Roman talks with José Vergara about Joyce's influence on Soviet and post-Soviet Russian literature. We talk literary heritage, the dangers of translating Ulysses under Stalin, the birth of Social Realism (and its ugly stepsister, Capitalist Primitivism), the schizophrenic nature of the late Soviet period, émigré writing, and Joyce's continued influence on contemporary Russian writers. A fascinating talk that sheds much light on both Joyce and Russian lit. Writers discussed include: Yury Olesha, Vladimir Nabokov, Andrei Bitov, Sasha Sokolov, and Mikhail Shishkin (cameos of sorts by Victor Pelevin and William Gaddis). José's book, "All future plunges to the past : James Joyce in Russian literature," was published by Cornell University Press in 2021. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501759901/all-future-plunges-to-the-past/

We're in a moment of rapid, disorientating change: the fourth industrial revolution, Web 3.0, machine learning, unregulated capitalism, climate change--the list is long and challenging. Roman and Rob share some of their recent readings/investigations and how it's helping them think about technology, economics, and art in a world that seems to change by the week. They talk about George Dyson's "Darwin Among the Machines," Michael J. Sandel's "The Tyranny of Merit," and Benjamin's Labatut's "When We Cease to Understand the World," among other books. Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

We talk with Sergio Pitol translator George Henson, who is the first translator of the Mexican master's work into the English language. We discuss why Pitol is largely unknown in North America (something we hope to change!)and why you should love and treasure Pitol's "The Trilogy of Memory." In January 2022, Pitol's 1984 novel "The Love Parade" will be available from Deep Vellum Publishing. We've read it, and we recommend it highly. Order it here: https://tinyurl.com/mrxnsxv9 Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

We chat with Greg Gerke, the writer and founder of the literary journal "Socrates on the Beach," about his new essay (link below), a cri de coeur about the state of publishing today and why information can never be literature. Read Greg's essay: https://greg-gerke.medium.com/for-feeling-bookish-podcast-why-i-created-the-literary-journal-socrates-on-the-beach-small-446d4931d058 Socrates on the Beach: https://socratesonthebeach.com/ Music attribution: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

We talk Thomas Mann and "The Magic Mountain," and agree (oh boy) to start reading the work Mann considered his masterpiece, "Joseph and His Brothers."

We're back with a truly new episode, wherein Roman introduces his theory of "Roaming Entropy," to describe the unplanned, inspired meanderings of a unprogrammed reading life. Rob is also thinking about the Eastern Mediterranean of old, with his reading on the Ottoman Empire, Orhan Pamuk's "Istanbul" and the minor classic that is Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet." Music attribution: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

A conversation from March that we only now just published. We're a bit over-read, over-worked and feeling the general wear-and-tear of COVID-19 and related challenges. We talk about the Philip Roth bio (prior to revelations about the biographer); Raymond Smullyan; the new bio of the painter Lucian Freud; the challenge of directed reading; and the Picasso bio project of the late John Richardson--and much more. Music attribution: Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

In our latest episode, we talk with writer, director and producer Daisy Eris Campbell, a leading counter-cultural voice in the U.K. We explore the legacy of Robert Anton Wilson and Ken Campbell, the cult classic Illuminatus novels and their legendary 9-hour theatrical adaptation, Daisy's play Cosmic Trigger and the mad fun it spawned, the KLF and burning money, the jesting religion of Discordianism, and much more. We cram a lot into this talk, so as you listen, remember Wilson's Rule #23: If you don't laugh, you've missed the point; if you only laugh, you've missed your chance at illumination. Links: http://www.hilaritaspress.com/ (WIlson's work as well as Daisy's Cosmic Trigger play, about to be published!) http://rawtrust.com/ (All things RAW) https://cosmictriggerplay.com/ (info on Daisy's production) https://kencampbell.urbandrum.co.uk/ (Ken Campbell monologues & interviews...not to be missed!) Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

We talk about the "The Diaries of Emilio Renzi" by the Argentine writer Ricardo Piglia with Piglia translator Robert Croll and the publisher of Restless Books Ilan Stavans. We discuss how these books fit into both the Argentine and Latin American literary tradition, along with Piglia's use of the Renzi alter ego, his artistic integrity and "the doubling" that occurs in these special books. Learn more about the books here: https://restlessbooks.org/bookstore/the-diaries-of-emilio-renzi-a-day-in-the-life Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.

Robert Fay's newest audio essay is inspired by an Alexander Theroux piece titled: “Theroux’s Metaphrastes: An Essay on Literature." Robert tries to understand why American fiction remains so linguistically stingy and wedded to "realist" and "minimalist" modes of expression. He looks at America's protestant inheritance, and finds interesting divergences between "Catholic" and "Calvinist" modes of art. You can read a text version of the essay here: https://robertfay.com/2021/02/the-calvinism-in-our-literature/ Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.