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 r...
Apr 24, 2018•31 min
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...
Mar 22, 2018•30 min
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.booksofsomesu...
Feb 20, 2018•28 min
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 ...
Jan 26, 2018•29 min
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 philo...
Dec 20, 2017•54 min
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 dis...
Nov 17, 2017•29 min
🎃 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 ...
Oct 30, 2017•25 min
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 degradatio...
Sep 15, 2017•44 min
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 ...
Aug 22, 2017•50 min
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 analyti...
Jul 28, 2017•27 min
你好 (Ni hao) Comrades! Join us, kan-pu Nathan, Nick, and David, for another full length episode of Deep Cultural Propaganda from American Imperialists (aka The Books of Some Substance Podcast). Dystopian literature and discussions of authoritarianism abound, and few things were more dystopian than living under the slow-crushing boot of authoritarian Maoist China. On this episode, witness the true confessions of Nick's Obscure Relations with straight-edge militant punk bands, Nathan's deviant mode...
Jun 23, 2017•49 min
Time to dust off your favorite huqin record. As the gramophone spins, the huqin 's wail tells a story too desolate for words-oh! why go into it? Well, on this episode we explore Chang's desolate story "Love in a Fallen City" and parse why we think she bothers going into it. Join us as we discuss war, freedom, the deception of twice-over whoredom, sandflies, and the subtleties of love and Chang's narrative. If you are interested in joining up and receiving bad-ass artwork and hand-typed invitatio...
May 24, 2017•33 min
A Chinese home built upon the structure of an Iron Maiden riff. Reincarnation unbound by Time. The ultimate truth of Hermann Hesse as the Tony Robbins of European symbolism. The trio is back on this full length episode. Join us as we work through Hermann Hesse's often frustrating but certainly substantial masterwork The Glass Bead Game . As always, give the novel a read and listen along. Join the B.O.S.S. Book Club for cool artwork and to get in on the conversation: www.booksofsomesubstance.com ...
Mar 21, 2017•1 hr
Go forth into the dark corners of thyself! Hail doom! With David out on a doctor's order to investigate an existential crises, Nathan and Nick explore Hermann Hesse, his place in contemporary readership, and his short work "Klingsor's Last Summer." On this short(ish) episode you will also hear Nick fail to hum a Steppenwolf tune, Nathan come close to admitting a dark secret, and some general discoursing on self-exploration. As always, give the story a read and listen along. Join the B.O.S.S. Boo...
Feb 11, 2017•42 min
Greetings and Salutations! Welcome to another full length episode of the Books of Some Substance Podcast. On this episode: Nathan finds in Babbitt a flapper-ite hipsterish cesspool of nihilism; David allows a groan (or seven) of tedium to escape him, as he finds “substance” to have escaped from the novel itself; and Nick, having enveloped himself in far more Lewis than Zenith's house-call doctor would recommend, finds the realism, clever vernacular, and biting satire not only lasting in historic...
Dec 14, 2016•50 min
Welcome back! The B.O.S.S. Podcast returns! As we gear up for Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt , we open up a forgotten time capsule to read about the rise of white collar work at the beginning of the 20th Century, a world looking to sell you on pep! vim! zip! and zing! but ultimately dreary. Nothing really changes. On this shortened episode, and more so than usual, Nick guides Nathan and David through the stories "Snappy Display" and "Way I See It." ALSO! We are happy to announce the beginnings of B.O.S...
Nov 16, 2016•31 min
The mountain grumbles, Shingo mumbles. But it is hard to hear him over the sound of the dishes. On this full length episode we discuss Yasunari Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain and try to come to terms with the dying patriarch’s aimless drift towards the end. Is it apathetic existentialism? Good old-fashion failure? The culture of post-war Japan? Personal defeatism? Idiocy? Anger? Or an odd replication of nature’s non-action? As always, read the novel and give us a listen. Join the B.O.S.S. ...
Aug 16, 2016•56 min
Memory as time travel. Enigmatic lovers. The comfort of objects. A ghostly romantic comedy. Each, one of Yasunari Kawabata’s Palm of the Hand stories under discussion. Each description merely a scratch at the surface of meaning and depth found in these subtle, quiet works. On this shortened episode, as B.O.S.S. prepares for Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain , David, Nathan, and Nick look at four of the reductionist vignettes: “A Sunny Place,” “Sleeping Habit,” “The Silver Fifty-Sen Pieces,” a...
Jul 18, 2016•31 min
From death and dying to life and living. On this full length episode, we examine the humor, the horror, the existential, the wonder, and even the disagreeable in the lost and found (and possibly changed) madcap protagonist Eugene Henderson of Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King. With Nathan out sick, Nick and David are joined by Eric Heiman, official B.O.S.S. Book Club member and unofficial Bellow buff. As always, read the book and give us listen. Check out: http://www.booksofsomesubstance.com...
May 31, 2016•1 hr
It’s an exceptionally smart man who isn’t marked forever by the theories he reads in passing from books, and we aren't all that smart. On this shortened episode, we discuss the Bellow short stories "Leaving the Yellow House" and "A Silver Dish." There's rugged individualism. There's death and dying. There's the spin from that great wheel of fortune we all eventually spin and the bright, shiny electric one Nick may spin on broadcast television. As always, read the stories and give us a listen. Ch...
Apr 15, 2016•37 min
In this episode, we talk through the (beautiful?) mess of madness that is Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Listen as Nick argues against the false binaried balance of Good and Evil, as David floats in the abeyance of cold medicine, and as Nathan grows into the role of curmudgeon and questions the punk-rockitude of Nick and David.
Feb 20, 2016•1 hr 3 min
David, Nathan, and Nick discuss Mikhail Bulgakov's satiric novel Heart of a Dog and come to some conclusions on the difficulties of understanding and changing our natures, whether proletariat or bourgeoisie, man-dog or mad-scientist.
Feb 20, 2016•31 min
The premier episode of the B.O.S.S. (Books of Some Substance) Podcast! Join Nick, David, and Nathan--three bearded white dudes--as they talk about Zora Neale Hurston's black, feminist novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and try to figure it all out.
Feb 20, 2016•53 min
