Author: Scott

Author: Haruki Murakami, translator: Philip Gabriel

Published: 1992

Vintage

Plot Summary – Growing up in the suburbs of post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father’s record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present.

Quick Thoughts [forthcoming]

“Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant star. 
It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.
Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Scott

Recorded 04/25/13

Next Time: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

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Author: Neal Stephenson

Published: 1992

Bantam Books

Plot Summary – In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s Cosa Nostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous…you’ll recognize it immediately.

Quick Thoughts: [forthcoming]

“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”

Your Hosts:

• Sam
• Scott

This episode was recorded 03/28/13

Next time: South of the Border West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

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Scott provides an introduction to the Cyberpunk genre.

Subjects discussed:

• Nietzsche Grandfather of Cyberpunk
• Expressionism
• Noir protagonists
• Cyberpunk themes
• How this all fits with Snow Crash
• why steampunk is not a genre

Recorded: 04/27/13

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Author:  Matthew Wayne Selznick

Published: 2005

Lulu MWS Media

Plot Summary – Fans of Spider-Man, silver age comics, and alternate history will enjoy this novel of teen angst and metahumans! This coming of age story is set in an alternate 1980’s, where people with amazing abilities make themselves known. Can young Nathan Charters find himself in this uncertain new world? Who is he, where did he come from, and is he part of a remarkable new minority…or just a misfit among misfits? Brave Men Run is at once gripping and emotional, shocking and intelligent.

Quick Thoughts: [forthcoming]

“Brave men run…in my family”

Your hosts:

• Lena
• Tony
• Scott

This episode was recorded: 02/28/13

Next Time: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

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