The Incomparable

00:00:02 ◼   ► the incomparable number 231 January 2015 [TS]

00:00:10 ◼   ► welcome back everybody to be [TS]

00:00:11 ◼   ► uncomfortable i'm your host Jason [TS]

00:00:13 ◼   ► Snelling we're here tonight to convene [TS]

00:00:15 ◼   ► another edition of our book club we i we [TS]

00:00:18 ◼   ► we need to just change the title to [TS]

00:00:19 ◼   ► apocalypse book club because we do have [TS]

00:00:23 ◼   ► an awful lot at the I playing Lisa as [TS]

00:00:25 ◼   ► you shouldn't be such miser hold on [TS]

00:00:27 ◼   ► we're Edward apocalyptic books also out [TS]

00:00:30 ◼   ► there of course it's book club it [TS]

00:00:32 ◼   ► wouldn't be a book club angry people on [TS]

00:00:33 ◼   ► Twitter point out [TS]

00:00:34 ◼   ► were it not for the presence of Scott [TS]

00:00:36 ◼   ► McNulty hello Scott are you here is this [TS]

00:00:39 ◼   ► officially a book club [TS]

00:00:40 ◼   ► it is a book club huh cool grey thank [TS]

00:00:43 ◼   ► goodness [TS]

00:00:44 ◼   ► well now that we know that it's [TS]

00:00:45 ◼   ► officially a book club i'd like to [TS]

00:00:46 ◼   ► introduce my other two guests Monty [TS]

00:00:48 ◼   ► actually also joins us hello Monty know [TS]

00:00:51 ◼   ► Jason member electricity [TS]

00:00:53 ◼   ► oh good times remember podcasts are they [TS]

00:00:56 ◼   ► were like a traveling theater but but [TS]

00:00:59 ◼   ► they came to you over them the the [TS]

00:01:01 ◼   ► clouds [TS]

00:01:03 ◼   ► I can't even picture such a thing i know [TS]

00:01:05 ◼   ► i'll draw you a comic book about it [TS]

00:01:06 ◼   ► later [TS]

00:01:07 ◼   ► we're foreshadowing what the book is [TS]

00:01:09 ◼   ► David lower is also here hello David [TS]

00:01:11 ◼   ► hi I'm calling in from John Syracuse's [TS]

00:01:14 ◼   ► compound good because it's looking at [TS]

00:01:16 ◼   ► what relaxes saving their dad likes all [TS]

00:01:19 ◼   ► of lex's together here because it's very [TS]

00:01:21 ◼   ► safe Syracuse's children there did they [TS]

00:01:23 ◼   ► do a house swap 10 look at the circus is [TS]

00:01:25 ◼   ► going to take his children to where it's [TS]

00:01:26 ◼   ► safe it's just likes the house they have [TS]

00:01:28 ◼   ► to be rescued but i'll refer you to our [TS]

00:01:30 ◼   ► episode about but the dogstars for that [TS]

00:01:32 ◼   ► one [TS]

00:01:34 ◼   ► this is this is about two books that are [TS]

00:01:36 ◼   ► more or less about apocalypses one is [TS]

00:01:39 ◼   ► station eleven by Emily st. John Mandel [TS]

00:01:41 ◼   ► and one is the peripheral by william [TS]

00:01:43 ◼   ► gibson leases in my old pal william [TS]

00:01:46 ◼   ► gibson and we're also going to talk at [TS]

00:01:49 ◼   ► with with bonus bonus material for those [TS]

00:01:52 ◼   ► who read it i didn't but that's fine [TS]

00:01:54 ◼   ► about John Varley slow apocalypse [TS]

00:01:57 ◼   ► because Lisa felt that it would be [TS]

00:01:58 ◼   ► relevant to this discussion and I take [TS]

00:02:01 ◼   ► her at her word because i didn't get it [TS]

00:02:03 ◼   ► let's get it let's start with a station [TS]

00:02:08 ◼   ► 11 which is a Scott you have you were [TS]

00:02:12 ◼   ► the one I heard about this book from and [TS]

00:02:14 ◼   ► and then I saw it on somebody's best of [TS]

00:02:17 ◼   ► the year list so you know you you really [TS]

00:02:20 ◼   ► like this one and recommended it to the [TS]

00:02:22 ◼   ► rest of us so this is all your fault [TS]

00:02:23 ◼   ► right [TS]

00:02:24 ◼   ► I'm doing all you're doing is also [TS]

00:02:27 ◼   ► pushed for it to you because apocalypses [TS]

00:02:30 ◼   ► it was I think widely acclaimed as a [TS]

00:02:34 ◼   ► very good book [TS]

00:02:35 ◼   ► yeah of last year so it made many lists [TS]

00:02:38 ◼   ► and so I wouldn't be surprised if much [TS]

00:02:41 ◼   ► like calculus both Lisa and I discovered [TS]

00:02:44 ◼   ► at the same time huh [TS]

00:02:46 ◼   ► and both large and suggested it as a [TS]

00:02:49 ◼   ► book we should read and in fact it was [TS]

00:02:51 ◼   ► my favorite book that I read last year [TS]

00:02:53 ◼   ► with a second followed closely by the [TS]

00:02:55 ◼   ► bone clocks by our good friend David [TS]

00:02:59 ◼   ► Mitchell of the cloud atlas has the [TS]

00:03:01 ◼   ► clout wait you know this book that that [TS]

00:03:03 ◼   ► that those books must hit the right spot [TS]

00:03:05 ◼   ► for you because this book reminded me of [TS]

00:03:06 ◼   ► the cloud atlas a little bit mmm little [TS]

00:03:08 ◼   ► bit I i enjoy when they interweave [TS]

00:03:10 ◼   ► different time different periods and [TS]

00:03:12 ◼   ► jump back and forth and connect [TS]

00:03:14 ◼   ► everything at the end satisfyingly or [TS]

00:03:17 ◼   ► not so now i have to ask you because we [TS]

00:03:19 ◼   ► know that one of your one of your [TS]

00:03:21 ◼   ► charming traits is that you cannot you [TS]

00:03:23 ◼   ► get booked amnesia and you can't [TS]

00:03:25 ◼   ► remember what happened in books do you [TS]

00:03:27 ◼   ► would you like to talk a little bit [TS]

00:03:28 ◼   ► about station eleven and what it's about [TS]

00:03:30 ◼   ► and why you liked it at to kick us off [TS]

00:03:32 ◼   ► since since uh I feel like Lisa will be [TS]

00:03:36 ◼   ► able to join me and talking about [TS]

00:03:38 ◼   ► peripheral I thought maybe I would go to [TS]

00:03:39 ◼   ► you for station eleven to start do you [TS]

00:03:42 ◼   ► have the or would you like a punt I'm [TS]

00:03:45 ◼   ► giving the opportunity i don't remember [TS]

00:03:46 ◼   ► anything that happened you talk about [TS]

00:03:48 ◼   ► I'll catch up later [TS]

00:03:49 ◼   ► I read this way back in November details [TS]

00:03:54 ◼   ► are hand that was like before [TS]

00:03:56 ◼   ► thanksgiving that screams an apocalypse [TS]

00:03:58 ◼   ► and then you and I will admit i was [TS]

00:04:02 ◼   ► looking for a synopsis online to refresh [TS]

00:04:06 ◼   ► my memory and I could not find one which [TS]

00:04:10 ◼   ► did not help [TS]

00:04:11 ◼   ► goodreads has a little one but there's [TS]

00:04:12 ◼   ► not on wikimedia strangely no that's [TS]

00:04:14 ◼   ► gross and the gist of the story is that [TS]

00:04:19 ◼   ► uh I mean super simplifying it there is [TS]

00:04:23 ◼   ► a big [TS]

00:04:26 ◼   ► virus of some sort which I forget the [TS]

00:04:28 ◼   ► Georgian flew very best and black right [TS]

00:04:31 ◼   ► uh-uh that yes that sweeps the the globe [TS]

00:04:34 ◼   ► and we drop we the story shifts between [TS]

00:04:38 ◼   ► pre globe sweeping virus post globe [TS]

00:04:44 ◼   ► sweeping virus and there's a comic book [TS]

00:04:47 ◼   ► part in the whole hair sprinkled [TS]

00:04:50 ◼   ► throughout so this is super high level [TS]

00:04:53 ◼   ► overview and then all the characters [TS]

00:04:55 ◼   ► kind of not all the characters the main [TS]

00:04:57 ◼   ► characters kind of connect throughout [TS]

00:04:59 ◼   ► the different time periods at the end [TS]

00:05:02 ◼   ► and i will say a lot of a lot of scenes [TS]

00:05:06 ◼   ► stood out in my mind but the overall [TS]

00:05:09 ◼   ► plot as with many things as evaporation [TS]

00:05:13 ◼   ► ok so that basically the plot is that [TS]

00:05:16 ◼   ► you you're following a couple different [TS]

00:05:19 ◼   ► characters mostly it is a Kirsten who is [TS]

00:05:25 ◼   ► a child actress at in a production of [TS]

00:05:29 ◼   ► King Lear in Toronto at the moment that [TS]

00:05:32 ◼   ► this virus basically goes global and [TS]

00:05:35 ◼   ► kills almost everybody and we we see her [TS]

00:05:38 ◼   ► as a child there and this famous a film [TS]

00:05:41 ◼   ► actor dies on stage dick Shawn like if [TS]

00:05:46 ◼   ► anybody remembers the story median Sean [TS]

00:05:48 ◼   ► dying on stage and uh and then she is [TS]

00:05:52 ◼   ► also we see her later travelling post [TS]

00:05:54 ◼   ► apocalypse in a company of musicians and [TS]

00:05:57 ◼   ► actors who go from town to town [TS]

00:05:59 ◼   ► performing performing plays and playing [TS]

00:06:02 ◼   ► music in the Midwest to the various [TS]

00:06:04 ◼   ► villages that have sprung up post the [TS]

00:06:06 ◼   ► post-apocalypse at least the ones that [TS]

00:06:08 ◼   ► aren't too creepy or violent and she's [TS]

00:06:12 ◼   ► so she's a part of that that group and [TS]

00:06:14 ◼   ► we also see various stories about people [TS]

00:06:18 ◼   ► other people who connected with that [TS]

00:06:19 ◼   ► actor including the the EMT who who [TS]

00:06:24 ◼   ► jumped up on stage and tried to save his [TS]

00:06:27 ◼   ► life when he died on stage and we we [TS]

00:06:30 ◼   ► meet we see how the EMTs life goes after [TS]

00:06:32 ◼   ► the apocalypse and also how he was [TS]

00:06:36 ◼   ► connected to people like the actors [TS]

00:06:39 ◼   ► ex-wife and ex-wives and his son and [TS]

00:06:44 ◼   ► that all is is kind of connected so we [TS]

00:06:46 ◼   ► see various things that stem from this [TS]

00:06:49 ◼   ► moment where these people are together [TS]

00:06:50 ◼   ► at this at the moment where the actor [TS]

00:06:53 ◼   ► dies and then we see his life and his [TS]

00:06:56 ◼   ► wives lives in his child's life and the [TS]

00:06:59 ◼   ► the life of this child actress who grows [TS]

00:07:01 ◼   ► up post-apocalypse and also the EMT and [TS]

00:07:04 ◼   ► it's all kind of interconnected and and [TS]

00:07:08 ◼   ► yeah the Indian it's the end of the [TS]

00:07:09 ◼   ► world because there aren't very many [TS]

00:07:10 ◼   ► people around more than anything else so [TS]

00:07:13 ◼   ► it isn't a case where the infrastructure [TS]

00:07:14 ◼   ► fails and then everybody dies it's a [TS]

00:07:16 ◼   ► case that everybody dies and then the [TS]

00:07:18 ◼   ► infrastructure fails because [TS]

00:07:19 ◼   ► theoretically it's just you know it's [TS]

00:07:22 ◼   ► all too messed up for people to put back [TS]

00:07:24 ◼   ► together at least not yet but something [TS]

00:07:27 ◼   ► about right yes [TS]

00:07:29 ◼   ► did you mention the comic book that the [TS]

00:07:31 ◼   ► actors ex-wife this yes this is the most [TS]

00:07:34 ◼   ► vital part of the story for me is the [TS]

00:07:37 ◼   ► actor who is arguably the one thing [TS]

00:07:40 ◼   ► everybody in this book has in common [TS]

00:07:42 ◼   ► the actor is this is a serial husband [TS]

00:07:45 ◼   ► and his first ex-wife spends her time [TS]

00:07:48 ◼   ► drawing a comic book series that she [TS]

00:07:51 ◼   ► never quite finishes but her husband or [TS]

00:07:54 ◼   ► her ex-husband as a few copies made up [TS]

00:07:56 ◼   ► he gives a copy to his son and he gives [TS]

00:07:58 ◼   ► a copy to Kirsten when she's a small [TS]

00:08:00 ◼   ► child too because he's using her as a [TS]

00:08:03 ◼   ► standard surrogate and that comic book [TS]

00:08:06 ◼   ► not only acts as a metaphor for the the [TS]

00:08:11 ◼   ► identity crisis that humanity is having [TS]

00:08:13 ◼   ► post extinction event it is also the [TS]

00:08:16 ◼   ► thing that unravels the central mystery [TS]

00:08:18 ◼   ► surrounding the the post-apocalyptic [TS]

00:08:22 ◼   ► world's principal antagonist that [TS]

00:08:25 ◼   ► Kirsten and her troop run into right [TS]

00:08:26 ◼   ► right it's a and provides the name of [TS]

00:08:29 ◼   ► the book because that's the comic book [TS]

00:08:31 ◼   ► is called station 11 and it is about a [TS]

00:08:33 ◼   ► scientist who lives on a space station [TS]

00:08:35 ◼   ► and and we discover see station yes yes [TS]

00:08:38 ◼   ► Lord undersea space station I it's on [TS]

00:08:41 ◼   ► another planet enters our file and [TS]

00:08:44 ◼   ► there's a violent conflict between [TS]

00:08:47 ◼   ► people who want to stay safe in the [TS]

00:08:48 ◼   ► states in the station and people who are [TS]

00:08:50 ◼   ► longing for life above the surface [TS]

00:08:52 ◼   ► and the metaphor for life in the bubble [TS]

00:08:56 ◼   ► is pretty effect is pretty affecting [TS]

00:08:57 ◼   ► because another one of the characters in [TS]

00:08:59 ◼   ► the story is the dead actors best friend [TS]

00:09:02 ◼   ► / business manager who ends up started [TS]

00:09:06 ◼   ► who ends up inadvertently colonizing an [TS]

00:09:07 ◼   ► airport with others with other survivors [TS]

00:09:10 ◼   ► and curating Museum of the world the [TS]

00:09:12 ◼   ► past I could fire off a spoiler warning [TS]

00:09:14 ◼   ► here but really it's book club we're [TS]

00:09:15 ◼   ► gonna talk about what's in the book if [TS]

00:09:17 ◼   ► you don't want to know what's in the [TS]

00:09:17 ◼   ► book don't listen until you ever take [TS]

00:09:19 ◼   ► your friend yeah and I'd i have to admit [TS]

00:09:22 ◼   ► i really love the report sequences oh my [TS]

00:09:24 ◼   ► god and I've been here for weeks but it [TS]

00:09:26 ◼   ► so I I one of the things that fascinates [TS]

00:09:28 ◼   ► me as with all these books is how [TS]

00:09:30 ◼   ► society unravels and the nature of how [TS]

00:09:32 ◼   ► its portrayed at and I want to talk [TS]

00:09:35 ◼   ► about that and then that also ties into [TS]

00:09:36 ◼   ► the gibson Scott I since you liked this [TS]

00:09:40 ◼   ► book so much I and I know we've got some [TS]

00:09:42 ◼   ► differing opinions on what's on the [TS]

00:09:44 ◼   ► panel I'm just you know there if you [TS]

00:09:46 ◼   ► wonder why Monty and David or crouching [TS]

00:09:48 ◼   ► in the weeds silently sneaking up behind [TS]

00:09:50 ◼   ► you that may be why brow shame I [TS]

00:09:54 ◼   ► couldn't find my chair [TS]

00:09:56 ◼   ► the important thing is that Scott draws [TS]

00:09:57 ◼   ► the five my crossbow out are you kidding [TS]

00:09:59 ◼   ► me there there lo there low-lying weeds [TS]

00:10:02 ◼   ► you have to stay below the the it's good [TS]

00:10:04 ◼   ► for my hamstrings of 14 you can stretch [TS]

00:10:07 ◼   ► out before we get there those Scott once [TS]

00:10:10 ◼   ► you tell us up if you've got a more [TS]

00:10:12 ◼   ► about why this book resonated with you [TS]

00:10:15 ◼   ► and why you thought it was one of your [TS]

00:10:16 ◼   ► favorites are your favorite from 2014 [TS]

00:10:19 ◼   ► so I think that a lot of books that deal [TS]

00:10:22 ◼   ► with the apocalypse tend to turn into [TS]

00:10:25 ◼   ► apocalypse porn where it's all talking [TS]

00:10:29 ◼   ► about you know the details of how the [TS]

00:10:31 ◼   ► apocalypse happened and you know [TS]

00:10:33 ◼   ► detailed planning which is exactly what [TS]

00:10:36 ◼   ► slow apocalypse is get through it with [TS]

00:10:39 ◼   ► you [TS]

00:10:40 ◼   ► yeah so it's it's a stark contrast and I [TS]

00:10:43 ◼   ► see why Lisa why you recommend it [TS]

00:10:44 ◼   ► because I start contractors contrast to [TS]

00:10:46 ◼   ► station 11 which is basically using the [TS]

00:10:48 ◼   ► apocalypse as a setting and kind of a [TS]

00:10:52 ◼   ► plot device to start spinning these [TS]

00:10:53 ◼   ► characters off and it does really [TS]

00:10:55 ◼   ► concerned itself with you know what's [TS]

00:10:57 ◼   ► happening with the apocalypse or why [TS]

00:11:01 ◼   ► uh you know this this disease is [TS]

00:11:03 ◼   ► rampaging throughout the world it just [TS]

00:11:06 ◼   ► happened and let's move on a which I [TS]

00:11:10 ◼   ► find refreshing because i think the most [TS]

00:11:13 ◼   ► the boring parts of the Apocalypse [TS]

00:11:15 ◼   ► stories to me are you know the mechanics [TS]

00:11:18 ◼   ► of the Apocalypse I'm more interested in [TS]

00:11:21 ◼   ► how people react and the relationships [TS]

00:11:24 ◼   ► and the characters that are driven [TS]

00:11:25 ◼   ► through it which i know is not a little [TS]

00:11:28 ◼   ► you know some people really like the the [TS]

00:11:30 ◼   ► apocalypse mechanics and that's fine i [TS]

00:11:32 ◼   ► would suggest reading slow apocalypse [TS]

00:11:34 ◼   ► because boy when you get your full of [TS]

00:11:37 ◼   ► apocalypse mechanics through that book [TS]

00:11:40 ◼   ► with it and if you're in Los Angeles it [TS]

00:11:42 ◼   ► will give you a detailed map of what you [TS]

00:11:45 ◼   ► doin out [TS]

00:11:45 ◼   ► yes if there's any kind of and I mean [TS]

00:11:48 ◼   ► you could draw a map based on hehe goes [TS]

00:11:51 ◼   ► into streets and and we're gonna axe [TS]

00:11:54 ◼   ► yes it's it's impressive amount of these [TS]

00:11:57 ◼   ► stories are most likely to be loaded [TS]

00:11:58 ◼   ► first [TS]

00:11:59 ◼   ► yes this does not well in fact there's a [TS]

00:12:02 ◼   ► i was going to say the book has amnesia [TS]

00:12:04 ◼   ► about what happens post-apocalypse but [TS]

00:12:06 ◼   ► actually the main character has amnesia [TS]

00:12:08 ◼   ► about what happens post upon she loses a [TS]

00:12:11 ◼   ► year we don't see the aftermath really [TS]

00:12:14 ◼   ► that makes it works because it's because [TS]

00:12:16 ◼   ► to imagine that a kids on the road for a [TS]

00:12:18 ◼   ► year and has blanked everything out like [TS]

00:12:20 ◼   ► and there's and she mentions there are [TS]

00:12:22 ◼   ► things that trigger her like certain [TS]

00:12:24 ◼   ► sites of meat cooking or things like [TS]

00:12:26 ◼   ► that and between not knowing what [TS]

00:12:28 ◼   ► happens and having that vague trigger [TS]

00:12:29 ◼   ► about watching charred bone over a fire [TS]

00:12:33 ◼   ► frankly anything that your imagination [TS]

00:12:35 ◼   ► comes up with is going to be horrific [TS]

00:12:36 ◼   ► well we don't see her after math but we [TS]

00:12:38 ◼   ► do see the airport after you I was going [TS]

00:12:40 ◼   ► to say the one place where you see a [TS]

00:12:43 ◼   ► spot by spot what happens after the [TS]

00:12:46 ◼   ► apocalypse is in the airport everything [TS]

00:12:47 ◼   ► else is sort of like we're on the [TS]

00:12:49 ◼   ► precipice of the apocalypse and then now [TS]

00:12:52 ◼   ► we're dealing with life after the [TS]

00:12:53 ◼   ► apocalypse but the airport you're right [TS]

00:12:55 ◼   ► steps which we get to very late in the [TS]

00:12:59 ◼   ► game does step through sort of so you're [TS]

00:13:02 ◼   ► in an airport and the world ends [TS]

00:13:04 ◼   ► what do you do what happens then just in [TS]

00:13:06 ◼   ► case it's like the place to be [TS]

00:13:08 ◼   ► I'm that was like that was my takeaway [TS]

00:13:10 ◼   ► it's inherently awesome at the airport [TS]

00:13:12 ◼   ► yes go to the airport [TS]

00:13:13 ◼   ► well what was interesting was how [TS]

00:13:15 ◼   ► quickly there though the one day the two [TS]

00:13:17 ◼   ► details that stuck with me on the first [TS]

00:13:19 ◼   ► three through because i read this book [TS]

00:13:21 ◼   ► twice the first time I read it linearly [TS]

00:13:23 ◼   ► front to back and then the second time i [TS]

00:13:25 ◼   ► actually went through back in like a [TS]

00:13:27 ◼   ► goal and picked it out character by [TS]

00:13:29 ◼   ► character to see how their stories hung [TS]

00:13:31 ◼   ► together as as just a series of short [TS]

00:13:33 ◼   ► interlocked stories and the two details [TS]

00:13:36 ◼   ► that stood out the first time in the [TS]

00:13:37 ◼   ► report sequence where that poor girl who [TS]

00:13:38 ◼   ► runs out of her her her energy [TS]

00:13:42 ◼   ► depression [TS]

00:13:43 ◼   ► yeah they're serum she's taking and [TS]

00:13:45 ◼   ► basically walked into the woods to go [TS]

00:13:47 ◼   ► kill herself and and then the second [TS]

00:13:50 ◼   ► thing that stuck with me was when they [TS]

00:13:52 ◼   ► took like a quick hard line on sexual [TS]

00:13:54 ◼   ► assault and kicked that guy to the [TS]

00:13:55 ◼   ► airport and get my rifle said good luck [TS]

00:13:57 ◼   ► don't ever come back here right and I [TS]

00:14:00 ◼   ► think the reason i was impressed with [TS]

00:14:01 ◼   ► that was because that's kind of contrary [TS]

00:14:04 ◼   ► to the ethos of a lot of United [TS]

00:14:07 ◼   ► apocalypse port is a great way of [TS]

00:14:08 ◼   ► putting it because a lot of these [TS]

00:14:09 ◼   ► authors seem to be seemed to really [TS]

00:14:11 ◼   ► relish the idea that yes women look up [TS]

00:14:13 ◼   ► acting channel they'll be treated like [TS]

00:14:14 ◼   ► currency and hear you had a bunch of [TS]

00:14:16 ◼   ► people saying look you know we're living [TS]

00:14:18 ◼   ► in a horrific time there's no reason for [TS]

00:14:21 ◼   ► us to have to put professed have to put [TS]

00:14:23 ◼   ► up with that and so both the the [TS]

00:14:26 ◼   ► horrible disintegration and and the very [TS]

00:14:28 ◼   ► real human cost of people who are going [TS]

00:14:29 ◼   ► to lose their lives because they ran out [TS]

00:14:30 ◼   ► of medication that was just something [TS]

00:14:31 ◼   ► that really stuck with me as did them by [TS]

00:14:35 ◼   ► consensus setting up in enforcing rule [TS]

00:14:37 ◼   ► of law and entering the airport airport [TS]

00:14:38 ◼   ► to an outpost I loved both of those [TS]

00:14:40 ◼   ► details now she included them that's not [TS]

00:14:42 ◼   ► one of one of the scenes the six with me [TS]

00:14:44 ◼   ► the most is in the airport a plane lands [TS]

00:14:47 ◼   ► shortly after they won't let him [TS]

00:14:50 ◼   ► yes they just let me die in there well [TS]

00:14:53 ◼   ► the people the people on the plane don't [TS]

00:14:55 ◼   ► get off friday right yeah right that [TS]

00:14:57 ◼   ► anyways I was just like looking at we [TS]

00:14:59 ◼   ► can't you know what I'm gonna [TS]

00:15:00 ◼   ► contaminate where we've landed [TS]

00:15:03 ◼   ► yeah yeah yeah i did there are lots of [TS]

00:15:06 ◼   ► moments I'm like Scott so there's lots [TS]

00:15:07 ◼   ► of moments that stick with me I I i [TS]

00:15:10 ◼   ► enjoy the I enjoyed the connections [TS]

00:15:12 ◼   ► between the characters i did again as [TS]

00:15:14 ◼   ► somebody who watch lost III don't know [TS]

00:15:17 ◼   ► how realistic is that they would be this [TS]

00:15:19 ◼   ► many coincidental really caused by the [TS]

00:15:21 ◼   ► and you're like oh the law of economy of [TS]

00:15:23 ◼   ► characters is in full effect everybody [TS]

00:15:25 ◼   ► you know is important to have a story [TS]

00:15:27 ◼   ► literally they all in a walk together [TS]

00:15:30 ◼   ► and I i did roll my I enjoyed the whole [TS]

00:15:32 ◼   ► but i really enjoyed this book but i did [TS]

00:15:35 ◼   ► roll my eyes at that was like oh well of [TS]

00:15:36 ◼   ► course it has to be this character [TS]

00:15:38 ◼   ► because there's no one else for it to be [TS]

00:15:41 ◼   ► so it must be them and yet i did i did [TS]

00:15:43 ◼   ► enjoy it it despite that I enjoyed the [TS]

00:15:46 ◼   ► we talk about soft and hard apocalypses [TS]

00:15:50 ◼   ► on the show sometimes and and I felt [TS]

00:15:52 ◼   ► like I felt like the this was a softer [TS]

00:15:55 ◼   ► apocalypse I feel like the airport was [TS]

00:15:57 ◼   ► really a soft landing it's like we made [TS]

00:15:58 ◼   ► it work it's ok we found that is then [TS]

00:16:01 ◼   ► there's a chilis yeah actually pretty [TS]

00:16:04 ◼   ► funny right this trip the idea is [TS]

00:16:06 ◼   ► there's so few people here it's like the [TS]

00:16:07 ◼   ► road earlier on when there's still stuff [TS]

00:16:09 ◼   ► in the houses but I did like that you [TS]

00:16:12 ◼   ► you have those moments where did you go [TS]

00:16:14 ◼   ► from town to town and sort of like in [TS]

00:16:16 ◼   ► the last the last policemen there are [TS]

00:16:19 ◼   ► places that are better in their places [TS]

00:16:21 ◼   ► that are worse but it's not be [TS]

00:16:22 ◼   ► completely negative view that everything [TS]

00:16:25 ◼   ► is going to just disintegrate into [TS]

00:16:26 ◼   ► nothing it's more like people that the [TS]

00:16:28 ◼   ► survivors do sort of band together in [TS]

00:16:30 ◼   ► some places are bad but a lot of places [TS]

00:16:32 ◼   ► are perfectly good and that that the [TS]

00:16:34 ◼   ► traveling musicians and actors this idea [TS]

00:16:37 ◼   ► that this is all the culture that's left [TS]

00:16:39 ◼   ► going from place to place [TS]

00:16:40 ◼   ► I found that charming and I I enjoyed [TS]

00:16:42 ◼   ► that because I I didn't I don't think I [TS]

00:16:45 ◼   ► had an appetite for a you know [TS]

00:16:47 ◼   ► completely brutal apocalypse and while [TS]

00:16:49 ◼   ► there are some threats and there's a bad [TS]

00:16:50 ◼   ► you know there's a bad cult kind of [TS]

00:16:53 ◼   ► leader who kills people [TS]

00:16:54 ◼   ► it uh I liked the optimism of the fact [TS]

00:16:57 ◼   ► that yeah sure the world win but we will [TS]

00:16:59 ◼   ► still be doing some Shakespeare and [TS]

00:17:01 ◼   ► playing some playing some music and [TS]

00:17:03 ◼   ► quoting star trek and reading comic [TS]

00:17:05 ◼   ► books Scott by the way they're quoting [TS]

00:17:07 ◼   ► star trek voyager i want to point that [TS]

00:17:09 ◼   ► out it's seven of nine so all right [TS]

00:17:11 ◼   ► thing with the new world the to the tuba [TS]

00:17:13 ◼   ► had said once it's just horrific short [TS]

00:17:15 ◼   ► on elegance and i like that you [TS]

00:17:18 ◼   ► basically have a bunch of people who are [TS]

00:17:19 ◼   ► dedicated to art and elegance because [TS]

00:17:21 ◼   ► that is their way of you know ascertain [TS]

00:17:23 ◼   ► their humanity also elect him his tents [TS]

00:17:26 ◼   ► ghoulish I like this book because it [TS]

00:17:28 ◼   ► kills off one of the narrator's and it [TS]

00:17:32 ◼   ► will be 0 because I said yeah because [TS]

00:17:34 ◼   ► one of my complaints about the [TS]

00:17:35 ◼   ► apocalypse born or the apocalypse onra [TS]

00:17:37 ◼   ► is it's always those plucky few who [TS]

00:17:39 ◼   ► somehow managed to survive either [TS]

00:17:40 ◼   ► because you know mother Abigail has [TS]

00:17:43 ◼   ► plans for them or John Varley has [TS]

00:17:46 ◼   ► provided them with matt handy friend who [TS]

00:17:48 ◼   ► can weld together school buses or [TS]

00:17:50 ◼   ► whatever only skill [TS]

00:17:53 ◼   ► yeah I've been waiting for this to [TS]

00:17:56 ◼   ► happen quite in this case the part you [TS]

00:17:58 ◼   ► know and again if you fear if your [TS]

00:18:02 ◼   ► listeners you've probably read the book [TS]

00:18:04 ◼   ► Miranda gets the flu and dies and the [TS]

00:18:07 ◼   ► way they paint hurt though the way [TS]

00:18:09 ◼   ► Mandel describes her death [TS]

00:18:10 ◼   ► it's just it's weirdly beautiful and I [TS]

00:18:14 ◼   ► was glad that narrator was actually up [TS]

00:18:16 ◼   ► because i felt like it gave me as a [TS]

00:18:18 ◼   ► reader more of a steak because instead [TS]

00:18:19 ◼   ► of like are these these eight people are [TS]

00:18:21 ◼   ► following her almost seriously part of [TS]

00:18:23 ◼   ► the ten percent that lives it was like [TS]

00:18:24 ◼   ► he had is gonna hit her she flies a lot [TS]

00:18:27 ◼   ► she was exposed all the time and then [TS]

00:18:28 ◼   ► she dies and yeah you have a moment [TS]

00:18:31 ◼   ► where you think oh she's gonna she's [TS]

00:18:33 ◼   ► gonna swim out to the boats that are in [TS]

00:18:35 ◼   ► the harbor because she knows about ships [TS]

00:18:36 ◼   ► and they're going to go across the ocean [TS]

00:18:38 ◼   ► they're going to save everybody [TS]

00:18:39 ◼   ► yay no she's gonna lay down and die on [TS]

00:18:43 ◼   ► the beach he described how she crawls [TS]

00:18:45 ◼   ► out of her hotel room and the the hotel [TS]

00:18:48 ◼   ► and the hotel's empty there's just this [TS]

00:18:49 ◼   ► guy who's lying in the corridor and she [TS]

00:18:52 ◼   ► just looks at him and hope that it's [TS]

00:18:54 ◼   ► enough that they have that moment of [TS]

00:18:55 ◼   ► connection she calls out to shays launch [TS]

00:18:57 ◼   ► and she looks the container ships and [TS]

00:18:59 ◼   ► which was her business and all and she [TS]

00:19:02 ◼   ► yeah and says too late to get to it [TS]

00:19:04 ◼   ► hurts to ship herself now but she's not [TS]

00:19:06 ◼   ► the thought there were people in this [TS]

00:19:07 ◼   ► really world who are safe i like I i [TS]

00:19:10 ◼   ► like that I what I don't like is the [TS]

00:19:11 ◼   ► fact that it Telegraph's that scene [TS]

00:19:14 ◼   ► about a chapter earlier by saying [TS]

00:19:16 ◼   ► that the last thing she thought of when [TS]

00:19:18 ◼   ► she was out on the beach before she died [TS]

00:19:19 ◼   ► was this and then later we see her do [TS]

00:19:21 ◼   ► that like really that's amazing to break [TS]

00:19:24 ◼   ► it to me gently on i did like that i [TS]

00:19:26 ◼   ► also like that indefinable expectations [TS]

00:19:30 ◼   ► jeevan is that his name Jenna jeevan [TS]

00:19:33 ◼   ► does not meet up with everybody else [TS]

00:19:34 ◼   ► after the apocalypse know he was like in [TS]

00:19:37 ◼   ► Virginia the whole chain hotel is [TS]

00:19:38 ◼   ► awesome who knows probably the Prophet [TS]

00:19:40 ◼   ► passes through and that's about it right [TS]

00:19:42 ◼   ► now but I was pretty certain he was [TS]

00:19:44 ◼   ► gonna show up at the airport because [TS]

00:19:45 ◼   ► everybody else's but if it finds its [TS]

00:19:48 ◼   ► weakness [TS]

00:19:48 ◼   ► yeah and I also like that's really short [TS]

00:19:51 ◼   ► on everybody's journeys it's just like [TS]

00:19:53 ◼   ► okay we've got through that there's no [TS]

00:19:54 ◼   ► point obsessing and there's a point [TS]

00:19:56 ◼   ► where somebody says you know young [TS]

00:19:59 ◼   ► people actually came through this a lot [TS]

00:20:00 ◼   ► better because they had less to forget [TS]

00:20:02 ◼   ► so they adapted more easily whereas [TS]

00:20:04 ◼   ► people who are in their twenties and [TS]

00:20:05 ◼   ► thirties for were acutely aware what [TS]

00:20:07 ◼   ► they've lost and I like that they're [TS]

00:20:10 ◼   ► that she actually details these really [TS]

00:20:11 ◼   ► sharp generational gaps between people [TS]

00:20:13 ◼   ► who are fully adult when one that the [TS]

00:20:15 ◼   ► extinction event hit and people like [TS]

00:20:18 ◼   ► Pearson who were interested in because [TS]

00:20:19 ◼   ► it just seems so remote to her like she [TS]

00:20:21 ◼   ► know she was alive but she has almost no [TS]

00:20:22 ◼   ► memory of it [TS]

00:20:23 ◼   ► let's take a brief break for our sponsor [TS]

00:20:26 ◼   ► this week it's mail route I told you [TS]

00:20:27 ◼   ► about mail route before and I use mail [TS]

00:20:29 ◼   ► route imagine world without spam or [TS]

00:20:32 ◼   ► viruses or bounce male clogging your [TS]

00:20:34 ◼   ► inbox imagine opening your email and [TS]

00:20:36 ◼   ► seeing only legitimate nail that you [TS]

00:20:38 ◼   ► want and need to receive mail route can [TS]

00:20:40 ◼   ► make this dream a reality [TS]

00:20:43 ◼   ► perhaps the apocalypse is really lots of [TS]

00:20:46 ◼   ► junk mail will you can solve the [TS]

00:20:48 ◼   ► apocalypse by using mail route so here's [TS]

00:20:51 ◼   ► our outworks I've got my email client on [TS]

00:20:54 ◼   ► my mac and on all my phones and iPads [TS]

00:20:56 ◼   ► and stuff and then I've got my mail [TS]

00:20:57 ◼   ► server at what you do is you configure [TS]

00:20:59 ◼   ► your mail so that before it gets to your [TS]

00:21:02 ◼   ► mail server it goes to mail route and [TS]

00:21:03 ◼   ► mail route will take all your inbound [TS]

00:21:05 ◼   ► mail for if you've got your own domain [TS]

00:21:07 ◼   ► like I do all the users in your domain [TS]

00:21:09 ◼   ► will scan it and they'll use their [TS]

00:21:11 ◼   ► intelligence to weed out what's bad mail [TS]

00:21:13 ◼   ► and if they don't deliver that the stuff [TS]

00:21:15 ◼   ► that gets to your server and then gets [TS]

00:21:17 ◼   ► to your apps is the good stuff and I've [TS]

00:21:20 ◼   ► been amazingly impressed at how good job [TS]

00:21:22 ◼   ► they do most of the junk is gone there's [TS]

00:21:24 ◼   ► very little junk that I see anymore and [TS]

00:21:27 ◼   ► they tend not to filter out [TS]

00:21:30 ◼   ► good messages every once in awhile i see [TS]

00:21:32 ◼   ► a message in my little daily digest that [TS]

00:21:33 ◼   ► mail route sends me that's a valid [TS]

00:21:35 ◼   ► message but it happens maybe once a [TS]

00:21:37 ◼   ► month [TS]

00:21:38 ◼   ► most of the time it's a hundred percent [TS]

00:21:40 ◼   ► effective and when there is a false [TS]

00:21:42 ◼   ► positive i click one link in that little [TS]

00:21:44 ◼   ► digest and the the center's [TS]

00:21:45 ◼   ► automatically whitelisted the mail is [TS]

00:21:47 ◼   ► automatically deliver it couldn't be [TS]

00:21:49 ◼   ► easier [TS]

00:21:49 ◼   ► you don't have to set up any hardware [TS]

00:21:51 ◼   ► software mail route does that all for [TS]

00:21:53 ◼   ► you if you're an email administrator or [TS]

00:21:55 ◼   ► an IT professional they built tools with [TS]

00:21:57 ◼   ► you in mind there's an API they support [TS]

00:21:59 ◼   ► ldap an active directory TLS male [TS]

00:22:01 ◼   ► bagging outbound relay everything you'd [TS]

00:22:03 ◼   ► want big universities and enterprises [TS]

00:22:05 ◼   ► use it and individuals can use it to so [TS]

00:22:07 ◼   ► start a risk-free trial with no credit [TS]

00:22:10 ◼   ► card necessary just sign up you change [TS]

00:22:12 ◼   ► your MX records on your server so you [TS]

00:22:14 ◼   ► got to be technical enough to understand [TS]

00:22:15 ◼   ► about mail servers but your mailbox and [TS]

00:22:17 ◼   ► hardware will be completely protected [TS]

00:22:19 ◼   ► it's simple it's effective there's no [TS]

00:22:21 ◼   ► reason not to try it all listeners to be [TS]

00:22:23 ◼   ► uncomfortable will receive ten percent [TS]

00:22:26 ◼   ► off the lifetime of your account so go [TS]

00:22:27 ◼   ► to mail route dotnet / Snell now to [TS]

00:22:31 ◼   ► receive that deal mail route dotnet / [TS]

00:22:33 ◼   ► smell and thank you to mail route for [TS]

00:22:35 ◼   ► sponsoring the incomparable and [TS]

00:22:36 ◼   ► filtering out all my spam Monty yes [TS]

00:22:39 ◼   ► oh here we go it's coming here comes the [TS]

00:22:42 ◼   ► debate [TS]

00:22:43 ◼   ► no I i think i mean i can i can see lots [TS]

00:22:45 ◼   ► of issues that people might have with [TS]

00:22:46 ◼   ► this book I just I i went with android [TS]

00:22:48 ◼   ► Monty what what are your what are your [TS]

00:22:49 ◼   ► thoughts are you seem to you seem to be [TS]

00:22:51 ◼   ► in in a more negative place about this [TS]

00:22:53 ◼   ► book I let us have it i thought this [TS]

00:22:59 ◼   ► book was incredibly lazy it felt like [TS]

00:23:04 ◼   ► the author wanted to tell a story about [TS]

00:23:06 ◼   ► before and after the apocalypse so took [TS]

00:23:09 ◼   ► a generic apocalypse event off-the-shelf [TS]

00:23:13 ◼   ► from the stand and took a generic [TS]

00:23:15 ◼   ► setting off the shelf and made no [TS]

00:23:19 ◼   ► attempt whatsoever to connect them in [TS]

00:23:21 ◼   ► any way other than the airport right [TS]

00:23:23 ◼   ► having the disconnection otherwise [TS]

00:23:25 ◼   ► that's that amnesia right it's the [TS]

00:23:27 ◼   ► amnesia allows you to go from point A to [TS]

00:23:29 ◼   ► point B without having to actually [TS]

00:23:31 ◼   ► doesn't [TS]

00:23:32 ◼   ► not if I believe it did because both [TS]

00:23:35 ◼   ► exist then I'm not judging i'm not [TS]

00:23:37 ◼   ► saying it's good but that's what that's [TS]

00:23:39 ◼   ► the trick here right here's the thing in [TS]

00:23:41 ◼   ► the airport people immediately gave up [TS]

00:23:45 ◼   ► on humanity [TS]

00:23:46 ◼   ► there's no attempt to do anything they [TS]

00:23:48 ◼   ► said oh well everybody's dead i guess [TS]

00:23:50 ◼   ► we're back to making tents out of [TS]

00:23:52 ◼   ► branches we found in this forest people [TS]

00:23:55 ◼   ► are thrown all the way back not to the [TS]

00:23:57 ◼   ► Middle Ages but to the Stone Age by this [TS]

00:24:01 ◼   ► people are suddenly unable to build [TS]

00:24:03 ◼   ► anything or make any I did question the [TS]

00:24:07 ◼   ► idea that that even if 99% of people [TS]

00:24:10 ◼   ► died i do question the idea that we that [TS]

00:24:12 ◼   ► nobody anywhere would be able to do [TS]

00:24:14 ◼   ► anything involving technology [TS]

00:24:17 ◼   ► I I kept asking myself cuz they talk [TS]

00:24:18 ◼   ► about electricity and I kept our I kept [TS]

00:24:21 ◼   ► asking myself what about all the solar [TS]

00:24:23 ◼   ► panels below so so here's my counter do [TS]

00:24:27 ◼   ► you remember in y the last man you got [TS]

00:24:29 ◼   ► to do is I'll read that right or many of [TS]

00:24:30 ◼   ► you read the comic series y the last man [TS]

00:24:32 ◼   ► and they actually have a section i [TS]

00:24:35 ◼   ► forget which trade its inward we're on [TS]

00:24:37 ◼   ► one of the characters says well the [TS]

00:24:39 ◼   ► reason the world is just such a hot mess [TS]

00:24:41 ◼   ► right now is because there were vast [TS]

00:24:44 ◼   ► industries that were print that were [TS]

00:24:46 ◼   ► predominately male and so there was a [TS]

00:24:47 ◼   ► lack of institutional knowledge and [TS]

00:24:49 ◼   ► things like that and what I'm thinking [TS]

00:24:51 ◼   ► is in order for this not in order for [TS]

00:24:53 ◼   ► people to get the lights back up and [TS]

00:24:54 ◼   ► running or to keep the Santa state [TS]

00:24:56 ◼   ► sanitation systems corner would have to [TS]

00:24:58 ◼   ► have you do have to have a critical mass [TS]

00:25:00 ◼   ► of people who either have that knowledge [TS]

00:25:02 ◼   ► or can pass that knowledge along and [TS]

00:25:05 ◼   ► when people are busy dying from the flu [TS]

00:25:07 ◼   ► if you're going to sit tight you're not [TS]

00:25:09 ◼   ► going to like no no you can't go your [TS]

00:25:10 ◼   ► sanitation engineer you have to pass on [TS]

00:25:11 ◼   ► the secrets of the valve right but 15-20 [TS]

00:25:14 ◼   ► years later presumably there's been some [TS]

00:25:16 ◼   ► collection in these towns of people who [TS]

00:25:18 ◼   ► know things and like I said household [TS]

00:25:20 ◼   ► rooftop solar panels are not that hard [TS]

00:25:23 ◼   ► I'm not even complaining it about the [TS]

00:25:24 ◼   ► electricity will get there we'll get [TS]

00:25:27 ◼   ► there [TS]

00:25:28 ◼   ► I feel like the the electricity the [TS]

00:25:30 ◼   ► electricity feels to me like she doesn't [TS]

00:25:33 ◼   ► want to deal with it because she's got a [TS]

00:25:34 ◼   ► beautiful image that she wants to have [TS]

00:25:35 ◼   ► at the very end of the book and and you [TS]

00:25:39 ◼   ► can't do that she's got a beautiful [TS]

00:25:41 ◼   ► image and can't be bothered to explain [TS]

00:25:43 ◼   ► it at all and that's [TS]

00:25:45 ◼   ► lazy storytelling no I think that once [TS]

00:25:47 ◼   ► you watch the entire planeload of people [TS]

00:25:49 ◼   ► die like on purpose [TS]

00:25:51 ◼   ► you're kind of like oh wow this is this [TS]

00:25:53 ◼   ► is bad news and and i think that if you [TS]

00:25:56 ◼   ► were to watch that puts the Whammy on [TS]

00:25:58 ◼   ► you [TS]

00:25:58 ◼   ► there's a moment in the airport when the [TS]

00:26:00 ◼   ► Museum of the past is being like it's [TS]

00:26:05 ◼   ► over time it's filling out and their [TS]

00:26:07 ◼   ► description says there were a number of [TS]

00:26:09 ◼   ► impractical shoes stilettos mostly [TS]

00:26:12 ◼   ► beautiful and strange because in the [TS]

00:26:14 ◼   ► others head were post-apocalypse were [TS]

00:26:17 ◼   ► past the time when people were where [TS]

00:26:19 ◼   ► impractical shoes think about in real [TS]

00:26:22 ◼   ► life [TS]

00:26:23 ◼   ► how long ago it was that nobody cared [TS]

00:26:27 ◼   ► about fashion so we're not only never [TS]

00:26:30 ◼   ► knew before electricity were bagged make [TS]

00:26:32 ◼   ► thousands of years to being cavemen [TS]

00:26:35 ◼   ► humanity just gave up completely [TS]

00:26:38 ◼   ► I don't buy that I i saw the shooting is [TS]

00:26:41 ◼   ► a commentary on a pedestrian culture [TS]

00:26:42 ◼   ► versus one where you have the luxury of [TS]

00:26:44 ◼   ► being carried places you know you're not [TS]

00:26:46 ◼   ► going to wear stilettos when you're [TS]

00:26:47 ◼   ► walking 10 15 miles a day if people were [TS]

00:26:50 ◼   ► in a pedestrian culture long after fancy [TS]

00:26:54 ◼   ► shoes were invented poor people remember [TS]

00:26:56 ◼   ► that for a long time like I'm thinking [TS]

00:26:59 ◼   ► back to when they have those huge crazy [TS]

00:27:01 ◼   ► platforms in Italy where rich people [TS]

00:27:03 ◼   ► would literally be strapped into their [TS]

00:27:04 ◼   ► Street shoes and strap back out again [TS]

00:27:06 ◼   ► and they had service to carry them [TS]

00:27:08 ◼   ► around here to help them walk from point [TS]

00:27:10 ◼   ► A to point B so their fancy shoes didn't [TS]

00:27:11 ◼   ► get ruined [TS]

00:27:12 ◼   ► you just yeah i think when one month you [TS]

00:27:14 ◼   ► may be saying here is to correct me if [TS]

00:27:16 ◼   ► I'm wrong 12 years you know [TS]

00:27:18 ◼   ► yeah you need your good choose for when [TS]

00:27:19 ◼   ► you're out hunting the venison right but [TS]

00:27:22 ◼   ► then you're in the you're in the [TS]

00:27:23 ◼   ► carpeted airport who wouldn't wear some [TS]

00:27:25 ◼   ► nice shoes from time to time I can't [TS]

00:27:28 ◼   ► believe we're having this conversation [TS]

00:27:28 ◼   ► money do you have more thoughts about [TS]

00:27:30 ◼   ► this because I i do think this is an [TS]

00:27:32 ◼   ► issue i think this is a book that does [TS]

00:27:33 ◼   ► not I enjoyed it a lot and I thought it [TS]

00:27:36 ◼   ► was kind of beautiful [TS]

00:27:37 ◼   ► I i agree that if you if you start to [TS]

00:27:39 ◼   ► pick the at the the premise you find [TS]

00:27:42 ◼   ► that it doesn't really hold up to any [TS]

00:27:44 ◼   ► scrutiny it doesn't really care about [TS]

00:27:46 ◼   ► the the specifics of the Apocalypse [TS]

00:27:49 ◼   ► really high high degree could drive a [TS]

00:27:52 ◼   ► certain type of reader crazy [TS]

00:27:53 ◼   ► among the things that suggest that this [TS]

00:27:55 ◼   ► author has put very little thought [TS]

00:27:58 ◼   ► into the setting in which much of the [TS]

00:28:00 ◼   ► story is based is the issue of books and [TS]

00:28:03 ◼   ► comic books and just reading in general [TS]

00:28:06 ◼   ► as you may remember in the Museum of the [TS]

00:28:10 ◼   ► future [TS]

00:28:11 ◼   ► srs the Museum of human history whatever [TS]

00:28:13 ◼   ► it's called the Stiletto museum will [TS]

00:28:16 ◼   ► call it cooks why not [TS]

00:28:19 ◼   ► it was possible to sit and read the [TS]

00:28:20 ◼   ► final newspapers 15 years old turning [TS]

00:28:23 ◼   ► Biddle pages and gloves that clark had [TS]

00:28:25 ◼   ► sewn together somehow [TS]

00:28:27 ◼   ► first of all newspapers do not go [TS]

00:28:29 ◼   ► brittle after 15 years right I know that [TS]

00:28:32 ◼   ► because i have you thinking that are [TS]

00:28:34 ◼   ► much older than take like a hundred [TS]

00:28:35 ◼   ► years yeah second this book has no idea [TS]

00:28:39 ◼   ► how many books and comic books there are [TS]

00:28:40 ◼   ► in the world it's confusing to me just [TS]

00:28:45 ◼   ► on a basic level that they keep talking [TS]

00:28:47 ◼   ► about how whenever anyone goes into [TS]

00:28:49 ◼   ► house they look for books and they look [TS]

00:28:51 ◼   ► for comic books they look for magazines [TS]

00:28:53 ◼   ► and they never find any of them they [TS]

00:28:56 ◼   ► find gossip magazines [TS]

00:28:58 ◼   ► that's a thousands of them in the [TS]

00:29:00 ◼   ► building i'm in it does feel a little [TS]

00:29:02 ◼   ► bit like I'm in a pastiche of aurorae be [TS]

00:29:06 ◼   ► medley of various apocalypse scenarios [TS]

00:29:08 ◼   ► that isn't particularly well thought-out [TS]

00:29:09 ◼   ► so this is this is the point about this [TS]

00:29:11 ◼   ► which is I I at several points Monty so [TS]

00:29:13 ◼   ► I'm on your side about this even though [TS]

00:29:15 ◼   ► i like that i'm on your side about this [TS]

00:29:16 ◼   ► part at several points i thought to [TS]

00:29:18 ◼   ► myself i don't know if this book knows [TS]

00:29:20 ◼   ► what apocalypse it's talking about [TS]

00:29:22 ◼   ► because there were moments where i read [TS]

00:29:24 ◼   ► it like you know this is this was the [TS]

00:29:26 ◼   ► flu [TS]

00:29:27 ◼   ► it doesn't eat books and there were not [TS]

00:29:30 ◼   ► like fires that consumed all buildings [TS]

00:29:33 ◼   ► everywhere right it just doesn't seem [TS]

00:29:35 ◼   ► right I think she's got a little bit of [TS]

00:29:37 ◼   ► a material culture fetish in the same [TS]

00:29:39 ◼   ► way that william gibson does and I i [TS]

00:29:41 ◼   ► kinda want to circle back to that with [TS]

00:29:43 ◼   ► the peripheral later but when she's [TS]

00:29:45 ◼   ► talking about objects and the imagine [TS]

00:29:49 ◼   ► social meaning they must have had or the [TS]

00:29:50 ◼   ► perp imagined past meeting [TS]

00:29:52 ◼   ► it seems like she's really caught up in [TS]

00:29:54 ◼   ► this very romantic vision of of people [TS]

00:29:56 ◼   ► sitting around wistfully thinking that [TS]

00:29:58 ◼   ► things were better in the past and if [TS]

00:30:01 ◼   ► the last movie of the Cornetto trilogy [TS]

00:30:03 ◼   ► worlds and taught us anything it's that [TS]

00:30:06 ◼   ► people just kind of roll with it and [TS]

00:30:08 ◼   ► there's always gonna be who were [TS]

00:30:09 ◼   ► actually happy things are the way they [TS]

00:30:10 ◼   ► are [TS]

00:30:11 ◼   ► we almost never ran into that here it's [TS]

00:30:13 ◼   ► a lot of people who are just like who [TS]

00:30:14 ◼   ► gossip magazines and and you know [TS]

00:30:17 ◼   ► they're cheerfully reading people's [TS]

00:30:18 ◼   ► houses and I do like this you're excited [TS]

00:30:21 ◼   ► about that i like that there are happy [TS]

00:30:22 ◼   ► towns because there are other there are [TS]

00:30:24 ◼   ► other stories like the walking dead or [TS]

00:30:25 ◼   ► something like that was like nope [TS]

00:30:26 ◼   ► everybody's miserable or dead that's why [TS]

00:30:28 ◼   ► I can't read them walking dead the road [TS]

00:30:30 ◼   ► yeah you are reading this book that I [TS]

00:30:32 ◼   ► was thinking the basic thesis of the [TS]

00:30:34 ◼   ► walking dead is that civilization is [TS]

00:30:36 ◼   ► impossible [TS]

00:30:37 ◼   ► yes if you can't get more than six [TS]

00:30:39 ◼   ► people together on the walking dead [TS]

00:30:40 ◼   ► before somebody goes crazy and start [TS]

00:30:42 ◼   ► shooting everyone else or starts eating [TS]

00:30:44 ◼   ► somebody else yeah that's yeah yeah so I [TS]

00:30:47 ◼   ► like that I like that but i but I don't [TS]

00:30:49 ◼   ► wear it where it's train my credulity [TS]

00:30:51 ◼   ► was ok they're happy towns that's good [TS]

00:30:53 ◼   ► but the happy towns are all kind of like [TS]

00:30:55 ◼   ► gentlemen farmers from you know from 500 [TS]

00:31:00 ◼   ► years ago or something like that they're [TS]

00:31:01 ◼   ► not like well we put things and again I [TS]

00:31:04 ◼   ► think part of this is that she wants to [TS]

00:31:05 ◼   ► end with this moment where they see [TS]

00:31:06 ◼   ► lights from a far-off town and think oh [TS]

00:31:08 ◼   ► my god [TS]

00:31:09 ◼   ► civilization is returning but you know [TS]

00:31:11 ◼   ► it seems it yeah it made me question [TS]

00:31:13 ◼   ► that it's like really it was the flu i [TS]

00:31:16 ◼   ► know a lot of people died but you've got [TS]

00:31:17 ◼   ► a lot of stuff laying around you can [TS]

00:31:19 ◼   ► probably figure it out in 15 years we [TS]

00:31:21 ◼   ► were able to create electricity is our [TS]

00:31:23 ◼   ► warehouses before this like when their [TS]

00:31:27 ◼   ► work wires everywhere I feel like it [TS]

00:31:30 ◼   ► could be done but she doesn't mention [TS]

00:31:31 ◼   ► before that final scene one guy who had [TS]

00:31:34 ◼   ► hooked his laptop up to his laptop up to [TS]

00:31:37 ◼   ► a stationary bicycle [TS]

00:31:38 ◼   ► yeah and it got just enough power and he [TS]

00:31:40 ◼   ► was looking for the internet which is a [TS]

00:31:42 ◼   ► stupid rich this is something new that [TS]

00:31:45 ◼   ► doesn't mean anything he could only do [TS]

00:31:47 ◼   ► it when he pedaled because batteries no [TS]

00:31:49 ◼   ► longer exists apparently yeah that's [TS]

00:31:51 ◼   ► fine I don't care that much about it [TS]

00:31:53 ◼   ► except for scoring a cheap point [TS]

00:31:55 ◼   ► yeah um not that I well I well that was [TS]

00:31:57 ◼   ► my friend who hasn't seen Gilligan [TS]

00:32:00 ◼   ► furiously pendulum the bamboo bicycle to [TS]

00:32:04 ◼   ► power a radio if they can do it come on [TS]

00:32:07 ◼   ► yeah if you just want like illumination [TS]

00:32:10 ◼   ► you can do that on the radio is a good [TS]

00:32:13 ◼   ► point two words like you could get [TS]

00:32:15 ◼   ► people you know to to communicate [TS]

00:32:17 ◼   ► there's this there is this feeling like [TS]

00:32:19 ◼   ► technology has just vanished and 8i just [TS]

00:32:21 ◼   ► weirdly and [TS]

00:32:22 ◼   ► you could go to a camping some outdoor [TS]

00:32:25 ◼   ► supply store right now and get two way [TS]

00:32:28 ◼   ► radios that you crank yeah right sure [TS]

00:32:30 ◼   ► maybe those stopped working after a [TS]

00:32:31 ◼   ► while but there are lots of them and not [TS]

00:32:34 ◼   ► that many people [TS]

00:32:35 ◼   ► yeah i mean my first my first place an [TS]

00:32:37 ◼   ► apocalypse go to bass pro shops there [TS]

00:32:40 ◼   ► you go [TS]

00:32:41 ◼   ► I so David you haven't said a lot i want [TS]

00:32:43 ◼   ► to ask you about the the at the actors [TS]

00:32:46 ◼   ► and and play parts of this since that [TS]

00:32:48 ◼   ► something near and dear to your heart [TS]

00:32:50 ◼   ► you have any thoughts about that that [TS]

00:32:52 ◼   ► part of the story [TS]

00:32:53 ◼   ► well you know and and listening to you [TS]

00:32:55 ◼   ► guys talking I'm you know I'm kind of in [TS]

00:32:57 ◼   ► between you and Monty I think that's a [TS]

00:32:59 ◼   ► good place to be part of an Oregon yeah [TS]

00:33:02 ◼   ► organ in the end I i think it drove me [TS]

00:33:06 ◼   ► nuts [TS]

00:33:07 ◼   ► although there's a lot of things I [TS]

00:33:08 ◼   ► really loved about it it's it's one of [TS]

00:33:10 ◼   ► those things where I really really loved [TS]

00:33:11 ◼   ► it until I hated it and I didn't really [TS]

00:33:14 ◼   ► hate it but I did love the idea that [TS]

00:33:18 ◼   ► here these people who go around keeping [TS]

00:33:22 ◼   ► the art alive and keeping you know where [TS]

00:33:24 ◼   ► we're going to play music and we're [TS]

00:33:25 ◼   ► gonna play Shakespeare and even like [TS]

00:33:26 ◼   ► that they're there is one character who [TS]

00:33:29 ◼   ► didn't like Shakespeare and after mouth [TS]

00:33:32 ◼   ► shut about it because well you know it's [TS]

00:33:35 ◼   ► something right we're still bringing art [TS]

00:33:38 ◼   ► even if it's not the art I like right [TS]

00:33:41 ◼   ► and and so the idea that this is [TS]

00:33:43 ◼   ► something that should survive in a [TS]

00:33:45 ◼   ► post-apocalyptic world that was that was [TS]

00:33:46 ◼   ► a nice idea I the yea yea though I mean [TS]

00:33:52 ◼   ► there is so much was I mean the language [TS]

00:33:55 ◼   ► was really poetic i loved a lot of the [TS]

00:33:57 ◼   ► imagery i loved a lot of the thought [TS]

00:34:00 ◼   ► that went into the things that she was [TS]

00:34:02 ◼   ► describing and I kept waiting for some [TS]

00:34:06 ◼   ► kind of logic to kick in right [TS]

00:34:09 ◼   ► I hated all the coincidences it was too [TS]

00:34:13 ◼   ► much coincidence [TS]

00:34:14 ◼   ► you know I was fine with the [TS]

00:34:15 ◼   ► coincidences you know I well it's like I [TS]

00:34:18 ◼   ► didn't need the EMT to have been a [TS]

00:34:20 ◼   ► former papa roxie could also interviewed [TS]

00:34:23 ◼   ► everyone it's like that was not what [TS]

00:34:25 ◼   ► the most ingenious are you for me they [TS]

00:34:28 ◼   ► really could have sliced his entire plot [TS]

00:34:30 ◼   ► line out and you would not have missed [TS]

00:34:31 ◼   ► anything [TS]

00:34:32 ◼   ► yeah he could be going to die down the [TS]

00:34:34 ◼   ► road out of town and it would have been [TS]

00:34:35 ◼   ► okay yeah i'll even there [TS]

00:34:38 ◼   ► I mean I liked I liked his actual story [TS]

00:34:42 ◼   ► i mean i like that you know holding up [TS]

00:34:44 ◼   ► with the brother and trying to be less [TS]

00:34:45 ◼   ► shallow but I didn't need him to have [TS]

00:34:48 ◼   ► any more connection with Arthur than the [TS]

00:34:50 ◼   ► fact that he tried to save his life [TS]

00:34:52 ◼   ► yeah but everything else was extraneous [TS]

00:34:54 ◼   ► was like what was the point of that [TS]

00:34:56 ◼   ► oh look everybody's connected no no [TS]

00:34:59 ◼   ► surprises with connections [TS]

00:35:01 ◼   ► good lord you know and so I I like that [TS]

00:35:05 ◼   ► he had nothing to do with anything by [TS]

00:35:07 ◼   ► the end but then why did he have so much [TS]

00:35:10 ◼   ► to do with everything in the beginning [TS]

00:35:11 ◼   ► it's like it's just everything about the [TS]

00:35:15 ◼   ► plot frustrated me and I didn't I didn't [TS]

00:35:18 ◼   ► mind not explaining things I didn't mind [TS]

00:35:21 ◼   ► you know [TS]

00:35:21 ◼   ► whoops apocalypse let's tell the story i [TS]

00:35:24 ◼   ► like that you know that it's just sort [TS]

00:35:25 ◼   ► of says we're going to set it here and [TS]

00:35:27 ◼   ► hear things that are going to happen [TS]

00:35:28 ◼   ► right but then you know and i'm reading [TS]

00:35:31 ◼   ► and reading and reading and going we're [TS]

00:35:33 ◼   ► running out of pages [TS]

00:35:34 ◼   ► what's what oh here's an exciting thing [TS]

00:35:36 ◼   ► with the Prophet guy and then up done [TS]

00:35:39 ◼   ► and then we're still running out of [TS]

00:35:40 ◼   ► pages and oh it just stopped [TS]

00:35:43 ◼   ► son of you know does it does end awfully [TS]

00:35:46 ◼   ► abruptly and the pacing seems kind of [TS]

00:35:48 ◼   ► strange I thought the proper is going to [TS]

00:35:50 ◼   ► be a big villain like he's going to [TS]

00:35:52 ◼   ► carry the plot for that last half of the [TS]

00:35:54 ◼   ► book i thought id do send getting dealt [TS]

00:35:56 ◼   ► with really that offhand matter yeah [TS]

00:35:59 ◼   ► just hide in the woods and then there's [TS]

00:36:01 ◼   ► a little bit of a thing and then I I [TS]

00:36:03 ◼   ► stabbed him and actually I thought the [TS]

00:36:05 ◼   ► first I thought that I thought that was [TS]

00:36:06 ◼   ► really kind of powerful because you look [TS]

00:36:08 ◼   ► at how those station eleven book manage [TS]

00:36:10 ◼   ► to save one person's life because some [TS]

00:36:13 ◼   ► crazy person uses it basically is as [TS]

00:36:15 ◼   ► almost an internal Bible and a lifeline [TS]

00:36:18 ◼   ► and it does save her life at the end of [TS]

00:36:19 ◼   ► the book but it it warped the Prophet [TS]

00:36:22 ◼   ► beyond imagination for the time he was a [TS]

00:36:23 ◼   ► little boy right [TS]

00:36:25 ◼   ► I loved that I loved that detail i just [TS]

00:36:28 ◼   ► wanted more basis for it i wanted more [TS]

00:36:30 ◼   ► it seems a little bit like that guide [TS]

00:36:32 ◼   ► your MFA classes like CR is both coding [TS]

00:36:34 ◼   ► Andrew dumped [TS]

00:36:35 ◼   ► but I don't like how i did like how [TS]

00:36:38 ◼   ► there was that one small moment where [TS]

00:36:40 ◼   ► you know it is literally where there's a [TS]

00:36:42 ◼   ► little bit of tragedy because those two [TS]

00:36:44 ◼   ► people are literally the only people go [TS]

00:36:45 ◼   ► to people who can have that conversation [TS]

00:36:47 ◼   ► and they finally found the other person [TS]

00:36:49 ◼   ► that can have that conversation with [TS]

00:36:50 ◼   ► about this unfinished story from 20 [TS]

00:36:52 ◼   ► years ago and has to end like it ends [TS]

00:36:55 ◼   ► and then it loops back around to Miranda [TS]

00:36:57 ◼   ► who has she's dying hallucinates the [TS]

00:36:59 ◼   ► sunset into the setting of station [TS]

00:37:01 ◼   ► eleven and basically dies while she's [TS]

00:37:02 ◼   ► cycling through a hallucination of the [TS]

00:37:05 ◼   ► of-of-of station eleven itself so [TS]

00:37:07 ◼   ► there's it's you know for one moment [TS]

00:37:09 ◼   ► you're kind of caught up in this big [TS]

00:37:11 ◼   ► oh my god death and connection and [TS]

00:37:13 ◼   ► really it's all transcended then you're [TS]

00:37:14 ◼   ► like wait that not only museum every [TS]

00:37:17 ◼   ► night I loved all the detail around [TS]

00:37:19 ◼   ► station eleven itself and i loved the [TS]

