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The Incomparable

52: A Cthuluesque Vomiting of Ideas

 

00:00:00   the incomparable test [TS]

00:00:11   episode 52 [TS]

00:00:18   August 2011 first anniversary edition [TS]

00:00:25   [Music] [TS]

00:00:28   we're back on the incomparable and I [TS]

00:00:34   have reconvened again our book club [TS]

00:00:37   because this is an anniversary of sorts [TS]

00:00:41   this is basically a year almost to the [TS]

00:00:45   day of the original episode of the [TS]

00:00:48   incomparable and this is indeed [TS]

00:00:50   incomparable number 52 Jason I yeah I [TS]

00:00:54   didn't get us anything [TS]

00:00:56   the voice you just heard is one of our [TS]

00:00:59   former pod cast members haha damn more'n [TS]

00:01:04   joins me he was on that first podcast [TS]

00:01:06   and the other participants were on that [TS]

00:01:08   podcast as well Glenn fleischmann [TS]

00:01:10   welcome back you've made a year [TS]

00:01:12   congratulations Thank You [TS]

00:01:13   congratulations to you for having the [TS]

00:01:15   fortitude to do this [TS]

00:01:16   yes I quit this podcast is over 1 year [TS]

00:01:22   and we're over and also joining us is as [TS]

00:01:26   he was on Episode one when we didn't [TS]

00:01:28   have a name for the podcast got Mykelti [TS]

00:01:29   hi Scott who I am so glad that we are [TS]

00:01:33   the only people that have survived the [TS]

00:01:35   Great incomparable killing yes free [TS]

00:01:38   everyone else is dead [TS]

00:01:40   unfortunate by the way don't answer your [TS]

00:01:42   door ding dong [TS]

00:01:46   so in episode one of the incomparable [TS]

00:01:49   will always have Zeppelin's from august [TS]

00:01:51   twenty-second of 2010 we talked about [TS]

00:01:55   among other things the novel the city in [TS]

00:01:58   the city by China navel and he's back [TS]

00:02:04   because we read embassy town which is [TS]

00:02:08   his latest novel we all read it i think [TS]

00:02:12   it's fair to say that some of us didn't [TS]

00:02:16   like it very much [TS]

00:02:18   I think that might be more than fair to [TS]

00:02:20   say heaven for fans so this could be [TS]

00:02:23   good i will tell you my opinion of the [TS]

00:02:26   book but my opinion of the marketing of [TS]

00:02:28   the book is a not too high because [TS]

00:02:31   everywhere i was reading you know I have [TS]

00:02:33   a fan of the good old trader as i'm [TS]

00:02:36   going to call it because I can never [TS]

00:02:37   pronounce last name so i eagerly [TS]

00:02:39   anticipated the book and I would read [TS]

00:02:41   the event [TS]

00:02:42   and you know marketing copy and [TS]

00:02:44   everywhere it would say space opera [TS]

00:02:48   describe this book as a space opera now [TS]

00:02:51   unless i have no idea what space opera [TS]

00:02:54   means it's actually an opera second [TS]

00:02:57   space if it doesn't feel canarian or the [TS]

00:03:02   marketing people have no idea what [TS]

00:03:03   you're talking about because this in my [TS]

00:03:05   limited understanding of the space opera [TS]

00:03:07   it generally involves a sweeping story [TS]

00:03:10   large battles and things you know a [TS]

00:03:13   grand stage and some something big in [TS]

00:03:17   this store this novel can be described [TS]

00:03:19   as many things but to paraphrase I I no [TS]

00:03:24   space operas and you embassy town are no [TS]

00:03:27   space opera know it might be a planet [TS]

00:03:29   opera i mean i think that how that if [TS]

00:03:32   you think about all the events that [TS]

00:03:34   occur in embassy town I was telling my [TS]

00:03:38   wife this it's a I it feels like in some [TS]

00:03:42   ways this could have been four novels [TS]

00:03:44   because the events on the surface of [TS]

00:03:46   that planet it's like let's demolish an [TS]

00:03:48   entire culture and then watch as it is [TS]

00:03:50   really sort of rebuilt there's a lot [TS]

00:03:53   that happens that completely changes [TS]

00:03:55   what happens on that planet but it's [TS]

00:03:57   certainly not like what I would think of [TS]

00:03:59   as a space opera which is this sweeping [TS]

00:04:01   scope of many planets and battles and [TS]

00:04:03   space and things and it's really there [TS]

00:04:06   there are some scenes in the hyperspace [TS]

00:04:09   kind of thing called the Emperor and and [TS]

00:04:12   then everything else is on this planet [TS]

00:04:13   where embassy damn is there's like [TS]

00:04:15   there's like five minutes of space [TS]

00:04:17   travel instead of being a space up it's [TS]

00:04:19   more like a space that cave and the bad [TS]

00:04:21   seeds song i think i don't know that [TS]

00:04:23   means but I agree so let's start back at [TS]

00:04:25   the beginning here which is embassy town [TS]

00:04:27   is a novel that set in kind of multiple [TS]

00:04:31   time frames and then the multiple time [TS]

00:04:33   frames shift [TS]

00:04:34   it's about it's a hit well sir the [TS]

00:04:37   governing image is very tolerant of [TS]

00:04:38   mitotic all the way the way it is [TS]

00:04:41   oh you're right you're right in front of [TS]

00:04:43   the protagonist is a woman named APIs [TS]

00:04:47   she's a she's a native basically of this [TS]

00:04:51   planet which is a has this alien race [TS]

00:04:54   that lives on it but there is a place [TS]

00:04:56   we're all of the ambassadors and staff [TS]

00:04:59   who are not from this alien race live [TS]

00:05:01   and it's an air bubble of breathable [TS]

00:05:04   atmosphere and that is called embassy [TS]

00:05:07   town so it is the place where all the [TS]

00:05:09   aliens live including humans on this [TS]

00:05:11   planet and she has a little [TS]

00:05:13   coming-of-age thing or she's a kid on a [TS]

00:05:15   planet and then she learns to be an [TS]

00:05:17   emperor pilot which means that she can [TS]

00:05:20   travel through the stars and then at a [TS]

00:05:22   later time she comes back to the planet [TS]

00:05:24   and then the fun begins [TS]

00:05:27   because then there are quick crazy [TS]

00:05:29   imaginations with ambassadors and [TS]

00:05:31   there's a thing called a my ab which you [TS]

00:05:33   find us a message in a bottle and just [TS]

00:05:36   in case you thought Jason might be [TS]

00:05:38   applying that you go to like 200 pages [TS]

00:05:40   before the fun kicks in [TS]

00:05:41   he's totally right I'm not even sure it [TS]

00:05:45   kicks in addition underneath [TS]

00:05:46   oh and the the host the aliens are [TS]

00:05:50   called the hosts na they don't they [TS]

00:05:52   can't understand when people talk but [TS]

00:05:55   they can understand when these weird [TS]

00:05:56   kind of like mentally bonded pairs of [TS]

00:05:59   people speak simultaneously because the [TS]

00:06:01   hosts have two mouths and it's it's wild [TS]

00:06:04   it is a wacky very original i thought [TS]

00:06:09   premise but yet it is not exactly a a [TS]

00:06:13   quick read to get to the to get to the [TS]

00:06:16   big fight seem well I ended it's not [TS]

00:06:19   even important [TS]

00:06:19   I I don't even know that how important [TS]

00:06:21   that is it's just what strikes me a you [TS]

00:06:24   know what strikes me here is what you [TS]

00:06:25   said about there being you know several [TS]

00:06:27   different books in here and I think it's [TS]

00:06:28   true and I think all of them gets short [TS]

00:06:30   shrift like none of them are fully [TS]

00:06:32   fleshed-out and none of them are it's [TS]

00:06:35   like everytime you think okay this is [TS]

00:06:37   getting someplace interesting like the [TS]

00:06:39   whole the rug gets pulled out from under [TS]

00:06:41   you and you start all over again and [TS]

00:06:43   this is tough because he really enjoys [TS]

00:06:45   dumping people not just sort of in media [TS]

00:06:48   res like in the middle of things but in [TS]

00:06:50   terms of like in the middle of these [TS]

00:06:52   extremely complex environments right [TS]

00:06:54   where you don't necessarily have any [TS]

00:06:56   idea what's going on like how long does [TS]

00:06:59   it take you to figure out sort of the [TS]

00:07:02   central premises of this world and the [TS]

00:07:04   society there in and then no sooner you [TS]

00:07:07   sort of start to get a handle on that [TS]

00:07:08   then you're [TS]

00:07:08   you're sucked away into this you know [TS]

00:07:10   into the her careers and your pilot [TS]

00:07:12   which doesn't last very long and doesn't [TS]

00:07:15   really seem to have a huge bearing on [TS]

00:07:18   the rest of the book you know i will say [TS]

00:07:20   i want one of the things I appreciate [TS]

00:07:23   about me avail and I appreciate about [TS]

00:07:24   this book is a little bit like an FM by [TS]

00:07:28   neal stephenson he he he's gonna set you [TS]

00:07:32   down in the world and you gotta figure [TS]

00:07:34   it out and I'll i like that but i liked [TS]

00:07:36   i like to end them and I think that's [TS]

00:07:40   the major difference haha no no I think [TS]

00:07:41   Stevenson's was better at that because [TS]

00:07:43   meetville the thing that bothers me [TS]

00:07:44   about most of his books and I've read I [TS]

00:07:46   read all three of the which McCullen new [TS]

00:07:49   crow bazan or whatever the pretty [TS]

00:07:51   district station that's a that's a [TS]

00:07:52   made-up word crocus on I read all three [TS]

00:07:55   of those it's not where I don't is it I [TS]

00:07:57   you know he'd that see that's my point [TS]

00:07:59   he's just spend so much time saying like [TS]

00:08:02   his whole books are isn't this weird [TS]

00:08:03   isn't that weird [TS]

00:08:04   this guy's got bug head is not weird [TS]

00:08:06   it's like it's drawers so much attention [TS]

00:08:08   to itself that it feels like hitting me [TS]

00:08:11   over the head with a hammer about [TS]

00:08:13   weirdness and it's like it's hard for me [TS]

00:08:15   to ever get engaged because I don't I I [TS]

00:08:19   feel like I'm constantly being reminded [TS]

00:08:21   isn't this weird but but your point that [TS]

00:08:23   you just made was that you know you have [TS]

00:08:25   to figure out what the rules of the [TS]

00:08:27   world are and what that some of these [TS]

00:08:29   words mean and and that that didn't [TS]

00:08:31   bother me i think you I think your point [TS]

00:08:33   is much more valid that as you figure it [TS]

00:08:36   out suddenly we are jerked away to yet [TS]

00:08:40   another angle so she's growing up in the [TS]

00:08:42   coming of age in this weird place [TS]

00:08:44   no now she's a pilot and she's gonna [TS]

00:08:45   learn about this weird hyperspace [TS]

00:08:47   topography multi-dimensional topography [TS]

00:08:49   okay okay i'm starting to get that it's [TS]

00:08:51   mr which is the timeless always of the [TS]

00:08:53   hyperspace and it's the ad pops or [TS]

00:08:55   whatever the german word is that they [TS]

00:08:57   use that's the ok i got i'm starting to [TS]

00:08:59   get that bono now she's back and she's [TS]

00:09:01   not in the space anymore she's back on [TS]

00:09:03   the planet again [TS]

00:09:04   don't you think that's a device though [TS]

00:09:05   it but it strikes me as a random [TS]

00:09:06   vomiting of ideas like rather than any [TS]

00:09:09   fully-formed coherent narrative think [TS]

00:09:11   vomiting is ordered [TS]

00:09:13   I wouldn't say random vomiting and [TS]

00:09:15   say a procession of that i find this [TS]

00:09:17   emblematic and sort of you know and that [TS]

00:09:19   makes all the stuff that he writes to a [TS]

00:09:21   certain extent in the sole exception of [TS]

00:09:23   my experience being the city in the city [TS]

00:09:25   which is very very strange but I really [TS]

00:09:28   enjoyed and thought was well constructed [TS]

00:09:30   and well-crafted as a story in a way [TS]

00:09:32   that this was not there is a main line [TS]

00:09:34   plot in the city and the city is that [TS]

00:09:35   you go from one end to the other and [TS]

00:09:37   there's actually a resolution and you're [TS]

00:09:38   sort of hitting way points along the way [TS]

00:09:40   there's a structure that makes sense [TS]

00:09:42   right yeah which is true of most I mean [TS]

00:09:44   it's true of a pretty do Street Station [TS]

00:09:46   has got its you know it's a rambling [TS]

00:09:48   thing but it's not pick her ass great [TS]

00:09:50   this is this is picturesque this is the [TS]

00:09:52   definition of picturesque is that you're [TS]

00:09:53   walking along and you get to one [TS]

00:09:54   destination when you get there is not a [TS]

00:09:56   resolution the story it's like oh and [TS]

00:09:57   here's the next story and let's go on [TS]

00:09:59   and so forth so you don't feel like [TS]

00:10:00   they're he may have intended an arc but [TS]

00:10:03   there is no sense of story arc from [TS]

00:10:05   through the others go through line for [TS]

00:10:07   this it reads like five stories that [TS]

00:10:10   have similar things in common [TS]

00:10:11   the problem with that is that in a [TS]

00:10:13   picaresque what keeps you going from [TS]

00:10:14   story to story is that the characters [TS]

00:10:16   you know usually are engaging right and [TS]

00:10:18   it's also not but I I mean I honestly [TS]

00:10:22   found myself not really understanding [TS]

00:10:24   understanding or caring about Elvis well [TS]

00:10:29   I don't understand the whole obsession [TS]

00:10:30   with establishing that the man she's in [TS]

00:10:32   love with they don't have sex and yet [TS]

00:10:34   they get married like there's there's a [TS]

00:10:36   number of times that you know I I [TS]

00:10:39   thought he was gonna make a point about [TS]

00:10:40   like interspecies things or the nature [TS]

00:10:43   of whatever it's like we try to do [TS]

00:10:45   things in bed and didn't work out but [TS]

00:10:46   then we stuck around he was sort of [TS]

00:10:48   weirdo he was obsessed with language and [TS]

00:10:50   so we got married like why i don't quite [TS]

00:10:52   what's the point of that like where does [TS]

00:10:54   that fit in is very off pit that's still [TS]

00:10:56   the weirdness right like is is this [TS]

00:10:58   different from the way you do things [TS]

00:10:59   where you are [TS]

00:11:00   yes in this world marriage means [TS]

00:11:02   something different it's a special [TS]

00:11:03   contract that can mean many things [TS]

00:11:04   including sex or not haha about that now [TS]

00:11:07   let's move on [TS]

00:11:08   yeah I challenge your preconceived [TS]

00:11:09   notions check that's yes that would be [TS]

00:11:15   the onion version of this story is the [TS]

00:11:16   Challenger consumers with this and this [TS]

00:11:18   and i have a friend and she's a she's a [TS]

00:11:20   robot or a target on our computer [TS]

00:11:22   program with wheels tides what's the [TS]

00:11:23   deal with her [TS]

00:11:24   what was the point of that I don't even [TS]

00:11:26   stand you okay wait I want to represent [TS]

00:11:30   a counter-narrative to dance narrative [TS]

00:11:32   which is threatening to overwhelm this [TS]

00:11:33   podcast which is there's a lot of stuff [TS]

00:11:36   and I quite like there's a lot of great [TS]

00:11:37   ideas i don't think your disagreement [TS]

00:11:39   that entirely there i mean it's it's [TS]

00:11:41   kind of like you know let's let's say [TS]

00:11:43   maybe i'll open his notebook of things [TS]

00:11:45   to write books about it seems like [TS]

00:11:47   rather than then have a compelling [TS]

00:11:49   character driven narrative and through [TS]

00:11:52   which he can tell a story of a world or [TS]

00:11:54   even vice versa [TS]

00:11:55   it was i've got a bunch of stuff here [TS]

00:11:56   that doesn't fit the other books i'm [TS]

00:11:58   gonna stick it in there and i will use [TS]

00:11:59   one character to bind it up but I mean [TS]

00:12:01   like the so so I like two parts of it [TS]

00:12:03   and some of it is very clever something [TS]

00:12:04   that I found somewhat moving but then it [TS]

00:12:07   becomes but this so conventional for [TS]

00:12:11   being so weird [TS]

00:12:12   the resolution was really rather [TS]

00:12:14   disappointing and i think i think it [TS]

00:12:16   starts out I me and them suffers from [TS]

00:12:18   this little bit we're by the time you [TS]

00:12:20   realize i talked about atoms that [TS]

00:12:21   rewired my brain like by the time I [TS]

00:12:23   figured out enough what's going on to [TS]

00:12:25   actually understand what was being said [TS]

00:12:27   in the narrative I was so far along that [TS]

00:12:29   huge book that I didn't worry about some [TS]

00:12:31   of the plot points and holes whenever it [TS]

00:12:33   again i feel it's a little weaker in [TS]

00:12:35   this book it's the same thing like [TS]

00:12:37   you're being battered back and forth by [TS]

00:12:38   all these interesting new ideas which [TS]

00:12:40   are very interesting some of which are [TS]

00:12:41   just like whatever and then you're like [TS]

00:12:43   oh well the story in the end is kind of [TS]

00:12:45   you know reason wins [TS]

00:12:47   yeah why yeah and there's a you know [TS]

00:12:50   irrational guy who shoots pou li meaning [TS]

00:12:56   and then in some ways he was a more [TS]

00:12:58   interesting character to me i mean if [TS]

00:13:01   you have anybody goes away for like half [TS]

00:13:03   the book and then he comes back and he's [TS]

00:13:05   like always crazy now every neal [TS]

00:13:06   stephenson book has a character like the [TS]

00:13:09   husband becomes strange this novel goes [TS]

00:13:12   on they come back in like the fifth that [TS]

00:13:14   you think the book is over and some guy [TS]

00:13:17   you haven't seen for like two or three [TS]

00:13:18   acts who is significant like I was it [TS]

00:13:20   Raven in the crash and is he's in every [TS]

00:13:24   one of his books as this some but [TS]

00:13:26   there's always the the sort of stevenson [TS]

00:13:27   thing in this best books the ones which [TS]

00:13:29   doesn't have to pull out some deus ex [TS]

00:13:31   machina a character who haven't here for [TS]

00:13:32   a while [TS]

00:13:33   who's seven feet tall or whatever don't [TS]

00:13:35   ya I'm not that I'm not saying [TS]

00:13:36   Stevenson's with [TS]

00:13:37   his flaws but yeah but I'm saying that I [TS]

00:13:40   think that's that is a typical thing in [TS]

00:13:42   this book is you get this this character [TS]

00:13:44   shows up rather late after having a lot [TS]

00:13:47   of narrative exposition played around [TS]

00:13:48   with any sort of forgotten but you also [TS]

00:13:50   know he's coming back right because it's [TS]

00:13:52   totally and for shadow with oh he went [TS]

00:13:54   off and no one ever saw him again this [TS]

00:13:57   is illusionary doing something so I i [TS]

00:14:00   found that kind of transparent as well i [TS]

00:14:02   mean i-i you're right down there are [TS]

00:14:04   interesting ideas here i think a lot of [TS]

00:14:06   the language stuff as someone who [TS]

00:14:08   studied linguistics little bit and yeah [TS]

00:14:10   and really found it fascinating [TS]

00:14:12   there's some really interesting stuff [TS]

00:14:13   there um but it was it was hard to get a [TS]

00:14:16   handle on in a way that it worked for [TS]

00:14:18   the narrative especially when we had [TS]

00:14:20   spent so much of the the earlier book [TS]

00:14:23   Johnson around between all these other [TS]

00:14:25   different i mean for example just [TS]

00:14:27   there's that whole bit when she learned [TS]

00:14:30   you're being apart a pilot about the [TS]

00:14:32   wreck right is this [TS]

00:14:34   yeah i mean something of this sort of [TS]

00:14:36   derelict ship right that that's seven [TS]

00:14:39   areas like a warning like half in and [TS]

00:14:40   half out of it and there's not really AI [TS]

00:14:44   I not sure I really understood what the [TS]

00:14:47   point of that was it gets mentioned [TS]

00:14:48   later on too but I I was like oh yeah [TS]

00:14:51   that thing I think you're supposed to [TS]

00:14:53   feel that this planet is out at the end [TS]

00:14:55   of the world and that beyond lies the [TS]

00:14:57   great question of these are the most [TS]

00:14:59   alien aliens and we don't really [TS]

00:15:00   understand them and there's there it's [TS]

00:15:03   almost like they got here by accident [TS]

00:15:04   and and other things have been wrecked [TS]

00:15:06   and beyond here there be dragons we [TS]

00:15:08   don't know what else is out there past [TS]

00:15:10   this point that sounds like an [TS]

00:15:11   interesting book i was so right [TS]

00:15:13   ah yes well I thought I guess I thought [TS]

00:15:16   it was a little more interesting than [TS]

00:15:17   that i want to talk about the language [TS]

00:15:18   because i think his he did empty out his [TS]

00:15:22   sort of sci-fi tropes into this book but [TS]

00:15:25   a picture of shape and intro word [TS]

00:15:29   processor the background or foreground [TS]

00:15:30   tropes and a little bit like an email [TS]

00:15:33   like you get a red pepper flake in at [TS]

00:15:35   the pizza parlor through maker shake it [TS]

00:15:38   in but what this book is really about [TS]

00:15:41   and what he wanted to do was talk about [TS]

00:15:43   i guess they call it a linguistic [TS]

00:15:47   relativity now back in my comm major [TS]

00:15:49   days it was the sapir-whorf hypothesis [TS]

00:15:51   is the ID [TS]

00:15:51   yeah that language and thought are [TS]

00:15:53   interrelated and that the language you [TS]

00:15:56   use defines how you think and that's [TS]

00:15:58   what this book is about this book is [TS]

00:15:59   about a race of aliens who cannot think [TS]

00:16:02   in anything symbolic everything they say [TS]

00:16:05   is literal and the advent of these [TS]

00:16:08   creatures who speak in non-literal terms [TS]

00:16:12   is a you know there can they're confused [TS]

00:16:15   and and they're trying to figure out how [TS]

00:16:19   to interrelate with humans and it leads [TS]

00:16:21   to all the problems but it also leads to [TS]

00:16:23   the resolution in that once day they [TS]

00:16:27   can't pollute these this alien race they [TS]

00:16:30   can you know the alien race starts to [TS]

00:16:32   learn how to use symbols and in effect [TS]

00:16:34   even before that there's some of the [TS]

00:16:36   aliens who are trying very hard to lie [TS]

00:16:37   and there's this whole like liars club [TS]

00:16:40   where they're trying very hard to say [TS]

00:16:41   things that are counterfactual because [TS]

00:16:43   they grasp that there is symbology to be [TS]

00:16:47   had and the whole point of the last part [TS]

00:16:49   of the book i think is is that is that [TS]

00:16:51   the way they change the way they think [TS]

00:16:55   is entirely based on changing their [TS]

00:16:57   language into a new language and they [TS]

00:16:59   tear down their old culture and bring up [TS]

00:17:01   this new culture now how interesting [TS]

00:17:02   that is and how even likely it would be [TS]

00:17:05   that you'd have aliens who have this [TS]

00:17:07   kind of way of thinking i don't know but [TS]

00:17:09   i thought it was as again as an old com [TS]

00:17:11   major i thought it was really [TS]

00:17:12   interesting to have all that talk about [TS]

00:17:14   similes and she's a simile she has to [TS]

00:17:16   act something out and then they use it [TS]

00:17:18   and say oh what you like the girl who's [TS]

00:17:20   who is it what she was given and there's [TS]

00:17:22   the guy who dies who swam every day so [TS]

00:17:25   he's the boy who swam every day and then [TS]

00:17:27   he dies there like he's the boy swim [TS]

00:17:29   every day but then he died that day they [TS]

00:17:31   have to be that literal with it and I [TS]

00:17:33   thought that was fascinating and how [TS]

00:17:35   many seconds for you into the novel [TS]

00:17:37   before me [TS]

00:17:38   no military the novel you read that part [TS]

00:17:39   where you thought Darmok and Jalad at [TS]

00:17:42   tonight it's not this it's not the same [TS]

00:17:44   it's not the same that you're right [TS]

00:17:45   because they're recounting well tonight [TS]

00:17:47   and it's an inverse sort of and it is [TS]

00:17:49   the idea here is that these what if [TS]

00:17:51   there was a race that can't make symbols [TS]

00:17:53   that can't think anything but literal [TS]

00:17:55   facts and then basically the humans come [TS]

00:17:58   in and completely ruin their entire [TS]

00:18:00   civilization destroy their planet and [TS]

00:18:03   only out of the rubble [TS]

00:18:05   are they able to kind of have a rebirth [TS]

00:18:07   as a erase that can think symbolically [TS]

00:18:10   basically we suck [TS]

00:18:11   I mean I like that I I really disliked [TS]

00:18:13   the whole trope about like or the whole [TS]

00:18:17   section about the you-know-who [TS]

00:18:19   hey there's this special ambassador who [TS]

00:18:22   gets everybody high with his words I [TS]

00:18:24   don't know if felt that totally fell [TS]

00:18:27   flat for me maybe just because it felt [TS]

00:18:28   like a generic science-fictiony plot and [TS]

00:18:31   they sort of alluded to the fact that [TS]

00:18:33   the zoo this is part of this like [TS]

00:18:34   intrigued by the world that we're sort [TS]

00:18:36   of a colony of but it didn't read they [TS]

00:18:39   want to sabotage things [TS]

00:18:41   yeah i mean it because that all gets [TS]

00:18:43   back loaded into why they're doing this [TS]

00:18:45   it feels very like very vague and very [TS]

00:18:49   you know without purpose sorting and [TS]

00:18:51   again it's the is the too many you know [TS]

00:18:53   not enough space for too many ideas [TS]

00:18:54   problem right i mean if you could do a [TS]

00:18:56   whole story about the kind of a colony [TS]

00:19:00   intrigue among the ambassadors and the [TS]

00:19:04   fact that this be there so far away from [TS]

00:19:06   where they're supposed to be what [TS]

00:19:08   they're supposed to be a colony of that [TS]

00:19:09   they sort of have broken off and the the [TS]

00:19:12   other government wants to reinforce its [TS]

00:19:14   authority over them i mean there's a [TS]

00:19:15   story there right accepted Leslie just [TS]

00:19:18   conserve sketched out briefly and then [TS]

00:19:20   it sort of well there we go [TS]

00:19:22   well let's move on a lot of the China [TS]

00:19:25   Mieville stuff a lot of my problems with [TS]

00:19:26   them can sort of lumped under the [TS]

00:19:28   category of trying too hard [TS]

00:19:31   I think he just it sometimes is all of [TS]

00:19:34   his writing reads just like he's trying [TS]

00:19:35   too hard to impress somebody and and [TS]

00:19:38   that bothers me [TS]

00:19:39   yeah this is what the city in the city [TS]

00:19:41   works so well as it's much more spare it [TS]

00:19:43   backs off because of it's sort of any [TS]

00:19:46   for the very first business in the city [TS]

00:19:48   where there is a crime scene and they're [TS]

00:19:50   out there and the detective looks up at [TS]

00:19:52   a season walking across and then he [TS]

00:19:53   realizes he has to unsere as she does [TS]

00:19:56   have me you're like what is that it [TS]

00:19:58   doesn't explain it is not all this stuff [TS]

00:20:00   and things just a little off and then it [TS]

00:20:01   slowly you know sort of viruses open as [TS]

00:20:04   you get this story is very minimal and [TS]

00:20:05   and it works because it's also hooked on [TS]

00:20:08   a a plot that your shape or structure [TS]

00:20:12   that you understand right there's a [TS]

00:20:13   murder [TS]

00:20:14   we've got a detective in like that that [TS]

00:20:16   Italy [TS]

00:20:16   gives you an entry into the plot and you [TS]

00:20:19   can deal with the fact that there are [TS]

00:20:20   weird things going on somewhere else [TS]

00:20:22   because you sort of have that to cling [TS]

00:20:23   to until you sort of get your feet and [TS]

00:20:25   figure out what's going on in this world [TS]

00:20:27   whereas in this one if he's if that [TS]

00:20:30   structure was ostensibly like it's a [TS]

00:20:32   space opera it doesn't really work as [TS]

00:20:35   that like to me that structure of [TS]

00:20:37   totally fell flat it's not a space opera [TS]

00:20:39   is based on a space opera Scott you [TS]

00:20:42   didn't tell us what you thought of the [TS]

00:20:44   book what can you share a little bit now [TS]

00:20:46   can you reveal my trap [TS]

00:20:48   can you open the envelope and tell us [TS]

00:20:50   what's in it now Scott well other than a [TS]

00:20:52   reading the whole book and expecting [TS]

00:20:54   some kind of space battle to happen [TS]

00:20:56   given all my kid and then be very [TS]

00:21:00   disappointed at the end because they [TS]

00:21:01   were normally when I don't know man in [TS]

00:21:03   the astronaut suit with the sword and [TS]

00:21:04   the laser on the cover was really unfair [TS]

00:21:06   it was just miss misleading as well put [TS]

00:21:10   but that being said besides that myspace [TS]

00:21:14   up for disappointment i was intrigued by [TS]

00:21:16   the idea that I had no idea what was [TS]

00:21:20   going on for a large part of the book [TS]

00:21:22   and I think that that was I don't know [TS]

00:21:25   if this is me projecting onto what kind [TS]

00:21:27   of media was trying to do but the aliens [TS]

00:21:30   in the book are presented as so alien [TS]

00:21:33   that the people on the planet just can't [TS]

00:21:36   understand them and so I thought that he [TS]

00:21:39   was trying to replicate that to have the [TS]

00:21:41   reader go through that similar [TS]

00:21:43   experience by just being completely [TS]

00:21:46   confused by the book for a vast majority [TS]

00:21:49   of it [TS]

00:21:50   mission you didn't you didn't get that [TS]

00:21:52   feeling that that humans were living at [TS]

00:21:56   the mercy of these strange aliens and [TS]

00:21:59   nobody understands them and if the air [TS]

00:22:01   bubble goes away tomorrow we all die and [TS]

00:22:04   living in that environment like that [TS]

00:22:06   there's a really evocative seen early on [TS]

00:22:08   where the kids play how far you get out [TS]

00:22:10   of the air bubble not and how far you [TS]

00:22:12   can touch out of the air bubble and then [TS]

00:22:14   like a kid collapse this and almost gets [TS]

00:22:16   brain damage to the aliens have to bring [TS]

00:22:18   back in its good time you know that was [TS]

00:22:21   that was that was kind of Awesome [TS]

00:22:23   actually so it was a pocket of that way [TS]

00:22:25   and I remember early on in the book I [TS]

00:22:27   was reading it and and he talks about I [TS]

00:22:29   guess what [TS]

00:22:30   the characters is looking at the [TS]

00:22:31   cityscape right and he talks about she's [TS]

00:22:34   looking at these factories and she's [TS]

00:22:35   like oh and the factories were grazing [TS]

00:22:37   and I was like but how do factories [TS]

00:22:39   great is it was like I don't understand [TS]

00:22:42   what I'm reading [TS]

00:22:43   did I did I have a stroke is what i [TS]

00:22:45   understand i had not only specific [TS]

00:22:48   stroke reading something in which i am [TS]

00:22:51   someone more like there's something at [TS]

00:22:53   this point especially in science fiction [TS]

00:22:55   i think we talked about this auto [TS]

00:22:56   previous podcast extensive a fantasy [TS]

00:23:00   reader Dan Moore and noted that we were [TS]

00:23:02   impressed about something he said you [TS]

00:23:04   know it's he felt like you before and [TS]

00:23:06   probably more extensive fantasy wedding [TS]

00:23:07   then maybe the rest of us had already [TS]

00:23:09   felt it was more commonly expressed [TS]

00:23:10   ideas and I think I feel on the syfy [TS]

00:23:13   realm you know I've been reading some of [TS]

00:23:14   the new weird stuff i've been reading a [TS]

00:23:16   lot of complications anthologies this [TS]

00:23:18   podcast is really provoked me to open up [TS]

00:23:21   a lot of very contemporary syfy reading [TS]

00:23:24   that I think I'd had walked away from [TS]

00:23:25   including someone like Ian banks and [TS]

00:23:27   some of the space opera that is out [TS]

00:23:29   there now that truly is space opera and [TS]

00:23:32   it's hard to find new ideas you know [TS]

00:23:34   sometimes I'll read stuff this 80 years [TS]

00:23:35   old I feel like it has newer ideas than [TS]

00:23:37   anyone's exploring today so I respect [TS]

00:23:39   and love the idea that i can open up a [TS]

00:23:43   book like embassy town and be baffled [TS]

00:23:45   and confused and hope that the author is [TS]

00:23:47   going to take me a hand at some point or [TS]

00:23:48   give me the tools to understand it and [TS]

00:23:51   and that's sort of a marvelous thing and [TS]

00:23:53   that's one of his characteristics is [TS]

00:23:54   that you really have to stumble around [TS]

00:23:57   his world before you figure out what it [TS]

00:23:58   is in this case you're like oh well haha [TS]

00:24:02   you know that didn't turn out to be so [TS]

00:24:03   interesting after all did it [TS]

00:24:05   I what I just wish I just wish it was [TS]

00:24:06   more to a better story I guess what I [TS]

00:24:08   feel like there you can do that I think [TS]

00:24:10   you can do that and still tell an [TS]

00:24:11   interesting and engaging narrative [TS]

00:24:12   that's really I just don't think [TS]

00:24:14   happened here but I i don't think the [TS]

00:24:15   story matters in this book i think it [TS]

00:24:17   and the characters really don't matter i [TS]

00:24:19   think what he was doing is is this kind [TS]

00:24:22   of rumination also the readers don't [TS]

00:24:23   matter [TS]

00:24:24   well the readers probably don't matter [TS]

00:24:25   either way he's at this point the book [TS]

00:24:27   on your desk and just let it sit let me [TS]

00:24:28   know but you know there is something to [TS]

00:24:32   be said he China Mieville is at the [TS]

00:24:34   point in his career right where you can [TS]

00:24:35   basically write whatever he wants [TS]

00:24:37   so I don't think he really cares what [TS]

00:24:39   people what readers are getting out of [TS]

00:24:41   this book I think he just wanted [TS]

00:24:42   to have an exercise and think about [TS]

00:24:46   language and a if you look at it in that [TS]

00:24:50   kind of rubric I think the book is [TS]

00:24:51   successful if you're looking at it as I [TS]

00:24:53   want to read a entertaining story maybe [TS]

00:24:56   you should not read this book because [TS]

00:24:57   the story is the weakest element i think [TS]

00:25:00   of the whole thing no it's about it's [TS]

00:25:02   about i did there a lot of ideas there's [TS]

00:25:04   some beautifully written passages but [TS]

00:25:06   but I think that's absolutely i really [TS]

00:25:09   enjoyed it but I I think that's [TS]

00:25:10   absolutely fair that the the story isn't [TS]

00:25:13   what it's about [TS]

00:25:14   and although I on a grand scale i think [TS]

00:25:16   the story could have been much more [TS]

00:25:17   interesting than it was which goes to [TS]

00:25:19   dance point of of how you know they're [TS]

00:25:22   there were more interesting things here [TS]

00:25:24   them maybe that I imagined as i was [TS]

00:25:27   reading it then are actually on the page [TS]

00:25:29   which i don't think i can say he invoked [TS]

00:25:31   that I think it was more like I was kind [TS]

00:25:33   of anticipating where I thought that we [TS]

00:25:35   go and it didn't but but it was you know [TS]

00:25:38   the ideas are really strong the writing [TS]

00:25:40   in in large sections is beautiful and I [TS]

00:25:44   i have a great time reading it because [TS]

00:25:46   the ideas were so weird and but it [TS]

00:25:48   wasn't about loving the characters and [TS]

00:25:50   it wasn't about having it be a gripping [TS]

00:25:52   you know a gripping overarching story [TS]

00:25:55   well maybe it in the little the little [TS]

00:25:57   plot devices they kept going through and [TS]

00:25:59   like for example you've got this this [TS]

00:26:00   this strange ambassador again and at [TS]

00:26:04   some point they allude to the fact that [TS]

00:26:05   one of the guys in that pair you know [TS]

00:26:08   because this is what they're weird pair [TS]

00:26:09   because they're not like raised from [TS]

00:26:10   youth together and they're not like [TS]

00:26:12   clones exactly or whatever and then they [TS]

00:26:15   mentioned that just like this one you [TS]

00:26:17   know one of the two of the pair is just [TS]

00:26:19   like oh he's you know empathic or [TS]

00:26:20   whatever it's like well that was they [TS]

00:26:23   have those were like 400 pages into this [TS]

00:26:25   book we we're introducing an entirely [TS]

00:26:27   new plot element felt like but it just [TS]

00:26:29   sorta gets thrown by the wayside again [TS]

00:26:30   there's just again too much too much [TS]

00:26:34   that needed to be simplified I think it [TS]

00:26:36   needed a a a more discreet thrust of you [TS]

00:26:40   know what are you talking about rather [TS]

00:26:42   than going off every which way an [TS]

00:26:44   article I read about China Mieville said [TS]

00:26:49   that he wants to write a novel in every [TS]

00:26:50   genre and i think he just did [TS]

00:26:54   dramatic company [TS]

00:26:56   haha bugs were good but to me this was [TS]

00:26:59   his space opera this was his you know [TS]

00:27:00   sci-fi hard sci-fi novel or whatever [TS]

00:27:03   however you want to call it and and I'm [TS]

00:27:05   going hard side and i read that well [TS]

00:27:07   whatever it is this is his of that haha [TS]

00:27:10   i don't know what this this is just [TS]

00:27:11   regular syfy novel so this is going to [TS]

00:27:13   make a joke about him running or western [TS]

00:27:15   and I realized okay i actually redtube [TS]

00:27:17   yeah he wrote that was probably a [TS]

00:27:18   Western it wasn't very good see so so he [TS]

00:27:21   wants to write a book and every genre [TS]

00:27:22   and this is a sci-fi and i feel like [TS]

00:27:24   because of that that's why we got the [TS]

00:27:26   emptying out his bag of of ideas that he [TS]

00:27:29   wanted to use in a sci-fi novel and just [TS]

00:27:32   pour them all in here because some other [TS]

00:27:34   writer and perhaps a less ambitious [TS]

00:27:35   writer would have taken these ideas and [TS]

00:27:38   said i'm going to write a second book [TS]

00:27:39   series set in the inverse and it's going [TS]

00:27:42   to make this is gonna be over here and [TS]

00:27:45   there's gonna be a thing on the planet [TS]

00:27:46   is going to be the story of the hosts [TS]

00:27:47   and that'll be you know it's a trilogy [TS]

00:27:49   about that and and instead he's like no [TS]

00:27:51   no I'm not gonna do that i'm going to [TS]

00:27:52   i'm just-just the one let's just stick [TS]

00:27:54   it all in there [TS]

00:27:55   yeah that's why I think that's the way [TS]

00:27:57   it does and there's something there's [TS]

00:27:58   something there's something admirable [TS]

00:27:59   undermine yeah expectations I I rude and [TS]

00:28:03   I think they needed try to do that I i [TS]

00:28:04   mean i just i think we differ on how [TS]

00:28:06   successful i see you get this was the [TS]

00:28:08   book so the question I have for you guys [TS]

00:28:10   is how do you picture how do you picture [TS]

00:28:13   the host what do you think they look [TS]

00:28:14   like I i can tell you how I picture them [TS]

00:28:17   and maybe and maybe scott scott might be [TS]

00:28:20   the one who actually find this most [TS]

00:28:22   interesting i kind of picture them like [TS]

00:28:24   there's a creature in dungeons dragons [TS]

00:28:26   called the beholder which is like this [TS]

00:28:30   floating fleshy or with a big I and I [TS]

00:28:32   pictured it kind of looking like one of [TS]

00:28:34   those but with a pair of wings or [TS]

00:28:35   something i really had a very hard time [TS]

00:28:38   because every time he would add another [TS]

00:28:40   feature in there like it seemed like [TS]

00:28:42   they were their descriptions were doled [TS]

00:28:44   out piecemeal right [TS]

00:28:46   it felt to me very much like at various [TS]

00:28:48   points to refer to very feature various [TS]

00:28:50   features and be like whoa [TS]

00:28:52   these guys have like feet hold on i [TS]

00:28:53   gotta rethink this ok so my cup holder [TS]

00:28:56   with feet it was constantly changing [TS]

00:28:59   that was the trouble I had was I that is [TS]

00:29:00   how I when they were first introduced [TS]

00:29:02   that was how I picture them and then as [TS]

00:29:04   i continue reading through the book they [TS]

00:29:06   kept adding features that were at odds [TS]

00:29:08   with that pic [TS]

00:29:08   sure and so I ended up with just like I [TS]

00:29:10   have no idea what these look like an [TS]

00:29:12   early did they have eyes are they I i [TS]

00:29:15   win it's like Doc's I stocks that's it [TS]

00:29:18   ok I stock that's a lesser known as [TS]

00:29:21   Martha so Scott what did you say what [TS]

00:29:26   did you think I I saw them as just big [TS]

00:29:30   Beatles I guess which is kind of lame [TS]

