Recall This Book

The largest slave uprising in the 18th century British Caribbean was also a node of the global conflict called the Seven Year’s War, though it isn’t usually thought of that way. In the first few days of the quarantine and our current geopolitical and epidemiological shitshow, John and Elizabeth spoke with Vincent Brown, who recently … Continue reading "34 The Caribbean and Vectors of Warfare: Vincent Brown (EF, JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Fountain is far more than just the author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which won RTB hearts and minds (and the National Book Award) long before it became a weird Ang Lee movie. What is consoling and engaging the author of the best novel about America’s dismal experience in Iraq? American novels, especially … Continue reading "33 RTB Books in Dark Times 9: Ben Fountain (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who better to talk about Dark Times than the author of an unforgettable scholarly book about the grimness of the interwar years, Tense Future? Paul Saint-Amour, Professor of English at University of Pennsylvania and author of various prizewinning books and brilliant articles, joins John to talk about realism, escapism and the glories of science fiction. … Continue reading "32 RTB Books in Dark Times 8: Paul Saint-Amour (JP 5/20)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U. Sydney professor Vanessa Smith–author of Intimate Strangers, and also of this lovely short piece about Marion Milner–joins John to discuss her pandemic reading. She praises a Milner (quasi)travel book, but she also makes the case for M F K Fisher and a book about the glories of hypochondria. Then the old friends share their … Continue reading "31 RTB Books in Dark Times 7: Vanessa Smith (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 27, David D. Kirkpatrick reported in the N. Y. Times that Oxford’s Jenner Center is close to starting human trials on a potential Covid-19 vaccine. According to Kirkpatrick, “ethics rules, as a general principle, forbid seeking to infect human test participants with a serious disease. That means the only way to prove that … Continue reading "30 In Focus: Nir Eyal on (the deontology of) “Challenge Testing” a Covid Vaccine" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and, most celebrated of all, Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. His honors include many Locus, Hugo and Nebulae awards. Small fact connecting him to RTB-land: he completed a literature PhD directed by Frederic Jameson with … Continue reading "29 RTB Books in Dark Times 6: Kim Stanley Robinson (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeta Chaganti, medievalist extraordinaire (Strange Footing and The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary) joins John to discuss–wait for it–data visualization in the work of W. E. B. Du Bois, philosopher, visionary and scholar. They go on to discuss past traditions that merge text and image in ways that foreshadow modern visualization practices, and close with beloved books that … Continue reading "28 RTB Books in Dark Times 5: Seeta Chaganti (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aside from being John’s (younger, brighter, handsomer–and definitely hirsuter) brother, what has the inimitable David Plotz done lately? Only hosted “The Slate Political Gabfest“, written two books (“The Genius Factory” and “The Good Book“) and run the amazing travel website, Atlas Obscura. So, what is he reading? The fully absorbing “other worlds” of Dickens and … Continue reading "27 RTB Books in Dark Times 4: David and John Plotz" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the third installment of Books in Dark Times, inspired by our global moment, Elizabeth and John turned inward. We started with a book that you might not think would be so comforting, Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) about the plague in London “during the last Great Visitation in 1665.” Probably … Continue reading "26 RTB Books in Dark Times 3: Plotz/Ferry" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 20th, John talked to Stephen McCauley, author of such brilliant comic novels as Object of My Affection (also a Jennifer Aniston movie) and most recently My Ex-Life. Steve brings light to dark corners in this the second installment of Books in Dark Times. He sings the praises of Charles Dickens, of Anthony Trollope … Continue reading "25 RTB Books in Dark Times 2: Stephen McCauley (JP)" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices