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 new canon. Thanks to everyone who has listened to us along the way. We appreciate you spending some time with us. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode.  You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube

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 the Bardo by George Saunders, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. If all fiction is different from reality, then what is the distinction between this and every other kind of novel? How much quantum physics do you need to study to see the difference? You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode.  You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod!

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 reader? Why don't the students run away, and is that even a worthwhile question? What does this book have to do with race, entering the workforce, and cultural indoctrination? Also, Ishiguro clearly has something to say about art, but is it substantially different from Mandel's conclusion in Station Eleven? All that and more in this installment. For this series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Nov 25th, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 2 - Dec 16. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 might lead to a possible future, but what does a novel set in the past show us about the ethics of our actions? Tune in to find out, or feel like a dog staring at an algebra problem. For this series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Nov 25th, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 2 - Dec 16. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 the boat image means, and some musing on the capitalist hellscape that make up this novel. For this series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Nov 25th, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 2 - Dec 16. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 take notes while watching romcoms? For this series, we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Dec 2, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 9 - Dec 23. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 for frustrated Democrats, a book for feminists without political opinions, or something else entirely? For this series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Dec 2, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 9 - Dec 23. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 years doing the nasty repeatedly and explicitly on the page. Fun stuff! For this series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Dec 2, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 9 - Dec 23. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 Saunders's use of ghosts, or if Sam is just being a woke baby. For this series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Dec 2, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 9 - Dec 23. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 series we will review and discuss Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Oct 21 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Dec 2, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 9 - Dec 23. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 - Nov 4, Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld Nov 11 - Dec 2, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Dec 9 - Dec 23. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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. We also discuss whether these realist novels change how we feel about speculative fiction dealing with Communism or adjacent ideas (Vagabonds, The Dispossessed, Parable of the Sower), and if all those books belong under the same topical genre umbrella as the books we just read. Finally, we explore what these books tell us about the future of Communism in their respective countries. For this series, we discussed Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode.  You can also find bonus content on our Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/CanonicalPod You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 officer Zheng Changinian? For this series we will be discussing Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode.  You can also find bonus content on our Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/CanonicalPod You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 Yan contradicts himself this much can we trust him, or he just the victim of his American publisher? For this series we will be discussing Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode.  You can also find bonus content on our Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/CanonicalPod You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 James adds another entry to his collection of surprising literary awards. For this series we will be discussing Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode.  You can also find bonus content on our Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/CanonicalPod You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 adapted into an equally challenging film. For this series, Life Under Communism, we will read and discuss Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 there's something angelic or demonic going on. Is Hungary in Purgatory? Aren't we all? For this series we will be reading and discussing Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 befuddled by another encounter with one of the more confusing literary awards this podcast has ever come across.  Warning: this is a giggly episode, because of course it is. For this series we will be reading and discussing Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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 reviewing and discussing Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

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, and we don't expect you to, either. For this series we will be reviewing and discussing Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!