00:29:31   but that's making that George John it's [TS]

00:29:35   a giant Ringo is what I that's [TS]

00:29:38   terrifying also what about you climb i [TS]

00:29:40   was thinking big bug sort of like more [TS]

00:29:43   like mosquitoes with long proboscis 'as [TS]

00:29:45   and provides I and but like weird flippy [TS]

00:29:50   eyes [TS]

00:29:51   yeah I thought it was a rack from space [TS]

00:29:53   coast oh yes I think you're right Jason [TS]

00:29:56   yeah yeah so Rach the bandleader from [TS]

00:29:59   basically that's I pictured a whole [TS]

00:30:01   planet of his or acts tearing they're [TS]

00:30:03   tearing their hearing limps off in order [TS]

00:30:06   to the other themselves and then they [TS]

00:30:07   got war that's a planet i would like to [TS]

00:30:09   visit [TS]

00:30:10   I'm so Rex this is long and and our [TS]

00:30:13   protagonist of space go see he could [TS]

00:30:15   have written that would have been a [TS]

00:30:16   space on I would recognize like that but [TS]

00:30:18   you read this transition [TS]

00:30:20   damn it you can't actually does he get [TS]

00:30:24   you [TS]

00:30:24   well that's I've for China Mieville next [TS]

00:30:27   book which will be all about done [TS]

00:30:28   reading things who know China move wants [TS]

00:30:31   to write a book about [TS]

00:30:33   talk shows that's the next time only [TS]

00:30:36   perhaps Scott has written a book yet [TS]

00:30:38   about 19th century detectives in you [TS]

00:30:39   know he has not that it would be really [TS]

00:30:41   weird so I would like his I'm sure [TS]

00:30:43   noseby operates the book about if you [TS]

00:30:45   want something done reading does that [TS]

00:30:46   mean that we lose the knowledge of all [TS]

00:30:47   the other books is written [TS]

00:30:49   please please please put our sorry that [TS]

00:30:51   was mean that was that was read [TS]

00:30:53   I'm sorry he's he's a large man and he [TS]

00:30:57   can beat you up [TS]

00:30:58   wait wait he has written a book about [TS]

00:31:00   done reading that's what crackin is [TS]

00:31:02   about i would see now okay now Glenn [TS]

00:31:04   tell me because you were I've had [TS]

00:31:06   cracking on my list for all in fact I i [TS]

00:31:07   tried to get a library and through [TS]

00:31:09   mishap didn't end up with it but I is [TS]

00:31:11   what was what way what was the mishap [TS]

00:31:14   no I i was out of town and it was it [TS]

00:31:16   appeared while I was out of town so i [TS]

00:31:17   could not retrieve it in time [TS]

00:31:19   now I want to know do you think based on [TS]

00:31:21   on my history with trying to meet my [TS]

00:31:24   personal history them clearly i like the [TS]

00:31:26   city and citi did not care as much for [TS]

00:31:28   embassy town do you think i would enjoy [TS]

00:31:30   cracking I yeah i think what i can tell [TS]

00:31:33   you for sure i will tell you crack it [TS]

00:31:35   has a much it has a it has a crack is a [TS]

00:31:38   story that has a plot that is like a [TS]

00:31:40   railroad train barreling down you know [TS]

00:31:44   80 miles an hour the track even when [TS]

00:31:46   it's on the siding like you're going [TS]

00:31:48   along the track you like fuckin shaky [TS]

00:31:51   going to don't ya [TS]

00:31:53   look you know so even when it's [TS]

00:31:54   ridiculous the plot keeps advancing at [TS]

00:31:57   one point there's literally almost a [TS]

00:31:58   speed like thing in which they're in a [TS]

00:32:00   vehicle with like a guy with a living [TS]

00:32:02   tattoo on his back [TS]

00:32:03   that's driving like all through London [TS]

00:32:05   and they can't really stop because [TS]

00:32:06   they'll be tracked and there's people [TS]

00:32:08   who talk to the earth and its it's crazy [TS]

00:32:12   but it's not shambolic like the embassy [TS]

00:32:15   town where it's all kinds of things all [TS]

00:32:16   over the place they don't seem to relate [TS]

00:32:17   like cracking is sort of a rollicking [TS]

00:32:19   tail and you gotta stick with it but [TS]

00:32:21   there's a like consistent things that [TS]

00:32:23   happen there is sort of magic there's [TS]

00:32:26   some crazy stuff and like the one bit i [TS]

00:32:29   love is that the ocean like the actual [TS]

00:32:32   ocean has an embassy is a house that's [TS]

00:32:34   like full of water and fish like you can [TS]

00:32:38   go to it but it's so you have to sort of [TS]

00:32:40   find it i don't recall Aquaman except [TS]

00:32:43   for a temper Aquaman [TS]

00:32:44   it's very unlikely that the crack is [TS]

00:32:47   very cool feeling is very very [TS]

00:32:48   lovecraftian in some ways like that [TS]

00:32:50   there are horrible giant inconceivably [TS]

00:32:54   vast forces in which asked as as in one [TS]

00:32:58   of the books that was written by mr. [TS]

00:33:00   contribute to the extent of lowes there [TS]

00:33:02   is traveling circuit they got a lot of [TS]

00:33:04   consonants I read one it opened a portal [TS]

00:33:06   to another realm [TS]

00:33:07   so I stopped my man I i'm intrigued [TS]

00:33:10   because you know based on the little bit [TS]

00:33:11   that I've read and what you said it [TS]

00:33:13   sounds it kind of sounds kind of neil [TS]

00:33:15   gaiman ish history it's definitely like [TS]

00:33:18   definitely very neil gaiman relative to [TS]

00:33:20   other works it's it's I mean there's [TS]

00:33:22   there's sort of a there's a there's a [TS]

00:33:25   story there's a story that's told [TS]

00:33:26   beginning to end and there is a deus ex [TS]

00:33:28   machina up again I i do like stories [TS]

00:33:31   when i read racing amateur stories are a [TS]

00:33:34   crutch for the energy managers there are [TS]

00:33:37   some supremely evil characters and i [TS]

00:33:39   kinda like evil characters that are just [TS]

00:33:41   so they're they're happily evil they [TS]

00:33:44   like they commit horrible horrible acts [TS]

00:33:46   for the pure joy of it and there's [TS]

00:33:48   something so creepy about that these [TS]

00:33:50   sort of reminds me actually American [TS]

00:33:51   non-american gods but the sequel of [TS]

00:33:53   Anasazi boys are a nancy-boy anansi boys [TS]

00:33:55   right [TS]

00:33:56   anansi boys much more feeling of bad [TS]

00:33:59   especially with some of the really evil [TS]

00:34:02   parts of it but I don't think crack it [TS]

00:34:04   is i think Kraken is a much better book [TS]

00:34:06   than embassy town it's not full of [TS]

00:34:08   nearly as many ideas and it's clearly [TS]

00:34:09   written to be like part of a series it's [TS]

00:34:12   got a detective story in it too i mean [TS]

00:34:13   it's really at some level there's these [TS]

00:34:14   guys from a sort of supernatural [TS]

00:34:16   effective force it's part of London [TS]

00:34:18   Metropolitan Police Force apparently [TS]

00:34:20   they were you tell me about this the [TS]

00:34:21   more I want to read it [TS]

00:34:22   good that's maybe i'll definitely know [TS]

00:34:24   that the definition of a good book [TS]

00:34:26   the thing is it was gonna say like this [TS]

00:34:28   it's a it's a it's a rambling story but [TS]

00:34:32   it's rollicking so like it runs all over [TS]

00:34:34   the place but there's always somebody [TS]

00:34:35   chasing the hero who is sort of not [TS]

00:34:37   intended to be a hero and there's a lot [TS]

00:34:39   of misdirection but the misdirection was [TS]

00:34:41   being played out as opposed to [TS]

00:34:42   frustrating you alright so you can you [TS]

00:34:45   can read that while i check out in [TS]

00:34:47   london which is his young adult novel [TS]

00:34:50   that he wrote right before the city in [TS]

00:34:52   the city which is supposed to be quite [TS]

00:34:53   good and one a few awards and I know [TS]

00:34:55   that's going to be the next up on my [TS]

00:34:57   wife's reading list [TS]

00:34:58   because uh I think she's intrigued by [TS]

00:35:00   the idea that he did why a novel that's [TS]

00:35:02   about this the on its unlocked undone is [TS]

00:35:07   the name of it but it's unloadin it's a [TS]

00:35:09   nonsensical mirror version of London [TS]

00:35:11   that these girls travel to so like the [TS]

00:35:16   city in the city for kids you know you [TS]

00:35:19   know for creating a little extra special [TS]

00:35:21   horror just a little bit of extra floor [TS]

00:35:23   I you know and I feel like I I feel like [TS]

00:35:26   I come on you're away from the sounding [TS]

00:35:27   like sending like a hater yes I i do [TS]

00:35:29   tonight and yeah I'm not okay well I'll [TS]

00:35:32   be John Syracuse for this evening i [TS]

00:35:34   think that he is a I don't think he's a [TS]

00:35:36   bad writer i mean i think i find his [TS]

00:35:38   stuff intriguing i just don't I can't I [TS]

00:35:42   don't find it enjoyable if that's a [TS]

00:35:44   distinction to make [TS]

00:35:45   i can see that i can say that to you [TS]

00:35:48   know maybe that's a failing on my part [TS]

00:35:50   but he's challenging he's a very [TS]

00:35:52   challenging writer and I think he's a [TS]

00:35:55   very good writer but i'm not sure if [TS]

00:35:58   he's everybody's cup of tea right i mean [TS]

00:35:59   i can see that he's piece certainly not [TS]

00:36:01   everybody's cup of tea [TS]

00:36:02   no and I I you know I'm not trying to [TS]

00:36:04   save the ground up into class in the [TS]

00:36:06   teacup so strata not my cup is made of [TS]

00:36:09   mrs. head there's no tiene something [TS]

00:36:14   almost but not entirely unlike t.o.o [TS]

00:36:17   moose head full of glass [TS]

00:36:18   okay that explains why i don't care for [TS]

00:36:21   I I you know I know I don't say that's [TS]

00:36:24   AI just like you know challenging [TS]

00:36:25   writers or I don't like people who [TS]

00:36:26   challenge me I mean I quite enjoyed I [TS]

00:36:28   think you know an anthem was brought up [TS]

00:36:29   as a as a as a corresponding or a [TS]

00:36:32   similar book i really enjoyed an atom [TS]

