one of the most consistently informative podcasts

nice, glad you're enjoying it! i think east of eden is his "best" book but grapes of wrath is so endlessly quotable it's insane. you will definitely like it if you already fuck with his writing style

there are a lot of different readings on the narrator in east of eden. the narrator is a character in the book (though it is also supposed to be steinbeck since the steinbeck family is related to the arc in some way that i cant remember). some of what the narrator says is supposed to be satirical or ironic. i think there is some sense of irony in this quote. at least that is how i always interpreted it since its so obviously a "rugged individualism" jerk off which does not really reflect Steinbeck's own philosophy. 100% steinbeck was critical of communism in the USSR at this point and even worked with the CIA around this time but he was still engaged with the american "left" which even at its lamest was going to have some small degree of collective spirit. the american dream is an obvious theme in east of eden and one that steinbeck has complicated thoughts on. he takes it pretty literally in that it is a dream and not a reality but the fact that it is still a widespread dream makes it have a huge impact on the lives of americans and i think he finds that admirable. east of eden is an incredible piece of literature and like any good piece of literature, i think it contains a lot of different layers but of course understanding steinbeck's own opinions around this time is important for interpreting it.

by the end of his life his views definitely got worse and worse though. awful opinions on the vietnam war, for example. grapes of wrath is still one of the best pieces of proleterian literature out there however.

At the last few large protests in my city, three or four different high school kids spoke about the large school walkouts they organized at their high schools for the jan 20 and jan 30th strikes. These were significant walkouts. A couple of them even made the connection between the genocide in Gaza and oppression at home (one of them was a Palestinian-American, so obviously, conditions make it a lot clearer to them, but still). idk some of these kids are a lot more tuned in than I was at their age.

the vanguard will be led by Tim Heidecker and Greg Turkington

yeah, it's embarrassing this was posted here

I loved him as a kid but reading his stuff as an adult is not easy... I remember thinking Pet Sematary was so fucking good and scary when I was around 10. But I just read it again last week and it does not hold up much at all. He’s just a straight up bad writer. Like I felt second hand embarrassment from his writing style at points. Funny how many point to his essay on writing as a good reference for someone trying to learn how to be an author. I think he sometimes comes up with good story ideas and that can be enough to sit through and finish the occasional one but it is 100% slop as the writing itself has zero artistic merit but he thinks he has the chops to go on for 500+ pages. I actually do kinda enjoy the shining from an entertainment perspective and it’s so far the only one I’ve liked that I’ve revisited as an adult but it’s still wicked far from an impressive piece of writing.

“Before you get too excited” yeah can’t say I was

But now we will never get a sequel to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom…

Ngl this was something I already thought was the case… lol. I’m always way off with any Vietnam news. Gotta get more familiar with modern Vietnam

fellow spy kids toothpaste user I see!

Landlord is an occupation? Not familiar with any labor they do