How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead. We talk Böll's style, violence in all its forms (institutional, linguistic, literal), fake news, 70s West Germany and the red scare, Amanda (Foxy) Knox(y), and, of course, like the appearance of Tlönian objects, a Borges reference is made.    Find a copy of the book, read it, and listen.  Follows us on Instagram & Twitter: @booksosubstance Check out our homepage: www.booksofsomesubstance.com 

  We don't want other worlds, but do we want mirrors? Do we need them? From the retro-futuristic, wildly open, existentially uncertainty Andrei Tarkovsky version from 1972 to the beige and blue sleekness of Steven Soderbergh's redemptive and romantic 2002 version, David and Eric discuss the two strong adaptations of Stanisław Lem's Solaris.  Watch the films; give us a listen.  Follows us on Instagram & Twitter: @booksosubstance Check out our homepage: www.booksofsomesubstance.com 

Borgesian tropes, 60's pop-psych, the comfort of an infinitesimal self within the endless cosmos, the eternal return of a drunk-dialed jukebox, and livable confusion: ah yes, another episode of the BOSS podcast.   Moving on from the fiasco of reading Fiasco, David and Nick discuss Stanisław Lem's Solaris, his most popular science fiction work of failed communication. Read the book; give us a listen.  Follows us on Instagram & Twitter: @booksosubstance Check out our homepage: www.booksofsomesubstance.com 

Communication breakdown—it's always the same...unless of course you are light years away on a spacecraft with a crew of international and seemingly indistinguishable humans, a deceptive AI system that controls every aspect of the ship, and an unknown reanimated man whose reanimation plays no part in your once in an existence mission to communicate for the first time (ever) with a different intelligent life in the universe, life that is possibly aggressive and certainly intelligent.  Welcome to a discussion of Stanisław Lem's brittle-hard science-fiction novel Fiasco. Welcome to another episode of the Books of Some Substance podcast!  Joining us from the last telephone booth in Seattle is David's bookish friend Mike.    Find yourself a copy of the book (or don't) and give us a listen.  If you are interested in joining up and receiving bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitation letters (or if you want to see what else we have read or check out Nick's novella), go to our website: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/  FIND US ON:  INSTAGRAM    FACEBOOK    TWITTER  

On this episode David and Eric are joined by Frida Pulido, an active and engaging member of the Books of Some Substance bookclub, to discuss Carlos Fuentes' The Death of Artemio Cruz.  David questions the value of reading about such a despicable protagonist for such an extended page count, Eric finds humanity in where we all begin and eventually end, Frida schools us in the variety and elasticity of the colloquial word "chingada," and we all find plenty of substance in Fuentes' writing and philosophizing on death, memory, pain, and time.  Find yourself a copy of the book and give us a listen.    Here is where you can find us:  http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/  And here: INSTAGRAM   FACEBOOK    TWITTER    ☮

Got yourself a case of originality-sickness? You know, the kind that wishes for the new, the always new, that fashionable illusion that speaks only of death when pretending to be nothing but birth?  Well, kiddo, you are not alone. But you are not loved. Fuentes sees you clinging to originality and he laughs. He sees the anxiety you have about your influences and shakes his head. Give it up, he says, embrace what has come before. Bathe in the aura of influence.  Join David, Eric, and Nick as we discuss Carlos Fuentes' creative essay "On Reading and Writing Myself" in which he breaks down the influences, allusions, and experiences that helped create his short novel Aura.  We talk authorial intent, the death of the author, the Eternal Return; we try to pronounce names correctly and struggle with words only read; we discuss creativity and expectation and change in perception.  So, then. Here is a link to the essay under discussion:  https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/sites/default/files/static/docs/archive-issues/wlt57.4-carlosfuentes.pdf And here is where you can find us:  http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/  And here: INSTAGRAM   FACEBOOK    TWITTER    ☮  

🎃 You open your podcast feed and find a new episode released from The Books of Some Substance. It's rather late in the month, but what the hell. You look at the title, "Second Sight: Carlos Fuentes' Aura," and make a loose connection to the novel's creepy, devout Señora Consuelo. Later, after you listen to the entire episode, after you listen to David, Eric, and Nick discuss genre, substance, the ephemeral border between literature as entertainment and literature as intellectual pursuit, after some praise for Fuentes in general and this book in particular, after a handful of quotes are read, after some minds are changed, and, finally, after the final point is made regarding the value of second readings, you understand the title of the episode a little better. Maybe you will read the novel again. Maybe. 🎃 You decide to follow the podcast at  INSTAGRAM    FACEBOOK    TWITTER   You want to receive bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitation letters and so you go to the website:  http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/ and sign up to receive both.  

  It is as cold in the new world as it is in the old.  And on this episode Nathan tries to work with Nick and David as they come to terms with just how cold James Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room has left them.  Can a character you neither love nor hate be compelling? Can an ending that resembles a bad music video from the 90's ruin a book? Can Nathan properly imitate the old-timey voice of a shocked news-bulletin? Can too high of expectations sour a reading? Is there any escaping our slow degradation till death? Find yourself a copy of the book, read it, and join us!  FIND US ON:  INSTAGRAM    FACEBOOK    TWITTER   To receive bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitation letters (or if you want to see what else we have read (or check out Nick's novella)), go to our website: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/  

Do you drink from the cup of trembling? Do you sup those dregs of hopelessness? Welcome back B.O.S.S. listeners. We continue our journey into the work of James Baldwin by reading the story "Sonny's Blues," a narrative about addiction, artistic creation, communion, destruction, existential dread, music's universal power, poetic prose, pragmatism, siblings, suffering, the trap of home, race, redemption, and what we leave behind. Once again, David and Nick find themselves trying to convince Nathan of the "substance" of the narrative. Does Nathan have his come-to-Jesus moment? Or, does he drink from the very cup of trembling?  Find yourself a copy of the story, read it, and join us!  To receive bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitation letters (or if you want to see what else we have read (or check out Nick's novella)), go to our website: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/  FIND US ON:  INSTAGRAM    FACEBOOK    TWITTER        

With Nick out for a little R&R, David and Nathan are joined by B.O.S.S. Boocklub mainstay Eric Heiman for our inaugural supplemental episode.  On this episode, in preparation for further episodes on James Baldwin's literary work, we read one of his most famous essays "Notes of a Native Son" and discuss the recent documentary I Am Not Your Negro. We discuss Baldwin's struggle to shake off his father's bitterness in the face of racial oppression, his love for humanity, and his pristine analytical prose of the personal.  Find a copy, watch the documentary, and give us a listen.  If you are interested in joining up and receiving bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitation letters (or if you want to see what else we have read or check out Nick's novella), go to our website: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/  FIND US ON:  INSTAGRAM    FACEBOOK    TWITTER