Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002) is Slavoj Žižek talking about 9/11 from a Lacanian, Hegelian, Ljubljana-slobber-in-a-stained-Lenin-T-shirt perspective. For this episode, the wonderful Stephen G Adubato of Cracks in Postmodernity helped me navigate Žižek's discursive 'It feels like I'm reading five books at once' style.

Cracks in Postmodernity: https://cracksinpomo.substack.com/

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Tom Will is a poet who has, among other things, written Pale Townie (Apocalypse Confidential, 2023), a 999-line poem which keeps the heroic couplet end rhymes from Pale Fire (Nabokov/Shade) intact, while transforming the story into something quite different, very Tom Will. He's also recently published American Cats Are in a Big Country (2024, Farthest Heaven), a collection of 73 poems, all of which are very much worth your time and love.

We got to talk about the process of writing Pale Townie, why limericks are so funny, prose poems, clunk, Tom's future projects, and a lot more.

Tom tends to pace while talking. I decided to keep these parts and leave them unedited, because the full Tom Will experience involves periods of muffled audio and sudden clear exclamations. To deny these parts would be to deny the fullness of communication.

Find Tom's books here: https://many.bio/thomaswill

Tom's Recommendations

• Farthest Heaven - https://farthestheaven.com/
  
  
• Apocalypse Confidential - https://apocalypse-confidential.com/
  
  
• Wallace Barker - https://wallacebarker.com/
  
  
• Hayden Church - So What - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FG1Y6P29
  
  
• Dustin Cole - Find After Sunstone on the Farthest Heaven website (https://farthestheaven.com/)
  
  
• Anna Krivalopova - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCW2HGMX
  
  
• Soft Union magazine - https://softunion.online/
  
  
• Adam Johnson - Cialis, Verdi, Gin, Jag - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B86SK97Y
  
  
• OFFICEPARKS - Noam Hessler - Coming out soon with Farthest Heaven (https://farthestheaven.com/)!
  
  

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Written in prison in 2002, The System's Neatest Trick is an essay from Kaczynski's Technological Slavery. In it, Kaczynski describes how 'the System' - more or less a technological society - redirects the popular frustration caused by its intrusions into human life, and its subversion of the power process. Where does it redirect this frustration? Into 'activist' causes, both as a pressure-release valve on popular discontent, and as a way to expedite the social changes required for an expansion of technological slavery.

Read The System's Neatest Trick here: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-the-system-s-neatest-trick

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Spare Us Yet is a short-story collection from Lucas Smith, the Editor-in-chief of Bonfire Books. Each story is a new examination of Christian faith, human fallibility and our ways of finding meaning, and are all well worth your time.

Bonfire Books: www.bonfirebooks.org
Wiseblood Books: www.wisebloodbooks.com/
Lucas' Substack: https://lucassmith.substack.com/
Bonfire Books' Substack: https://bonfirebooks.substack.com/

Lucas' Recommendations
Caleb Caudell: https://middleamericanliterature.substack.com/
Jamie Grant: https://publishing.hardiegrant.com/en-au/authors/jamie-grant
Joshua Wren: www.joshuahren.com/#/
Stephen Edgar: www.stephenedgar.com.au/newsite/
Philip Traylen: https://oldoldoldoldnew.substack.com/

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Otto Weininger, at the age of 23, published Sex and Character, an idealist justification for not trusting the cosmic Woman, as well as an extended rumination on genius, sexual compatibility, Judaism, memory, ethics, and logic, all upon the background of his sexual fears. Shortly after the book's tepid critical reception, including accusations of plagiarism, Weininger rented a room in the building where Beethoven died. Here, he shot himself in the chest, gaining himself a number of posthumous admirers, including August Strindberg and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Joining me for this episode is the woman of many talents (but no Genius), Nina Power.

Nina's Substack: https://substack.com/@ninapower

Nina on X: https://x.com/Nina_Power_

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi

The Everlasting is an excellent short story collection by Australia's favourite son, Lewis Woolston. Many of these stories are inspired by his upbringing among Jehovah's Witnesses in Western Australia, addiction, working bad jobs to stave off poverty, and, despite everything, having the fortitude to find a place of stability. This is Lewis' second time on the show - if you want to hear more from him, we did a previous episode where we talked about another of his short story collections, Remembering the Dead.

Find Lewis' books here (including The Everlasting): https://bequempublishing.com/authors/authors-w-z/lewis-woolston/
Lewis' Substack: https://substack.com/@lewiswoolston
I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1416556869
William Trevor's short stories: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0140232451

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Wake in Fright (1961) is an Australian novel about a pushover Sydney city boy's experiences in Broken Hill-inspired Bundanyabba. Here, he loses all of his money gambling, is constantly drunk, knife fights kangaroos, tries to shoot himself, and much more. To help me gush over this sinister and very funny book, I enlisted the help of Matthew Sini and Matthew Fresta of the lovely Getting Lit podcast.
For the second part of this conversation, where we talk about the 1971 film adaptation of Wake in Fright, check out the Getting Lit podcast.

Getting Lit on X: @getting_lit_pod
Sini on X: @teo_ess

Fresta on X:@newfacenhell
Getting Lit Patreon: patreon.com/GettingLit
Coward Punch (Fresta's Rango Tango zino and some music): https://cowardpunchrecords.bandcamp.com/
Sini's various projects: https://linktr.ee/matthewsini

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi

Financed by her husband as a 10th wedding anniversary present and published in 1897, Irene Iddesleigh is a romance story featuring extremely mercurial characters, bizarre pacing, and the most insane purple prose in existence. Really, The Eye of Argon reads like a physics textbook in comparison.

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Jack has published a novel called Tower!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet

The first nine chapters of Tower are available for free here: jackbc.substack.com

Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBookClubfromHell

Jack's Substack: jackbc.substack.com

Levi's website: www.levioutloud.com

www.thebookclubfromhell.com

Join our Discord (the best place to interact with us): discord.gg/ZMtDJ9Hscr

Watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n7r1ZTpsUw5exoYxb4aKA/featured

X: @bookclubhell666

Jack on X: @supersquat1

Levi on X: @optimismlevi