EPISODE 13: SQUIRREL HOUR

About this episode

The episode discusses themes from Nabokov's 'Pnin' and various literary and philosophical topics.

On a wholesome episode of a new podcast, co-hosts Clementine Ford, Vincenzo Barney, and Christian Lorentzen turn to Vladimir Nabokov’s 1957 novel Pnin . Topics discussed include the theme of the holy fool; how to write about an innocent man when you’ve just written about a monster; etymology; living in a language other than the one you were born into; teaching a language you don’t know how to speak; genres; the campus novel; malapropisms; meanness; sweetness; cuteness; Upstate New York; John Updike; Edmund Wilson; Charlotte Bronte; Cervantes; the philosophy of gesture; bowls; bubblers; shadow-tails; soccer balls; bipolar disorder queens; Wilhelm Reich; the Kinsey Report; infidelity; unequal love; earth fathers; water fathers; how long novels should be; serialization; selling out; renting a room; parties; panic attacks; pyrographic screens; ophthalmology; cruelty; the Holocaust; zippers; the many manifestations of the squirrel; and much more. Thank you for listening.

People in this episode

Hosts: Clementine Ford, Vincenzo Barney, Christian Lorentzen

Topics covered

• Vladimir Nabokov
• Pnin
• holy fool
• innocent man
• etymology
• language
• teaching
• genres
• campus novel
• malapropisms
• meanness
• sweetness
• cuteness
• Upstate New York
• John Updike
• Edmund Wilson
• Charlotte Bronte
• Cervantes
• philosophy of gesture
• bipolar disorder

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: SQUIRREL HOUR, Pnin, Holocaust

Places: Upstate New York

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