On a blazing steed of heat and light, Death // Sentence arrives once again. This time around, Langdon and Eden navigate the post-modern labyrinth that is the Suez Canal stoppage, unravelling the blood-ritual at its core. 

Then, they discuss "Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space" by Keller Easterling, a mind-boggling, expansive analysis of how capital uses Free Trade Zones, mobile networks, and standardization to move around the world.

FEATURED MUSIC:

Cirith Ungol - Brutish Manchild 
https://bit.ly/2PrkPZ6

Boss Keloid - Gentle Clovis
https://bosskeloid.bandcamp.com/album/family-the-smiling-thrush

Keller Easterling - Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space

The future continues to unfold. Swords continue to sing. Prophets continue to roam the land. The past continues to collapse. The present continues to be unintelligible. It's Book of the New Sun - Episode 1!

This time around, Langdon and Eden tackle the first volume of Book of the New Sun - The Shadow of the Torturer. Miracles! Resurrections! How may resurrections? Who knows! At least several! Duels with plants! Spaceships which are buildings. Great stuff. Episode 2 coming soon!

FEATURED MUSIC

The Flight of Sleipnir - Servitude
https://theflightofsleipnir.bandcamp.com/album/eventide

The Book of the New Sun - Episode 1

This time around, Langdon and Eden dive deep into the early stages of human development, the Enlightenment and our political predicament with Wengrow and Graeber's "The Dawn of Everything"! But first, they take a trip to a more recent time, looking at the rise and fall (and rise) of "dark" progressive music through the lens of Pain of Salvation's current...situation.

Then the conversation turns to the folly of the Enlightenment's rigid perception of history and the meaning of a broader, more playful political imaginary for Marxists/leftists!

Music played:

Lasiodora - Royal Jelly (https://lasiodora.bandcamp.com/track/royal-jelly)

Galaxy - Bright Stars (https://galaxyaus.bandcamp.com/track/bright-stars)

David Wengrow and David Graeber - The Dawn of Everything

Railed a whack book 
Feel real bad about it
Feel like it might 'say something' about 'late capitalism'
Just wanted to create 'content' to 'go viral'
Had Phoebe Roy-bae from 10,000 Posts and Masters of Our Domain pods on to talk about it.
Still feelin' whack tho.

Music by Sunrot and Mares of Thrace

Sean Thor Conroe - Fuccboi

Foul Tarnished, we have Matt Calquhoun with us to extinguish the meagre flame of your ambition by talking about the games of Hidetaka Miyazaki - Demons Souls, Dark Souls, Sekiro and now Elden Ring. We discuss whether these games can really be said to have a politics, the true meaning of nihilism and we solve philosophy by determining that hauntology is when things are old and dialectics is when there is two of something.

Music by Bedsore: https://bedsoredeath.bandcamp.com/album/split

Only a truly maidenless individual wouldn't subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

Elden Ring with Matt Calquhoun

To celebrate 3,000 followers on Twitter, Eden sits down for a solo episode exploring Hope Mirrlees' "Lud-In-The-Mist", a forgotten classic of faerie metaphor. The discussion revolves around Mirrlees herself, the undertones of class in the story, and how it further explores tension between city and country, center and periphery, and more.

Music played:

GoGo Penguin - Wave Decay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzwlh0QagRM&ab_channel=GoGoPenguinVEVO

Lud-In-The-Mist - Class, Center, Periphery, and Faerie

We've got all three of the podcast's Toxic Litbros on the pod today because we want to talk about Susanna Clarke's incredible Piranesi, the long-awaited follow-up to the modern classic Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel. We talk Platonism, the Tarot, and a weird Meshuggah concert.

Music by Fliege: https://dasfliege.bandcamp.com/

Susanna Clarke - Piranesi

We finally did it. We tackled 'the Ulysses of Science Fiction', all 600 pages of Samuel R. Delaney's magnum opus Dhalgren. We talk about race, sex, Deleuze, Doctor Who, and the bad compromises queer writers had to make in the seventies.

Music by GEL

Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren

In 2020 Eliza Clark's debut Boy Parts absolutely blew up. Now she's back and, folks, Penance is even better - twistier, deeper, overall more toothsome than its predecessor. We talk to Eliza about fanfic, true crime, the internet and the TV adaptation of Boy Parts that we've all been hoping for.

Music by Agriculture.

Eliza Clark - Penance

Highly aerodynamic tech investor Marc Andreessen has written a 'Techno Optimist Manifesto' that cites arch-edgelord dork Nick Land as a 'Patron Saint of Techno Optimism'. Has he read Nick Land? Sean of the Wyrd Signal podcast and I conclude no, he hasn't, and in doing so we talk about Land's ideas, Martin Heidegger, Degrowth, Dystopia and The Meg.

