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On the show
Recent episodes
Middlemarch, part 1: A wish-fulfilment fantasy for spergy scholars
Jun 8, 2026
1h 27m 23s
Raymond Carver: Cathedrals even for those without eyes to see
May 27, 2026
50m 50s
Walking away from 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'
May 14, 2026
1h 27m 31s
American Pastoral, part 2: The Indigenous American Berserk
Apr 29, 2026
58m 45s
American Pastoral, part 1: Baby's First Lit Fic
Apr 17, 2026
48m 40s
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/8/26 | Middlemarch, part 1: A wish-fulfilment fantasy for spergy scholars | For our big summer read we're cracking into Middlemarch, the 1871 doorstopper written by Mary Ann Evans under her pen name George Eliot. This chat covers the first 30 chapters. Not a whole lot has happened so far but it's a very cosy read. On Eliot and Tolstoy: which way does the influence go? How does this compare with our beloved Anna Karenina? Worst honeymoon ever: did we buy Dorothea and Casaubon as a couple? how were age-gap relationships treated in ye olden days? Did they even bone? And if girls like Dorothea exist in real life, where might we find them today? Lydgate and Rosamond: who he will vote for as chaplain at the new hospital? Tyke or Farebrother? The stakes are higher than they might first appear. Fred and the Garths: a charming failson coasting on a rich uncle's dangled inheritance. We debate whether every heir ought to be lightly humiliated before they're allowed to inherit. Plus, from the listener mailbag: have the boys ever read a book by a black person? Full transcript for this episode (and every episode) is available at doyouevenlit.com, where you can filter and search by key ideas, authors, etc. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) the guardian's #1 novel, aka English Anna Karenina(00:10:40) Dorothea as wish-fulfilment fantasy for sperges(00:20:08) Elliot's language: the civilised art of the subtextual dagger(00:29:50) worst honeymoon ever(00:34:06) Casaubon is a little too much like us(00:41:48) Lydgate the ambitious outsider(00:58:39) TYKE VS FAREBROTHER!!!! hold onto your seats(00:58:39) Fred the affable failson(01:16:29) Listener mail: on the merits of assigning authors by race WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: - The rest of Middlemarch??? | 1h 27m 23s | ||||||
| 5/27/26 | Raymond Carver: Cathedrals even for those without eyes to see | Raymond Carver's Cathedral might be one of the most simple and beloved American short stories, but Benny is determined to overthink it anyway. On meta-deception: before we dive in, Benny obsesses over “meta-deception” and feels betrayed by magicians. On jealousy: is it OK for your wife to write intimate poetry about another man tenderly stroking her face? Also, what does it take to be a good host? Moment of transcendence: what is the narrator transformed by drawing the cathedral, or is this just an over-interpreted moment in American fiction? We talk about sincerity, empathy, and seeing other people. Full transcript for this episode at doyouevenlit.com enriched with links, ideas, authors, etc. CHAPTERS: (00:00:07) benny mad at magicians using magic(00:04:55) carver’s plain writing(00:07:19) poetry not the first thing we pick up(00:07:48) tribulations of being a good host(00:12:46) getting reality from tv(00:17:12) boundaries on friend zones(00:20:41) dining in the dark(00:26:42) winding down for the night(00:28:24) describing cathedrals(00:35:23) on gaining empathy(00:38:02) what we get from cathedrals(00:41:17) on still being a good host(00:44:54) benny still not getting it(00:49:20) next book announcement WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Middlemarch — George Eliot(Some say it's good.) | 50m 50s | ||||||
| 5/14/26 | Walking away from 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas' | Ursula K. Le Guin's 1973 story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas has been discussed to death, but the boys have finally cracked the ONE TRUE reading. huddle in Rich remembered this being a glorified trolley problem that would allow us to settle the question of 'who is the most utilitarian-brained of us all' but it's not! It's about politics, and capitalism, and bold utopian leaps! On the real-world parallels: does western prosperity actually depend on the suffering of the global south? Is there a difference between culpability and moral luck? Is there such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism? Fighting the hypothetical: Benny has largely solved moral philosophy and finds the story less compelling the second time around. Also, Omelas is not very revealing as a thought experiment. We talk about how thought experiments fail, and compare with Nozick's experience machine. On those who walk away: morally serious dissenters, or virtue-signalling posers? Is Le Guin really so against incrementalism that she has set up the experiment so it's impossible? We manage to find an optimistic reading lurking in there too. Plus: Why can't kids these days read good? We debate whether it's a moral panic, if the use of LLMs helps or hinders, and how fucking stupid you'd have to be to try and start a literature podcast in a post-literate society. Full transcript available at doyouevenlit.com — you can sort all episodes by ideas, authors, and more. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) this is a running podcast now (00:05:50) Impressions vs the first time we read the story (00:09:30) synopsis: a utopian city with a dirty little secret (00:17:50) FIGHTING THE HYPOTHETICAL (00:25:00) The case against thought experiments: If magic was real, would you grant that magic was real? (00:28:00) Is walking away a moral act or empty posturing (00:30:42) Le Guin's true motive: socio-political critique or glorified trolley problem (00:35:00) is Omelas actually an anarchist utopia? (00:43:01) is there such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism (00:52:28) moral luck vs. culpability (EA is good akshully) (01:02:00) The stickiness of the Omelas story (01:05:00) Eric T's listener mail: can kids still read good? (01:18:00) on the stupidity of starting a lit podcast in a post-literate age WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Cathedral — Raymond Carver Middlemarch — George Eliot | 1h 27m 31s | ||||||
| 4/29/26 | American Pastoral, part 2: The Indigenous American Berserk | Wrapping up our discussion of Philip Roth's American Pastoral, in which the Swede is finally reunited with his missing daughter. it's bleak. On losing your daughter: Can you save people from themselves? Should the Swede have dragged Merry out by the hair? Did he do anything wrong, or is he torturing himself for nothing? The American berserk: Was '60s counterculture violence a freak aberration, or just a manifestation of the undercurrent that lies beneath the pastoral dream? Is Roth an old man shaking his fist at clouds? Or is he making a clever point about the obliviousness of those who live behind white picket fences? Plus: Roth vs Dostoevsky, in praise of blue-haired activist types, and the problem of assimilation. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Roth vs Dostoevsky(00:10:00) Merry's motivations and lack of interiority(00:16:52) Coercing loved ones to save them from themselves(00:23:53) Champagne socialists are good akshully(00:26:20) Violence in america always has been meme(00:40:25) Roth's pessimism about assimilation(00:45:20) Roth's pessimism about knowing your fellow man(00:55:10) next book(s) announcement WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - Ursula K. Le Guin Cathedral — Raymond Carver | 58m 45s | ||||||
| 4/17/26 | American Pastoral, part 1: Baby's First Lit Fic | The Swede was the poster boy for the American dream. Football star. Marine. Marries a beauty queen. Inherits dad's glove factory and treats the workers like family. Buys the stone farmhouse in Old Rimrock, New Jersey. Loves his daughter unconditionally. Protests the Vietnam War in his own measured way, just to show her he's on her side. Then his precious little girl blows up the local post office and kills a man. "This says a lot about Society."—Philip Roth In this episode, covering the first five chapters of Roth's Pullitzer prize-winning novel, we find ourselves a book club divided. Rich hated the opening frame story. Nathan's over-interpretation of the Swede's every fart is written that way on purpose but that doesn't make it any less of a suffocating 80 pages to wade through. File under 'writers wanking themselves off about writing'. meanwhile Ben is deeply moved. He defends the frame story and mounts a convincing case that it's doing real work on memory, regret, and mortality. Cam is kind of on the fence but overall he likes the book. "I like the book."—Cam Opinions will no doubt change as we move into the second half but there's one thing we can say for sure: Basketball was never like this, Skip. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) hot takes: mid-wit or masterpiece?(00:03:35) synopsis and the Zuckerman frame story(00:07:48) the Swede as WASP-adjacent golden boy(00:13:59) is the American Dream ever not a fantasy(00:17:21) Merry gets radicalised: a parent's worst nightmare(00:25:2) Rich rant on Zuckerman/Roth's cloying line-by-line exegesis(00:31:50) Benny's defence of the frame story(00:36:18) would you go to your 50-year high school reunion?(00:44:37) Woolf did it better tho WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - Ursula K. Le Guin | 48m 40s | ||||||
| 4/8/26 | Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Thank God for Incognito Mode | Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde really gets the juices flowing. Rich tells on himself big time, we find out we're all faking our authentic selves, and Benny is forced to bite some weird philosophical bullets. The Ring of Gyges: Are all men secretly depraved? How much bad stuff would you actually do if you had total anonymity? Rich says a lot; Benny is suspiciously optimistic. A typology of evil: Teasing out the banality of evil vs sociopathic indifference vs pure sadism. Where does Hyde fit? How does someone develop a taste for cruelty? On the opponent process model, why serial killers escalate, and our porn viewing habits. Virtue ethics vs utilitarian brain: Rich is losing faith in galaxy-brained consequentialist reasoning. Can you corrupt yourself by consuming bad things even if no one is harmed? On the Westworld problem, violent video games, and other gnarly thought experiments. Incongruous f*ggots: do we feel like a unified self or a coalition of competing entities? Why does Cam hide his books when his uncle comes to visit? On code-switching and the different masks we wear. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Listener mail: Nicole and Stefan(00:06:48) synopsis and the big twist(00:16:25) The perfect crime(00:21:53) Hyde's sordid pleasures(00:24:16) the Ring of Gyges: are people good when no one's watching?(00:29:43) A typology of evil(00:38:49) Developing a taste for sin(00:51:14) utilitarian brain vs virtue ethics(01:05:34) Is there anything beneath the mask WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: American Pastoral — Philip Roth | 1h 16m 01s | ||||||
| 3/26/26 | Atomised, part 2: Sympathy for the Incel | IMMORTAL ASEXUAL CLONES: YES NO? Did aella's birthday gangbang generate positive externalities? Why is Cam's fridge full of dead chickens? These are the big questions of our age and we are the only ones brave enough to tackle them. Join us as we wrap up our discussion of Houellebecq's Atomised (also known as The Elementary Particles). The sexual marketplace has no safety net: Houellebecq says individualism devours the rational structures meant to protect us. Rich argues we've already mostly solved this problem in the economic realm. Sex is harder tho. Are there any positive-sum status games to play here?Why do we tolerate redistributive policy for wealth but not for sex? Is Freddie deBoer a hypocrite for clowning on incels? Bruno visits the Lieu de Changement: A sex commune with much kindly compassion for the outcasts masturbating on the fringes. Could this scale beyond extremely rule-following Germans? Is enforced monogamy the real solution, or has that ship long since sailed? Houellebecq's rhetorical sleight of hand: is paternal love purely instrumental? Do hippies really have a direct lineage to sadists and serial killers? Is the hedonic treadmill of transgression a real thing? probably not but we love our cheeky boy. One trillion identical Cams: Michel's solution is to eliminate sexual reproduction, individuality, and desire entirely. Would this even work? Is H being serious or just proving the problem is insoluble? What happens to science and progress in a world with no genetic or ideological diversity? CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) penis size chat(00:05:41) Brave New World and other failed utopias(00:15:30) The intractable problem of inceldom(00:25:58) Sexual social democracy and compassion for the lone masturbator(00:37:22) Houellebecq's rhetorical sleight of hand(00:41:30) the hedonic treadmill of transgression: hippies to serial killers(00:47:25) positive externalities of aella's birthday gangbang and other status games(00:54:01) Rich rants about positivism and quantum physics woo(01:00:22) the third metaphysical mutation: asexual immortal clones(01:11:12) Next book announcement WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — Robert Louis Stevenson American Pastoral — Philip Roth | 1h 12m 58s | ||||||
| 3/15/26 | Was the sexual revolution a mistake? (Houellebecq's Atomised, part 1) | Houellebecq's 1998 novel Atomised (also known as The Elementary Particles) is prophetic, provocative and absolutely filthy. This chat covers the first ~200 pages: On the sexual revolution: Are inceldom and looksmaxxing the inevitable consequences of the intrusion of market forces into every facet of human society? If Clavicular did not exist, would it be necessary to invent him? Fertility crisis: Can we rely on new technologies to save us from population crash? Rich argues that this time might really be different; Benny is more optimistic. Do any of us really want to RETVRN to forced monogamy? Is liberalism at risk of extincting itself? Which cultures will win the memetic battle? ...and more CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Metaphysical mutations and historical determinism(00:08:00) Bruno the proto-incel and Michel the proto-asexual(00:15:30) Mother nature is Bad, Actually(00:21:50) Clavicular and the sexual marketplace(00:32:36) Enforced monogamy and slut shaming(00:42:30) The fertility crisis and population crash WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Atomised — Michel Houellebecq (part 2) | 1h 02m 30s | ||||||
| 3/9/26 | Stefan Zweig's The Royal Game: What's the ultimate desert island book? | This week's between-novel quick read is Stefan Zweig's The Royal Game: A Chess Story, written in 1941, immediately before Zweig obliterated his map. We argue over the perfect answer to the 'desert island book' question, whether it's possible to fracture your own mind into pieces, why Cam sucks at chess, and whether we should pressure our kids to become pro athletes/chess prodigies/concert pianists. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) plot summary(00:05:43) What’s the perfect desert island book?(00:17:00) Tulpas and fractured psyches(00:26:10) Our own chess performance(00:34:56) On monomania and pressuring kids into sports/music/chess WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Atomised — Michel Houellebecq | 46m 08s | ||||||
