Welcome to Death And Artichokes, a book club podcast! In our first episode, we introduce the novel we will be exploring: Dhalgren by Samuel Delany. It's a dense, meandering, sometimes bewildering soft sci-fi epic set in the fictional American city of Bellona. We discuss a bit about the history of the novel, its quirky author, and why the overall mood of the book reminds us of an open-world video game. Join us as we take the footbridge into the hazy metropolis of Bellona, and begin to interrogate the mysteries of Dhalgren!

Intro Song by eddy: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/eddy/2_Damn_Loud/All_The_Way_Up_mastered-with-CloudBounce

Article about Bellona, Destroyer of Cities:
http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/65111/

Season 1: Dahlgren

E1 - Dhalgren: An Introduction

In our second episode, we discuss the whole first half of Dhalgren, from the open-ended first sentence all the way to the end of In Time of Plague. We give a broad overview of the main characters and talk about some of our favorite plot points (if you can call it a "plot"). Come for the discussion about Bellona's twin moons and stay for our wild speculation about author Samuel Delany's imagined beef with the Beatle George Harrison. Upcoming episodes will delve deeper into sections of the first half of the book!

Season 1

E2 - Dhalgren: The First Half

We go deep into sections 1-4 of In Time of Plague, the fourth chapter of Dhalgren. We talk about why Dhalgren feels more like a collection of vignettes than a novel, how sexy George Harrison is, why it seems like the dreaded Scorpions are just bunch of roustabout idiot children with bad nicknames, what we think the Kid's favorite drugs would be, the discursive philosophical conversations all over this chapter, and start our own campaign to de-stigmatize burping.

Intro Song by eddy: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/eddy/2_Damn_Loud/All_The_Way_Up_mastered-with-CloudBounce

Season 1: Dhalgren

E3 - Dhalgren: In Time Of Plague (Part 1)

We start this episode by screaming and it goes downhill from there. We discuss what the hell is up with Kid losing track of time, whether the notebook belongs to Kid but he forgot, adopting other people's voices and accents, whether art that tries to comment too much on its specific moment can ever become "timeless," what the artichokes might mean, and the funniest scene in the whole book (so far). Sean disappears in the middle of this one but comes back.

Intro Song by eddy: freemusicarchive.org/music/eddy/2_D…th-CloudBounce

E4 - Dhalgren: In Time of Plague (Part 2)

A large part of this episode is devoted to discussing the most difficult, fucked-up section of the book at the start of Creatures and Light and Darkness. TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual Violence, Underage Sex. If you want to skip the discussion, SKIP TO 35:34 for a much lighter talk about the second big supernatural event in the book: the appearance of a very large sun.

Intro Song by eddy: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/eddy/2_Damn_Loud/All_The_Way_Up_mastered-with-CloudBounce

Dhalgren

E5 - Dhalgren: Creatures of Light and Darkness (Part 1)

If Bellona was a real place, would you go? We ask ourselves this question and get deep on section 3 until the end of Creatures of Light And Darkness. We discuss the abandoned bookstore that only has copies of Kid's poetry book Brass Orchids and wonder if the city of Bellona is all just the inside of Kid's mind. We talk about the sermon in the middle of George Harrison's party, and how Bellona's tenuous connection to a shared reality feels relevant to today's media landscape. We also re-evaluate the character of George Harrison, considering theories about him as a representation of old racial tropes and archetypes, and also examining him through the lens of his fame/infamy and connections to media-created celebrity and the fascination with true crime. We also talk a lot about The Kid's conversation with the astronaut Captain Kamp and what it means to have a personal connection to a well-known experience. There's tons to pull apart in this short section!

Intro Song by eddy: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/eddy/2_Damn_Loud/All_The_Way_Up_mastered-with-CloudBounce

E6 - Dhalgren: Creatures of Light and Darkness (Part 2)

We're not a podcast anymore, we're a phone sex line. Just kidding. We talk about Palimpsest sections 1-3. Who is William Dhalgren, and what does it have to do with the title of the book? Just how mean are Lanya's harmonica skills? Is Denny okay? All this and more.

E7 - Dhalgren: Palimpsest (Part 1)

Sections 4 and 5 of Palimpsest. This is easily the funniest section of Dhalgren. We talk about the big warehouse that explains everything and nothing all at once, and remember that Kid has been wearing one goddamned shoe for this entire long-ass book. Our new theory is that he is Riff Raff.

E8 - Dhalgren: Palimpsest (Part 2) aka Dumpster Full Of Left Shoes

You know that one book that sits on your shelf because several years ago you bought it thinking, "Oh yeah, I'm definitely going to read that soon"? Death And Artichokes is a podcast about those sorts of books. It's a lot easier to get through them when you have someone else on the journey with you. Consider us your book club for weird, long-ass novels.

We are Sean, Andrew, and Tyler. We met in college, where two of us took a fiction-writing class with our first author, Samuel "Chip" Delany. The name of the podcast comes from a phrase in his byzantine soft sci-fi epic Dhalgren, the story of a visitor to the strange city of Bellona, which sits in the middle of the United States but seems to exist in an entirely separate universe. In each episode, we read and discuss a new section of the novel. 

So pull that book off the shelf and join us!

Death And Artichokes Podcast