00:37:21 ◼   ► connections and I loved Clark at the end [TS]

00:37:23 ◼   ► realize yeah yeah at that dinner party [TS]

00:37:25 ◼   ► right that that's in the comic and going [TS]

00:37:29 ◼   ► back to not liking Shakespeare I like [TS]

00:37:31 ◼   ► the fact that Arthur who is in a [TS]

00:37:34 ◼   ► Shakespeare play is saying well i sent [TS]

00:37:38 ◼   ► the one comic to my son and here you [TS]

00:37:40 ◼   ► have the other one because i really [TS]

00:37:41 ◼   ► don't get comics and I don't like comics [TS]

00:37:43 ◼   ► but Miranda gave them to me anyway so [TS]

00:37:45 ◼   ► here and it was it was just this really [TS]

00:37:47 ◼   ► nice thing of you know people who get [TS]

00:37:51 ◼   ► certain kinds of art and not others and [TS]

00:37:53 ◼   ► and it's ok that some art is not you [TS]

00:37:56 ◼   ► know everybody's art right that you can [TS]

00:37:59 ◼   ► like different things and I thought that [TS]

00:38:01 ◼   ► was really nice thread throughout but [TS]

00:38:04 ◼   ► yeah i mean the the thing that struck me [TS]

00:38:08 ◼   ► as i was reading it was I would really [TS]

00:38:10 ◼   ► love to adapt to this into something but [TS]

00:38:12 ◼   ► i would want to you know give it more of [TS]

00:38:16 ◼   ► a plot i would want more character error [TS]

00:38:18 ◼   ► you know I you know let them bump into [TS]

00:38:21 ◼   ► each other more and more interesting [TS]

00:38:24 ◼   ► ways I mean it just it felt like really [TS]

00:38:26 ◼   ► really interesting and poetic revolution [TS]

00:38:29 ◼   ► fanfiction so i'm going to say i'm going [TS]

00:38:32 ◼   ► to say another another other thing i [TS]

00:38:33 ◼   ► mentioned that i feel like the the [TS]

00:38:36 ◼   ► technology is suppressed in part to get [TS]

00:38:39 ◼   ► an image at the end of that that town [TS]

00:38:42 ◼   ► far away that has lights [TS]

00:38:44 ◼   ► I feel like that's also true i think the [TS]

00:38:46 ◼   ► some of the important plot [TS]

00:38:49 ◼   ► points with the latter part of the book [TS]

00:38:50 ◼   ► are suppressed for a long time because [TS]

00:38:53 ◼   ► I'm the writer once a surprise [TS]

00:38:58 ◼   ► that's the identity of the Prophet which [TS]

00:39:00 ◼   ► like I said there's a lot of economy of [TS]

00:39:02 ◼   ► characters so it's 900 surprising and [TS]

00:39:04 ◼   ► all we're not remotely anything and in [TS]

00:39:06 ◼   ► fact that's why I looking back on it I [TS]

00:39:08 ◼   ► feel like there are a lot of [TS]

00:39:10 ◼   ► developments that happened in the last [TS]

00:39:11 ◼   ► third of the book that should probably [TS]

00:39:13 ◼   ► have been pulled across the whole book [TS]

00:39:15 ◼   ► because it doesn't feel like there are [TS]

00:39:17 ◼   ► large elements that that are are [TS]

00:39:21 ◼   ► introduced really late and that leads to [TS]

00:39:23 ◼   ► some weird pacing where it feels like [TS]

00:39:25 ◼   ► you know this is just coming out like we [TS]

00:39:28 ◼   ► leave giovan you know we got him in hit [TS]

00:39:31 ◼   ► with his brother and all that and then [TS]

00:39:32 ◼   ► it's like a very late he comes back in [TS]

00:39:34 ◼   ► with his one tidbit of information about [TS]

00:39:36 ◼   ► the prophet and the Prophet story [TS]

00:39:38 ◼   ► himself we see the town but the the [TS]

00:39:40 ◼   ► story the whole Airport story kinda [TS]

00:39:42 ◼   ► comes in late so there's some things [TS]

00:39:44 ◼   ► about that I had that I at the time I [TS]

00:39:46 ◼   ► thought well this is weird that this is [TS]

00:39:47 ◼   ► suddenly turning this way but now that [TS]

00:39:49 ◼   ► I've seen the whole story I think maybe [TS]

00:39:52 ◼   ► that's just because that she wanted that [TS]

00:39:54 ◼   ► that moment and so the whole book gets [TS]

00:39:56 ◼   ► distorted a little bit because of that [TS]

00:39:58 ◼   ► moment and and like i said i really [TS]

00:40:00 ◼   ► enjoy I I actually really enjoyed this [TS]

00:40:01 ◼   ► book but I I certainly could make a list [TS]

00:40:03 ◼   ► of things that aren't dead bug me about [TS]

00:40:05 ◼   ► it [TS]

00:40:06 ◼   ► yeah i mean i'm glad i read it and i [TS]

00:40:07 ◼   ► really enjoyed so much of the language [TS]

00:40:10 ◼   ► and so many of the descriptions but then [TS]

00:40:12 ◼   ► you know one of the things that was [TS]

00:40:13 ◼   ► driving me nuts throughout was you know [TS]

00:40:15 ◼   ► describing you know [TS]

00:40:17 ◼   ► well here's Kirsten and here's Syed and [TS]

00:40:19 ◼   ► here's the conductor and here's the oboe [TS]

00:40:22 ◼   ► and know they know their names just use [TS]

00:40:25 ◼   ► their names and i realized i would argue [TS]

00:40:26 ◼   ► that names anymore they're spending [TS]

00:40:28 ◼   ► apocalypse [TS]

00:40:29 ◼   ► nothing is changed it well I realize it [TS]

00:40:32 ◼   ► disappeared i realized that was [TS]

00:40:34 ◼   ► basically just an excuse to always use [TS]

00:40:35 ◼   ► that the term the profit instead of [TS]

00:40:37 ◼   ► every African to have a name and Oh [TS]

00:40:39 ◼   ► we'll sort of obscure it a little bit by [TS]

00:40:41 ◼   ► other people not using names and it's [TS]

00:40:43 ◼   ► like no no none of that was a surprise i [TS]

00:40:47 ◼   ► would have been more interested in [TS]

00:40:49 ◼   ► seeing how this little boy became the [TS]

00:40:54 ◼   ► Prophet you know I want to see a little [TS]

00:40:56 ◼   ► bit more than just that little tiny [TS]

00:40:58 ◼   ► thing you get at the airport [TS]

00:40:59 ◼   ► Elizabeth was the most frustrating [TS]

00:41:01 ◼   ► character for maybe [TS]

00:41:02 ◼   ► because she basically exist to be [TS]

00:41:03 ◼   ► described by everybody else as in me I [TS]

00:41:07 ◼   ► know and well this is the thing she gets [TS]

00:41:09 ◼   ► described as being fragile as being [TS]

00:41:11 ◼   ► impulsive as being driven by fear is [TS]

00:41:13 ◼   ► turning into some sort of blind [TS]

00:41:15 ◼   ► religious fanatic and you think all [TS]

00:41:17 ◼   ► through the airport partner laying down [TS]

00:41:19 ◼   ► the fact this pork is isolated by his [TS]

00:41:22 ◼   ► nut bar mother and has gotten a little [TS]

00:41:23 ◼   ► weird and funny himself and I thought [TS]

00:41:25 ◼   ► why don't we get some of her perspective [TS]

00:41:27 ◼   ► on all of this too because she was [TS]

00:41:30 ◼   ► remember she was flying back for the [TS]

00:41:32 ◼   ► funeral of her ex-husband and her [TS]

00:41:34 ◼   ► child's father the kid had a strained [TS]

00:41:35 ◼   ► relationship with the father to begin [TS]

00:41:37 ◼   ► with so he was clearly not in a good [TS]

00:41:39 ◼   ► place and that's given no quarter [TS]

00:41:42 ◼   ► whatsoever in the book that you have [TS]

00:41:44 ◼   ► this group this grieving woman and the [TS]

00:41:45 ◼   ► screaming child trapped in middle of [TS]

00:41:47 ◼   ► nowhere during during an extinction [TS]

00:41:48 ◼   ► event and she doesn't in you know in the [TS]

00:41:51 ◼   ► in the Miranda segments she comes off as [TS]

00:41:53 ◼   ► not having a whole lot of ways of coping [TS]

00:41:55 ◼   ► skills but we don't ever find out why we [TS]

00:41:58 ◼   ► don't ever find out what she's thinking [TS]

00:41:59 ◼   ► we just get everybody else's pictures of [TS]

00:42:01 ◼   ► her [TS]

00:42:01 ◼   ► yeah I felt like to be kind of mean and [TS]

00:42:03 ◼   ► unnecessary to be honest like her real [TS]

00:42:05 ◼   ► transformation happens completely off [TS]

00:42:07 ◼   ► screen right right exactly airport and [TS]

00:42:10 ◼   ► it's like well suffice to say they spent [TS]

00:42:12 ◼   ► a lot of time walking around and her son [TS]

00:42:14 ◼   ► became a crazy profit [TS]

00:42:15 ◼   ► yeah and she was fine with it you know [TS]

00:42:17 ◼   ► and it's it's I'm not I'm not asking [TS]

00:42:18 ◼   ► that we get basically like Bates Motel [TS]

00:42:20 ◼   ► flu edition where you know mother most [TS]

00:42:22 ◼   ► mother must never know but um I I feel [TS]

00:42:26 ◼   ► like we shouldn't we need to know more [TS]

00:42:27 ◼   ► about her [TS]

00:42:28 ◼   ► Arthur's like this cipher through the [TS]

00:42:30 ◼   ► whole book and I mean it's it's sort of [TS]

00:42:32 ◼   ► designed to you know i mean because we [TS]

00:42:36 ◼   ► keep coming back to him and coming back [TS]

00:42:38 ◼   ► to stories about him and and so I guess [TS]

00:42:40 ◼   ► we're supposed to learn and figure out [TS]

00:42:43 ◼   ► who he was and why everyone is so [TS]

00:42:46 ◼   ► interested in him and I never did figure [TS]

00:42:48 ◼   ► out why everyone was so interested in [TS]

00:42:50 ◼   ► him I didn't really learn anything about [TS]

00:42:52 ◼   ► him except for the fact that he was an [TS]

00:42:54 ◼   ► actor who married three women had a [TS]

00:42:56 ◼   ► child and died on stage and nothing i'm [TS]

00:42:59 ◼   ► a little town in Canada little time on [TS]

00:43:01 ◼   ► Vancouver Island wrote letters to a girl [TS]

00:43:02 ◼   ► back home we decide to exploit him and [TS]

00:43:04 ◼   ► publish a book who we never hear [TS]

00:43:06 ◼   ► anything really about we never really [TS]

00:43:09 ◼   ► understand why anyone else married and [TS]

00:43:11 ◼   ► we sort of get [TS]

00:43:12 ◼   ► why Miranda Miriam but we don't really [TS]

00:43:15 ◼   ► know anything else about the other women [TS]

00:43:17 ◼   ► we don't know anything about the [TS]

00:43:19 ◼   ► relationship with him in the child and [TS]

00:43:21 ◼   ► and I mean there's so many interesting [TS]

00:43:22 ◼   ► stories here that are just good left [TS]

00:43:26 ◼   ► behind [TS]

00:43:27 ◼   ► literally it was still a beautiful [TS]

00:43:29 ◼   ► region was like command of language i'm [TS]

00:43:32 ◼   ► really glad i read it i think that's the [TS]

00:43:34 ◼   ► strength of it is I I like a lot of the [TS]

00:43:37 ◼   ► images a lot of the individual scenes [TS]

00:43:38 ◼   ► the writing is beautiful and that's why [TS]

00:43:41 ◼   ► I can forgive a lot of those you know [TS]

00:43:43 ◼   ► eyebrow-raising moments where I where I [TS]

00:43:46 ◼   ► think I'm not sure this holds together [TS]

00:43:47 ◼   ► as a deposit on what an apocalypse might [TS]

00:43:50 ◼   ► be like because I do appreciate the ride [TS]

00:43:54 ◼   ► and the artistry and some of the scenes [TS]

00:43:56 ◼   ► and specific that are very vivid even [TS]

00:43:57 ◼   ► now in my mind Scott how you doing out [TS]

00:44:00 ◼   ► there gotta check in back with you [TS]

00:44:01 ◼   ► you've been silent as everybody's been [TS]

00:44:02 ◼   ► beating up your favorite book of 2014 [TS]

00:44:04 ◼   ► but that's that's fine that we have [TS]

00:44:06 ◼   ► different people get the the beauty of [TS]

00:44:08 ◼   ► literature's that different people get [TS]

00:44:10 ◼   ► different things out of it and if those [TS]

00:44:12 ◼   ► people who disagree with me or wrong [TS]

00:44:14 ◼   ► that's fine [TS]

00:44:16 ◼   ► obviously I'm kidding but uh yeah i mean [TS]

00:44:20 ◼   ► i think that the the storytelling it [TS]

00:44:23 ◼   ► will not storytelling with of the pros [TS]

00:44:25 ◼   ► and her ability as a writer to create [TS]

00:44:28 ◼   ► these scenes is what made it the best [TS]

00:44:31 ◼   ► book that I read last year now if I was [TS]

00:44:35 ◼   ► judging it as a science fiction novel [TS]

00:44:37 ◼   ► doesn't know it is a bad science fiction [TS]

00:44:41 ◼   ► novel whereas slow apocalypse is a good [TS]

00:44:44 ◼   ► science fiction novel if I'm judging it [TS]

00:44:46 ◼   ► as a novel I think it's a great novel [TS]

00:44:48 ◼   ► and slow apocalypse is a bad novel had [TS]

00:44:53 ◼   ► some of the most beautiful language and [TS]

00:44:55 ◼   ► beautiful descriptions over in the last [TS]

00:44:57 ◼   ► three or four years so I'm really glad i [TS]

00:45:00 ◼   ► read it but but it was very frustrating [TS]

00:45:02 ◼   ► i highlighted this Arthur lives in a [TS]

00:45:04 ◼   ► permanent state of disorientation like a [TS]

00:45:06 ◼   ► low-grade fever the question hanging [TS]

00:45:07 ◼   ► over everything being how did I get from [TS]

00:45:10 ◼   ► there to here so what I wonder is if the [TS]

00:45:13 ◼   ► vagueness that describes him is is [TS]

00:45:16 ◼   ► basically supposed to be a stand-in for [TS]

00:45:18 ◼   ► his mental state and that's and that's [TS]

00:45:20 ◼   ► the parallel were supposed to draw is [TS]

00:45:21 ◼   ► this is a guy who is disconnected from [TS]

00:45:24 ◼   ► the world around [TS]

00:45:25 ◼   ► him and so we don't ever really get a [TS]

00:45:26 ◼   ► feeling for who he is because he's [TS]

00:45:27 ◼   ► almost literally not there even when he [TS]

00:45:29 ◼   ► is there i think i think you are you he [TS]

00:45:31 ◼   ► is the connection point and that's why [TS]

00:45:32 ◼   ► he exists and that that's hit he's the [TS]

00:45:34 ◼   ► he's the you see him through the you [TS]

00:45:38 ◼   ► know what's left behind by the [TS]

00:45:39 ◼   ► connections and you know that's not an [TS]

00:45:41 ◼   ► actual person it so he is he's famous [TS]

00:45:45 ◼   ► just because he's famous right he's he's [TS]

00:45:48 ◼   ► he's not like a great actor he's [TS]

00:45:50 ◼   ► good-looking and I think he's a movie [TS]

00:45:52 ◼   ► star but we we don't really get much not [TS]

00:45:54 ◼   ► information about the movies he's a star [TS]

00:45:57 ◼   ► from right now he's in he headlined a [TS]

00:45:59 ◼   ► movie or two [TS]

00:46:01 ◼   ► yeah and that he kind of get the [TS]

00:46:03 ◼   ► impression hey look it's kind of a hates [TS]

00:46:05 ◼   ► that guy like how Christian Slater house [TS]

00:46:08 ◼   ► three more famous than hey it's that guy [TS]

00:46:09 ◼   ► if any girl who date's him gets [TS]

00:46:12 ◼   ► paparazzi he's christian slater he had [TS]

00:46:14 ◼   ► like three hits and then he had his [TS]

00:46:15 ◼   ► cuffs and went down [TS]

00:46:17 ◼   ► nice experience way more famous than [TS]

00:46:19 ◼   ► that any girl he dated gets biraj with [TS]

00:46:21 ◼   ► paparazzi that's that's true there are [TS]

00:46:24 ◼   ► books you know coming out about his his [TS]

00:46:26 ◼   ► name is and you again i was i wouldn't [TS]

00:46:28 ◼   ► much matter and to think the thing that [TS]

00:46:30 ◼   ► struck me about that whole part of the [TS]

00:46:32 ◼   ► plot was every time I saw Elizabeth and [TS]

00:46:35 ◼   ► Tyler I thought Elizabeth Taylor and [TS]

00:46:37 ◼   ► then I thought Richard unit vector in [TS]

00:46:39 ◼   ► taylor and i thought about the paparazzi [TS]

00:46:41 ◼   ► in the crazy you know all the things [TS]

00:46:43 ◼   ► around burton and taylor and all because [TS]

00:46:44 ◼   ► I richard burton biography that's really [TS]

00:46:46 ◼   ► good bye melvyn bragg anyway that's what [TS]

00:46:48 ◼   ► popped into my head and I thought we [TS]

00:46:51 ◼   ► have no basis for that level of Fame for [TS]

00:46:54 ◼   ► the sky [TS]

00:46:55 ◼   ► you know who I mean even even the most [TS]

00:46:59 ◼   ► shallow giant superstar has some kind of [TS]

00:47:02 ◼   ► charisma because they wouldn't become [TS]

00:47:04 ◼   ► giant super movie stars without it [TS]

00:47:07 ◼   ► so this is another parallel to william [TS]

00:47:09 ◼   ► gibson who is also obsessed with [TS]

00:47:11 ◼   ► celebrity very ago I sort of did like [TS]

00:47:15 ◼   ► the scenes where the kids were like the [TS]

00:47:18 ◼   ► kids and Thunderdome not understanding [TS]

00:47:20 ◼   ► anything or to quote the book itself you [TS]

00:47:22 ◼   ► see the way their eyes glaze over when [TS]

00:47:24 ◼   ► anyone talked to them about antibiotics [TS]

00:47:26 ◼   ► or engines it's science fiction to them [TS]

00:47:28 ◼   ► that's an interesting idea but it does [TS]

00:47:31 ◼   ► not at all hold up with the other scenes [TS]

00:47:34 ◼   ► of kids desperately reading children [TS]

00:47:36 ◼   ► celebrity gossip magazines and common [TS]

00:47:38 ◼   ► like you can't have kids goggle eyed of [TS]

00:47:42 ◼   ► the idea of electric lights and also [TS]

00:47:46 ◼   ► reading magazines that show electric [TS]

00:47:49 ◼   ► lights those two don't go together [TS]

00:47:52 ◼   ► alright also i think and i might be [TS]

00:47:56 ◼   ► imagining this but I think there's a [TS]

00:47:57 ◼   ► weird strain of light ism in this book [TS]

00:48:00 ◼   ► oh yeah i'll go with them I agree [TS]

00:48:03 ◼   ► there's the scene where for no reason [TS]

00:48:06 ◼   ► there's a rant about people who use [TS]

00:48:08 ◼   ► textspeak because what it would have [TS]

00:48:11 ◼   ► taken too much time and effort to punch [TS]

00:48:13 ◼   ► in an extra three letters and just say [TS]

00:48:14 ◼   ► thanks and i don't think it's a [TS]

00:48:17 ◼   ► coincidence that Tyler is always playing [TS]

00:48:19 ◼   ► his video game machine and then it goes [TS]

00:48:22 ◼   ► away and then he becomes the evil [TS]

00:48:24 ◼   ► properties intrinsic I don't think [TS]

00:48:28 ◼   ► that's a coincidence and I think it's [TS]

00:48:30 ◼   ► weird and he's more upset about the [TS]

00:48:32 ◼   ► video game than his father [TS]

00:48:34 ◼   ► yeah SeaWorld disconnected from the [TS]

00:48:36 ◼   ► world man [TS]

00:48:37 ◼   ► well the game has been there and his dad [TS]

00:48:38 ◼   ► is not so you can look at that way like [TS]

00:48:40 ◼   ► there's an apocalypse and suddenly [TS]

00:48:42 ◼   ► everybody stops caring about video games [TS]

00:48:44 ◼   ► and texting and fancy shoes you guys we [TS]

00:48:47 ◼   ► just have music and Shakespeare's shake [TS]

00:48:50 ◼   ► up here by the way that anything from [TS]

00:48:51 ◼   ► the last 400 years because Shakespeare [TS]

00:48:54 ◼   ► well the david mamet plays they are in a [TS]

00:48:56 ◼   ► town really fast for those so you burn [TS]

00:48:58 ◼   ► you burn those for fuel they were used [TS]

00:49:00 ◼   ► for fuel these trees were keeping pretty [TS]

00:49:04 ◼   ► important save the trans and Gary Glen [TS]

00:49:06 ◼   ► Rose good-bye again it's not like the [TS]

00:49:09 ◼   ► city because again that's that's the [TS]

00:49:10 ◼   ► moment where I think we're I think she [TS]

00:49:12 ◼   ► thinks this is the road and they burned [TS]

00:49:14 ◼   ► all the trees and there's nothing left [TS]

00:49:16 ◼   ► but there are forests full of trees so [TS]

00:49:19 ◼   ► it's not the right this is the this is [TS]

00:49:21 ◼   ► the harshest group of critics I've CNN [TS]

00:49:22 ◼   ► station eleven and here's my theory as [TS]

00:49:25 ◼   ► to why is because we have already a lot [TS]

00:49:27 ◼   ► of apocalyptic novels and i think at [TS]

00:49:29 ◼   ► this point like that but it has to pass [TS]

00:49:31 ◼   ► a number of sniff test for this is not a [TS]

00:49:34 ◼   ► science fiction novel and if you treat [TS]

00:49:36 ◼   ► it like a science fiction novel we can [TS]

00:49:38 ◼   ► spend for us fail pointing out all the [TS]

00:49:40 ◼   ► things that are wrong about it this is [TS]

00:49:41 ◼   ► not mean it picking this is me [TS]

00:49:43 ◼   ► describing things that took me out of [TS]

00:49:45 ◼   ► the book because the author could not be [TS]

00:49:47 ◼   ► bothered to think through the apocalypse [TS]

00:49:49 ◼   ► story she wanted to tell you wanted up [TS]

00:49:52 ◼   ► underdome scene where kids go tell us [TS]

00:49:54 ◼   ► about what it was like to have air [TS]

00:49:55 ◼   ► conditioning [TS]

00:49:57 ◼   ► she also wanted if it's already where [TS]

00:50:00 ◼   ► people regardless of magazines after the [TS]

00:50:02 ◼   ► apocalypse and the they don't go [TS]

00:50:05 ◼   ► together and the author makes no attempt [TS]

00:50:06 ◼   ► to make them go together what else do [TS]

00:50:08 ◼   ► you have on your list [TS]

00:50:09 ◼   ► oh the rest is actually nitpicking like [TS]

00:50:12 ◼   ► to draw your motorcycle until it stopped [TS]

00:50:17 ◼   ► working and then you gave up you know [TS]

00:50:19 ◼   ► you could put a diesel engine in there [TS]

00:50:20 ◼   ► and put vegetable oil in I totally could [TS]

00:50:23 ◼   ► not do that if you were given 20 years [TS]

00:50:25 ◼   ► and free right buddies are available [TS]

00:50:28 ◼   ► libraries to really figure it out i [TS]

00:50:30 ◼   ► don't think i would try i'm pretty sure [TS]

00:50:32 ◼   ► i'm going to be the person who blows off [TS]

00:50:34 ◼   ► her fingers and a really dumb accident [TS]

00:50:35 ◼   ► like two weeks and that's assuming i'm [TS]

00:50:37 ◼   ► not there are no zombies in this [TS]

00:50:38 ◼   ► apocalypse see this for again just end [TS]

00:50:41 ◼   ► up making tents out of branches you [TS]

00:50:44 ◼   ► brought in from the forest and living in [TS]

00:50:47 ◼   ► an airport for the rest of your life i [TS]

00:50:49 ◼   ► want to point out there's enough canned [TS]

00:50:51 ◼   ► food and other goods to fulfill modern [TS]

00:50:54 ◼   ► society and now 99% of those people are [TS]

00:50:57 ◼   ► not consuming anything anymore so the [TS]

00:51:00 ◼   ► supermarket of the world is open i think [TS]

00:51:03 ◼   ► the people who survived have got a lot [TS]

00:51:05 ◼   ► of books and a lot of food and a lot of [TS]

00:51:07 ◼   ► stuff and again when when [TS]

00:51:09 ◼   ► item one breaks go to item to because [TS]

00:51:11 ◼   ► there's Walmart's got 500 of them i [TS]

00:51:14 ◼   ► think the people who wrote and read this [TS]

00:51:16 ◼   ► book really have no like they read books [TS]

00:51:21 ◼   ► that usually have pictures of like [TS]

00:51:22 ◼   ► pigeon-toed girls and mackintoshes on [TS]

00:51:24 ◼   ► the cover and are about dating and [TS]

00:51:26 ◼   ► whatnot and so we're not basically the [TS]

00:51:29 ◼   ► coach [TS]

00:51:30 ◼   ► yes burn and so they're not really [TS]

00:51:33 ◼   ► again they're not likely sure I i [TS]

00:51:35 ◼   ► recently sure that if if if the [TS]

00:51:37 ◼   ► extinction that were to hit you all [TS]

00:51:39 ◼   ► would be fine i mean we've established [TS]

00:51:40 ◼   ► that i'm going to blow off my fingers [TS]

00:51:42 ◼   ► and probably end up in some horrible [TS]

00:51:43 ◼   ► camp but I'm totally did this the [TS]

00:51:46 ◼   ► Syracuse the compound is is welcoming [TS]

00:51:48 ◼   ► it's not like 3,000 miles away [TS]

00:51:51 ◼   ► that's the problem but yeah you can you [TS]

00:51:52 ◼   ► can get a bottle balloon and go there a [TS]

00:51:54 ◼   ► problem i can't just caravan with you [TS]

00:51:56 ◼   ► guys wait I can't just caravan with are [TS]

00:51:58 ◼   ► you are you planning on sticking it out [TS]

00:51:59 ◼   ► in in millimeter and possibly it's [TS]

00:52:02 ◼   ► defensible after the apocalypse everyone [TS]

00:52:04 ◼   ► will travel by hot [TS]

00:52:05 ◼   ► balloon so yeah oh my god would be the [TS]

