web02.fireside.fm Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:22:06 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Outsider Theory - Episodes Tagged with “Literature” https://outsidertheory.fireside.fm/tags/literature Wed, 10 May 2023 09:00:00 -0400 Outsider Theory is an interview-based podcast exploring the mutations of theories outside of the authorized spaces of intellectual life as well as theories of that ever-alluring figure, the outsider, and related subjects. en-us episodic Theory on the outside, theory of the outside, outside of the theory Geoff Shullenberger Outsider Theory is an interview-based podcast exploring the mutations of theories outside of the authorized spaces of intellectual life as well as theories of that ever-alluring figure, the outsider, and related subjects. no critical theory, conspiracy theory, outsider intellectuals, outsiders, the outside Geoff Shullenberger gshullenb@gmail.com Lockdown Literature with Tim Abrahams https://outsidertheory.fireside.fm/lockdown-literature 938eb10d-b720-4d8e-be5c-3c1be4657641 Wed, 10 May 2023 09:00:00 -0400 Geoff Shullenberger full Geoff Shullenberger Architecture writer and publisher Tim Abrahams joins me to discuss his anthology of lockdown literature, "The Machine Book of Weird." 1:00:52 no Lockdown diaries became a literary fad in 2020, but few if any were memorable. What if the real literature of lockdown was written over a century ago? This is the hypothesis behind "The Machine Book of Weird," an anthology of fiction from the late 19th and early 20th century that explores isolation, domestic confinement, and the uncanniness of home. Publisher Tim Abrahams joins me to discuss this project, plus Freud, Mark Fisher, and more. You can donate to the project's Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbow/machine-book-of-weird lockdown, literature, fiction, covid, isolation, domesticity, confinement, incarceration Lockdown diaries became a literary fad in 2020, but few if any were memorable. What if the real literature of lockdown was written over a century ago? This is the hypothesis behind "The Machine Book of Weird," an anthology of fiction from the late 19th and early 20th century that explores isolation, domestic confinement, and the uncanniness of home. Publisher Tim Abrahams joins me to discuss this project, plus Freud, Mark Fisher, and more.

You can donate to the project's Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbow/machine-book-of-weird

]]> Lockdown diaries became a literary fad in 2020, but few if any were memorable. What if the real literature of lockdown was written over a century ago? This is the hypothesis behind "The Machine Book of Weird," an anthology of fiction from the late 19th and early 20th century that explores isolation, domestic confinement, and the uncanniness of home. Publisher Tim Abrahams joins me to discuss this project, plus Freud, Mark Fisher, and more.

You can donate to the project's Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbow/machine-book-of-weird

]]> The Great Debasement with Alice Gribbin https://outsidertheory.fireside.fm/great-debasement 67aaa7cd-69d4-452f-ac95-4453a10541cd Fri, 10 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0400 Geoff Shullenberger full Geoff Shullenberger Alice Gribbin joins me to discuss her recent essay in Tablet, "The Great Debasement," on the recent ideological transformation of our major cultural institutions. 2:05:21 no Essayist and poet Alice Gribbin joins me to discuss her recent essay in Tablet, "The Great Debasement," on the ideological transformation of museums and other cultural institutions into propaganda organs; the utilitarian attitude to art; the continued relevance of John Berger's "Ways of Seeing"; and more. https://substack.com/profile/5192682-alice-gribbin https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/great-debasement-art https://quillette.com/2021/06/05/the-artist-and-the-censor/ culture, institutions, art, museums, propaganda, literature, poetry, censorship, John Berger Essayist and poet Alice Gribbin joins me to discuss her recent essay in Tablet, "The Great Debasement," on the ideological transformation of museums and other cultural institutions into propaganda organs; the utilitarian attitude to art; the continued relevance of John Berger's "Ways of Seeing"; and more.

https://substack.com/profile/5192682-alice-gribbin

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/great-debasement-art

https://quillette.com/2021/06/05/the-artist-and-the-censor/

]]> Essayist and poet Alice Gribbin joins me to discuss her recent essay in Tablet, "The Great Debasement," on the ideological transformation of museums and other cultural institutions into propaganda organs; the utilitarian attitude to art; the continued relevance of John Berger's "Ways of Seeing"; and more.

