Book Club From Hell

Vladimir Nabokov finished writing Lolita in 1953. It took him, an established author, until 1955 to have it published. Why? It's a book about a middle-aged man who has a sexual relationship with a twelve-year-old girl. Publishers were uncomfortable, etc. The thing is, it's also a phenomenally well-written book. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/T...

Among other things, Abbie Lucas is a filmmaker, and Kevin Kautzman is a playwright and podcaster (shout out to The Art of Darkness podcast). They've co-written a play, Basilisk, about spooky internet AI horror story Roko's Basilisk. We talked to them about their play, about AI, about crypto, about film versus theatre, and more. Basilisk radio play (produced by Dark Pony Radio): https://open.spotif...

The Accursed Share (vol. 1 published in 1941) lays out Bataille's concept of general economy. What do Aztec human sacrifice, potlach, Islamic conquest, Calvinism and the rise of capitalism, the Marshall Plan and avoiding World War III all have in common? Bataille has the answers. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M...

I (Jack) talk to Dan Baltic about his book, Nutcrankr. To quote the blurb of Nutcrankr, " NUTCRANKR is a comic examination of fringe ideology, social atomisation, and sexual dysfunction in modern America. Dan Baltic's debut novel is a sardonic look at a certain type of Extremely Online character we're all too familiar with and what happens when their delusions and flights of fancy come into contac...

Ernst Jünger, a man who fought in two World Wars, was an entomologist, award-winning author, philosopher, traveller, psychonaut and much more, wrote The Forest Passage (1951), a book which explores how one can retain freedom in a time of mass ideology and titanic technological change. It's a really, really good book. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon...

Justin Murphy joins us to talk about 'Simulacra and Simulation' (1981), a book by French philosopher and cultural critic Jean Baudrillard. What happens when a society schematises too much, copies copies of copies and loses touch with 'reality'? Hyperreality.  VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Other Life (probably the best place to see what Justin Murphy is working on): www.otherlife.co Jack has published...

The A above middle C is often tuned to 440Hz. Why? Because of a multi-decade conspiracy to degrade the spiritual connection of the human race, involving Joseph Goebbels, John Deagan, the Frankfurt School, sacred numerology, and a very wealthy American dynasty. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sideshe...

Jack talks to ARX-Han, author of Incel (2023), about the process of writing Incel , as well as the thought behind it. Rather than sum up Incel myself, I'll quote ARX-Han: "Savage, hilarious, and everything in between , INCEL is a pitch-dark comedy about one man's harrowing quest to ascend. Suicidally depressed, twenty-two year old anon has settled on a if he can't find a way to lose his virginity...

We reflect on 100 episodes of the Book Club from Hell (or on the 99 prior to this one, if you want to be pedantic). Big shout out to moog for the intro music, and to Alex from Masticate (https://masticate.bandcamp.com) for the outro music. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet Apple Books: http:...

We were joined by Kevin Kautzman and Brad Kelly from the Art of Darkness podcast for this episode! We talked about Point Omega, by Don DeLillo, a short, mysterious novel published in 2010. If you haven't listened to Art of Darkness, we highly, highly recommend you do. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION https://artofdarkpod.com/ If you ever cared about us, you'll send Art of Darkness your money: https://ww...

Paul R Ehrlich is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies at Stanford University. In 1968 he published The Population Bomb, co-authored with his wife Anne Ehrlich. In it were predicted, among other catastrophes, famines in the 1970s which would kill hundreds of millions. The cause? Human overpopulation. The optimal solution? A trans-national governing body which would regulate the fertil...

Paladin Press (rest in peace) liked to court controversy. So when a mother of two approached them with a manuscript for a crime novel, they asked her to write something spicier. The result? Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, a step-by-step guide on how to work as a contract killer. The power of marketing was so strong that this book was implicated in a triple murder, leading...

James Burnham, a Trotskyite-turned-conservative, wrote The Managerial Revolution in 1941. In it, he describes the processes by which capitalist societies become managerial, and by which capitalists are displaced by managers as those who control the means of production. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarc...

'There's a Man Crying in the Street and Other Stories' is a short story collection by James De Llis, of the Hermitix podcast and author of 'Exiting Modernity', 'Only Ever Freedom' and 'Be Not Afraid'. In this episode, I (Jack) had a chat to James about the process of writing, the thematic and aesthetic inspirations for this collection, and more. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Where to buy There's a Ma...

Costin Alamariu, who may or may not be Bronze Age Pervert, completed his doctoral thesis in political philosophy at Yale in 2015. This thesis was re-published in 2023 under the title 'Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy'. There's a lot to this book, but it's mostly about the relationship between philosophy, heritability, aristocracy and nature. If you've ever wondered about the eugenic...

Meltdown (1994) sees Nick Land dissolve the posthuman future in a solvent of technocapital, continental philosophy, cyberpunk, bacterial warfare and retrotemporal attraction, all dressed up in implanted mirrorshades with a highly-cinematic 9mm. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet Apple Books:...

Miyamoto Musashi is Japan's most famous swordsman, a ronin in the 17th century who was victorious in over 60 duels, founded a famed swordfighting school, and achieved such a level of combat mastery that he learned the essential nature of mastery itself.  The Book of Five Rings (1645) was written by Musashi in a cave, towards the end of his life. It contains his thoughts on the Way of Strategy, con...

Story of the Eye (1928) is a classic of French coom-lit. In it, teenagers engage in a series of sex acts involving ovular and liquid symbols, demonstrating why everyone thinks the French are perverts. It's also a really good book. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet Apple Books: http://books.a...

The Turner Diaries (1978) is a notorious work of white nationalist and white supremacist fiction. It is reputed to have influenced a number of terrorist acts, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings. Surprisingly for such a work, the spelling and formatting are mostly fine.  VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/re...

Esoteric Trumpism (2024) promises to provide a Spenglerian reading of Donald Trump's life and leadership. Instead, it reads as a collection of strange Trump fanfics. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet Apple Books: http://books.apple.com/us/book/id6466733671 Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/TheBoo...

Prominent Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong wrote On Guerrilla Warfare in 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. This series of pamphlets was intended to persuade Chinese leaders to also pursue a guerrilla campaign against the invading Japanese military. Full of practical advice on how to conduct guerrilla operations, this book has a little something for everyone. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jac...

Frantz Fanon was an anticolonial theorist and psychiatrist from Martinique, who wrote The Wretched of the Earth  (1961) as an account of colonialism in Algeria. In it, he describes the therapeutic potential of violence and the psychology of the colonisers and colonised. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monar...

Chuck Tingle is a pseudonymous author of (mostly) gay erotic literature and, occasionally, non erotic literature. In a rare occurrence, Levi and Jack are in the same room for this episode. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Jack-BC-ebook/dp/B0CM5P9N9M/ref=monarch_sidesheet Apple Books: http://books.apple.com/us/book/id6466733671 Our Patreon:...

Mark Fisher, an English philosopher, teacher, blogger and co-founder of the CCRU, published Capitalist Realism in 2009. A work of more accessible anti-capitalism, Fisher hoped to sell 500 copies. Capitalist Realism went on to sell over 100,000 copies, and became  an important work in 21st-century anti-capitalist thought. VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION Jack has published a novel! Amazon: https://www.am...

The Breatharian Institute of America was founded by Wiley Brooks. You might be familiar with boring breatharianism, where people don't need to eat in order to survive. Brooks' breatharianism, on the other hand, is dense, complex and exciting. It involves fixing the global matrix with urine, giving birth to super galaxies, avoiding three-dimensional food, and paying $10,000 for a bottle of water (t...