00:52:07 ◼   ► best thing but the point is is I don't [TS]

00:52:09 ◼   ► think anybody who wrote or read this [TS]

00:52:10 ◼   ► book has the extensive back in in [TS]

00:52:16 ◼   ► apocalyptic reality show the video is [TS]

00:52:19 ◼   ► true just your arguments here and and i [TS]

00:52:21 ◼   ► totally agree with Scott that has novel [TS]

00:52:23 ◼   ► this work for me and as science fiction [TS]

00:52:25 ◼   ► it is a complete failure [TS]

00:52:26 ◼   ► I i think though and Monty you can be my [TS]

00:52:30 ◼   ► reality check on this I think the [TS]

00:52:32 ◼   ► argument is you're going to write a book [TS]

00:52:33 ◼   ► set in an apocalypse you got out there [TS]

00:52:36 ◼   ► is a level of work you probably need to [TS]

00:52:38 ◼   ► do you have your story makes sense and [TS]

00:52:41 ◼   ► you can't and it shows a fundamental [TS]

00:52:44 ◼   ► lack of respect for the reader and and [TS]

00:52:48 ◼   ► if there and for world-building if you [TS]

00:52:51 ◼   ► just kind of wave it off and say look [TS]

00:52:52 ◼   ► you know it's a bunch of different [TS]

00:52:53 ◼   ► apocalypses suffice it to say there's an [TS]

00:52:55 ◼   ► apocalypse let me tell you my story and [TS]

00:52:57 ◼   ► that you know you can write a beautiful [TS]

00:52:59 ◼   ► book that people like but it will [TS]

00:53:02 ◼   ► frustrate a lot of readers because you [TS]

00:53:04 ◼   ► didn't make enough effort to have your [TS]

00:53:06 ◼   ► story makes sense i wouldn't mind it if [TS]

00:53:09 ◼   ► it were if the book started with [TS]

00:53:10 ◼   ► hand-waving but if you have scenes [TS]

00:53:12 ◼   ► before and after the apocalypse and [TS]

00:53:15 ◼   ► there's no attempt to get from one to [TS]

00:53:17 ◼   ► the other than for me no matter how nice [TS]

00:53:20 ◼   ► individual scenes are the whole thing [TS]

00:53:23 ◼   ► like I say just feels lazy really lazy [TS]

00:53:27 ◼   ► right for me it's not that it doesn't [TS]

00:53:28 ◼   ► work as a science fiction novel I didn't [TS]

00:53:30 ◼   ► think it worked as a novel i think it [TS]

00:53:32 ◼   ► works as some really beautiful character [TS]

00:53:34 ◼   ► sketches and some really beautiful [TS]

00:53:36 ◼   ► poetry and there's so much granular [TS]

00:53:40 ◼   ► detail about some things and so much [TS]

00:53:42 ◼   ► hand-wavy him about so much else [TS]

00:53:45 ◼   ► it's like if you're gonna do you know go [TS]

00:53:47 ◼   ► with the hand wave him or go with the [TS]

00:53:48 ◼   ► granular because if you just kind of [TS]

00:53:51 ◼   ► blend it as it comes to you [TS]

00:53:54 ◼   ► it's like it's like The Twilight Zone [TS]

00:53:55 ◼   ► episode Midnight Sun where you know [TS]

00:53:58 ◼   ► there's no real explanation as to why [TS]

00:54:00 ◼   ► everything is getting hotter and hotter [TS]

00:54:01 ◼   ► and hotter and hotter and it turns out [TS]

00:54:03 ◼   ► oh it's all in in the girl's mind [TS]

00:54:05 ◼   ► because its actions everything's getting [TS]

00:54:07 ◼   ► colder it's everything is getting colder [TS]

00:54:09 ◼   ► wasn't the earth coming closer to the [TS]

00:54:11 ◼   ► Sun that was the idea but it's actually [TS]

00:54:12 ◼   ► been blown out of out of the sun's [TS]

00:54:15 ◼   ► orphans going-away and [TS]

00:54:17 ◼   ► there's there's no real attempt to make [TS]

00:54:19 ◼   ► that even remotely plausible but the [TS]

00:54:22 ◼   ► story works because you just go with it [TS]

00:54:25 ◼   ► but this had so many little details and [TS]

00:54:28 ◼   ► all this is this is exactly what would [TS]

00:54:29 ◼   ► happen here and this is what would [TS]

00:54:30 ◼   ► happen here that when they didn't [TS]

00:54:33 ◼   ► connect just it took me out of it [TS]

00:54:36 ◼   ► completely [TS]

00:54:37 ◼   ► again it's a beautiful read i don't [TS]

00:54:38 ◼   ► think it's an apocalypse genre read i [TS]

00:54:40 ◼   ► think it's a I think it's the kind of [TS]

00:54:42 ◼   ► thing where you handed to your your your [TS]

00:54:44 ◼   ► friends who are who like like literature [TS]

00:54:46 ◼   ► and I said yeah I'd say that would be a [TS]

00:54:49 ◼   ► title suggestions lasix if they don't [TS]

00:54:51 ◼   ► know how I would write it the limit is [TS]

00:54:53 ◼   ► right now because I have a bunch of [TS]

00:54:56 ◼   ► girlfriends who who are seriously like [TS]

00:54:58 ◼   ► Eat Pray Love types and knowing they're [TS]

00:55:00 ◼   ► great people don't get me wrong but the [TS]

00:55:02 ◼   ► you know like that point different a [TS]

00:55:03 ◼   ► pre-loved spoke to me and they're like [TS]

00:55:05 ◼   ► station was the best book of the year [TS]

00:55:07 ◼   ► and it's so rare that we've been [TS]

00:55:08 ◼   ► watching books i was all I did read Eat [TS]

00:55:11 ◼   ► Pray Love and I did not like it [TS]

00:55:13 ◼   ► so sweet pre-loved I survived let's take [TS]

00:55:16 ◼   ► another break i just want to remind you [TS]

00:55:18 ◼   ► this is not even a sponsor I'm the [TS]

00:55:19 ◼   ► sponsor here [TS]

00:55:21 ◼   ► did you know that the uncomfortable does [TS]

00:55:22 ◼   ► other podcasts we do in case you didn't [TS]

00:55:25 ◼   ► know go to the incomparable dot-com and [TS]

00:55:28 ◼   ► you'll see we have Tim Goodman Stevie [TS]

00:55:30 ◼   ► talk machine where i talk to the [TS]

00:55:31 ◼   ► hollywood reporter's chief TV critic [TS]

00:55:33 ◼   ► every week about what's on TV with the [TS]

00:55:35 ◼   ► TV podcast where we recap episodes of [TS]

00:55:37 ◼   ► recently aired shows currently covering [TS]

00:55:40 ◼   ► the flash we have random track where [TS]

00:55:41 ◼   ► Scott McNulty talks about Star Trek a [TS]

00:55:44 ◼   ► random episode with a non-random guests [TS]

00:55:46 ◼   ► every week total party kills every other [TS]

00:55:48 ◼   ► week where we play Dungeons and Dragons [TS]

00:55:50 ◼   ► there's a new story starting next week [TS]

00:55:52 ◼   ► the uncomfortable radio theatre will be [TS]

00:55:54 ◼   ► coming back in a few months you can [TS]

00:55:55 ◼   ► subscribe to it now [TS]

00:55:56 ◼   ► phillip michael and lisa Schmeisser ruin [TS]

00:55:58 ◼   ► the movies they ruin a movie they [TS]

00:56:00 ◼   ► haven't even seen and it's very funny [TS]

00:56:02 ◼   ► and also coming back for a new season [TS]

00:56:03 ◼   ► not playing with lex friedman and Dan [TS]

00:56:05 ◼   ► more'n so many podcasts there are more [TS]

00:56:08 ◼   ► on the way so check it out if you like [TS]

00:56:10 ◼   ► this podcast give us a try the [TS]

00:56:12 ◼   ► incomparable dot-com there's itunes [TS]

00:56:14 ◼   ► links and feed links there so you can [TS]

00:56:16 ◼   ► subscribe to some other shows that I [TS]

00:56:18 ◼   ► think you like we need to talk at least [TS]

00:56:20 ◼   ► a little bit about the peripheral and [TS]

00:56:22 ◼   ► slow apocalypse because i stayed up til [TS]

00:56:24 ◼   ► twelve-thirty last night reading that [TS]

00:56:25 ◼   ► book so I could finish it on where God [TS]

00:56:28 ◼   ► oh please [TS]

00:56:29 ◼   ► grip this one I kind of liked its weird [TS]

00:56:35 ◼   ► ambition [TS]

00:56:35 ◼   ► yeah it's got an idea i liked i don't [TS]

00:56:39 ◼   ► like william gibson so i should i should [TS]

00:56:41 ◼   ► point that I'd never liked it even books [TS]

00:56:43 ◼   ► and this becomes a streak that about my [TS]

00:56:45 ◼   ► go hot and cold on him so in the [TS]

00:56:48 ◼   ► peripheral perfect so we've Gibson this [TS]

00:56:50 ◼   ► is a new day a book and not any [TS]

00:56:53 ◼   ► university is written in before you [TS]

00:56:54 ◼   ► answer a trilogy of things this is not [TS]

00:56:56 ◼   ► any of the any of his trilogies maybe [TS]

00:56:58 ◼   ► we'll see books in this universe again [TS]

00:56:59 ◼   ► maybe we won't [TS]

00:57:00 ◼   ► I like william gibson I loved his most [TS]

00:57:02 ◼   ► recent trilogy and I loved his first [TS]

00:57:04 ◼   ► trilogy that made him famous [TS]

00:57:06 ◼   ► this book is fascinating the the plot [TS]

00:57:10 ◼   ► the plot of it is essentially this is [TS]

00:57:11 ◼   ► the peripheral the plot is essentially [TS]

00:57:13 ◼   ► that there is a so spoilers for the [TS]

00:57:17 ◼   ► peripheral [TS]

00:57:20 ◼   ► the plot is basically there is a [TS]

00:57:24 ◼   ► post-apocalypse world whether these [TS]

00:57:27 ◼   ► people in London and there aren't very [TS]

00:57:29 ◼   ► many people left we don't really know a [TS]

00:57:30 ◼   ► lot about what happened it's called the [TS]

00:57:32 ◼   ► jackpot but something happened and not [TS]

00:57:33 ◼   ► many people left they have super-high [TS]

00:57:35 ◼   ► nanotechnology so hey an apocalypse [TS]

00:57:37 ◼   ► happened but all of society didn't fall [TS]

00:57:40 ◼   ► apart there's all this super high [TS]

00:57:41 ◼   ► technology they have the ability to [TS]

00:57:44 ◼   ► communicate mac in time to before the [TS]

00:57:47 ◼   ► apocalypse sort of as the apocalypse is [TS]

00:57:50 ◼   ► starting to happen and uh and in a [TS]

00:57:53 ◼   ► strange set of events the the past [TS]

00:57:57 ◼   ► they're communicating with is [TS]

00:57:58 ◼   ► immediately once you communicate with it [TS]

00:58:00 ◼   ► branches off you can change the future [TS]

00:58:02 ◼   ► by communicating with the past but you [TS]

00:58:04 ◼   ► can communicate with this alternate [TS]

00:58:05 ◼   ► paths that you've created by [TS]

00:58:06 ◼   ► communicating with them but it's not [TS]

00:58:08 ◼   ► actually the past right let's start says [TS]

00:58:10 ◼   ► that it's not your past turns into [TS]

00:58:12 ◼   ► someone else's past the minute that you [TS]

00:58:13 ◼   ► begin to monkey with a fair i read this [TS]

00:58:15 ◼   ► to be and maybe I took this room but [TS]

00:58:18 ◼   ► they're communicating with some chinese [TS]

00:58:19 ◼   ► server [TS]

00:58:20 ◼   ► yeah right well as the means by which [TS]

00:58:23 ◼   ► they are doing it yeah yeah only only a [TS]

00:58:25 ◼   ► Chinese web server would send you 70 [TS]

00:58:27 ◼   ► years into the past so you should use [TS]

00:58:29 ◼   ► desperate method out Hillbillies to do [TS]

00:58:31 ◼   ► your video game labor for you [TS]

00:58:33 ◼   ► the idea is if they keep the quantum [TS]

00:58:34 ◼   ► computer and its unlocked the ability to [TS]

00:58:36 ◼   ► dial into the past but but just the the [TS]

00:58:40 ◼   ► standard kind of many worlds idea once [TS]

00:58:42 ◼   ► you interfere with the past it's not [TS]

00:58:44 ◼   ► your past anymore you've branched it off [TS]

00:58:46 ◼   ► and so you end up with it so in this [TS]

00:58:48 ◼   ► book in the first 10 pages it is dense [TS]

00:58:50 ◼   ► and weird and it is it is I almost gave [TS]

00:58:53 ◼   ► up about five times it's unclear for a [TS]

00:58:55 ◼   ► long time what these two time frames are [TS]

00:58:57 ◼   ► and how they if they have anything in [TS]

00:58:58 ◼   ► common with one another and then there [TS]

00:59:01 ◼   ► is a moment and I i think i saw other [TS]

00:59:03 ◼   ► people commenting on this there is a [TS]

00:59:04 ◼   ► moment i don't know how many pages into [TS]

00:59:06 ◼   ► it where it it suddenly becomes very [TS]

00:59:09 ◼   ► clear after all of this confusion about [TS]

00:59:11 ◼   ► what's actually going on and it's a [TS]