Virtual Memories Show

Virtual Memories Show 680: Kate Maruyama and Me BLARDY BLARDY BLARDY During my recent LA weekend, I asked author, pal, and past guest Kate Maruyama if she’d be interested in interviewing me, and for some crazy reason, she said yes! So this time around you get me doing my best not to ask the questions, and just letting it fly, as we talk about the history of the podcast, my dream list of pod-guests, my semi-fake erudition, why we should practice arts we’re no good at, my thoughts on mortality and progeny, the gentle change of years, the legend of the fire defenses of the Beinecke Library at Yale, and a ton of stories. Give it a listen! And go read Kate’s newsletter and check out our conversations from 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2025! Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! Lots of ways to follow The Virtual Memories Show! iTunes, Spotify, BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and good ol’ RSS! About our Guest Kate Maruyama is the author of Alterations, The Collective, Bleak Houses, and Harrowgate and her novella Family Solstice was named Best Fiction Book of 2021 by Rue Morgue Magazine. Her short work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies and she is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and winner of the Uncharted Short Story Prize. She served on the working Board for Women Who Submit, and is currently on the Board of Directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards. She writes, teaches, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles. Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Kate’s home on a pair of Shure Beta 58A microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Shure Beta 58A mcrophone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photos by me. It’s on my instagram.

Virtual Memories Show 679: Heather Cass White “This was the most fun I ever had making a book. I got to sit on the attic floor, going though Harold’s papers and books, and there were a lot of surprises.” “A letter is a joy of Earth — It is denied the Gods —,” sez Emily Dickinson (#1672), and THE MAN WHO READ EVERYTHING: The Literary Letters of Harold Bloom (Yale University Press) proves it! Heather Cass White rejoins the show to talk about editing Harold Bloom‘s letters for the book, her history with him and what she learned about him over the course of the project, and how the letters revealed a less determined Bloom and how she empathized with the struggles he went through in his career. We get into the people whose correspondence she included — Alvin Feinman, Northrop Frye, AR Ammons, John Hollander, John Ashbery, James Merrill, Henri Cole, and Ursula K Le Guin — and all the writers and critics she wishes she could have included, the books and projects Bloom proposed but never completed (or started) over the years, the fun she had writing the footnotes, the one person Bloom was intimidated to meet, Bloom’s role in the Canon Wars 30-40 years ago (and my practice of checking off books from The List at the end of The Western Canon), where he fell on Ashbery vs. Ammons, and whether marriage is the true subject of literature. We also discuss how her next book on the correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore is the opposite of this one, her go-to books to teach American fiction, why she dropped out of Knausgaard before the finish line, how students have & haven’t changed over a quarter century of teaching, her late arrival to Surfjan Stevens’ music, how I solved her long-standing question about a moment from Bloom’s memorial, and a lot more. (Also, I talk about the Knicks A LOT in the intro; jump to 14:20 go to right to the conversation.) Give it a listen! And go read THE MAN WHO READ EVERYTHING: The Literary Letters of Harold Bloom! “The real fun of being an editor, to me, is that it turns into a de facto literary detective.” “Bloom didn’t want acolytes. He didn’t want students who agreed with him. He liked being challenged. Not that ever admitted that he was wrong.” “I’m sure if someone were to write my one-word epitaph, it would be: READER.” “It’s hard to overstate how pernicious the use of AI is in the classroom. . . . It’s like students are being trained into helplessness.” Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! Lots of ways to follow The Virtual Memories Show! iTunes, Spotify, BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and good ol’ RSS! About our Guest Heather Cass White is an English professor at the University of Alabama. She is the author of Books Promiscuously Read: Reading as a Way of Life, among other volumes. Go listen to my 2021 conversation with Heather and my 2016 talk with Bloom. Me & Harold Bloom in 2016 Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at an undisclosed location in Manhattan on a pair of Shure Beta 58a microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Harold Bloom by Jim Wilson; photo of Heather by Crosby Thomley; double-selfies by me. It’s on my instagram.

Virtual Memories Show 678: Paul Gravett “We’re so used to organizing society by male/female and other binaries and age, and so many things that slot you into places, and comics perfectly avoid those things. They’re a maverick medium or art form that’s never been respected.” Happy Pride! Let’s get Queer As Comics! Writer, critic, curator, and publisher Paul Gravett rejoins the show to talk about curating a fabulous new exhibition, Queer As Comics, to help launch the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration! We talk about what makes comics queer (it’s not just an issue of sexuality), the artists and comics he wishes he could have included in the show, the challenges of exhibiting comics as opposed to paintings, and why Queer As Comics’ survey of 65 artists covering 80 years of history “starts with the Finnish” (as in Tom of Finland and Tove Jansson). We also get into the endlessness of Tove Jansson’s life & creativity (and why Paul’s committed to writing a big book about her anyway), his first exposure to queer comics (and again, why all comics are queer), how it feels to see the Quentin Blake Centre come to life and to see Quentin still making art in his 90s, and more. Give it a listen! And go check out Queer As Comics at the QBC! Also, I couldn’t resist sharing this pic of Quentin Blake’s watercolor palette from an exhibition at the QBC: “So much of the curation process is searching and searching, and connecting, and trying to dig deeper into archives. “We have to find our identities somewhere.” Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! Lots of ways to follow The Virtual Memories Show! iTunes, Spotify, BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and good ol’ RSS! About our Guest Paul Gravett is a writer, critic, curator, publisher and broadcaster who has been working in the comics industry since 1981. He is author of many books about comics, including Mangasia: The Definitive Guide to Asian Comics, Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life and Comics Art, and was general editor of 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, and has also written on Tove Jansson and Posy Simmonds. He is co-director of Comica, the London International Comics Festival. Listen to my 2014 and 2017 conversations with Paul! Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration on a pair of Shure Beta 58A microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Paul by Etienne Gilfillan; photo of Queer As Comics display by Rich Johnston, from his article about the opening of the QBC. It’s on my instagram.

Virtual Memories Show 677: Luis Mendo “Mundo Mendo is like the world of Mendo. It’s my world, and you need a spaceship to arrive here.” Welcome to Mundo Mendo! I visited artist and writer Luis Mendo in Karuizawa, Japan for a wide-ranging conversation about art, creativity, community and more. We talk about how he left design and embraced drawing and illustration, why he created the Mundo Mendo platform so fans/members can support his art and stories (and get an annual print edition of his work), the limits of money and the joy of making art, and how artists can escape “working for Mr. Zuckerberg” and stop chasing likes on Instagram. We get into how internal change has to be accompanied by an external change, the challenge of not having a client, his critique of AI “art”, and the tension between world of numbers & metrics and the world of serendipity. We also discuss the creative residency he & his wife ran, Almost Perfect, his love of old movies, how the creative life can be a chain of projects, what brought him to Japan and what keeps him there (even if he feels like a foreigner wherever he is), his newsletter that highlights other illustrators and artists, why I should be a male model in Japan, and a lot more. (Plus, after the conversation I share a story about my Japan business trip and some Kafkaesque flop-sweat moments.) Give it a listen! And go support Mundo Mendo! “I’m greedy for making something interesting, it’s a healthy greed.” “Why are we all working for Mr. Zuckerberg instead of working for ourselves?” “My first art influences were comics, women’s magazines, and bullfighting on the TV.” “If you choose the right people, they attract the right people.” Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! Lots of ways to follow The Virtual Memories Show! iTunes, Spotify, BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and good ol’ RSS! About our Guest Luis Mendo is an artist and author based in Japan. He studied graphic design in Spain and The Netherlands. After working as an editorial designer and creative director for 20 years in Amsterdam, Luis moved to Tokyo and changed his career to drawing. His illustrations can be found on books, websites, magazines, advertising and clothing worldwide. His artworks have been shown in art galleries in Spain, France, Japan, South Korea and the USA. His preferred subjects include sensory-driven stories, city/urban life, interiors, objects, animals and people in context. Also travel, narratives, feelings and human interactions. Luis’s illustration signature is to make mundane things look special and make visible the invisible. He can’t avoid impregnating positivism to everything he draws. Luis was the Creative Director and co-founder of creative residency Almost Perfect together with his wife Yuka, from 2018 to 2025. In 2024 Luis launched Mundo Mendo, a membership program where he shares art, stories and thoughts that subsequently and annually become printed books. In the newsletter, The Illustrated, Luis shares and promotes his favorite illustration talent. Follow Luis on Instagram and Bluesky, and support MUNDO MENDO. Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Luis’ home in Karuizawa on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Drawing of us by Luis. It’s on my instagram.

