PODCAST · arts
Canonical
by Canonical
James, Sam, and Eyad get together every week to review and discuss a book in-depth. Books are chosen as part of a thematic miniseries (Contemporary Japanese Fiction, Transhumanist Sci-Fi). Join us as we work toward building a more inclusive, contemporary canon.
Episodes
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Can You Create a New Canon?
What can we as readers do to change which books the world considers 'important'? Three years ago, we started this podcast with a mission to create a more inclusive, contemporary canon. Were we successful? In our final episode we take a look back at our show to consider what it means to create a…
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Why Is Everyone Talking About The Multiverse?
Everyone is talking about the multiverse these days. Why do we so often hear about alternate histories and alternate worlds in the fiction we see in novels and on television? In today's episode we try to answer these questions by taking another look at the three books we recently read: Lincoln in...
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Hidden Subtexts of Never Let Me Go
We've discussed how Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go both is and isn't about cloning. So what is it about? We talk this week about other concerns that come into play and how the vague nature of the novel might allow the reader to overlay such ethical conundrums. But is that asking too much of the...
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Is Never Let Me Go Science Fiction?
Never Let Me Go is an unusual novel: Can there be a book about clones that isn't about cloning? In this episode we discuss the genre of this novel and how that genre influences the way it treats its themes. We expect science fiction to show us the ethical implications of our actions and how they...
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Review: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Spoilers abound in this review of Kazuo Ishiguro's alternate reality classic Never Let Me Go. One of us found it engrossing. One of us found it bland. The third was of two minds. Who would have guessed? Our discussion includes a deliberation on what makes this a work of literature, what the heck...
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Rodham: New Timeline, Same Hillary
We wind down our discussion of Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld with the question of how much sidestepping of the facts should be permissible in alternate history fiction. Also, is this book a push back against the importance of likability in politics, or simply an embrace of it? And did Sittenfeld…
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Rodham: Feminism Without Politics
We continue our discussion of Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld by examining its political point of view (or lack thereof). Despite taking on one of the most famous politicians in the world as its subject, Rodham feels pretty light on political intent. Is it meant to be a cathartic thought experiment…
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Review: Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
A surprising pick from Eyad is this week's read and review. Sittenfeld's Rodham, an alternate history what-if about Hilary Clinton, spurs discussion of the ethics of Real Person Fiction, what it means to be a "book club book", and our reaction to the first couple of the US during our formative...
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Ghosts + History = Lincoln in the Bardo
In our last week with George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, we talk about whether it matters if some of the "quotations" from supposedly contemporary sources are fictional, and if it would matter if all of them were made up. From there, we discuss whether there is anything problematic about...
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Has George Saunders Changed?
In our second look at George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, we examine whether his book has more to say about history or theology, its mixture or Buddhist and Christian ideas about the afterlife, and whether Saunders really cares about the afterlife or just wants to tell a good story. For this...
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Review: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
This week we start our new series Alternate Histories/Alternate Realities with a novel from a master of the short story George Saunders. We loved Saunders's short stories-- does his debut novel measure up? For this series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 -...
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Realist Literature under Communism: Herta Müller, László Krasznahorkai, and Mo Yan
Today we conclude our series Life under Communism by taking a second look at all three novels, The Passport, Satantango, and The Garlic Ballads. We talk about whether there are any takeaways about Communism for us here, or whether that's even something that should be sought from realist fiction.…
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The Garlic Ballads: Are we too harsh on Mo Yan’s politics?
For our last week with Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads, we question whether the writer deserves the cold treatment he gets from others in the literary community and beyond. Is he a CCP stooge, or is there more to his writing? Can his crude language be a form of dissent? And what's up with the young...
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The Garlic Ballads: Can you trust Mo Yan?
In our second look at Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads we examine the complicated publication history of this novel: bannings, unbannings, swapped chapters, and a dubious quotation delivered by the ghost of Stalin in Mo Yan's dreams. If the novel has changed this much, which version do we trust? If Mo...
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Review: The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan
This week, we review Mo Yan's novel The Garlic Ballads. Mo's work is intertwined with the politics of his country but we do our best to focus on the book itself (the political discussion will come in future episodes). We also try to determine why we often feel disappointed by Chinese fiction, and...
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Why is Satantango So Hard to Read?
László Krasznahorkai's Satantango is a book with a distinct, challenging style that can annoy some readers, so why is it written that way? Join us as we try to solve that mystery, discuss whether novelists need to follow rules, which styles can be reused, and how this challenging novel was…
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Decoding Krasznahorkai’s Satantango
We're back with more of László Krasznahorkai's grim world in Satantango. We keep the giggles going a little before delving into whether László offers us any hope in the novel and whether this book really is devoid of politics. We also discuss the allegorical plight of the characters and whether...
