102: Tristram Shandy
Plans go awry, digressions abound and hobbyhorses gallop in all directions as The Sometime Seminar discusses Laurence Sterne’s seriously unserious comic novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-1767). Supplemental links: Sigurd Burckhardt, “Tristram Shandy’s Law of Gravity” (ELH, Mar….
101: The Dog of the South
How many digressions can you dangle from a road-novel quest plot? How many varieties of crank and con-artist can you fit in a Buick Special? How much hilarity can you wring from the masterfully rendered voice of an insufferable American…
79: Sartor Resartus
The Sometime Seminar discusses Sartor Resartus (1836), a satiric novel about a fictional German philosopher by Thomas Carlyle. Download this episode
52: Vanity Fair
The Sometime Seminar discusses Vanity Fair (1848), a sprawling comic novel of social climbing and falling by William Makepeace Thackeray. Topics covered include: Stereotyping, racial, social, and/or comedic — Cynicism and world-weariness, the politics of — Codes of sexual taboo and…
45: J by Howard Jacobson
(DON LAFONTAINE VO) IN A WORLD where dark humor is banned and only cheerful art prevails, one man’s humor, and one woman’s life, are dark enough to put them on the authorities’ watch list… The Sometime Seminar discusses J (2014), a…
33: Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Humor/horror, brother/devil, author/character, Roger/Dave–doubles abound as The Sometime Seminar discusses James Hogg’s meta-gothic brain-twister, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824). Download this episode
17: A Visit from the Goon Squad
When scalding oil rains down on a roomful of celebrities, is it hilariously satirical, or is it just hilarious? When a bunch of critics hail a book as an epoch-nailing masterpiece but you think it is “only” a very good…
14: de Quincey
Enough has been given to morality; now comes the turn of Taste. No murders were committed during the recording of this podcast on Thomas de Quincey’s weird sense of humor. The Sometime Seminar discusses the work of nineteeth-century essayist Thomas…
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