Music by MARTHE and Nothing/Full of Hell

Marc Andreessen, Nick Land and Martin Heidegger

On this episode, Adam and Craig of the Acid Horizon podcast join Eden to discuss their new book, "Anti-Oculus: A Philosophy of Escape". The three dive deep into cybernetics, the blindness of the Israeli genocidal apparatus, what it means to control and be controlled, pathways of escape, and how to write good introductions to books.

Music played:

Exulansis - Overtures of Uprising https://bindrunerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/overtures-of-uprising

Acid Horizon's Anti-Oculus: Escape, Control, and Resistance

Matt McManus is one of the most perceptive critics of the conservative movement out there, and in The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide on Egalitarian Modernity he takes them on their own terms, reading major figures from Socrates to Burke, Hegel, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche to find what links them.

Music by Rosa Faenskap and Afterbirth

Matt McManus - The Political Right and Equality

Why aren't books hitting like they used to? Partly it's because of how they're sold, Dan Sinykin says in Big Fiction. We talk about how everyone from Cormac McCarthy to Stephen King and the Million Little Pieces guy explains the Conglomeration Era of fiction.

Music by Fawn Limbs & Nadja and Panopticon.

Theme tune by Caina.

Dan Sinykin - Big Fiction

This time around, Langdon and Eden explore the shadowy and religious urbanity of The Saint of Bright Doors, a fantasy book about knowledge, imperialism, and violence. But first, they talk about the shadow urbanity of the United States of America and Langdon's trans-dimensional adventures with Power Wash Simulator (yes).

Music played:

Pessimystic - Burnt Offering https://pessimysticofficial.bandcamp.com/track/burnt-offering

Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze - Ekstasis, Enstasis, and The Fractal Ouroboros https://bullofapisbullofbronze.bandcamp.com/track/ekstasis-enstasis-and-the-fractal-ouroboros

Vajra Chandrasekera - The Saint Of Bright Doors

The singular entity known as Langdon/Eden records a solo episode continuing the long-promised series on Kazuo Ishiguro. This time around, they tackle "An Artist of the Floating World", Ishiguro's second novel and his attempt to tackle post-WWII Japan, masculinity, old age, honor, shame, and more!

Music played: Jesus i betong by Cortex https://heartworkrecords.bandcamp.com/track/jesus-i-betong

Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist of the Floating World

On this solo episode, Eden kicks off a series looking at a new format for Death // Sentence - the science fiction poem! He does it by diving deep into two fine examples of the format, Aniara and Deep Wheel Orcadia, focusing on themes of language, translation, belonging, deep space, and religiosity!

Music played:

Ranges - The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune https://ranges.bandcamp.com/track/i-the-slings-and-arrows-of-outrageous-fortune

The Science Fiction Poem - Aniara and Deep Wheel Orcadia

Josie Riesman joins us to talk about her book on Vince McMahon, the head of the WWE and arguably the creator of modern wrestling, who is now undergoing a long-overdue downfall after certain allegations came to light. 

Music by Darkspace: https://darkspace.bandcamp.com/

I'm sure you'd like a tasty beer to go with this episode - give the cooperatively run, community-owened Lacada Brewery from Portrush, Northern Ireland a go: https://www.lacadabrewery.com/

Josie Riesman - Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and The Unmaking of America

This time around, Langdon and Eden talk about how the Internet is dead, actually, and who has killed it. Then, they stay on the topic of demise by diving into Nicole Kornher-Stace's Archivist Wasp, a weird and twisted exploration of death, the afterlife, and trying your best.

Music played:

Vitriol - Locked in Thine Frothing Wisdom https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/track/locked-in-thine-frothing-wisdom

Chapel of Disease - A Death Though No Loss
https://chapelofdisease.bandcamp.com/track/a-death-though-no-loss

Archivist Wasp - A YA Katabasis

It's a very chipper and uplifting episode, as Langdon and Eden tackle the question of revolutionary optimism, the role of hope (or lack thereof) in revolutionary politics, and the question of "doomerism".

Then, they dive deep into a workplace novel unlike any other, the incisive, empathic, and deeply sad Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind. Dreams, quotas, debt, rent, and monsters mix and clash as they tear the protagonist's (and our) lives apart.

Also, join us on Discord - https://discord.gg/A2RXQXmtrq

Music played:

Wishbone Ash - Throw Down the Sword https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-BHRQrMglo

Wishbone Ash - The Pilgrim 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoCnt-yP6_o

Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind And The Hopelesness Of Work

We're 'mad for it' on this episode! And by 'mad for it' we mean mad about how Manchester, the city where capitalism and communism were invented, has turned into a nightmare of hotdesking 'spaces', dumb concept bars that last two weeks and towers to store insufferable yuppies. Isaac Rose is here to talk about his new book The Rentier City: Manchester And The Making Of The Neoliberal Metropolis and what has happened to this once-adequate city.

Music by Genital Shame.

Join our Patreon community and get an invite to our Discord, where you can ask us questions about things: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

Isaac Rose - The Rentier City

Langdon talks to Ian Cory, former editor-in-chief of the almighty Invisible Oranges blog and now lead of genre-agnostic (but generally heavy) band Lamniforms.

Ian Cory of Lamniforms interview

What if everything you were taught about Neoliberalism was wrong? What if it's not a free-market free-for-all but as tightly controlled as any planned economy? Grace Blakeley joins us to discuss her new book about this, why everything is so expensive, where all the money went and what we can do about it.

Music by Full of Hell.

Grace Blakeley - Vulture Capitalism

What if nasty commoners were going around breaking all the nice people's art? What if we've been getting morality all wrong? We consider all this and more when talking about Kay Dick's rediscovered masterpiece They.

Music by Sleepyime Gorilla Museum: https://sleepytimegorillamuseum1.bandcamp.com/album/of-the-last-human-being

Kay Dick - They

Ernst Bloch is probably going to be unknown to many listeners, but, according to Horror Vanguard's Jon Greenaway, he's one of the most overlooked and important philosophers of the 20th century. We talk about what Utopia means and what it can mean now that it seems further away than ever.

Music by Necrot.

A Primer on Utopian Philosophy - John Greenaway

In honor of the world-ending eclipse that's scheduled for today, Gareth and Eden sit down to tackle Sven Holm's Termush! The novel explores an atomic post-apocalypse and the parasitic, depraved, neurotic, and straight up weird well-to-do people who try to survive it. The two tackle ideas of middle class violence and manners, radiation and climate change, cooperation vs. selfish survival, and elite panic!

Music played:

Savage Oath - Blood For the King https://savageoath.bandcamp.com/track/blood-for-the-king

Termush And The Violence Of Manners

Eden sits down with the non-fictional representative of the book of webs, Jesse Kohn, to talk about the weird, beguiling, and bubbling Love Chronicles of the Octopodes by Karen An-hwei Lee! Gene editing, Emily Dickinson, internal monologue, cosmic adventures, the Moon personified, and more whirl in this unique and scintillating book!

Music played -

TWRP - Online (feat. Tom Cardy & Montaigne) https://twrp.bandcamp.com/track/online-feat-tom-cardy-montaigne

Love Chronicles Of The Octopodes With Jesse Kohn

Vampires are having a bit of a moment, and the best book in the current wave is Genevieve Jagger's Fragile Animals, a literary maybe-vampire story set in Scotland. We talk about why vampires are back, Catholicism, trauma and the best vampire films (Near Dark and The Only Lovers Left Alive).

Music by Glassing and Inter Arma

Genevieve Jagger - Fragile Animals

What if the way we interact with art is like a parasite inside of it's host? We talk to A.V Marraccini about her genre-hopping, dare we say Deleuzian work of critical theory/autofiction/memoir/manifesto We The Parasites.

Music by Thou

A.V Marraccini - We The Parasites

Tamsyn Muir (@tazmuir), joins us to talk about her sci-fi-fantasy-horror-punk-core book Gideon The Ninth, the story of entitled Goth teens in a creepy space-crypt backstabbing each other over who gets to be the most immortal. It's amazing. We talk about New Zealand, Genre, Skeletons and Which Sword is Best.

Music by Cloud Rat: https://cloudrat.bandcamp.com/album/do-not-let-me-off-the-cliff

And Vivian Girls: https://viviangirlsnyc.bandcamp.com/album/memory

We have our own space-crypt on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

Tamsyn Muir: Gideon The Ninth

Langdon and Eden do the long-threatened and discuss House of Leaves, both as a cultural object and as a novel, especially as it pertains to literalizing anxiety states. The novel carries both an overwhelming adoration a reciprocal stigma, both of which cloud its functions as an art object. We seek at least in part to dispel that. Discussion of the book starts at 46min. TW: descriptions of anxety attacks, physical violence. FEATURED MUSIC: Ithaca - "Hold Fast Hope" (Thrice cover), Cinder Well - "Our Lady's"

Mark Z Danielewski - House of Leaves

A podcast about books for people who don't like books, podcasts or capitalism, but who like extreme metal.

Popular tracks by DEATH // SENTENCE