The Getting Lit Podcast

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This episode, we're joined by River Page (@gayliaronline on Twitter), contributing editor at Twink Revolution and Twitter enfant terrible. We chat about The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell's harrowing account of the plight of the poor and working class in northern English coal mining towns. We talk about the disconnect between the working class and the middle class socialists who want to "help," Orwell's fiction vs his nonfiction, identity vs class politics, the deep problems with left politics and therapeutic culture, Oprah, as well as River's insightful essay on the Democratic Socialists of America, "The Standpoint Bureaucracy."
River's essay: https://twinkrev.com/2021/02/the-standpoint-bureaucracy/

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Reuben and Matt are joined by Sina (@KhanKuchek on Twitter) from the Trepidation podcast to talk about Michel Houellebecq's Submission and Michael Haneke's 2005 film, Caché. For once, they aren't drinking! Is this because they've converted to Islam and are extremely pious now? Or because it was too early in the morning?
Topics and themes covered: multiculturalism, French identity, the decline of the West, Islam, the difference between religious texts and literature, and whether Houellebecq is an enfant terrible satirist or something else entirely.

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Joining me for a two part special is novelist and friend of the pod, Max Easton. In part 1, we discuss Max's new book, Paradise Estate, a sequel to his amazing debut The Magpie Wing. In part 2, we will discuss The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio de Maria.
This episode has a lot of writing talk, but we also discuss generational malaise, the horrors and the comedy of sharehousing, political dead ends, collectivism vs individuality, punk politics and aesthetics, why Matt hates anarchists, Current Thingism and how to write about it without succumbing to it, living life in a holding pattern, and more.
If you're American and want to buy Max's new book but don't want to pay for exorbitant postage, you can purchase the ebook here:
https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Estate-Max-Easton-ebook/dp/B0CHK3XJYQ?ref_=ast_author_dp
If you're Australian, you can also purchase here:
https://giramondopublishing.com/books/max-easton-paradise-estate/
Follow Max on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/maxeaston__
Max's substack: https://mebarelyhuman.substack.com/

Getting Lit episode on Max's last book, The Magpie Wing:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lore-of-footy-feat-liam/id1571854866?i=1000567069928
Paradise Estate synopsis:
It’s 2022 and Helen is starting again. Newly single, dogged by grief, adrift in a hostile rental market, she finds a four-bedroom house flanked by apartment blocks that stare into the yard. Despite the lack of privacy, she fills its rooms with an unlikely group of residents looking for communal belonging: zine maker, activist, disaffected artist, part-time rugby league player – each looking to build a future, each haunted by their recent past. But if a rented house in Sydney could ever promise salvation, it would come with a coating of black mould.

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Jack Mason, host of The Perfume Nationalist podcast joins me to talk about Jacqueline Susann's 1966 novel of showbiz, sex, and substance abuse, Valley of the Dolls, as well as the 1967 film adaptation directed by Mark Robson and starring Sharon Tate, Patty Duke, and Susan Hayward, and also the 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, directed by Russ Meyer and written by film critic Roger Ebert!
Subscribe to The Perfume Nationalist here: https://www.patreon.com/perfumenationalist

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This episode, Reuben gets an aneurysm reading Robert E Howard's first Conan story, "The Phoenix on the Sword," and asks Crom to grant revenge on Matt for inflicting this pulp trash on him. We also watch one of Matt's favourite films, Conan the Barbarian (1982), directed by the incomparable John Milius and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his breakout role.
Come for Matt's Arnold impression! Stay for the conversation.
We range across sword and sorcery, libertarianism, too many adverbs, the barbarian fantasy archetype, lost worlds, the appeal of pulp fiction, camp, bathos, and more.

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