https://substack.com/profile/5192682-alice-gribbin

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/great-debasement-art

https://quillette.com/2021/06/05/the-artist-and-the-censor/

]]> The Very Online Novel with Timothy Wilcox https://outsidertheory.fireside.fm/very-online-novel 2e853c82-8397-42a3-a931-35addbc27fe5 Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:00:00 -0500 Geoff Shullenberger full Geoff Shullenberger Timothy Wilcox joins me to discuss three very online novels released in the past year: Hari Kunzru's Red Pill, Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts, and Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking about This. 1:39:51 no Timothy Wilcox (@PreCursorPoets) is one of my my favorite writers on contemporary literature. He joins me to discuss three very online novels published in the past year or so: Hari Kunzru's Red Pill, Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts, and Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking about This. He shares his thoughts on the genre of internet fiction and the evolving phenomenon of "hyperconnectivity" as manifest in literary texts. We also consider the complicated interaction between the temporality of fiction and the temporality of the internet, the outsized role of Donald Trump in recent internet novels, and recent writers' attempts to channel and appropriate the dark energies of the internet. https://www.precursorpoets.com/always-online-prelude/ https://www.precursorpoets.com/uninterrupted-connection-infinite-grace/ https://medium.com/arc-digital/writing-the-great-american-novel-in-the-age-of-meme-warfare-273006eb85de internet novel, literature, hyperconnectivity, social media, Donald Trump, Hari Kunzru, Patricia Lockwood, Lauren Oyler Timothy Wilcox (@PreCursorPoets) is one of my my favorite writers on contemporary literature. He joins me to discuss three very online novels published in the past year or so: Hari Kunzru's Red Pill, Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts, and Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking about This. He shares his thoughts on the genre of internet fiction and the evolving phenomenon of "hyperconnectivity" as manifest in literary texts. We also consider the complicated interaction between the temporality of fiction and the temporality of the internet, the outsized role of Donald Trump in recent internet novels, and recent writers' attempts to channel and appropriate the dark energies of the internet.

https://www.precursorpoets.com/always-online-prelude/

https://www.precursorpoets.com/uninterrupted-connection-infinite-grace/

https://medium.com/arc-digital/writing-the-great-american-novel-in-the-age-of-meme-warfare-273006eb85de

]]> Timothy Wilcox (@PreCursorPoets) is one of my my favorite writers on contemporary literature. He joins me to discuss three very online novels published in the past year or so: Hari Kunzru's Red Pill, Lauren Oyler's Fake Accounts, and Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking about This. He shares his thoughts on the genre of internet fiction and the evolving phenomenon of "hyperconnectivity" as manifest in literary texts. We also consider the complicated interaction between the temporality of fiction and the temporality of the internet, the outsized role of Donald Trump in recent internet novels, and recent writers' attempts to channel and appropriate the dark energies of the internet.

https://www.precursorpoets.com/always-online-prelude/

https://www.precursorpoets.com/uninterrupted-connection-infinite-grace/

https://medium.com/arc-digital/writing-the-great-american-novel-in-the-age-of-meme-warfare-273006eb85de

