Method and Madness

In which we go deep into the life of John Williams: oil booms, abandonment, tall tales about WW2, booze, women, and three “perfect” novels.

In this clip, I get into the influence of Yvor Winters’ odd brand of classicism on one of the 20th Century’s greatest novelists.

Get access to the full episode at madmethodpod.com/subscribe

Clark Ashton Smith was a poet once called “The Last of the Great Romantics".” But he is more remembered as one of the three most significant writers of pulp mainstay Weird Tales. H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith who was perhaps even stranger in his vision than either of them.

“The Nameless Offspring” first appeared in Strange Tales in 1932. A tale of family secrets, a haunted manor, and a beast we’d now refer to as a Pale Crawler.

Matt Fresta and Matthew Sini of the Getting Lit Podcast join me to talk about the history of their show, niche literary podcasting, the Australian scene, Sini’s provocative statement that there is no such thing as an atheist fiction writer, and much, much more.
Matt Sini’s substack pieces mentioned:
No Atheists in Plotholes
Current Thing Writing Killed the Literary Journal
Neo-Passeism piece on Australian scene

Matt Fresta’s stories at Apocalypse Confidential:
“A Super Position”
“Black and White and Blue”
“Count Whack-ula”

The ever-insightful Paul Heron joins me to figure out if History is in fact over, what Fukuyama meant by posing the question, cycles of history, nostalgia for the future, and much much more.

Subscribe to Some Private Diagonal and check out Paul’s work at Café Américain

BUTCHER'S CROSSING by John Williams is an unassuming masterpiece. The writer Lake Markham (LO SIENTO) joined me to talk about what makes this book special. We get into the meaning of the Western, the ideas and images that drive this book, buffalo, what Williams has to say about America and Transcendentalism, and some of the things that writers can learn from this potent little volume.

BUY LO SIENTO
Lake on instagram.
Lake on twitter.
Lake’s website.