Book Club From Hell

Tom Will is a poet who has, among other things, written Pale Townie (Apocalypse Confidential, 2023), a 999-line poem which keeps the heroic couplet end rhymes from Pale Fire (Nabokov/Shade) intact, while transforming the story into something quite different, very Tom Will. He's also recently published American Cats Are in a Big Country (2024, Farthest Heaven), a collection of 73 poems, all of which are very much worth your time and love.We got to talk about the process of writing Pale Townie, why limericks are so funny, prose poems, clunk, Tom's future projects, and a lot more.Tom tends to pace while talking. I decided to keep these parts and leave them unedited, because the full Tom Will experience involves periods of muffled audio and sudden clear exclamations. To deny these parts would be to deny the fullness of communication.Find Tom's books here: https://many.bio/thomaswillTom's RecommendationsFarthest Heaven - https://farthestheaven.com/Apocalypse Confidential - https://apocalypse-confidential.com/Wallace Barker - https://wallacebarker.com/Hayden Church - So What - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FG1Y6P29Dustin Cole - Find After Sunstone on the Farthest Heaven website (https://farthestheaven.com/)Anna Krivalopova - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCW2HGMXSoft Union magazine - https://softunion.online/Adam Johnson - Cialis, Verdi, Gin, Jag - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B86SK97YOFFICEPARKS - Noam Hessler - Coming out soon with Farthest Heaven (https://farthestheaven.com/)!VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Written in prison in 2002, The System's Neatest Trick is an essay from Kaczynski's Technological Slavery. In it, Kaczynski describes how 'the System' - more or less a technological society - redirects the popular frustration caused by its intrusions into human life, and its subversion of the power process. Where does it redirect this frustration? Into 'activist' causes, both as a pressure-release valve on popular discontent, and as a way to expedite the social changes required for an expansion of technological slavery.Read The System's Neatest Trick here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-the-system-s-neatest-trickVERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Spare Us Yet is a short-story collection from Lucas Smith, the Editor-in-chief of Bonfire Books. Each story is a new examination of Christian faith, human fallibility and our ways of finding meaning, and are all well worth your time.Bonfire Books: www.bonfirebooks.orgWiseblood Books: www.wisebloodbooks.com/Lucas' Substack: https://lucassmith.substack.com/Bonfire Books' Substack: https://bonfirebooks.substack.com/Lucas' RecommendationsCaleb Caudell: https://middleamericanliterature.substack.com/Jamie Grant: https://publishing.hardiegrant.com/en-au/authors/jamie-grantJoshua Wren: www.joshuahren.com/#/Stephen Edgar: www.stephenedgar.com.au/newsite/Philip Traylen: https://oldoldoldoldnew.substack.com/VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Otto Weininger, at the age of 23, published Sex and Character, an idealist justification for not trusting the cosmic Woman, as well as an extended rumination on genius, sexual compatibility, Judaism, memory, ethics, and logic, all upon the background of his sexual fears. Shortly after the book's tepid critical reception, including accusations of plagiarism, Weininger rented a room in the building where Beethoven died. Here, he shot himself in the chest, gaining himself a number of posthumous admirers, including August Strindberg and Ludwig Wittgenstein.Joining me for this episode is the woman of many talents (but no Genius), Nina Power.Nina's Substack: https://substack.com/@ninapowerNina on X: https://x.com/Nina_Power_VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

