A Meal of Thorns 38- VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER with Cameron Kunzelman
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
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A Meal of Thorns 37 – THE HISTORIAN with Sean Guynes
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!
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A Meal of Thorns 36 – UNDER THE EYE OF THE BIG BIRD with Eleanor McAdam
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
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A Meal of Thorns 35 – 60 Stories with Timothy Moore
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”
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A Meal of Thorns 34 – BURNING BRIGHT with Ursula Whitcher
Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon!Guest: Ursula WhitcherTitle: Burning Bright by Melissa ScottHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughTranscribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM ThompsonReferences:North Continent RibbonIndra Das’s The Last Dragoners of BowbazarFonda Lee's Green Bone books & game thereof w/ James Mendez HodesBruce Coville's Aliens Ate My Homework & Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon HatcherThomas Ha's Uncertain SonsScott’s Trouble And Her Friends & Astreiant series, most recently Point of HeartsC.S. Lewis's PerelandraMargaret Weis & Tracy Hickman’s Dragonlance novelsDon Daglow’s Neverwinter NightsCommedia dell'arteThe Marvel Cinematic Universe franchiseLAN partiesC.J. Cherryh's Foreigner booksArkardy Martine's Teixcalaan booksIain M. Banks' Player of GamesNeal Stephenson's Snow CrashCameron Reed's Fortunate FallIain Softley’s HackersWilliam Gibson's Blue Ant trilogyCharlie Jane AndersBruce SterlingMichael Swanwick's Stations of the TideUrsula's website & Bluesky
A critical book club from the Ancillary Review of Books. Host Jake Casella Brookins invites writers, scholars, and critics to discuss thorny works of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres.