Panthers, Bears, and a New Podcast
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Susan Sontag
16 min read
The podcast's first book discussion covers Sontag's 'The Volcano Lover' - understanding Sontag's intellectual legacy and critical approach would enrich appreciation of why this novel was chosen and its place in her body of work
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Evens
12 min read
The article discusses Nastassja Martin's anthropological work with the Even people of eastern Russia and their concept of 'medka' (half human, half bear) - understanding this indigenous Siberian culture provides essential context for Martin's transformative experience
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Anorexia nervosa
12 min read
Jen Craig's novel explores her character's experiences with anorexia as part of the broader themes of bodily control, identity, and self-understanding that parallel the porousness and vulnerability themes in Martin's book
It’s been a while since I sent out a newsletter, and I want to write about a couple books that have lingered in my mind from the last few weeks. But first, an announcement! I’ve started a podcast with two Twitter friends, Dorian and Frances, and the first two episodes are out. I’m so excited about this new project! It’s called One Bright Book, and in our first episode, we introduce ourselves and the podcast, and in the second we discuss Susan Sontag’s The Volcano Lover: A Romance. We will be recording an episode about once a month and each time we will discuss a book in depth, plus chat informally about our current reading. I’ve been figuring out the technical side of podcasting and want to give extra special thanks to fellow podcasters Paul and Trevor of The and the Gripes podcast for helping us out. They made this job so easy! With their help, I’m now editing and getting comfortable with Zencastr, GarageBand, Libsyn and other websites with strange names, and it’s been so fun to learn a new skill. If you’re on Twitter, you can find us there, and our website will be up soon.
To be totally honest, I’m scared to death of this podcasting business and take refuge in the tech aspect of it as something concrete and (relatively) straightforward I can contribute. You know how there are scary things you’ll never do (go skydiving) and scary things you know you have to do because you totally can, you’re just afraid (teach your first class ever)? Podcasting is the latter. So here I am.
As for what I’ve been reading, first, let me recommend Jen Craig’s Panthers and the Museum of Fire. This is exactly my kind of book! A woman named Jen Craig walks across Sydney, Australia, with a manuscript written by an old friend who recently died. She’s going to meet the friend’s sister to return it to her. The sister first insisted that Jen take the manuscript, and then called her later to ask for it back with instructions not to read it. Of course, that’s the point when Jen picks the manuscript up and starts reading. This reading experience — a shocking one, since she had no idea this former friend was a writer — leads to a breakthrough in her own stalled writing.
The walk across
...This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.