Office Hours - Why don't straight men read novels?

Show Notes:

This week, Matt and Cameron host Office Hours, speaking about the wider state of reading as well as some non-Slavic lit they’ve been getting in to. Tune in to find their opinions about Lament for Julia by Susan Taubes and Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, whether or not literary analysis has any meaning at all, and whether we’re too concerned with what straight men are reading. Grab your extra credit and tune in! 

Major themes: A.I. bait, straight men and novels, TikTok killed the author-star

15:06 - As an example of what I’m talking about here: Playing Cops: Militia Member Aids Police in Arresting Protester at Portland Alt-Right Rally by Arun Gupta

36:06 - Piss Christ

53:06 - “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books”

01:08:08 - The Combahee River Collective

“This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’s oppression. In the case of Black women this is a particularly repugnant, dangerous, threatening, and therefore revolutionary concept because it is obvious from looking at all the political movements that have preceded us that anyone is more worthy of liberation than ourselves. We reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind. To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough.”

The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. 

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