]]> Poetry, Fascism, and Madness: the Fall of the House of Panero with Aaron Shulman https://outsidertheory.fireside.fm/disenchantment a04fdad6-8023-444b-8c5a-5ffd870f1a1c Tue, 02 Nov 2021 11:00:00 -0400 Geoff Shullenberger full Geoff Shullenberger The Panero family were literary royalty in fascist Spain; their descent into alcoholism, madness, and debauchery was the subject of the cult 1976 documentary "El desencanto." Aaron Shulman joins me to discuss his collective biography of the Paneros, "The Age of Disenchantments." 1:09:00 no Federico García Lorca is revered as a literary martyr to the barbarity of fascism. His lesser-known friend and contemporary Leopoldo Panero narrowly escaped execution by fascist insurgents around the same time. In a strange twist, Panero later ended up as a fervent supporter of the regime that had killed his friend. Panero's loyalty allowed him to become an influential cultural commisar under Franco's government and placed him and his family at the pinnacle of the Franco-era literary elite. But he died at 52, leaving his brilliant and charismatic wife, Felicidad, and his three sons – all of whom had literary ambitions – to grapple with his ignominious legacy. What happened next was even stranger. Just as Franco's regime was falling in the mid-1970s, the cult documentary "El desencanto" offered an intimate picture of the decadent and eccentric clan, making their Oedipal struggles a symbol of the nation's reckoning with its past. Felicidad and her three sons became celebrities, characters in the novel of their own lives, lived out in public. In this way, their trajectory points us not only backward to reactionary modernism but forward to reality TV and the internet. Aaron Shulman, author of the collective biography "The Age of Disenchantments," joins me to discuss the allure of the Panero family, who he descibes as something like the Royal Tenenbaums meet Succession, as told by Roberto Bolaño. poetry, literature, fascism, madness, schizophrenia, addiction, alcoholism, Leopoldo Panero, Roberto Bolaño, Felicidad Blanc, Leopoldo María Panero, Juan Luis Panero, Michi Panero, Federico García Lorca Federico García Lorca is revered as a literary martyr to the barbarity of fascism. His lesser-known friend and contemporary Leopoldo Panero narrowly escaped execution by fascist insurgents around the same time. In a strange twist, Panero later ended up as a fervent supporter of the regime that had killed his friend. Panero's loyalty allowed him to become an influential cultural commisar under Franco's government and placed him and his family at the pinnacle of the Franco-era literary elite. But he died at 52, leaving his brilliant and charismatic wife, Felicidad, and his three sons – all of whom had literary ambitions – to grapple with his ignominious legacy. What happened next was even stranger. Just as Franco's regime was falling in the mid-1970s, the cult documentary "El desencanto" offered an intimate picture of the decadent and eccentric clan, making their Oedipal struggles a symbol of the nation's reckoning with its past. Felicidad and her three sons became celebrities, characters in the novel of their own lives, lived out in public. In this way, their trajectory points us not only backward to reactionary modernism but forward to reality TV and the internet.

Aaron Shulman, author of the collective biography "The Age of Disenchantments," joins me to discuss the allure of the Panero family, who he descibes as something like the Royal Tenenbaums meet Succession, as told by Roberto Bolaño.

]]> Federico García Lorca is revered as a literary martyr to the barbarity of fascism. His lesser-known friend and contemporary Leopoldo Panero narrowly escaped execution by fascist insurgents around the same time. In a strange twist, Panero later ended up as a fervent supporter of the regime that had killed his friend. Panero's loyalty allowed him to become an influential cultural commisar under Franco's government and placed him and his family at the pinnacle of the Franco-era literary elite. But he died at 52, leaving his brilliant and charismatic wife, Felicidad, and his three sons – all of whom had literary ambitions – to grapple with his ignominious legacy. What happened next was even stranger. Just as Franco's regime was falling in the mid-1970s, the cult documentary "El desencanto" offered an intimate picture of the decadent and eccentric clan, making their Oedipal struggles a symbol of the nation's reckoning with its past. Felicidad and her three sons became celebrities, characters in the novel of their own lives, lived out in public. In this way, their trajectory points us not only backward to reactionary modernism but forward to reality TV and the internet.

Aaron Shulman, author of the collective biography "The Age of Disenchantments," joins me to discuss the allure of the Panero family, who he descibes as something like the Royal Tenenbaums meet Succession, as told by Roberto Bolaño.

]]> The Domestication of the Literary Outsider with Alex Perez https://outsidertheory.fireside.fm/literary-outsider 2c7fe239-31f1-43a9-8c20-e8237e70244f Thu, 06 May 2021 17:00:00 -0400 Geoff Shullenberger full Geoff Shullenberger Fiction writer and cultural critic Alex Perez joins Outsider Theory to discuss Bolaño, the prestige economy of literature, and the prospects for literary outsiders today. 1:30:05 no Fiction writer and cultural critic Alex Perez joins Outsider Theory to discuss a mutual favorite writer, Roberto Bolaño, and in particular his short story "Labyrinth." We also cover the contemporary literary prestige economy, the professionalization of literature, the propagandification of culture in the Trump era, and the prospects for literary outsiders today. Read Bolaño's "Labyrinth" here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/23/labyrinth-roberto-bolano https://im1776.com/2021/04/27/the-new-literary-bad-boys/ https://twitter.com/Perez_Writes https://alexperez.substack.com/p/coming-soon Roberto Bolaño, literature, outsiders, bad boys, prestige, Pascale Casanova, Pierre Bourdieu Fiction writer and cultural critic Alex Perez joins Outsider Theory to discuss a mutual favorite writer, Roberto Bolaño, and in particular his short story "Labyrinth." We also cover the contemporary literary prestige economy, the professionalization of literature, the propagandification of culture in the Trump era, and the prospects for literary outsiders today.

