A Meal of Thorns

We’re tracking down the wellspring of “dark academia” in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and plucking on threads that stretch out to current fantasy and science fiction literature, with reviewer Roseanna Pendlebury as our guide. Casella manages to throw some shade at Arrival, somehow, and also references Dumb & Dumber.   Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.   Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Roseanna Pendlebury Title: The Secret History Host: Jake Casella Brookins Music by Giselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork by Rob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Isaac Fellman’s Notes from a Regicide E.J. Swift’s When There Are Wolves Again Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker  Rebecca Campbell's Arboreality Simon Roy's Griz Grobus & A Star Called The Sun Ursula Whitcher's North Continent Ribbon Tartt’s The Goldfinch Euripides’ The Bacchae Jane Alison's Meander Spiral Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative Roger Ebert's review of Roger Avary’s film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction (which, we didn’t get into this in the episode, is sort of in the Expanded Secret History Universe) Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Sofia Samatar's The Practice The Horizon and the Chain R.F. Kuang's Katabasis & Babel Fellman's The Two Doctors Górski Marina & Sergei Dyachenko's Vita Nostra, translated by Julia Meitov Hersey Ceaușescu's bathroom Peter Farrelly’s film Dumb and Dumber Sir Arthur Conan Doyles’ Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" vs. Denis Villeneuve's film Arrival Becky Chamber’s To Be Taught if Fortunate Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch "All art is perfectly useless" C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces Samatar's A Stranger In Olondria and The Winged Histories Fellman's The Breath of the Sun Katherin Addison's The Goblin Emperor & sequels Dungeons & Dragons Roseanna’s Small Press Dispatch series at ARB Roseanna's blog Tolkien's Beowulf & The Tolkien Reader Lina Palera’s Seikilos Epitaph with the Lyre of Apollo, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0*   *Note that ARB & AMOT are generally distributed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, but will match the CC of any incorporated material for particular posts/episodes.    

Academic, critic, and prolific podcaster Cameron Kunzelman joins for a far-ranging discussion about how climate fiction, science fiction, and personal and political connections to the environment intersect. Bonus hog sighting. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Cameron Kunzelman Title: Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Ranged Touch podcasts The World is Born From Zero & Everything is Permitted Sean McTiernan’s SFUltra (Sean was the guest for our Dreams of Amputation episode) From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell Steve Moore's Somnium Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism Christopher Brown's A Natural History of Empty Lots Bill Bryson Abigail Nussbaum Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall Michael Crichton Donna J. Haraway’s Staying With The Trouble Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future & Aurora (episode on the latter with Hilary Strang) Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock, Seveneves, & Anathem Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven Nicholas Meyer’s film The Day After Nevil Shute's On the Beach Adam McKay’s film Don't Look Up Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects Trinitite Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Pat Cadigan “30-50 Feral Hogs” Clock of the Long Now Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass John Christopher’s The Death of Grass / No Blade of Grass Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa Describe World Flannery O'Connor Deep ecology Arne Næss Ted Kaczynski #NoDAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net Patrick Wright’s The Village That Died For England Centralia coal-seam fire in Pennsylvania Keiichiro Toyama’s Silent Hill & Christophe Gans’ film adaptation Cameron's Bluesky The Assassin's Creed franchise Immanuel Velikovsky Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods

Vampire scholar, science fiction studies editor, and ARB co-founder Sean Guynes joins to discuss Kostova’s 2005 historical vampire thriller. We both have fairly negative opinions of the book, but it did lead us to talk about what historical thrillers are (or are not) theorizing, vampire novels we like more, and much else besides.Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Sean GuynesTitle: The Historian by Elizabeth KostovaHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:David Linday’s Voyage to ArcturusSean's series on the Ballantine Adult Fantasy booksThomas Burnett SwannE.R. EddisonGibson's Bridge trilogyStephen Norrington’s film BladeBram Stoker's DraculaDan Brown’s The Da Vinci CodeR.F. Kuang’s KatabasisSarah Perry's Melmoth and our episode with Jon Greenaway about itIlana Masad’s “Holocaust Beach Reads”Machiavelli's The PrinceRadu Florescu & Raymond McNally's In Search of DraculaThe Turkey City LexiconAnne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, including Memnoch the DevilFred Saberhagen’s The Dracula TapeChelsea Quinn Yarbro’s St. Germaine cycleE. Elias Merhige’s film Shadow of the VampireClaire Kohda's Woman, EatingIndrapramit Das's The DevourersStephen Graham Jones' The Buffalo Hunter HunterPeter S. Beagle's A Fine and Private PlaceEddison's the The Mezentian GateAnd be sure to check out Sean’s essay on The Historian!

Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Eleanor McAdamTitle: Under The Eye Of The Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa YonedaHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:Current Research in Science FictionVanishing World by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley TakemoriAnnie Bot by Sierra GreerEmily Tesh’s The Incandescent and Some Desperate GloryNiall Harrison’s Locus review of Under The Eye Of The Big BirdAdrian Tchaikovsky's Service ModelJ.G. BallardStephen Baxter's EvolutionWilliam Hope Hogdson's The Night LandX-MenIsaac Asimov's FoundationMargaret Atwood MaddAddam TrilogyKurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Cat's CradleErika Swyler's We Lived On The HorizonKazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun & Never Let Me GoAdrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time

Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Timothy MooreTitle: 60 Stories by Donald BarthelmeHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:Timothy Moore’s I Will Teach You RetributionJoan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock & Peter Weir’s film adaptationMolly Templeton’s Bluesky request for Australian Gothic“Intermittent Anhedonia”Ethan Rutherford's North SunEvening House Books"The School"Close Reading for the 21st Century edited by Dan Sinykin & Johanna WinantAlduous Huxley’s Brave New World"The Lottery""Me and Miss Mandible""A Shower of Gold""Eugénie Grandet"Sidney Lumet’s Network"The Balloon""The Great Hug"We somehow completely failed to reference E.E. Cumming’s “In Just – spring” for balloon-man reasonsKeita Takahashi's Katamari DamacyUb Iwerk’s Balloon LandWill McMahon“A Manual for Sons”Barthelme’s The Dead FatherWes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic"The Policeman's Ball"Vercingetorix"The King of Jazz"Julio CortázarIshmael ReedKelly LinkEd ParkElwin CotmanNana Kwame Adjei-BrenyahAimee Bender's Girl in the Flammable SkirtGeorge SaundersGarielle LutzDalkey ArchivesSmall Beer PressZachary Gillan &  our Authority episode“Reading Weird Fiction in a Time of Fascism”Mircea Cărtărescu's Solenoid, translated by Sean CotterLiliana Costanzi’s You Glow in the DarkThomas Ha's Uncertain SonsEd Park's An Oral History of AtlantisBrian Evenson“Lonely Rolling Star” by Saki Kabata and Yoshihito Yano off the first Katamari gameBilly Bletcher as the Pincushion Man in Ub Iwerks’ Balloon Land, music by Carl Staling“You’re the Cream in My Coffee” recorded by Miff Mole and His Little Molers“Perdido Street Blues” by Louis Armstrong and Sydney BechetCharlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce”