Reading in the Time of Monsters 014 - The Heinlein Guy, with Quentin Mahoney

Reading in the Time of Monsters

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Reading in the Time of Monsters 014 - The Heinlein Guy, with Quentin Mahoney

Or, We Read "Time Enough For Love" and All You Get is This Lousy Podcast

Peter Berard

Dec 17, 2023

Transcript

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We’re back! I took a little break. My friend Quentin — poet, musician, bartender, general man of letters and experience — comes on to talk about scifi legend Robert A. Heinlein. We get down to cases with the Heinlein Hero as a type, the hero of an individuality so profound that his creator eventually pushes him into some deeply unsettling sexual scenarios - not (just) to satisfy horniness, but to efface the stain of reproduction on his solipsism. We had a great time with this one, and we both agree: for all his flaws, at least Heinlein was complex and seldom boring.

You can find some of Quentin’s work published by 1080 Press, findable at the instagram handle (at sign)1080press, and you can see his band Harmonium in the Woodstock, New York area.

If you like this podcast, consider subscribing, for free! to Melendy Avenue Review to hear and read more, or pay $5 dollars a month to access an outstanding Discord community.

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Reading in the Time of Monsters

The old world is dying; the new one cannot be born; now is the time of monsters. What better time to read, and read seriously? Every pedant on the internet thinks they're a critic because they have cultural preferences and their various streaming and social media services encourage them to state these preferences in little boxes. But some of us think criticism is something more. We know that criticism implies a way of being- a rejection of complacence, a dedication to searching high, low, and in between for insight and perspective, a constant development of the critical toolkit. Not only does that way of being point towards a better existence, but it also makes for criticism that's more fun to read. That's the gambit of this podcast- that there's an audience for something other than same-same mediocrity and parasocial agreement-clubs.

There should be one free episode a month. There will be another for people who become Citizens by subscribing at the Citizen (or Chieftain!) level at Melendy Avenue Review. MAR includes numerous text reviews a month, various life updates and guest posts, cute cat pictures, etc.

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