F***bois of Literature Book Podcast

CW: Substance abuse, conversion therapy, mid-century queerness, incest John Cheever is the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who is the master of the American short story. My guest, Andrew Rostan (@ AndrewRostan ) and I fully believe Cheever should be taught more in American schools, especially through the lens of the evolution of queer writers. BECOME A PATRON: patreon.com/fuckboisoflit Buy Andrew’s...

CW: Transgender Identities, Homophobia, Racism, Suicide & Self-Harm, Slavery William Faulkner is part of the Big American Triad of writers: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. Why is that? Especially when he never considered America past the lines of the fictional Yoknapatawpha. Dr. Daniel Kasper, professor at UT Arlington, discusses the transitive definition of whiteness, the inherit nature...

CW: Abuse, murder, capital punishment, pregnancy and infant loss Want the whole episode? Become a patron! http://www.patreon.com/fuckboisoflit Author and history student Lillah Lawson ( @LillahLawson , linktree ) is here to discuss Arthur Miller's 1953 play about communism and HUAAC, THE CRUCIBLE. Based on the real events of 1692, Miller adjusted the facts of history to fit his narrative and creat...

CW: GamerGate, Jordan Petersen/Toxic Atheism, Fatphobia, Racism, Toxic Masculinity, Neurodivergence They had time to unpack all of it, but they didn't. Today, guest Thom Dunn ( @ThomDunn , https://linktr.ee/thomdunn ) discusses Ernest Cline's READY PLAYER ONE, which has helped define Geek culture and absolutely for the worse. With no desire to dissect the world he's creating and asking the ultimat...

CW: Emotional abuse, Explicit sexual language, Antisemitism, Racism We've had multiple requests to do this book, and I was so excited Kerri Kearse ( @_iamlivingcolor ) offered to cover it with us! The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P . is a 2013 novel by Adelle Waldman that covers the dating life of Nathaniel Piven in earl 2000s New York City. TL; DL: he's awful! SUMMARY Nate attends a party at his ex-...

Link to a review of a biography of Patricia Highsmith: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/highsmith-was-a-troll-on-richard-bradfords-devils-lusts-and-strange-desires/ As it turns out, Patricia Highsmith was another one of those common birds, a midcentury writer of the antisemite variety, whose advanced-level bigotries really don’t come come up in the same breath as the praises heaped upon her, an...

CW: Suicide, depression, age-inappropriate reatlionships ETHAN FROME is a weird-ass book. It’s shorter than JUDE THE OBSCURE, so that’s very nice. It’s nominally less bleak, but that’s just because it doesn’t involve child murderers. But it is bleak, it is creepy, it is foreboding and as we’ll discuss in the episode, we feel justified including it in our Spooky Season programming. Find Tav on Twit...

CONTENT WARNING: RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, GENOCIDE, RACISM I did an entire series for Patreon on Roald Dahl. The final installment was an episode on CHARLIE + THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, which feels prescient to the discussion of the upcoming movie starring Timothee Chalamet. My patrons generously gave permission to make the audio public. Read along with the transcript here . IF YOU LIKE THIS EPISODE: BEC...

It's time to do the Satanic Panic! What I thought was a uniquely American Christian thing turns out to have some gnarly roots in Canada. Emmet joins me in a multi-part series to discuss MICHELLE REMEMBERS: the threat of colonialism, the trauma of miscarriages, and the lurking specter of creepy Catholic psychologists. Support Emmet on Patreon!  Follow Emmet on Twitter: Believe Me Now and Emmet...

Just as I say in the intro, I chatted with Derik of Ratchet Book Club just for fun. If you're looking for a way to hang out with some people, this is a fun episode of 20 questions. Check out all of Derik's projects: https://linktr.ee/RatchetBooks More ways to enjoy FBOL & Emily J. Edwards! Find Emily's books and professional information at https://www.msemilyedwards.com Love T shirts, pins, an...

CW: Rape, self-mutilation, adultery, racism, transphobia This week, Malavika joins us to discuss some 1970s wackiness with John Irving's most famous novel, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP. It's a book about feminism. Sort of. Follow Malavika's show: Subscribe here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-favorite-book/id1527050387 Twitter: https://twitter.com/yfbpodcast PROMOS: Find TICKLISH BUSINE...

Lauren Emily Whalen ( @LaurenEmilyWri ) joins us this week to discuss the Shakespearean sex farce LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Everyone loves a strong, saucy lady PLUS at least two scenes of masks! What's not to love about this play? Listen to the full hour-long episode on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/fuckboisoflit Order Lauren’s book based on THE WINTER’S TALE now! Two Winters (physical copies): http...

