Slow Learners Podcast

A read-a-long podcast about big books. Hosted by Asher (@asherdark1) and John (@johnsemley3000) . Find Season Two: VINELAND...wherever you find pods.

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

We have created a BookShop affiliate store. Why? Well, it's a good place to index all the books we talk about on the show. And if you buy them using our affiliate links, we get a modest taste to keep our immortal lightbulbs burning. Check it out! https://t.co/bkibmeI9oO

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

PYNCHON ALERT #Oscars

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

@GholsonLyon Thank you!

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

We may pivot of TP and cover INFINITE JEST next, if only because it's in the Geist. Also, re-reading it for the first time in 20 years, there's so much good stuff. And also a lot of incredibly annoying stuff! Much to ponder...

[Dalkey Archive Press @Dalkey_Archive]

THE TUNNEL is coming! William H. Gass’s masterpiece will be available as a Dalkey Archive Essential this April.

Pre-order today and add THE TUNNEL READER (new and archival critical essays to guide your way through the labyrinth), and the 40+ hour audiobook read by Gass himself.

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

"We have Trent Kite, with have Tiny Ewell, we have LaMont Chu, we have Rodney 'Rod the God' Tine, we have Dr. Wo, we have M. Broullîme, we have Susan T. Cheese, we have the Ottowan Paparazzo, we have Guglielmo Redondo, we have all these characters..."

[Gholson Lyon @GholsonLyon]

I bought the book by Cowart, which is insightful thus far. Found my way to him via this podcast and other channels. Good to read that Cowart considers Pynchon to be the best historical novelist of all time.

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

"We have Trent Kite, with have Tiny Ewell, we have LaMont Chu, we have Rodney 'Rod the God' Tine, we have Dr. Wo, we have M. Broullîme, we have Susan T. Cheese, we have the Ottowan Paparazzo, we have Guglielmo Redondo, we have all these characters..."

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

“We have Hugh ‘Helen’ Steeply, we have Po’ Tony Krause, we have Johnny Gentle, Famous Crooner, we have the Near Eastern Medical Attaché, we have Lateral Alice Moore, we have all these characters…”

[john @johnsemley3000]

if you love arguing with me about this you should check out the forthcoming season of @slowlearnerspod, where I will be sharing this and other more risible opinions—to, in Wallacean argot, “the max.”

[john @johnsemley3000]

rereading Infinite Jest in 2.5 weeks got me walking around the house like:

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

@petebiblio Not according to him!

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

I (John) is about halfway through an INFINITE JEST re-read, and immersed if Foster-Wallacia. EASILY the most annoying thing about the guy is his refusal to admit his book is funny. So frustrating. The book is literally set in "Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment"! That's funny!

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

@petebiblio any number of interviews where he bristles at it being described as funny, as if that pedicures the tragedy. Charlie Rose, that one German interview, etc.

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

@Therewillbbooks @petebiblio annoying!

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

Anyway may he rest in peace. Much to discuss &c.

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

There's such a reflexive embarrassment in refusing to admit he's trying to be funny. "I thought it was actually quite sad..." No shit. Garbage trucks being catapulted into a radioactive "concavity" IS sad. It's also hilarious.

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

Mostly, we think it would be a fun excuse to cover stuff like:
-avant- and "apres-" garde filmmaking
-Quebecois and other Canadian separatist movements
-smoking too much weed
-the Arizona Cardinals special teams squad
-whatever a "Sierpiński gasket" is
-ONANism, gooning, etc.

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

John wrote about INFINITE JEST, and the guy who called your beloved Slow Learners hosts "litbros."

[john @johnsemley3000]

INFINITE JEST is back, baby! and so, I wonder, in an age of nosediving fiction consumption, "performative reading," and "post-literate" culture: can the dreaded litbro be redeemed? for @WIRED. https://t.co/pjfKziixag

[Slow Learners Podcast @slowlearnerspod]

We were robbed in the best podcast category at the Golden Globes. And that’s fine. Winning an award for podcasting is debased. All podcasters should be jailed or thrown in a ditch.