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Review: Satantango by László Krasznahorkai
This week we shine a light onto the bleak world of László Krasznahorkai with a review of his prize-winning debut novel Satantango. We discuss whether or not the plot is important to this book and whether the European literati is more intelligent than its American counterpart. Also, James is...
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Herta Müller and Feminism
We're concluding our look at Herta Müller's The Passport by examining it as a feminist novel. How does the novel's exploration of sexual exchange interact with the the way Müller presents 1980s Romania? And what exactly does it mean to be a great pheasant in the world? For this series we will be...
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Herta Müller: A German home in Romania?
We're back to discuss more of The Passport by Herta Müller. This week, we talk about the German concept of heimat, as well as Müller's criticisms of the concept as introduced in her 2003 essay "Der König verneigt sich und tötet" ("The King Bows and Kills"). Don't worry, none of us read German…
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Review: The Passport by Herta Müller
We kick off our new series Life Under Communism, with a review of The Passport by Nobel prize winner Herta Müller. In a terse prose style, Müller uses surreal imagery to tell the story of ethnic Germans living in 1980s Romania and what they must do to get ahold of the passports necessary to leave...
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Power in literature: Viet Thanh Nguyen, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Yun Ko-Eun
Today we conclude our series Rich Country/Poor Country by taking a second look at all three novels, The Disaster Tourist, The Sympathizer, and Paradise. We'll take a closer look at how forcefully these authors present their political views, the differences between state and corporate power in…
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Abdulrazak Gurnah and the Justice of Colonialism
We're concluding our discussion of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise by taking a look at what it has to say about justice and colonialism. We connect this novel to the ethical debate about the origins of justice. Can Eyad successfully make the case that this is a philosophical novel? For our series…
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Abdulrazak Gurnah—Who can understand Paradise?
We're continuing our discussion of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise, today exploring whether a comparison to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is fair, and what the purpose of the religious subtext might be. Does it hurt the novel to have hidden meaning if cultural touchstones are beyond your...
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Review: Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
We're concluding our series Rich Country, Poor Country with Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise, a quiet but surprising novel that is at turns perhaps a hero's journey, a travel narrative, a historical fiction, a bildungsroman, and a philosophical exploration. Though Gurnah does not have as much…
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The Politics of Race in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer
We're wrapping up our look at Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer prize winning novel The Sympathizer with an analysis of the racial and political implications of the novel. Nguyen is pretty outspoken about how race might influence the way a reader reacts to communism, and also how minority and majority...
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Mini-Review: Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
Rivka Galchen's Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is a darkly funny historical novel about witchcraft, justice, and stupidity: Through the story of how Katharina Kepler, mother of famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, was accused of witchcraft, Galchen shows us how your community can turn on…
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Duality and Divided Existence in Nguyen’s The Sympathizer
This week, we're continuing our discussion of Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer, this time exploring Nguyen's themes of duality and divided existence between different lives and continents. Listen to hear why this book made us want to reread Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. For our series on Rich...
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Review: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Our apologies as illness delayed the release of this episode. This week we are reviewing a book that was hailed by some as one of the most important books of the decade-- and perhaps the century? While we agreed The Sympathizer was a good read, opinions differed on whether or not it was great. We...
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Korea vs. Capitalism: The Disaster Tourist, Parasite, and Squid Game
We conclude our discussion of Yun Ko-Eun's The Disaster Tourist by comparing it to Parasite and Squid Game, two other Korean works that may share a similar message about capitalism. Does an anti-capitalist trend in Korea mean that Korean politics will soon become more like American politics? And,...
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Man versus Nature: The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko Eun
This week, we're continuing our discussion of Yun Ko-eun’s The Disaster Tourist with a focus on everyone's favorite topic: literary criticism! We're in the deep end of it this time, exploring whether the ecocritical concerns are weighed fairly against the book’s humanist ideals. Was this...
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Review: The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun
This week, we read The Disaster Tourist by South Korean writer Yun Ko-eun, her first novel to be translated into English. Labeled by reviewers as a literary thriller, eco-thriller, and political thriller, James found it more disastrous than thrilling. But can the novel's ideas rescue it from the...
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Mini-Review: When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamín Labatut
This might be unlike any novel you've ever read before. It's a novel but it's nonfiction; it's about true events but it's important that you understand some parts are false; and it shows you the very human repercussions of a part of science that usually feels distant and intangible. Tune into…
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A Look at Experimental Forms: Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046 and The Novel in Stories
And that's a wrap for our series on the Novel in Stories! We examine how this kind of composite structure might work in film with Wong Kar-Wai's 2004 movie 2046, and discuss whether it is similar in structure to novels in stories. We also talk about some of our discoveries with this kind of…
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What does Russia look like to American eyes? The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
In this episode, we wonder who the heck Anthony Marra thinks he is, an American (!) writing about Russians (!!) in The Tsar of Love and Techno (!!!). Eyad asks if this is an issue. We then talk about possible good results from such transcultural writing and whether all writers are afforded such a...