We’ve long maintained that Graphic Novels and comics **are** literature, so it should come as no surprise that we’re discussing this guy today. He’s one of the most successful ONSCREEN comic book translations we’ve ever seen. He has everything-- pathos, motive, historical context, and pecs that just won’t quit. What else could we ask for? Follow Andy on Twitter: @StopThatAndy and/or @AtomicGhost85...

From the archive: Technically one of our first episodes EVER, Andy Michaels (@ StopThatAndy /@ AtomicGhos t85 ) and Thom Dunn (@ thomdunn ) joined us to discuss the various Fuckbois of Graphic Novels in the classic series THE X-MEN. Andy will be back this week to discuss Wolverine, and Thom will be back later this season to discuss READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline. For full episodes, be a patron:...

CW: sexual assault, incest, trauma, abusive relationships, homophobia GET THE FULL EPISODE: PATREON.COM/FUCKBOISOFLIT If you hate the modernists as much as I do, you'll want to click away. But don't! This is one of the first books in which we can watch a real-life fuckboi of literature grapple with the way he has hurt and continues to hurt the people in his life. WIth the glitz, glamour, and shine...

My guest, Rob Walker (@ timidwerewolf ) gets into a discussion of hope and beauty while discussing the PTSD manifesto from Kurt Vonnegut.  CW: Fat-shaming, torture, murder, war, PTSD SUMMARY Billy Pilgrim is an optometrist from Ilium, New York who is living with the memories of his time as a POW from World War II. This manifests as a consciousness that has become "unstuck in time," so that his bra...

Sylvia Plath scholar Emily Van Duyne ( @EmilyVanDuyne ) is here to discuss the complex and interlinked legacies of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. CONTENT WARNINGS : suicide (obviously), physical abuse, adultery.  Normally I give a quick bullet points of what we discuss in the episode, but it's here that I have to say: we discuss everything. Legacy, outsider-ism, choice, American vs British politics,...

The extended episode on FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS discusses truth, fiction, and how people can break down power structures. But in this 10 minute segment, my guest Danielle Ryan (@ danirat ) and I talk about all the people who see the exposed power structures in the prose of white male writers and… embrace it. And become a part of it.  Become a patron for just $1 and receive the full epi...

**This episode first aired in October 2019** Content warnings: violence, rape, torture We are re-posting our episode on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE in preparation for the 2021 airing of an episode of FEAR + LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS by Hunter S. Thompson. Books of kindred spirit, FEAR + LOATHING was published roughly a decade after CLOCKWORK ORANGE appeared in 1962. FROM THE ORIGINAL POST: The amazing Lucé Tom...

• Follow FBOL on Twitter: twitter.com/fuckboisoflit Our dear friend Val (@whiskeyandspite) is back for a discussion on abuse, gaslighting, and class through the lens of George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION. CW for endless emotional abuse. SUMMARY Poverty-stricken flowerseller, Eliza Doolittle, is the subject of a bet between Henry Higgins and his friend, Colonial Pickering. Higgins, an elocution teache...

• Follow FBOL on Twitter: twitter.com/fuckboisoflit Hey attic wives and lit witches and welcome to Fuckbois of Literature, I’m Emily Edwards.  Since I found out a lot of y’all are still subscribed on our free platforms, I wanted to give you a little taste of our TWILIGHT episode. In this excerpt, Strats and I discuss the inherent grossness of Vampire stories with an adult and a youth, compari...

• Follow FBOL on Twitter: twitter.com/fuckboisoflit Becca from the blog BOOK WITH WITH BECCA (@ bec_here ) is my guest this week to have another discussion, more nuanced on my part, about what I refer to as "the Internet's favorite book," aka, Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. As it turns out, everyone's kinda shitty in this book but it's still very nice. You know? SUMMARY Mr. & Mrs. Bennet h...

• Follow FBOL on Twitter: twitter.com/fuckboisoflit If you’re a longtime listener, you know by now that I don’t pick the books we do every episode, the guest does. Mostly that’s so the onus of reading or rereading fresh for the recording session is on me; people normally choose books they love or have recently finished in order to not have to read 400 pages of Victorian Sadness again and again. An...

Marci and Ako, the hosts of the PHENOMENAL podcast Colored Pages Book Club, join host Emily Edwards to discuss the intensely traumatic Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire. This is FBOL's final FULL, PUBLIC episode. For more, subscribe for $1 at our patreon: Patreon.com/fuckboisoflit In this episode we discuss: The hidden bigotry of the "nice guy" The progression of domestic abuse The...

Roald Dahl, the author of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, THE WITCHES, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and over a dozen other books for children, had a complicated past as Her Majesty's secret sexy spy, a constant philanderer, and a long and storied history of antisemitism. A short biography and introduction to the life of Roald Dahl. Transcript available here: https://www.fuckboisoflit.com/episodes/...