| 2/25/26 | Moby Dick finale: Ahab Derangement Syndrome | Tell me if you've heard this one: A mentally unstable old man abuses his position of power to pursue his own personal agenda. He alternates between smooth talking—tremendous moxie, the best speeches—and threatening the LOSERS and HATERS who stand in his way. He runs roughshod over checks and balances, ignores the norms of civil society, and whips his followers into a fervour against an imagined enemy. In his egotistical mania, he takes down everyone else with him. We are talking of course about Herman Melville's MOBY DICK (chapters 81-135). Rich gets political: On Melville's egalitarian dream, the milk and sperm of human kindness, Ahab as demagogue, why the crew don't mutiny, parallels to the current political moment, and Latin America as a cautionary tale. Does Rich have a point here, or has he fallen victim to Ahab Derangement Syndrome? Benny is all symbolism-ed out: Bad omen after bad omen, we get it. We can see the ending coming a mile away. Has Melville created too rich of a feast for us? Does the explicit fatalism make Ahab a more or less interesting character? Did any of us feel any narrative tension in this last third of the book? What is with the pacing? What's it all about: Cam proposes the 'interpretation interpretation'. We talk about the limitations of Ahab's approach to meaning-making, vs Ishmael's more pluralistic approach. And our final thoughts on tackling this behemoth of a book. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) don’t cry for me argentina(00:07:30) what did we think of the final section?(00:16:02) What does it all mean?(00:20:30) Ahab vs Ishmael meaning-making project(00:28:23) overdosing on omens and symbolism(00:37:40) Pip the cabin boy(00:44:07) The milk and sperm of human kindness(00:47:48) Ahab the demagogue(00:59:18) Next book announcement WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The Royal Game — Stefan Zweig Atomised — Michel Houellebecq | 1h 06m 19s | ||||||
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| 2/11/26 | Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein: Look how they massacred my boy | Quick film review before we get back to the final part of Moby Dick. Guillermo del Toro's long-awaited Frankenstein adaptation is absolutely cleaning up in the Oscar nominations, including a nod for Best Picture. Benny and Rich make the comparison with Mary Shelley's source material and find it to be sadly wanting (altho we do have some nice things to say). On the dumbing-down of nuanced morality stories, and the ubiquity of daddy issues/therapy speak in modern media. Can't a guy just be a crazy hubristic scientist anymore?? Plus: a brief detour through the horror of quantum immortality. WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The final third of Moby Dick The Royal Game — Stefan Zweig Atomised — Michel Houellebecq | 52m 50s | ||||||
| 2/4/26 | Moby Dick, part 2: A conceptual analysis of Whiteness | We continue our voyage with chapters 40-80 of Herman Melville's leviathan MOBY DICK. Talking nihilism and meaning-making, the deeper significance of making the whale white (seriously), the terrifying vastness of the ocean, animal welfare and charismatic megafauna, and whether we're OK with reading an abridged edition of the book. In short: we're having a whale of a time. Tune in next week for our third and final instalment. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) They should make some kind of 'abridged' version of this book(00:12:21) BULKINGTON(00:19:18) Whiteness conceptual analysis(00:32:10) First whale encounter(00:41:51) The bloody, brutal business of the sperm whale fishery(00:52:32) Charismatic megafauna / animal ethics(01:00:48) Tashtego falls into a vat of sperm(01:10:02) Listener mail: Is it OK to use another man's Anki deck? WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The final third of Moby Dick ?? | 1h 19m 34s | ||||||
| 1/20/26 | Moby Dick, part 1: My name is Ishmael and my special interest is whales | Starting the year off right by signing on for an epic voyage with Herman Melville's MOBY DICK; OR, THE WHALE, published in 1851, and widely considered to be the great American novel. It's quite the beast so we're dividing it into three parts, with this first convo covering chapters 1-40. Call me Ishmael: Dissecting the iconic opening line, why we love Ishmael as a narrator, on the optimal strategy for getting snuggly in bed, the precise nature of his relationship with (we claim) our fellow New Zealand native Queequeg, and the question of race and class politics onboard a whaling ship. The mysterious Captain Ahab: various ominous warnings, initial thoughts on Ahab's motivations, punching through the pasteboard mask, and a climactic ritual atop the Quarter-deck. Infamous infodumps: Benny's eyes glazed over at times, Cam skimmed the Cetology chapter, but Rich makes the case for soldiering through. Plus we look at some of the interesting formal choices Melville makes, the early seeds of modernism, and can't help but make some comparisons to Blood Meridian and Butcher's Crossing. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) Ahoy shipmates(00:03:20) Call me Ishmael analysis(00:11:33) NEW ZEALAND MENTIONED!!!(00:17:32) Race politics in international waters(00:23:51) Perilous adventures for young men(00:29:29) The infamous cetology chapter(00:34:44) Jonah and the whale/biblical allusions(00:42:20) We need to talk about Ahab(00:54:48) Infodumps, genre mashups and the roots of modernism(01:01:10) Listener mail: Adam G in NYC WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: ?? | 1h 04m 04s | ||||||
| 1/7/26 | Crashing out of Gravity's Rainbow: A postmortem of our first DNF | Yeah fuck this book. After much blood, sweat, tears, and other unspeakable bodily excretions, we've had enough. This is our first ever DNF after 50+ titles, so we thought we should do a postmortem of what went wrong. Did we not try hard enough? Is Pynchon basically an asshole? Do we have a problem with postmodernism as a tradition? Or the maximalist writing style? How is that we (mostly) love David Foster Wallace, who copied so much of his schtick from Pynchon, but not the master himself? And several other theories for why this book ultimately defeated us: (00:00:00) Theory 1: we chose the wrong Pynchon to start out with(00:06:45) Theory 2: we are straight-up too dumb for this book(00:11:35) Theory 3: GR is intended for literary masochists(00:19:34) Theory 4: Postmodernist disorientation spiral(00:30:30) Theory 5: Pynchon is painfully unfunny(00:38:10) Theory 6: Maximalism is just too much, man(00:49:20) comparison vs DFW, the New Sincerity, and irony poisoning(00:56:50) Listener mail: In defence of Woolf and the modernists(01:01:51) Next book announcement WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. We would especially love to hear from any Pynchon heads out there (or haters). NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Moby Dick — Herman Melville | 1h 04m 36s | ||||||
| 12/22/25 | DYEL wrapped: Most beloved and hated books of 2025 | Some festive chit-chat and navel gazing on the year that was. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) big tiddy goth gfs and rival podcast recs(00:10:09) DYEL wrapped stats analysis(00:19:39) Third best book of the year(00:23:41) Second best book of the year(00:29:01) Best book of the year(00:33:11) Biggest stinker of the year(00:40:13) Best non-book club book or blog(00:56:25) Favourite movie or TV show of the year(01:03:53) What we're gonna do differently next year WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Moby Dick by Herman Melville | 1h 09m 12s | ||||||
| 12/15/25 | Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow: It's not rocket science | We've been making eyes at the postmodernists for a while, but up until this point have lacked the stones to go take a ride on daddy Pynchon's rocket ship. Now that we have a little experience we thought we were ready for a mature and sophisticated lover like Gravity's Rainbow (1973): 800 pages long, and widely considered to be one of the greatest novels of all time. ...we were not ready. It's right back to clumsy virginal fumblings as we attempt to decipher the first 100 pages. A shameful and frankly demoralising experience for the boys. Does it get easier? Please dear god let it get easier. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) introductory fumblings(00:06:19) Rocket warfare(00:12:40) Pirate, ACHTUNG, and the Firm(00:17:14) Slothrop’s psychic schlong(00:22:58) Roger Mexico the statistician(00:30:12) Reverse causality(00:36:16) I didn't get that reference WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: ??? | 44m 11s | ||||||
| 12/2/25 | Murakami's Norwegian Wood: the sadboi and his manic pixie dream girls | In 1987, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami set himself a challenge: to set aside his magical realism schtick and try to write one 'straight' novel in the realist tradition. The result was Norwegian Wood, in which the author-insert protagonist is transported back to his college days, breaking free of ennui and depression just long enough to sleep with a string of hot but crazy chicks (and giving each of them the greatest sexual experience of their life). Naturally it was a smash hit among the youth. Murakami was propelled to fame and had to move to Italy, hounded from his home country by a mob of shrieking Japanese girls intrigued by his magical but sad penis. But is the book actually any good? The boys are divided on this. We talk about Murakami's treatment of suicide, his portrayal of female characters, use of memory and nostalgia as a writing device, in which ways we relate to Toru Watanabe, which demographic this book aimed at, and in general whether this is a work of great art or should be relegated to r/iam14andthisisdeep. If you're a Murakami fan, please write in and tell us what we got wrong, and especially which other book of his you'd most recommend we read. CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) blather(00:05:06) On memory as a writing device(00:11:15) Portrayal of suicide(00:24:15) Toru Watanabe character analysis(00:36:03) Norwegian Wood as a teenage boy fantasy(00:49:20) A profound and deeply moving ending(00:54:30) Final judgments(00:58:25) Next book announcement + One Battle After Another argument WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein Gravity's Rainbow — Thomas Pynchon | 1h 06m 10s | ||||||
| 11/18/25 | A Portrait of the Artist: James Joyce on the difference between tasteful nudes and porn | This week we're reading James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, published in 1916. Moments of adolescent significance: on heated dinner-time conversations, a child's keen sense of injustice, the fear of burning in Hellfire, contemplating eternity, sexual guilt, and teenage rebellion. Which did we relate to the most? Theory of aesthetics: why are evo psych explanations distasteful? Do Aquinas' three criteria give us an objective description of art? How about Stephen's 'impelled action' theory? can we tell propaganda, pornography and sermonising apart from the real deal? Does Joyce's novel kinda fail by its own lights? Overall vibes: What did we think of the prose style evolving in line with Stephen's maturation? Is Joyce fully sincere here or kinda making fun of himself? Is Stephen Dedalus a romantic hero or a teenage blowhard? Dare we tackle Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake? CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) intro(00:05:54) Baby tuckoo and the moocow(00:14:35) Dinner time convos and unjust punishments(00:23:18) Hell and the true nature of eternity(00:33:38) Epiphany (seeing a hot girl at the beach)(00:40:15) Stephen’s theory of beauty and aesthetics(00:56:40) Did we like the book? WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein Gravity's Rainbow — Thomas Pynchon | 1h 08m 37s | ||||||
| 10/21/25 | C.P. Snow's The Two Cultures: the original stemcels vs shape rotators beef | This week we're discussing C.P. Snow's influential 1959 lecture 'The Two Cultures', on the growing division between literary and scientific intellectuals: "So the great edifice of modern physics goes up, and the majority of the cleverest people in the western world have about as much insight into it as their neolithic ancestors would have had." Why do literary types tend to be Luddites? Is it kinda good that hubristic tech bros refuse to read the classics? Has the gap narrowed or widened in recent decades? How closely does The Two Cultures map onto the stemcels vs shape rotators meme? And of course Cam analyses the various status dynamics at play. Trickling out episodes atm while Rich is on paternity leave. Normal service will resume shortly WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood | 56m 03s | ||||||
| 9/28/25 | Butcher's Crossing: John Williams's rougher cut | Back to the novels. This week, the DYEL boys decide to try Butcher's Crossing, the first novel from John Williams, the author famous for writing the so-underrated-it-might-be-overrated-but-probably-is-now-just-correctly-rated novel Stoner.As to be expected, it's not on the same level of Stoner but we still enjoy it. Decline of the buffalo: Rich reminds Cam that we already had this discussion in our episode of Blood Meridian but Cam forgot it and found himself in new disbelief on the staggering decline of the North American Bison. Emerson and finding yourself: It turns out Rich went through an Emerson phase. Well, actually more of a Thoreau phase but the both had three names and wrote around the same time so it counts. We discuss Emerson's idea of transcendence and whether this novel is meant as a refutation or embodiment of it. Miller: Not on the level of the Judge in Blood Meridian but a memorable character in his own right. Rich has some small gripes with his characterisation. CHAPTERS (00:00:01) Intro(00:06:10) Summary(00:07:53) Emerson's transcendentalism(00:17:30) American Buffalo: Decline, hunting, skinning(00:26:02) Miller's stoicism and characterisation(00:34:24) Schneider's empty (Chekhov's) gun(00:41:18) Does Miller's motive make sense?(00:46:26) Lesser work to Stoner(00:48:54) Anti-Emerson(00:53:02) Ending and nihilism(01:00:15) Outro and next picks WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood | 1h 02m 08s | ||||||