The Everlasting is an excellent short story collection by Australia's favourite son, Lewis Woolston. Many of these stories are inspired by his upbringing among Jehovah's Witnesses in Western Australia, addiction, working bad jobs to stave off poverty, and, despite everything, having the fortitude to find a place of stability. This is Lewis' second time on the show - if you want to hear more from him, we did a previous episode where we talked about another of his short story collections, Remembering the Dead.Find Lewis' books here (including The Everlasting): https://bequempublishing.com/authors/authors-w-z/lewis-woolston/Lewis' Substack: https://substack.com/@lewiswoolstonI'm Perfect, You're Doomed: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1416556869William Trevor's short stories: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0140232451VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Wake in Fright (1961) is an Australian novel about a pushover Sydney city boy's experiences in Broken Hill-inspired Bundanyabba. Here, he loses all of his money gambling, is constantly drunk, knife fights kangaroos, tries to shoot himself, and much more. To help me gush over this sinister and very funny book, I enlisted the help of Matthew Sini and Matthew Fresta of the lovely Getting Lit podcast. For the second part of this conversation, where we talk about the 1971 film adaptation of Wake in Fright, check out the Getting Lit podcast.Getting Lit on X: @getting_lit_podSini on X: @teo_essFresta on X:@newfacenhell Getting Lit Patreon: patreon.com/GettingLitCoward Punch (Fresta's Rango Tango zino and some music): https://cowardpunchrecords.bandcamp.com/Sini's various projects: https://linktr.ee/matthewsiniVERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Financed by her husband as a 10th wedding anniversary present and published in 1897, Irene Iddesleigh is a romance story featuring extremely mercurial characters, bizarre pacing, and the most insane purple prose in existence. Really, The Eye of Argon reads like a physics textbook in comparison.VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Transmaxxing is when natal males make themselves into women in order to live a materially better life. The Transmaxxing Manifesto lays out why men would (that is, should) want to become women, why an essential gender identity doesn't exist, how to 'girl-mode', why men are useless, and how to bring about a global authoritarian transmaxxing state in which 5% of the population are breeding males, 50% are natal females, and the 45% of men insufficiently masculine to breed are forced to take oestradiol and live as women.Link to the manifesto: https://www.scribd.com/document/720824358/Transmaxxing14The transmaxxing website: www.transmaxxing.euVERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

On High at Red Tide is a rough, scruffy, lovely, unsettling, surf-noir novel written by Gabriel Hart, a novelist, poet, musician, and reporter (among many things). We got to talk about petrifying trazedone hallucinations, the parallels between alcoholism and possession, meth, why it's always wrong to kill someone, LA subcultures, and a whole lot more. Get On High at Red Tide: https://pigroastpublishing.com/product/on-high-at-red-tide/Get On High at Red Tide on Amazon, if that's your thing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCYZR5L9/Jail Weddings: https://jailweddings.bandcamp.com/album/ego-jinglesThe Starvations: https://thestarvations.bandcamp.com/album/get-well-soon Hotel Mercy: https://hotelmercy.bandcamp.com/Gabriel's RecommendationsChandler Morrison - American Narcissus - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTF7NF3NJillian Luft - Scumbag Summer - https://www.jillianluft.com/buy-scumbag-summerDanielle Chelosky - https://www.daniellechelosky.com/Omar King - https://newritualpress.com/books/Lisa Carver - Lover of Leaving - https://pigroastpublishing.com/product/loverofleaving/John Tottenham - Service - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1635902495/David Kuhnlein - Bloodletter - https://amphetaminesulphate.bigcartel.com/product/bloodletter-david-kuhnlein (NB: I said 'Daniel Kuhnlein' in the episode, because I'm really smart. His name is actually 'David'. David, if you're reading this, I'm sorry and repent of my actions).VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Published in 1899, The Interpretation of Dreams is one of Sigmund Freud's most significant works and, by extension, one of the most significant works in psychoanalysis, psychology, and the Western conception of the mind. In it, Freud begins with a collection of questions: what are dreams? What can we learn from them? In trying to answer, he ends up describing a structure of energetic flows between the conscious, preconscious and unconscious portions of the psyche.Turns out, there's more to Freud than penises, cocaine and wanting to have sex with your mum.VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATIONJack has published a novel called Tower!Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheetThe first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.comOur Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHellJack's Substack: jackbc.substack.comLevi's website: www.levioutloud.comwww.thebookclubfromhell.comJoin our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9HscrWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featuredX: @bookclubhell666Jack on X: @supersquat1Levi on X: @optimismlevi