TMR 31.5: "I Could Have Been The Conductor of a Shawm Band" [The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice]

Covering two sections of the novel—the “Fifth Intermezzo” and “Book Ten”—this episode of TMR starts by discussing how life didn’t turn out how Oskar Pakulat had hoped, and then meanders through Beatrice’s search for the unicorn Anaximander, along with Benno’s all too honest conversation with Laura, before wrapping with an anti-AI reading of the golem/robot section. There’s more talk about how Imtraud Morgner is disrupting patriarchal literary forms, incorporating a dazzling array of literary structures, and having a great time writing this book. Also: Chad discovers the “Glossary” and learns about Paul Wiens for the second time this season.This week’s music is “Brothers” by Dan Deacon.Next week’s episode will cover up through page 360. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) for all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com