The Autograph Man (2002) is the second novel by Zadie Smith, following a British-Chinese-Jewish man who deals in famous memorabilia to an almost religious degree. Although this novel has had the least cultural impact among Smith's works, it lays the foundations for questions on stan culture, social media, and the form that our unending quest for real human connection has taken today. Mandy and Mio talk about their near-stan experiences, the different schools of British-people-doing-American-accents, and why this book is so weirdly transfixed with East Asians and Little People.

cw: spoilers

tw: references to yellowface (16:40-18:00), slight ignorance on the hosts' part re: Judaism

Show notes:

- "Internet friendships transcend continents and fandoms" by Mandy Cruz on Underdog.ph

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Our theme music: 64 Sundays by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/