The Infinite Library

For this year's Halloween special, friend of the pod Kara joins us to talk about Pet Sematary.

Sex? Yes please! We close out our summer season with a swinging, sexually-charged discussion of Nicholson Baker's "Vox".

Sorry this one's a little late! We finish out our series on "The Tunnel" by William Gass!

This week John and Ben discuss what might be greatest novel in the history of the very silly Dutch language: "Max Havelaar, or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company" by Multatuli. Topics of conversation include the absurd structures of colonial administration, the origins of Indonesian statehood, and books no one in the English speaking world have heard of that changed the wo...

We're back in the Tunnel! This week, we discuss how Gass does and does not make his characters sympathetic, how Kohler would be as a professor, and a major twist in the story!

This week we're discussing "Possession" by AS Byatt. Topics of conversation include literary pastiche, the pleasures and perils of genre, and The Middlebrow. As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.

Somehow we didn't even notice that this was Episode 69 while we were recording. We sincerely apologize to our listeners for the lack of 69-related bits. We hope that, despite our oversight, you enjoy Part 2 of our series on "The Tunnel" by William Gass.

John and Ben get topical and talk about John's #1 Op's new movie: Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey". We chat about our relationships with the source material, Christopher Nolan's aesthetic sensibility (or lack thereof), Emily Wilson's translation and thoughts on translation, and how good Robert Pattinson is. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation.

This week, we have two Bens! Ben's friend Ben Rosenzweig joins us to discuss "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" by Rainer Maria Rilke. We discuss our personal relationships with Rilke's work, love and death, and how this book smacks of gender. As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.

We begin our Summer 2026 series on "The Tunnel" by William Gass. Topics of conversation include, literary Big Boys, Gass' problematizing of academic humanism, and The Fasicism of the Heart. As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.

We're back and it's Pride! As is tradition, John has made Ben read a big gay book, in this case Anne Rice's classic "Interview with the Vampire". Before we discuss the book, we do a brief debrief on last season and Woke 2. Then we dig into the goth gayness of Anne Rice's bloodsuckers. Topics of conversations include the life and times of Anne Rice, the figure of the vampi...

We close out this season by discussing "Rakesfall" by Vajra Chandrasekera. This might be one of the toughest books to have a straightforward conversation about that we've done, but we hope our chit chat is still enjoyable to listen to. Vajra's Unbuddhism essay: https://vajra.me/2021/10/27/%E0%B6%85%E0%B6%B6%E0%B7%9E%E0%B6%AF%E0%B7%8A%E0%B6%B0%E0%B6%9A%E0%B6%B8-unbuddhism/ WE'...

This week, John and Ben discuss Xiaolu Guo's "A Concise-Chinese Dictionary for Lovers". Topics of conversation include the Guo's use of film references, use of non-standard English in fiction, and the arc of modern Chinese history as observed in the show. As always, we hope you enjoy our conversation!

This week, we're wrapping up our Modernist mini-season by reading "Three Lives" by Gertrude Stein. We discuss our relationships with Stein and other Lost Generation writers, Stein's tactile language, and why something so well written is also so painfully racist. As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation.

Our modernism mini-season starts with a conversation about "Dunfords Travels Everywheres" by William Melvin Kelley. Topics of conversation include the differences between modernism and post-modernism, the way Kelley pushes the English language, and the role language can play in liberation. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

This week we continue our exploration of the Gen X Horror guys by reading "Wormwood" by Poppy Z. Brite. As always, we hope that you enjoy our conversation!

This week, John and Ben are joined by friend of the pod, Kara, to discuss Stephen Graham Jones' love letter to the Slasher genre: "My Heart is a Chainsaw". Topics of conversation include SGJ's background, the slasher's place in American mythology, and the cyclical nature of violence. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

Friend-of-the-Pod Claire is back in the stacks to discuss the grandmommy of the Romantasy genre: "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas. Topics of discussion include the genealogy of Romantasy as a genre, the politics of when and where sex appears on the page, and how many male writers can't write about women. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversation!

What do you do if you live in the Electric Psychadelic Pussycat Swinger's Club, but you're the one cat too un-groovy to find it shagadelic? This is the vital question at the heart of Samuel R. Delany's "Trouble on Triton". John and Ben get weird, discussing science fiction, the nature of desire, and how this book compares to "The Dispossessed". As always, we hope yo...

It's the first episode of the Spring 2026 Season, and John and Ben are blasting off to the moon of Annares to discuss "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin. We discuss this classic of science fiction with a little help from "To Read 'The Dispossessed'" by Samuel Delany. Topics of conversation include John & Ben's relationship with Le Guin's work, her a...

John and Ben cruise down the California highway to the end of this season of The Infinite Library as they read Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays". Topics of conversation include the portrayal of California in literature, mimesis, and Didion's place as a literary "cool girl". As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation!

Another year comes to a close and, as is tradition, John and Ben get together to tell you about their favorite books they read in 2025.

Happy (almost) New Year! We're closing out our Thomas Pynchon mini-revue with his latest novel, "Shadow Ticket". Along for the ride is friend of the pod, author TJ Martinson! Topics of discussion include Pynchon's relationship to pop culture, the use of alternate history in literature, and whether Pynchon offers us as readers an 'out' to our present circumstances. As alwa...

This week, we jump forward over 50 years into Thomas Pychon's career (and over all his most read books) to discuss 2013's "Bleeding Edge"! Along for the ride through Y2K is friend of the pod, Dan. Topics of discussion include reading the 2010s through the 2000s, the role of technology and espionage in Pynchon's works, and 9/11. As always, we hope you enjoy the conversations.

This week, we start our mini-revue of the works of Thomas Pynchon with his first novel: "V." We discuss our individual relationships with Pynchon's writing, his place in the larger world of contemporary literature, and what we liked and disliked about this strange first novel of his. As always, we hope that you enjoy the conversation!