| 9/3/25 | Borges's Library of Babel: Ctrl + F for meaning | The Do You Even Lit boys put down the heavy tomes and choose a short story. Well, we're not sure if it counts as a story. Maybe a thought experiment?This week we’re talking about one of our favourite authors: Jorge Luis Borges. We read The Library of Babel, Borges’s classic meditation on infinity (well, not infinity exactly — but an almost-might-as-well-be infinity). There are a lot of books. Nonsense: Not to complain about pLoT hOlEz, but we take slight issue with the fact that it's no feasible for a librarian to find any coherent passages, even if the library contains everything collectively. How would you know? We worry about the metaphysical horror of not being able to know you found the book with all the codes in it even if you found it. We're reassured by reminding ourselves that we won't stumble across The library: How are the hexagons actually connected? Can you piss off the railing? Was it designed to be pissed off? And if you jumped, which book would you bring on the way down? CHAPTERS (0:11) Banter and boners(2:13) Thought experiments vs short stories(4:28) Summary(06:07) How many books is it really?(08:23) It'd all be nonsense, practically speaking(10:23) Metaphysical layers 1 and 2(18:06) the real world website(21:10) Falling down the shaft(27:06) No author doesn't quite hit the same(39:06) How do they have history?(44:30) What does the library look like?(47:25) Multiverse(59:03) Wrap up WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Butcher's Crossing - John Williams James Joyce... | 1h 00m 28s | ||||||
| 8/21/25 | Anna Karenina FINALE: Revenge of the Reddit Atheists | What an absolutely dogshit ending to an otherwise incredible book. We made it through 800 pages for this?? I still love you Tolstoy but seriously wtf bro. This discussion covers parts 6, 7, and 8 of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Anna's unhappy ending: Look how they massacred my girl. Is this a tale of a wanton harlot who got what was coming to her, or a good woman driven mad by society's strictures? What is it exactly that Tolstoy disapproves of about Anna's actions? How much would he hate her revival as a feminist icon? Is Aella the modern Anna K? Levin's leap of faith: Is there any way this isn't totally unredeemable bullshit that ruins the end of the book? Sadly, no. Nevertheless we explore Levin's 'undefined but significant ideas'. Should we turn our brains off, and disregard reason and philosophy in favour of tradition? Is Christianity the final word in moral progress? Cam is more sympathetic to the leap of faith: if we replace religion, what do we replace it with? Final thoughts: Jordan Peterson has a line about Dostoevsky being the great psychologist of the 20th century and Tolstoy being the great sociologist. Is he right? Where do we land on this book overall? Would we recommend it wholeheartedly? What are our favourite things about Tolstoy? Do we have to read War and Peace now? ...and, if you can believe it, more CHAPTERS (00:00:00) hot takes(00:05:30) Anna’s unhappy ending(00:24:26) the feminist reading of Anna vs society(00:29:55) Parallels with the Kitty/Levin arc(00:44:05) Vronsky’s teeth discourse(00:49:35) Levin’s depression and rejection of reason(01:05:40) Cam makes the case for the leap of faith(01:11:43) Dostoevsky vs Tolstoy: who’s the better psychologist?(01:19:12) Would we recommend this book? WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges Butcher's Crossing - John Williams | 1h 26m 35s | ||||||
| 7/31/25 | Anna Karenina part 2: I am begging you to touch grass | Full transcript available at doyouevenlit.com — sort all our episodes by ideas, authors, and more. Levin is a turbo nerd who runs away from social awkwardness to theorise on agrarian economics or whatever. Sound like anyone you know?? Anyway he finally touches grass and gets the girl. Meanwhile we are falling out of love with Anna. It feels like something bad is gonna happen? The foreshadowing is very subtle, only experts in Media Literacy will be able to catch it. On Levin's journey away from intellectualism: Is the peasant life really that appealing? Does doing good need to come from the heart, not from the mind? Rich gets mad about Tolstoy basically shitting on effective altruism; benny offers a partial defence. Nikolai's gruesome death: Kitty steps up and shows her worth. Is she meant to be the paragon a good Christian, or a good woman? Rich is now terrified of dying and wants to be euthanised. Anna & Vronsky's empty self-gratification: Tolstoy literally accuses Vronsky of jerking himself off with the whole 'amateur artist in Italy' pose. Anna gives in to passion, abandoning her 8yo child in the process. Seems bad. We notice we are falling out of love with Anna. Karenin's emotional repression cracks: First he gets big mad and is on the verge of joining the manosphere. Then he has a proper Christian moment and forgives both Anna and Vronsky; a move so powerful that Vronsky attempts to kill himself in shame. Then he backslides a little but it's progress. We are warming up this cold fish. This discussion covers parts 3, 4, and 5 of the book. Tune in next week for the finale. Can't wait to see how this ends. CHAPTERS (00:00:00) yes I'm mad(00:02:35) Levin's journey from cerebral dork to touching grass(00:11:32) Leave effective altruism alone!(00:22:45) Trouble in paradise for the newlyweds(00:27:45) Nikolai's gruesome death as an argument for euthanasia(00:37:18) Karenin finally gets in touch with his emotions(00:51:48) Anna and Vronsky empty self-gratification spiral(01:03:51) Listener mail: Dawkins on Kafka redux WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Anna Karenina finale: parts 6-8 The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges | 1h 09m 51s | ||||||