Virtual Memories Show 676: Benoit Denizet-Lewis “We choose our identities based on what’s available, and those choices are not just about what is true for ourselves. We take on identities because we need a purpose.” Can people change? How continuous is identity? With YOU’VE CHANGED: The Promise and Price of Self-Transformation (William Morrow), Benoit Denizet-Lewis explores the concepts of personal change and change-in-the-world, the ways we find identities and community, and the peril of changing into our parents (haha). We talk about how we define change and transformation, what happens when we think we’ve changed but the people in our lives don’t notice any difference, how his husband feared that he would change too much in the writing of the book, and how the American narrative of change equals “overcoming one’s problems.” We get into how he made his own story of change and addiction part of the book (while guarding his privacy), whether change involves finding a core self or something new, whether redemption is possible for people who committed heinous crimes, what happened the time he got scientifically tested about his sexual preferences, and the chapter he wishes he could’ve included in the book. We also discuss who he’s reading, whether the therapy that works for him now would have helped when he was younger, how one can prioritize one’s own happiness while the world is (let’s say) ending, his hallucinations in Esalen, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read YOU’VE CHANGED: The Promise and Price of Self-Transformation! “The core question that comes up throughout the reporting for this book is: What changes and what stays the same?” “We change in community; we need buy-in from other people. Most profound changes need other people to validate them.” “A lot of the change we experience is unintentional and we don’t notice it happening.” SPOTIFY PLAYER TK “To not be gentle with myself is like booing a sunrise.” Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! Lots of ways to follow The Virtual Memories Show! iTunes, Spotify, BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and good ol’ RSS! About our Guest Benoit Denizet-Lewis is an associate professor at Emerson College and a longtime contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has written three previous books, including America Anonymous and the New York Times bestseller Travels With Casey. A New America Fellow and NEH Public Scholar, he divides his time between Boston and Prague. Follow Benoit on Instagram and Bluesky. Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at a NYC hotel on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. B/W photo of Benoit by someone else; double-selfie by me. It’s on my instagram.

Virtual Memories Show 675: Clare Carlisle “I was interested in that relationship between philosophy and art, between philosophy and life-writing, philosophy and narrative form: it’s really at the heart of this project.” Philosopher and biographer Clare Carlisle converses & communes with me over her new book, TRANSCENDENCE FOR BEGINNERS: LIFE WRITING AND PHILOSOPHY (NYRB). We talk about her existential moment of being invited to give the Gifford Lectures on natural theology and how it led her wonder what she could say about the knowledge of God, how writing biographies raised philosophical questions on the nature of a life in its entirety, how flexible the notion of transcendence is (and why it doesn’t have to be “rising above” the world so much as “spreading out” into it), and how the lecture mode offered her an opportunity for a different writing voice. We get into the possibility of communion and transmission, the tension between biography and philosophy, the harmfulness of the notion of attainment and what that implies of the seeking of wisdom, and what happens if you’re like Kierkegaard and you hear The Call but don’t know what it’s calling you to do. We also discuss her philosophical love affair with Spinoza and his philosophy of interconnectedness, the bridge she discovered between Spinoza and Indian traditions, the influence of past guest Celia Paul on the lectures, and more. Give it a listen! And go read TRANSCENDENCE FOR BEGINNERS! “I’d written biographies of thinkers, but with these lectures I felt I needed to say something myself rather than just interpret another thinker.” “For Spinoza, on a metaphysical level, each of us is completely interconnected with everything else, and each of us is a singular manifestation or expression of the whole.” “There’s the ongoing yet diffuse effect of the books we read the thinkers we encounter; they become part of our way of thinking.” “That idea of necessity, that ‘you have to do this,’ interests me. What kind of necessity is it? No one’s forcing you. It’s not even the Kantian moral law. Not logical necessity. So what is it? What is that necessity that we sometimes feel, that THIS is something I have to do.” Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! Lots of ways to follow The Virtual Memories Show! iTunes, Spotify, BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, and good ol’ RSS! About our Guest Clare Carlisle is the author of eight books on philosophy and philosophers, including Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Soren Kierkegaard and The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life, which won the 2024 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography. Clare grew up in Manchester, England; studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge; and now lives in East London. She is a professor of philosophy at King’s College London. Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at the Nassau Inn in Princeton on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Clare by someone else; photo of Katy Mouse by me. It’s on my instagram.