00:36:33   but something about something about me [TS]

00:36:36   bills i think you know especially with [TS]

00:36:38   his earlier stuff which i think was very [TS]

00:36:41   widely liked because it was so [TS]

00:36:44   off-putting in some ways right it was [TS]

00:36:47   it's kind of an almost Brechtian and [TS]

00:36:49   it's sort of like alienation techniques [TS]

00:36:52   that I i think that that that was you [TS]

00:36:54   know [TS]

00:36:54   oh look this is a breath of fresh air [TS]

00:36:56   it's a totally new it's not like [TS]

00:36:57   anything before [TS]

00:36:58   yeah and and maybe I felt like it was to [TS]

00:37:00   alienating to the point of not having [TS]

00:37:03   any ability to get immersed in it and [TS]

00:37:05   maybe i just i prefer books that you can [TS]

00:37:07   get a little more immersed in that you [TS]

00:37:08   have a sort of grounding in and I feel [TS]

00:37:11   like he enjoyed [TS]

00:37:12   always very much pulling the rugs out [TS]

00:37:13   and maybe just a little too much for me [TS]

00:37:15   so we we've had a lot of different [TS]

00:37:17   opinions about embassy town but i would [TS]

00:37:20   like to know and we can go around the [TS]

00:37:22   horn Iraq from space ghost is my answer [TS]

00:37:24   is that your answer to everything and a [TS]

00:37:27   good answer it is i have to be wanted [TS]

00:37:28   for lunch one day this is our actual [TS]

00:37:30   space goes like I was great i wish i was [TS]

00:37:33   praying mantis for lunch let the man [TS]

00:37:35   asked his question we have scott i have [TS]

00:37:37   a very simple question would you [TS]

00:37:40   recommend this book to a fellow sci-fi [TS]

00:37:42   reader [TS]

00:37:44   wow I i think i recommended it's dan so [TS]

00:37:46   no no I mean I I keep reading despite [TS]

00:37:50   the fact that apparently I I don't care [TS]

00:37:52   for all of his books keep reading them [TS]

00:37:54   and every time it comes up with you and [TS]

00:37:55   I'm like I'll put that on my list [TS]

00:37:56   because he's interesting this is I said [TS]

00:37:58   I'm not necessarily enjoyable but [TS]

00:37:59   interesting but you wouldn't recommend [TS]

00:38:01   it to somebody else I die in fact and i [TS]

00:38:03   recommended to some of the other one so [TS]

00:38:06   i guess that answers your question did [TS]

00:38:08   you just smack them how do you anti [TS]

00:38:10   recommend something I said don't read [TS]

00:38:11   this book [TS]

00:38:12   don't leave this pic and buy this one [TS]

00:38:14   from me don't know I keep it I keep it [TS]

00:38:18   on my bookshelf is a you know a badge of [TS]

00:38:20   honor or as a warning to the other books [TS]

00:38:22   yes a reminder i recommend this book to [TS]

00:38:25   my wife who does not read lots of [TS]

00:38:27   science fiction and she in fact is just [TS]

00:38:29   about to finish it so I'm speaking to [TS]

00:38:32   you from the living room couch where [TS]

00:38:34   I'll be sleeping for the next we know [TS]

00:38:35   yet and apparently she's still your wife [TS]

00:38:37   continues to be enjoying it at its out [TS]

00:38:39   of her comfort zone but I think in I [TS]

00:38:42   think she appreciates it because it's so [TS]

00:38:45   different and there's a lot of [TS]

00:38:46   interesting stuff in it but she's not a [TS]

00:38:47   regular sci-fi reader so I think for her [TS]

00:38:50   perspective it's kind of interesting to [TS]

00:38:51   have the ideas of 18 different sci-fi [TS]

00:38:54   novel active 21 [TS]

00:38:55   it's like a 0 a brief history of science [TS]

00:38:58   fiction it's a variety of fun constant [TS]

00:39:00   concentrated science fiction yeah just [TS]

00:39:02   add water a master's class problems i [TS]

00:39:05   would i would recommend this to someone [TS]

00:39:07   who has a tolerance for reading or and [TS]

00:39:11   be involved with our ever read now let [TS]

00:39:15   me tell you a good one of my fan [TS]

00:39:18   this to use the theme of this which is [TS]

00:39:22   the theme of this novel a my steam [TS]

00:39:25   college carlson and my wife Lynn and I [TS]

00:39:27   want to dance performance several years [TS]

00:39:28   ago and it was so incomprehensible and [TS]

00:39:31   band bad but well-executed we were angry [TS]

00:39:34   people were walking out in the middle of [TS]

00:39:36   singing angrily standing up during this [TS]

00:39:38   performance people running around the [TS]

00:39:39   stage and playing off to music and we're [TS]

00:39:42   leaving the theater I don't know how [TS]

00:39:43   many times I've ever seen that and we [TS]

00:39:45   left and we were so angry about and we [TS]

00:39:48   talked about it why we were angry about [TS]

00:39:49   how awful it was we hated even was very [TS]

00:39:51   well done at the same sort of feeling [TS]

00:39:54   about this novel not quite as angry but [TS]

00:39:55   i would recommend somebody who wanted to [TS]

00:39:57   experiment it's a range of emotions on [TS]

00:40:00   reading and want to be exposed to a lot [TS]

00:40:01   of interesting ideas but who would you [TS]

00:40:03   know it's a you might be ultimately [TS]

00:40:04   completely unsatisfied with how this [TS]

00:40:06   holds up as a novel I i have to say [TS]

00:40:09   there's a certain i don't want a [TS]

00:40:10   perverse satisfaction but you know there [TS]

00:40:12   is something for me to i feel like often [TS]

00:40:14   i like at like a lot of stood like [TS]

00:40:17   everything to a certain extent like I'm [TS]

00:40:19   very tall I very you know i'll watch [TS]

00:40:21   terrible movies and say yeah there's [TS]

00:40:22   some redeeming value to that or whatever [TS]

00:40:24   and sometimes I think like maybe I'm not [TS]

00:40:26   critical enough so it was it was [TS]

00:40:28   refreshing for me to find a book that I [TS]

00:40:30   could read that I Mike did not like this [TS]

00:40:32   yeah and and I mean but it's still you [TS]

00:40:34   know in in ways that made me think [TS]

00:40:36   critically about what it was I did not [TS]

00:40:38   like about it and I think there's a [TS]

00:40:40   value to that there's a value to reading [TS]

00:40:42   something that you disagree with [TS]

00:40:44   yes and thinking well why did I not like [TS]

00:40:47   this or what was it about this i did not [TS]

00:40:49   find appealing we all agree he's a [TS]

00:40:52   fabulous mesa he's a very interesting [TS]

00:40:53   thoughtful writer with an enormous [TS]

00:40:55   number i listened as think this is not a [TS]

00:40:57   poorly written novel it's just now [TS]

00:40:59   doesn't pull together in the way that we [TS]

00:41:00   want something that satisfying to but [TS]

00:41:02   and he'll write you know he'll write [TS]

00:41:04   more that does and does not of course [TS]

00:41:06   Scott and I seem to like it so that's [TS]

00:41:10   true i I really did enjoy it but I [TS]

00:41:13   wouldn't recommend it to China little [TS]

00:41:15   thing and in fact my wife was like oh [TS]

00:41:17   should i read that every town book that [TS]

00:41:18   you said you liked so much i said a reed [TS]

00:41:20   city in the city [TS]

00:41:21   yes yeah well that's what I told my [TS]

00:41:24   friend whenever we were talking about [TS]

00:41:25   anything he in fact is i think to just [TS]

00:41:27   like him more than I did and I said well [TS]

00:41:29   you know if you're going to read one [TS]

00:41:30   read the city in the city [TS]

00:41:31   not embassy I'd agree with that even I [TS]

00:41:35   who enjoyed embassy town a lot would [TS]

00:41:38   agree that the city in the city is [TS]

00:41:39   better and it's much more accessible [TS]

00:41:41   yes yeah well you know what you're [TS]

00:41:44   seeing is a as a new war kind of student [TS]

00:41:48   detective story even though it's got a [TS]

00:41:50   strange spin and so it's a little more [TS]

00:41:51   recognizable you're marrying a weird the [TS]

00:41:54   weirdness with something that is [TS]

00:41:55   understandable [TS]

00:41:56   yeah that's a good combination and it's [TS]

00:41:58   not the the very language itself is not [TS]

00:42:00   fighting you which is helpful some of it [TS]

00:42:04   is but not so much it seems it's just [TS]

00:42:06   you feel like you turned your head like [TS]

00:42:07   three degrees away from normal as [TS]

00:42:09   opposed to those are right it's kind of [TS]

00:42:12   it's kind of out of phase but not [TS]

00:42:14   actively punching you punching you [TS]

00:42:18   so now it comes time on our podcast for [TS]

00:42:20   us to to answer that musical question [TS]

00:42:23   what are you reading [TS]

00:42:24   dan what are you reading I am reading a [TS]

00:42:28   dance with dragons actually because it's [TS]

00:42:30   really long and it's taken me some time [TS]

00:42:31   because i don't get as much opportunity [TS]

00:42:33   to read as i would like so the latest [TS]

00:42:35   george RR martin book i'm only like a [TS]

00:42:38   couple hundred pages in I think there's [TS]

00:42:39   like 800 that is gonna go or something [TS]

00:42:41   out of desperation lobs it's yeah I I [TS]

00:42:45   it's interesting so far although I a [TS]

00:42:47   part of me feels like I'm reading it out [TS]

00:42:49   of obligation [TS]

00:42:50   I'm waiting for it to pick up the [TS]

00:42:52   problem for me is also that I last read [TS]

00:42:54   i read the previous book when it came [TS]

00:42:55   out you know six years ago [TS]

00:42:57   yeah we'll have to have a whole podcast [TS]

00:42:59   on that book i just finished it myself I [TS]

00:43:01   i had to go reread you know the [TS]

00:43:03   wikipedia recap pages and everything [TS]

00:43:05   like all right where were we in this [TS]

00:43:07   massive story it's like people keep [TS]

00:43:09   trying to convince me that the after [TS]

00:43:11   robert jordan passed away the guy who [TS]

00:43:13   took over writing wheel times like all [TS]

00:43:15   those books are actually pretty good i'm [TS]

00:43:16   like yeah but I stopped reading like [TS]

00:43:17   halfway through that series which means [TS]

00:43:19   there's like four or five books I gotta [TS]

00:43:20   get through that are that you've already [TS]