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Is Knowledge of Russian History Key for Understanding The Tsar of Love and Techno?
In this episode we talk about the historical context of Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno. Sam begins by giving us a history lesson. We then try to apply this book to current events. James has a love affair with the word 'tenuous'. We end by ruminating over what themes make this novel...
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Review: The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
Anthony Marra's first book A Constellation of Vital Phenomena was an award-winning bestseller and his third book Mercury Pictures Presents (set to be released in a few months) is getting a lot of buzz in the biz. So naturally we decide to give our attention to Marra's overlooked middle child The...
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Different Ways of Understanding There But For The by Ali Smith
What is this book about? Is it about class protest? Is it about trauma? Both? For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad Mar 25 - Apr 8, Ali Smith's There But For The Apr 15- 29, and Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno…
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There but for the: Quietly about the refugee crisis?
We're continuing our look at Ali Smith's There But For The with an examination of empathy and borders. You might not imagine that those two themes go well together in a novel, but Sam makes a pretty convincing point in this episode. For this series, we will read and discuss three…
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Mini-Review: Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
What is it about Jonathan Franzen's latest novel Crossroads that has many claiming it to be best novel yet by the most important novelist of our time? Expectations are incredibly high for this novel, the first in a proposed trilogy. Tune in to find out if the novel lives up to the hype. You can...
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Review: There But For The by Ali Smith
Ali Smith's new book Companion Piece has just been published, but we're actually reviewing an older book of hers: There But For The. We talk about the structure of this novel-in-stories and how it differs in form from Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad. We also talk about why this very good novel...
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A Visit from the Goon Squad: Can form be content?
Hey aging punk rockers, We're wrapping up our deep dive into Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, focusing a bit more on the structure this time. Eyad wants to explore the story cycle structure and how that works in tandem with the theme of time, the titular goon squad beating and…
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Decoding the Narrative of A Visit from the Goon Squad
What theme unifies A Visit from the Goon Squad? Do any of the individual stories stand out? In this episode we discuss the different ways these stories work individually and together. For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad…
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Review: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
On the eve of the publication of Egan's novel The Candy House, we review her 2011 prize winning prequel A Visit from the Goon Squad. We introduce our new series: A Novel in Stories, and talk about communing with David Foster Wallace, our alternate reality competitive canoeing podcast, and what's...
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On the Impossibility of Utopias in Fiction
This week we wrap up our Contemporary Utopian Fiction series by discussing all the ways they are impossible. Impossible to take seriously. Impossible fits for the postmodern world. Impossible to dramatize in fiction. In this wide-ranging conversation we touch on Asimov, Thomas More, Paradise…
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Mini-Review: Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada
Eyad reviews Yoko Tawada's new novel Scattered All Over the Earth. Tawada is one of our favorite writers and we loved her 2014 novel The Emissary which we read as part of our Contemporary Japanese Fiction series two years ago. Does her new novel live up to our lofty expectations? You can join our...
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Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: Is anarchism still relevant?
This week we dive into the central theme of the book-- anarchism-- and discuss whether or not it is still relevant 50 years after the publication of The Dispossessed. What does Le Guin have to say about anarchism? Is it specific to a particular school of anarchism? 1:05 What are the new forms of...
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Just How Radical is Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed?
The Dispossessed describes a radical political ideology but are there any aspects of this book that are, in fact, not radical? This week we look at this book from the point of view of linguistics, sexual politics and more. What is the novel saying about sexuality and the nuclear family? Is the...
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Review: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
This week we review a classic of philosophical science fiction: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Why read The Dispossessed? 1:05 Are the Anarres chapters boring? 4:20 Is this an example of the best science fiction can offer? 9:55 Is Le Guin's philosophical discussion too earnest? 17:35 Is...
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Postcolonial Africa in Mike Resnick’s Kirinyaga
Eyad leads this episode's discussion as we finish up our examinations of Resnick's utopian story cycle Kirinyaga. Does this book say anything about postcolonial African politics? (1:00) Why do readers feel upset when white writers write about black subject matter? (8:45) Are Western writers…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
James, Sam, and Eyad get together every week to review and discuss a book in-depth. Books are chosen as part of a thematic miniseries (Contemporary Japanese Fiction, Transhumanist Sci-Fi). Join us as we work toward building a more inclusive, contemporary canon.
HOSTED BY
Canonical
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Canonical have?
Canonical currently has 143 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Canonical about?
James, Sam, and Eyad get together every week to review and discuss a book in-depth. Books are chosen as part of a thematic miniseries (Contemporary Japanese Fiction, Transhumanist Sci-Fi). Join us as we work toward building a more inclusive, contemporary canon.
How often does Canonical release new episodes?
Canonical publishes regularly with 143 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Canonical?
You can listen to Canonical on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Canonical?
Canonical is created and hosted by Canonical.
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