| 7/16/25 | Tolstoy's Anna Karenina: Real Housewives of Russia | Benny decided it was time for the boys to read Leo Tolstoy's 800 page whopper Anna Karenina. Today we discuss parts 1 and 2 of the novel. Rich immediately fell in love with all the characters. He wants be Levin, be with Anna, and be... something with that majestic horse Frou Frou. On the famous opening line: Are happy families alike? Are any of Tolstoy's families happy? Rich argues the line is actually about statistical mechanics. On Stepan and Dolly: We meet our first unhappy family. Are they meant to be nodes who connect everyone else? Will they stick in there and make the marriage work? On Levin: Rich identifies with Levin, warts and all. Is this Tolstoy's mary-sue character? How did he fumble the bag so hard with Kitty? Speaking of, why can't Benny bowl without the gutters up? On Anna: Rich falls in love with Anna almost as quick as a Tolstoy character. Her elegance, intelligence, and her black dress. He loves her even more than Levin but Frou-Frou the horse gives her a run for her money. How does Tolstoy write such likeable characters? Is Anna's burgeoning relationship with Vronsky love? What to think of her cucked bureaucrat husband Alexei Karenin, who's obsessed with propriety? On fiery passion vs duty.CHAPTERS (00:00:00) AI rates our podcasting skills (00:05:00) Opening line: are all happy families alike? (00:11:58) Benny history snippet: Freeing the serfs (00:13:44) Stepan and Dolly(00:20:10) Meeting the famous Anna Karenina (00:27:15) Levin crushing on the Schchchcherbatskys (00:36:15) Anna and Vronsky (00:50:23) Alexei Karenin in denial(01:01:23) Where's all the sex? (01:14:00) Tolstoy's writing WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Anna Karenina - parts 3-5 Anna Karenina - parts 6-8 A new book! | 1h 16m 53s | ||||||
| 7/15/25 | One Hundred Years of Solitude: The optimal amount of incest is non-zero | Everyone loves Gabriel García Márquez' 1967 genre-defining classic One Hundred Years of Solitude. At first we were charmed. But after trying to track a complex web of births and deaths and affairs and inc*stuous unions all taking place in the first 100 pages we found ourselves mired deep in the swamp. When we reached the halfway mark we recorded an episode so hopelessly confused that we had to junk it. As we trudged through the second half, we fantasised about the devastating critiques we would unleash. then right on the very cusp of recording this pod, we all sheepishly admitted we were kinda back on board again?? Come on a journey with us to Macondo: often maddening but always magical. The elephant in the room is magical realism: have we found our kryptonite? Rich accepts that we're meant to soak up the vibe rather than spergily analyse it, but still has problems with the genre. How can characters have meaningful stakes in an arbitrary world? is it even possible to write a non-fatalistic work? Can fiction be in some sense 'truer than true'? Cam advances the bold thesis that magic is cool, actually. On the cyclicality of human decline: do the characters matter as individuals, or are they fractals of Macondo itsef? Is this a biblical post-eden loss of innocence story? A nod to Spengler's theory of cyclical civilizational collapse? Is historical determinism total bullshit? We're not sure but we don't love the fatalism here. On the solipsism of the Buendia family: seriously, what's with all the inc*st?? why is there so little true love or tenderness? why couldn't they have called their kids Pedro or Juan or something? This book is supposedly critical of colonialism and material progress but Cam and Rich can't help coming away with a straussian reading in which GGM is mostly mocking his stupid inbred countrymen. On the belovedness of this book, and why it missed the mark for us: Is there something here that only Latin American people can understand? Do you need to be familiar with the history of Colombia? Is the book better in the original Spanish? Is it a dose-dependent thing? Plus: new book announcement. it's a big one CHAPTERS (00:00:00) first impressions(00:06:40) The case against magical realism(00:26:08) Fiction is ‘truer’ than real life (Baudrillard redux)(00:31:45) Macondo as a fractal set of human failures(00:38:37) Spengler’s theory of cyclical history(00:43:00) biblical parallels: post-Eden loss of innocence(00:44:53) A Straussian reading contra the anti-progress themes(00:50:48) Back to Spengler: is historical determinism bullshit?(01:01:34) ‘The optimal amount of inc*st is non-zero’(01:10:55) Solipsism and lack of true connection amongst the Buendías(01:16:34) Do we like this book? Would we recommend it?(01:27:45) BIG SUMMER BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at douevenlit@gmail.com to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy | 1h 31m 13s | ||||||
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