00:43:22   admitted to me are basically crap so yes [TS]

00:43:26   all right enjoy it so far but looking [TS]

00:43:29   for other interesting things to read [TS]

00:43:31   anything else you've read recently I [TS]

00:43:32   guess embassy town was the most recent [TS]

00:43:33   yet before that i reread a classic the [TS]

00:43:38   princess of mars edgar rice burroughs in [TS]

00:43:42   preparation for there is a John Carter [TS]

00:43:44   movie [TS]

00:43:45   coming out next year i believe yesterday [TS]

00:43:47   and I've never write about friday night [TS]

00:43:50   lights in space [TS]

00:43:52   I had never read any of his stuff and [TS]

00:43:55   thought it interesting very reminiscent [TS]

00:43:57   of course of the stuff of that era but [TS]

00:44:00   interesting I i enjoyed it [TS]

00:44:04   all right Scott what are you reading uh [TS]

00:44:07   that is a good question i am reading the [TS]

00:44:10   second book in this trilogy of the book [TS]

00:44:13   is called the unincorporated war which [TS]

00:44:16   is a sequel to a book called the [TS]

00:44:19   unincorporated man and the next book of [TS]

00:44:21   the trilogy is called the unincorporated [TS]

00:44:23   woman who I know they love the word [TS]

00:44:27   unincorporated and it's not sure they [TS]

00:44:30   are they are they are they anti-business [TS]

00:44:33   they are well it's an interesting that's [TS]

00:44:36   an interesting question because uh so [TS]

00:44:39   points I didn't mean for it to be but [TS]

00:44:40   hey i love but sometimes that works out [TS]

00:44:44   I so it's set in the future like maybe [TS]

00:44:47   400 years into the future where it's [TS]

00:44:51   kind of like a libertarian stream [TS]

00:44:53   corporations run the galaxy one of the [TS]

00:44:56   galaxy but the the star system and [TS]

00:44:58   everyone when you're born you are [TS]

00:45:01   incorporated so you have stock you have [TS]

00:45:03   a ten i think a hundred thousand shares [TS]

00:45:05   of stock in yourself and upon birth 5% [TS]

00:45:09   of it is given to the government twenty [TS]

00:45:11   percent of it is given to your parents [TS]

00:45:12   and then the rest you can sell to on the [TS]

00:45:16   open market and so people own staff can [TS]

00:45:18   other people and the the whole system is [TS]

00:45:22   based on whoever owns the majority in [TS]

00:45:25   you gets to tell you what to do in [TS]

00:45:27   general it's a corporation so they send [TS]

00:45:29   you off to like Neptune or or whatever [TS]

00:45:31   they want to do with as you do as you do [TS]

00:45:33   and then so the people in this this time [TS]

00:45:37   period want to earn enough money so they [TS]

00:45:40   can have a majority of themselves and [TS]

00:45:42   they can do whatever they want and [TS]

00:45:44   through the in the first chapter of the [TS]

00:45:46   unincorporated man there's a tunnel and [TS]

00:45:49   there's this guy digging in this tunnel [TS]

00:45:50   because that's his job because the [TS]

00:45:52   tunnel company tumbling company owns hit [TS]

00:45:54   the majority of his stock and it comes [TS]

00:45:56   across this [TS]

00:45:57   a black cube but he doesn't know what it [TS]

00:46:01   is and turns out it's a cryogenic [TS]

00:46:03   suspension to a thing and inside is a [TS]

00:46:07   justin cord who is the unincorporated [TS]

00:46:10   man he's from 350 years ago he comes [TS]

00:46:13   into the system and he said he was a [TS]

00:46:16   billionaire and so he makes some trouble [TS]

00:46:18   and and hilarity ensues [TS]

00:46:22   all right there m and sequel will be the [TS]

00:46:26   unincorporated city limits explain [TS]

00:46:29   enjoyed the the unincorporated dog to [TS]

00:46:33   that's the kids but the unincorporated [TS]

00:46:35   hey lyst rated man that's right see [TS]

00:46:38   spots incorporate no see splice site [TS]

00:46:42   paper add cilantro and a little [TS]

00:46:44   recreation i'm holding off the limited [TS]

00:46:46   liability man myself [TS]

00:46:48   excellent but you it's good glad what [TS]

00:46:52   are you reading [TS]

00:46:53   what am I reading I can i mentioned a [TS]

00:46:55   comic book series [TS]

00:46:56   yes know that reading I'm yeah I'm a [TS]

00:46:58   little bit behind insurance but it's not [TS]

00:47:00   reading I've been sort of following the [TS]

00:47:02   whole wheat on the podcast on the [TS]

00:47:05   darkest night by this day decent comics [TS]

00:47:08   arc green later and we happen real and [TS]

00:47:11   over with discuss I kind of fell into it [TS]

00:47:13   by getting some bound anthologies of I [TS]

00:47:17   thought you already told us this one [TS]

00:47:18   have you already mentioned this in [TS]

00:47:20   another podcast this is a repeat when I [TS]

00:47:22   just tightening I couldn't see how [TS]

00:47:24   you're still realize 300 terrorists go I [TS]

00:47:27   don't blackest night was all collected [TS]

00:47:29   and I read it and thought it was [TS]

00:47:29   slightly incomprehensible that sort of [TS]

00:47:31   interesting and way too many colors the [TS]

00:47:33   Green Lantern spectrum nonsense too many [TS]

00:47:35   colors right that's my favorite review [TS]

00:47:38   ever of green lantern my favorite your [TS]

00:47:40   evergreen later too many colors the [TS]

00:47:42   colors as it is green [TS]

00:47:44   Oh car apparently I'm an idiot [TS]

00:47:48   what are you some sort of unincorporated [TS]

00:47:50   man haha i've also colorblind american [TS]

00:47:53   martyrs in the DC Comics universe are [TS]

00:47:55   afraid every color all great to me [TS]

00:47:58   the Greatland it's emotion so you moved [TS]

00:48:00   on from blackest night two brightest day [TS]

00:48:02   to stay with the series ended i think it [TS]

00:48:04   was an april and I've been reading with [TS]

00:48:06   online comics so I don't think all the [TS]

00:48:08   way I don't think many other day and [TS]

00:48:09   date but they're not that far behind [TS]

00:48:11   so i just finished so the 24 comic arc [TS]

00:48:14   not sure I even read all of them and [TS]

00:48:16   again it's a fascinating comes leaping [TS]

00:48:18   across different books and there's dead [TS]

00:48:19   man is always like the dead man [TS]

00:48:21   character Boston brand the circus circus [TS]

00:48:23   aerialist to dies shot and then has to [TS]

00:48:27   sort of Rome is a ghost in the quantum [TS]

00:48:29   leap like helping people to wind up you [TS]

00:48:33   know somehow redeem his soul from [TS]

00:48:34   Krishna the very interesting weird [TS]

00:48:36   little character so he's that he's our [TS]

00:48:38   hero antihero and it's a weird little [TS]

00:48:41   story arc again it's like I'm not quite [TS]

00:48:43   sure it's sort of Kwazii religious that [TS]

00:48:46   gets very captain planet e and I don't [TS]

00:48:49   know DC is now that after this requested [TS]

00:48:52   this whole enormous multi-year arc and [TS]

00:48:54   their bit blown up the universe with the [TS]

00:48:55   with the reboot anyway so i have no idea [TS]

00:48:57   what's going on the DC Comics universe [TS]

00:48:58   at all [TS]

00:48:59   alright but that's what I was reading [TS]

00:49:01   but you're reading it well apparently [TS]

00:49:03   yeah but after the end of you know what [TS]

00:49:05   is the summer that everything changes [TS]

00:49:06   everyone changes especially as again [TS]

00:49:09   uh-huh Jason what are you reading thank [TS]

00:49:12   you blend thanks for caring lied to her [TS]

00:49:15   is it is a comic book haha not so I I've [TS]

00:49:19   just finished a dance with dragons love [TS]

00:49:22   so we can talk about that on a [TS]

00:49:23   forthcoming podcast perhaps and I have [TS]

00:49:27   next to me here in fact i have the wise [TS]

00:49:31   man's fear by Patrick Rothfuss which I [TS]

00:49:34   was complaining to my wife that it's out [TS]

00:49:37   in hardcover and and it's huge and you [TS]

00:49:39   know it's a thirty-dollar hardcover but [TS]

00:49:41   the kindle version is even fifteen [TS]

00:49:42   dollars and I thought I don't want to [TS]

00:49:44   read it that badly and she said you know [TS]

00:49:45   you could get it for free at the library [TS]

00:49:48   hmm and so doctor today and the library [TS]

00:49:51   copy of the wise man's fear is sitting [TS]

00:49:53   right here so i guess i'm going to read [TS]

00:49:54   a paper book guys and other people have [TS]

00:49:57   touched it I'm right you should wear [TS]

00:49:59   gloves [TS]

00:50:00   it's heavy it's very happy I get paper [TS]

00:50:02   cuts mostly human skin [TS]

00:50:04   that's right yikes you can't see me [TS]

00:50:08   cringe but i am and the other book that [TS]

00:50:10   i read recently in July went to the last [TS]

00:50:14   space shuttle launch in Florida nothing [TS]

00:50:17   like Florida in July whoo yeah that's [TS]

00:50:20   some humidity only and all the way there [TS]

00:50:22   i read a memoir by a guy [TS]

00:50:25   named Mike Mullane who is a shuttle [TS]

00:50:26   astronaut called riding Rockets and it [TS]

00:50:29   is a very forthright and humorous and [TS]

00:50:35   somewhat dirty memoir of what it was [TS]

00:50:39   like to be a space shuttle uh to be a [TS]

00:50:42   Space Shuttle astronaut including how [TS]

00:50:44   he's very open about the fact that he [TS]

00:50:46   was he and several of his fellow [TS]

00:50:48   athletes astronauts were sexist pigs to [TS]

00:50:52   the first group of women astronauts and [TS]

00:50:55   how in the end the women gave as good as [TS]

00:50:58   they got and and educated many of these [TS]

00:51:00   arrested development astronauts about [TS]

00:51:04   what it was like to work with women in a [TS]

00:51:06   professional environment so that's [TS]

00:51:07   there's some good stuff in there last of [TS]

00:51:09   about challenger because the the group [TS]

00:51:12   of astronauts that he trained with [TS]

00:51:14   included the Challenger astronauts and [TS]

00:51:17   its really really great story a lot of [TS]

00:51:20   fun mayara our friend and co-worker [TS]

00:51:23   shall we McFarland actually recommended [TS]