Read Bolaño's "Labyrinth" here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/23/labyrinth-roberto-bolano

https://im1776.com/2021/04/27/the-new-literary-bad-boys/

https://twitter.com/Perez_Writes

https://alexperez.substack.com/p/coming-soon

]]> Fiction writer and cultural critic Alex Perez joins Outsider Theory to discuss a mutual favorite writer, Roberto Bolaño, and in particular his short story "Labyrinth." We also cover the contemporary literary prestige economy, the professionalization of literature, the propagandification of culture in the Trump era, and the prospects for literary outsiders today.

Read Bolaño's "Labyrinth" here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/23/labyrinth-roberto-bolano

https://im1776.com/2021/04/27/the-new-literary-bad-boys/

https://twitter.com/Perez_Writes

https://alexperez.substack.com/p/coming-soon

]]> Based and Marxpilled with Adam Lehrer https://outsidertheory.fireside.fm/marxpilled e09334bf-b7de-4e1f-a9a2-a8aeb7c74da6 Wed, 03 Mar 2021 15:00:00 -0500 Geoff Shullenberger full Geoff Shullenberger Critic and artist Adam Lehrer joins Outsider Theory to discuss the mainstreaming of Marxism and the current prospects for dissent in the arts. 1:10:41 no Adam Lehrer is a critic and artist, the co-host of System of Systems podcast. His new substack is Safety Propaganda. He joins Outsider Theory to discuss how we got Marxpilled, how Marx got mainstreamed among the professional class in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and why the "ruthless criticism of all that exists" especially means criticism of your own class. We then examine why Marx and Engels loved the reactionary monarchist Balzac, and what comparable value some writers on the right might offer to the critique of contemporary capitalism. From there, we discuss the propagandistic functions served by art today and the prospects for meaningful dissent in the arts and literature. Adam's work: System of Systems: https://www.patreon.com/systemofsystems?fan_landing=true Safety Propaganda: https://safetypropaganda.substack.com/ "A Marxist Defends the Great Reactionaries": https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/01/a-marxist-defends-the-great-reactionaries/ "Art's Moral Fetish": https://caesuramag.org/posts/arts-moral-fetish Marx, Marxism, Balzac, Nick Land, Houellebecq, Nietzsche Adam Lehrer is a critic and artist, the co-host of System of Systems podcast. His new substack is Safety Propaganda. He joins Outsider Theory to discuss how we got Marxpilled, how Marx got mainstreamed among the professional class in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and why the "ruthless criticism of all that exists" especially means criticism of your own class. We then examine why Marx and Engels loved the reactionary monarchist Balzac, and what comparable value some writers on the right might offer to the critique of contemporary capitalism. From there, we discuss the propagandistic functions served by art today and the prospects for meaningful dissent in the arts and literature.

Adam's work:

System of Systems: https://www.patreon.com/systemofsystems?fan_landing=true

Safety Propaganda: https://safetypropaganda.substack.com/

"A Marxist Defends the Great Reactionaries": https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/01/a-marxist-defends-the-great-reactionaries/

"Art's Moral Fetish": https://caesuramag.org/posts/arts-moral-fetish

]]> Adam Lehrer is a critic and artist, the co-host of System of Systems podcast. His new substack is Safety Propaganda. He joins Outsider Theory to discuss how we got Marxpilled, how Marx got mainstreamed among the professional class in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and why the "ruthless criticism of all that exists" especially means criticism of your own class. We then examine why Marx and Engels loved the reactionary monarchist Balzac, and what comparable value some writers on the right might offer to the critique of contemporary capitalism. From there, we discuss the propagandistic functions served by art today and the prospects for meaningful dissent in the arts and literature.

Adam's work:

System of Systems: https://www.patreon.com/systemofsystems?fan_landing=true

Safety Propaganda: https://safetypropaganda.substack.com/

"A Marxist Defends the Great Reactionaries": https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/01/a-marxist-defends-the-great-reactionaries/

"Art's Moral Fetish": https://caesuramag.org/posts/arts-moral-fetish

]]>