The Socialist Shelf

Joss reads the entire thing at the opening so you have no excuse not to absorb this text (unless you just don't want to in which case...fair) This week we discuss French philosopher Albert Camus' 1942, essential absurdist work, "The Myth of Sisyphus." You might have heard this one before, it's where the guy is happy despite his whole rock situation. We get into the life of Camus (we've got opinions!), look into if absurdism and socialism are compatible ideas (we have MORE opinions) and talk about high school Jacob's brief fling with absurdist thought (no need for opinions on this one.) Come back next week for a discussion of Matthew Stover's 2005 novelization of "Revenge of the Sith." Music by Solo Monk (@SoloMonk256 on Twitter, https://www.patreon.com/solomonkart), episode art from SuperGiant's masterpiece, "Hades."

History may have gone entirely differently, but the music of Bruce Springsteen is eternal... Today we explore the alt-history dystopia of Koushun Takami's, 1999 novel, "Battle Royale." This one's a little more intense than Fortnite. What does "successful fascism" look like? Why is the genre of kids murdering each other so lucrative? Will Koushun Takami ever write a second novel? Music by SoloMonk (@SoloMonl 256 on Twitter and https://www.patreon.com/solomonkart.) Episode art from novel's cover.

Folks welcome to the episode where we debut our BRAND NEW THEME SONG!!!!! Massive shout-out to Solo Monk for putting it together. Please go give him a follow on Twitter @SoloMonk256, on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/solomonkart, and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/tsalcollective But we do have an episode today outside the music. We're discussing the great 1929 work of Japanese proletarian literature, "The Crab Cannery Ship" by Takiji Kobayashi. How does the historical process of capitalist development in Japan mirror that in Europe, and how is it different? How can the nameless, faceless nature of the working class be turned into a strength? Plus, what to do if your revolution fails (hint, hint: it's try again.) Episode art is a crab emoji.

It's existential horror time!! This week we get into Victor LaValle's 2016 novella, "The Ballad of Black Tom," a retelling of H.P. Lovecraft's shockingly racist (and honestly boring) short story, "The Horror at Red Hook." And yes, we read the original short story too so you don't have to. The Shelfers discuss Lovecraft adaptions that deal with his legacy (and all that entails,) the inevitability of resistance against oppression, and why Cthulhu is way less scary than the NYPD. Tune in next week for, "The Crab Cannery Ship" by Kobayashi Takiji! Episode art from the novel's cover, music by Kevin MacLeod.

Jacob fails to read poetry, Joss makes bad jokes, we have a cool guest, and we released the episode two days late...honestly, it's the platonic ideal of a Socialist Shelf episode. This week we're talking about J.D. Salinger's 1951 rant of a novel, "Catcher in the Rye." Joining us is writer, game developer, and professional Holden Caulfield defender, Aysha U. Farah, begging you to forget everything YA Twitter has told you to think about this book. What's the deal with middle-class American angst? Is Holden Caulfield gay? Are angsty teens just tiny Marxists waiting to be given direction? All this and more! You can find Aysha's work at her website, here: https://www.ayshaufarah.com/, or follow her on Twitter or Bluesky at @ayshaufarah. Music by Kevin MacLeod, episode art is just a rye field from Getty Images

Let's. Get. Edgy. Step into (even more) fascistic London in Alan Moore's classic 1982-1985 graphic novel, "V for Vendetta." What makes Moore such a remarkable creator? How do repressive regimes give birth to their own destruction? How brutal must a revolution be? Also...what's the deal with anarchism? Art from the graphic novel, music by Kevin MacLeod. A little housekeeping: we're going to be (for the most part) dispensing with the part ones and twos and doing full weekly episodes, so I hope y'all enjoy that. Tune in next week for our "Catcher in the Rye" episode!!

Some are calling it THE literary classic. This week the boys get into "My Immortal," a notorious 2006-2007 Harry Potter fan fiction by the user known as XXXbloodyrists666XXX. What makes a bad fanfiction so magical? Why are so many preps flaming our podcast? What can we learn from the earnestness of online fiction...plus, some young Jacob and Joss lore. If you like this episode, please leave us a good review and follow us @SocialistShelf on social media (if that's still a thing.) Music by Kevin MacLeod, episode art is the Harry Potter film cover fused by dark magic with Snapchat photo editor.

We're back and holding Rich Devos accountable. This is the second half of our conversation on "Compassionate Capitalism" and "Ten Powerful Phrases" by Amway founder and rightwing billionaire Rich Devos. In this half we really tear into the cult of toxic positivity, discuss dialectics the Devos way, and Jacob gets REAL heated about the idea that God will "just take care of it." If you're not already familiar with Josh's work, then what the heck are you doing?? Check out Josh's podcast here: https://www.worstpossible.world/ Music by Kevin MacLeod, art is the dude himself

It's time to learn more than we ever wanted to about Amway founder and general rightwing psycho, Richard Devos. Josh Boerman from Worst of All Possible Worlds returns to the podcast to discuss Devos' self-help book/manifestos "Compassionate Capitalism" and, to a lesser extent, "Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People." They're some doozies, folks. Who is this Rich guy, and how did he manage to get his sticky fingers all over everything in the whole country? What's the deal with multi-level marketing companies? Is socialism doomed (Rich thinks so in 1994, he becomes less sure by 2008.) Check out Josh's podcast here: https://www.worstpossible.world/ Music by Kevin MacLeod, episode art is of the Amway Center.

Welcome back to the cyber-adrenaline rush that is Neal Stephenson's, "Snow Crash!" The Shelfers team up with Kurt Schiller of Podside Picnic and Blood Knife Magazine to get to the bottom of age-old questions like: how do you handle a guy who has a nuclear bomb strapped to his motorcycle? (and other stuff like that) Check out Kurt's work at https://bloodknife.com/, https://www.patreon.com/PodsidePicnic, and @MechanicalKurt on Twitter Episode art is of Neal Stephenson, music by Kevin MacLeod.