00:51:25   it to me and it's a quite good so riding [TS]

00:51:27   Rockets by Mike Mullane was my little [TS]

00:51:29   shot of nonfiction in amidst the dragons [TS]

00:51:32   and and aliens that look like zorak from [TS]

00:51:36   space ghost I i also read that astronaut [TS]

00:51:38   book even even when you read nonfiction [TS]

00:51:40   into that space [TS]

00:51:41   exactly it's good stick to what you know [TS]

00:51:45   that's what I'm trying I'm trying to be [TS]

00:51:46   well-rounded and completely [TS]

00:51:48   one-dimensional way [TS]

00:51:49   are there any Zeppelin's anybody read [TS]

00:51:51   anything with the Zeppelin's in it [TS]

00:51:52   mmm-no i started watching Rocketeer [TS]

00:51:55   night i was just wondering like there's [TS]

00:51:57   applets I was recently in a few words [TS]

00:52:00   that 1i was in a giant three regional [TS]

00:52:02   had is set up 10 have original [TS]

00:52:05   hand-drawn pictures of eight dirigible [TS]

00:52:07   stored inside during world war 2i i have [TS]

00:52:10   i was in the same digital hanger when [TS]

00:52:13   you were i know a lot of time [TS]

00:52:15   no we're different times in total luck [TS]

00:52:17   or again I was watching you like that [TS]

00:52:21   with three of its scary no knockers [TS]

00:52:24   listening to some words that 1i was [TS]

00:52:27   literally the future Zeppelin stalkers [TS]

00:52:29   will be a good name for baby only thing [TS]

00:52:30   that I am the only event only thing I [TS]

00:52:32   came home from comic-con with that I [TS]

00:52:34   paid for not sort of the here happen [TS]

00:52:37   have [TS]

00:52:37   great piece of crap is that contagious [TS]

00:52:39   disease right now but it was very now [TS]

00:52:42   the other you have the coldest free is a [TS]

00:52:44   poster from a comic book of a schematic [TS]

00:52:48   of a Zeppelin actually have an airship a [TS]

00:52:51   rigid airship and I thought I walked up [TS]

00:52:53   to the guy and I said I find your [TS]

00:52:55   illustrations of Zeppelin's intriguing [TS]

00:52:57   which is the first time I've ever said [TS]

00:52:58   that to anybody but not the latter worst [TS]

00:53:01   worst pickup line everything he said [TS]

00:53:04   tell me more so I bought Zeppelin [TS]

00:53:07   picture for five dollars and buy dollars [TS]

00:53:10   that sheep that's why I know what's good [TS]

00:53:12   for a Zeppelin picture those could go [TS]

00:53:15   out of there usually go for licensed [TS]

00:53:16   dollars six dollars [TS]

00:53:18   yeah Florida comic-con are you now going [TS]

00:53:21   to try and build your own Zeppelin she [TS]

00:53:24   started using that as a model yes [TS]

00:53:26   exactly [TS]

00:53:26   using the comic-book schematic as a [TS]

00:53:28   model i will build my own personal [TS]

00:53:30   Zeppelin for actually my idea is that um [TS]

00:53:34   what you do is you work a little like [TS]

00:53:36   mini Zeppelin airbag thing into the roof [TS]

00:53:38   of your car and then when you're stopped [TS]

00:53:39   in traffic you present but I think [TS]

00:53:41   inspector gadget and press the button it [TS]

00:53:43   inflates you rise up above the traffic [TS]

00:53:45   you turbofan pops out the back to go [TS]

00:53:47   over the traffic jam back down on [TS]

00:53:49   deflate and go that's just great until [TS]

00:53:52   everybody's that's my invention [TS]

00:53:54   how do you like and what do you think [TS]

00:53:55   sirs we've got commercial sign [TS]

00:54:01   yeah wars up so in the next year we need [TS]

00:54:04   to make sure we read a book with [TS]

00:54:05   Zeppelin's and it should be at least [TS]

00:54:06   twenty percent more simply will always [TS]

00:54:09   have that this is the longest I've ever [TS]

00:54:10   been in a book club by the way really [TS]

00:54:14   this is the only book overwritten it's a [TS]

00:54:16   whole year and we occasionally don't [TS]

00:54:17   read the same things and other times we [TS]

00:54:19   do but so it's an odd book club is an [TS]

00:54:22   odd book I don't think Oprah would [TS]

00:54:25   approve [TS]

00:54:26   I never thought about this book club [TS]

00:54:27   before he/she called the book club [TS]

00:54:30   everytime everytime when how many of [TS]

00:54:34   these have you been on it accidentally [TS]

00:54:36   at the book club [TS]

00:54:37   it was all of an oversight which was the [TS]

00:54:39   part that got away from you the book at [TS]

00:54:41   the club [TS]

00:54:43   this podcast is over thanks for [TS]

00:54:45   listening thanks Scott Mykelti Glenn [TS]

00:54:47   Fleischmann and angry and until next [TS]

00:54:51   time when perhaps we will blend will [TS]

00:54:53   realize he's in a book club done until [TS]

00:54:57   value this is jason self being [TS]

00:54:59   comfortable book club [TS]

00:55:01   sign it off wait a second this is a book [TS]

00:55:04   club [TS]

00:55:10   [Music] [TS]

00:55:22   recording already recording recording [TS]

00:55:26   tall going and I were synchronized [TS]

00:55:29   podcast it's um yeah there's a lot of [TS]

00:55:32   tiny little bits in German the beginning [TS]

00:55:33   until he forgets to use them anymore [TS]

00:55:35   about but you do you you just summarize [TS]

00:55:39   a message on every town they don't use [TS]

00:55:41   it its back and wherever she trained to [TS]

00:55:43   be a mi pilot that's the German whatever [TS]

00:55:46   reminds me there's a great bit of [TS]

00:55:48   outside ok we should start anyway I [TS]

00:55:50   don't have a quarter mine remind me to [TS]

00:55:53   bring up the whole thing about required [TS]

00:55:55   but the up-and-up it's a famous bit of [TS]

00:55:57   recording out at famous bit of a of a [TS]

00:56:00   more like precursor or science fiction [TS]

00:56:02   mention ok not recording this is all off [TS]

00:56:08   the record right all right [TS]

00:56:11   my lawyers have advised me not to record [TS]

00:56:14   oh dear well your yes if you try to [TS]

00:56:18   record me my voice want my daughters to [TS]

00:56:20   advise me never to repair this podcast [TS]

00:56:22   again I'm an audio vampire you just [TS]

00:56:24   don't listen to the lawyers to you can't [TS]

00:56:26   do I think we lost Scott guys [TS]

00:56:28   yeah yeah I got to bring him back he [TS]

00:56:31   called didn't mean to interrupt the [TS]

00:56:33   threadbare calls I mean I suddenly [TS]

00:56:35   noticed we were we were down a man down [TS]

00:56:36   a man perhaps he answer his door [TS]

00:56:38   unwisely he's in the Emperor he didn't [TS]

00:56:41   answer his door [TS]

00:56:42   I did I am dead I don't know what [TS]

00:56:44   happened is frustrating [TS]

00:56:45   did you rip off your your your hearing [TS]

00:56:49   limbs up all i'm about to rip off some [TS]

00:56:54   hearing limbs did you guys catch the [TS]

00:56:57   dawn of the dead reference in their [TS]

00:56:58   other one last thing you would ever [TS]

00:57:02   expect in a china mieville novel is a [TS]

00:57:05   reference to George Romero's dawn of the [TS]

00:57:07   dead that in this highfalutin novel they [TS]

00:57:10   were watching basically a george [TS]

00:57:11   romero's zombie movie film festival as [TS]

00:57:14   they prepared for death and that little [TS]

00:57:16   bit would I will say if you want to read [TS]

00:57:18   a zombie book read this book instead of [TS]

00:57:20   feed ya niggas out of hand wound for [TS]

00:57:24   that well but the the guys after they [TS]

00:57:26   rip off their little like your stocks [TS]

00:57:27   they're kind of like zombies aren't they [TS]

00:57:29   sort of very rational zombies though way [TS]

00:57:32   better feed [TS]

00:57:33   yeah I yes wow yeah that's the book i [TS]

00:57:36   wouldn't want to I will maybe I do want [TS]

00:57:38   to read it I haven't figured out yet [TS]

00:57:40   I would much up speed and and uses it to [TS]

00:57:43   grow things in your back yard line 8 [TS]

00:57:46   while eating the seeds happy about that [TS]

00:57:49   alright let's not let's not advocate [TS]

00:57:51   destruction of books and well maybe a [TS]

00:57:55   little bit of the library book you [TS]

00:57:57   should return to your library that's if [TS]

00:57:59   you share and recommend them if you [TS]

00:58:00   purchase the perhaps you should also [TS]

00:58:02   return it to your library that will [TS]

00:58:04   confuse everyone [TS]

00:58:05   no don't do that and if it's on your [TS]

00:58:07   kindle do not throw away your kindle [TS]

00:58:08   just delete the bullet didn't know [TS]

00:58:10   descended to scott he'll take it from [TS]

00:58:12   here before you said you're kidding i [TS]

00:58:14   had a decent this dress stamped envelope [TS]

00:58:15   to spot at the kindle whisper he can [TS]

00:58:17   talk to it and get it you know [TS]

00:58:19   click off the right I know he is loaded [TS]

00:58:21   on you but it's ok it's ok there are [TS]

00:58:24   other books out there people will be [TS]

00:58:25   loaded on your forever huh [TS]

00:58:28   so come on back [TS]

00:58:31   it's ok we're all okay it's got his [TS]

00:58:34   finger hovering over the permanent [TS]

00:58:36   destruction button in its firmware gonna [TS]

00:58:40   do it it's gonna jump in the story [TS]

00:58:41   called out under the left 420 goon books [TS]

00:58:46   think this is taking on a very strange [TS]

00:58:50   it is really uncomfortable i can name [TS]

00:58:55   that we were are you reading [TS]

00:58:58   whoever jingle and no we don't we just [TS]

00:59:00   have dan and I singing it badly [TS]

00:59:02   separation totally different melody yeah [TS]

00:59:05   okay yeah that's this is not a MTG [TS]

00:59:08   podcast it's only been a year by the end [TS]

00:59:10   of year to we'll all be dead but little [TS]

00:59:13   jingle don't answer the don't answer [TS]

00:59:15   your donated for the door entry door to [TS]

00:59:17   the holder recording this recording is [TS]

00:59:24   over [TS]