Method and Madness

Jack BC of the always entertaining and enlightening podcast Book Club from Hell, joins me to talk about the singular masterpiece of Australian letters, Gerald Murnane's strange and beautiful book THE PLAINS. A book that is somehow about itself, and everything else. We talk about the many questions Murnane raises on the nature of creativity, subjectivity, and the very form of the novel. https://boo...

Andrew Wittstadt (@andrewwittstadt) joins me to talk about his great podcast on poetry and literature, HEAVY BORED. We also get into the problem of authority in academia and why it’s necessary as well as Andrew’s personal canon and much more. https://www.patreon.com/HeavyBored x.com/andrewwittstadt x.com/heavyboredpod https://www.instagram.com/heavybored/ https://www.youtube.com/@heavybored x/com/...

An audio recording of Edgar Allan Poe’s 1840 short story “The Man of the Crowd", in which Poe’s narrator finds that he can read a man’s entire history in his expression—but some things are left better unseen. SUBSCRIBE AT SUPPORT  for access to bonus content.

How Don DeLillo renders visible the invisible, the forces of history, conspiracy theory as literature, and the Discordian weirdness of the JFK assassination. SUBSCRIBE AT SUPPORT  for access to bonus content.

Jack BC of the great books podcast Bookclub from Hell joins me to discuss his exceptional work of corporate surrealism, TOWER and the origins of Bookclub from Hell, as well as the legacy of literary realism, the exquisite weirdness of JG Ballard, and much much more. Jack’s podcast: https://www.bookclubfromhell.com/, https://x.com/bookclubhell666 Buy TOWER: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC/dp/0...

Glen Rockney of Rare Candy joins me to talk about his superb Gain of Fiction bookclub show, bros reading and why they should, and I finally share what happened to the 2024 live Art of Darkness show. Rare Candy on Substack Rare Candy on Twitter SUBSCRIBE AT SUPPORT  for access to bonus content.

[5 Fathoms Special} This is an in-depth presentation on the history of the Tarot, from rudimentary card games of Egypt and Persia all the way to the modern day. Thanks for joining me. Be sure to check out the video version free on youtube, substack, patreon, and twitter.

In the first solo deep dive on Method and Madness, I go into LOLITA contra CRASH, what the hell even is literary Postmodernism, theories of time, and Nabokov’s prophetic dreams. Thanks for joining me. SUBSCRIBE AT madmethodpod.com/support access to bonus content.

More LOLITA. Aaron walks us through the deep narratology behind the concept of the ‘unreliable narrator’ and how Nabokov keeps the reader at just the right distance to make this book a masterpiece. SUBSCRIBE AT madmethodpod.com/support access to bonus content.

In this Melee episode, the brilliant Dustin Cole joins Brad to discuss his new poetry collection AFTER SUNSTONE, writing poetry versus writing novels, what social media does for/to a writer, and W.G. Sebald’s singular book THE RINGS OF SATURN. BUY AFTER SUNSTONE: https://farthestheaven.com/products/after-sunstone SUBSCRIBE AT PATREON AND SUBSTACK for access to bonus content.

The brilliant writer Kat Rosenfield joins us to talk LOLITA and misreadings thereof, the new (and past?) censoriousness in books discourse, love versus terror, and much, much more. SUBSCRIBE AT madmethodpod.com/support for access to bonus content.

In this Melee episode we discuss the recent revival of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS and some of the very questionable reviews. https://www.thedailybeast.com/review-kieran-culkins-glengarry-glen-ross-is-dangerously-offensive-and-dated/ SUBSCRIBE AT PATREON AND SUBSTACK for access to bonus content.

Ep. 4.3. A [PREVIEW] of our exclusive MADNESS episode on NCFOM for paid subscribers ONLY. We go in-depth on the history of Moss's unit in Vietnam, the metaphysical and poetic implications of the title, and try to figure out just what the hell genre this book is anyway.

Part 2 of our in-depth series on Cormac McCarthy’s NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. We talk about what makes NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN so effective, the subtleties of its structure, McCarthy’s masterclass in visual storytelling, how this book plays at the edges of genre, and much more. x.com/americangwyn x/com/bradkelly SUBSCRIBE AT PATREON AN D SUBSTACK for bonus content.

Part 1 of our in-depth series on Cormac McCarthy’s NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. We’re joined by Ben Avery of the legendary Lemonparty podcast. linktr.ee/benaveryisgood x.com/benaveryisgood SUBSCRIBE AT PATREON AN D SUBSTACK for immediate access to main episodes like this.

In part 3 of our in-depth episode on William Gibson's NEUROMANCER. In the MADNESS portion of this series, we talk hacking in the ‘80s, what this book has in common with Djuna Barnes’ strange 1930s arthouse novel NIGHTWOOD, Rastafarianism, and where AI might be headed. SUBSCRIBE AT PATREON AND SUBSTACK for early immediate access to our entire NEUROMANCER conversation

In part 2 of our in-depth episode on William Gibson's NEUROMANCER, Aaron and Brad go METHOD talking about what makes this book tick, how to write something ‘timeless’, and living in alternate realities. SUBSCRIBE AT PATREON AND SUBSTACK for early immediate access to our entire NEUROMANCER conversation

We talk with the great Ewan Morrison about his new novel FOR EMMA, a cyber thriller par excellence, about the influence of Gibson, hyperstition, and the runaway processes of AI development that have writers on edge. PREORDER EWAN'S NEW BOOK: https://www.ewanmorrison.com/ and follow him at x.com/@mrewanmorrison.com and untopia.substack.com

We talk Aaron’s recent Tolkien “controversy,” where the Borges meets the road, the importance of plot, the looming and forgotten catastrophes of human history, Nathanael West, and what C.G. Jung thought about UFOs.

We discuss the mysterious mastery of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s “My Struggle,” go on a crash tour of the history of the memoir/autobiography, and examine the other book from which Knausgaard borrowed his title. Finally, the great Jarvis Best joins us to talk about just how powerful this book is in a world where so many of us find it much easier to hide. Follow Jarvis: x.com/jarvis_best

Lynch, Loneliness, and Larry

In our first episode of method and Madness, we leave a white and turbid wake: the focus is MOBY-DICK. In our Method segment, we discuss Melville’s techniques and how you can deploy them in your own writing. And then Brad goes Mad, finding astrological correspondences and falling through the yawning abyss of H.P. Lovecraft.