American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Episode 285: Herman Melville: The Confidence Man, Part 1

Part one of Herman Melville's exploration of America's market economy, "The Confidence Man." Can the economy work without confidence and charity? We will explore these and other questions in this review.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 127.4: Ubik, Part 4

The quite bleak finale of "Ubik" by Philip K. Dick. It is not entirely clear what is going on as this novel closes. You will either love it or hate it, but in my view it does not ruin a fascinating novel.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 127.3: Ubik, Part 3

Joe Chip, our story's hero, tries to make sense of a world in which everything decays and even technologies revert to earlier forms, in part three of our look a Philip K. Dick's "Ubik". Maybe the secret is that everyone is dead.

Episode 284: Herman Melville: Assorted Short Fiction

We finish up looking at Herman Melville's short fiction in this episode. Some great tales about class, family, and technology. These may not all be known as Melville's greatest works of short fiction, but they are mostly all entertaining and rich in meaning.

Episode 283: Herman Melville: Essays and Early Short Fiction

In this episode, I look at an assortment of Herman Melville's assorted short prose: some book reviews and short stories. Part one of a two part series on these uncollected works.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 127.2: Ubik, Part 2

This is part two of my review of "Ubik" by Philip K. Dick. With an android bomb, the posthuman industrial spying plot winds down as we find our characters in a world of decay and entropy. We will struggle with them to find out footing.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 127.1: Ubik, Part 1

The first part of my review of Philip K. Dick's "Ubik". This novel would have been great it if was just about industrial espionage and post-humanism, which is what we think we are getting in the beginning of the story.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 126: Not By Its Cover

"Not By Its Cover" by Philip K. Dick looks at religious texts, preservation, reproduction and authenticity. It is a nice story that is firmly in Dick's period of religious speculation, but it may be more significant for what it says about knowledge preservation in a digital age.

Episode 282: Herman Melville: The Piazza Tales (The Lightening-Road Man, The Encantadas, The Bell-Tower)

This episode is the second in my review of Herman Melville's "The Piazza Tales". Two of these stories are quite strange, but "The Encantadas" is a brilliant quasi-historical account of the changing Pacific. Read it!

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 125.5; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Part 5

Poor Deckard. Doomed to be kipple, but maybe he can find some meaning in an electronic frog. Let's read the final chapters of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and move onto a book with a much shorter title.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 125.4; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Part 4

We reach the climax of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". How will Deckard do his job when he realizes that he has developed empathy for androids?

Episode 281: Herman Melville: The Piazza Tales (The Piazza, Bartleby, Benito Cereno)

A few of Melville's most famous tales are "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby the Scrivener". They make up the first half of the collection, "The Piazza Tales". Lots to discuss in these important works.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 125.3; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Part 3

In this part of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" our bounty hunter Deckard runs into a fake police station and learns something important about himself. 

Episode 280: Herman Melville: Israel Potter, Part 2

Part two of my review of Herman Melville's "Israel Potter", in which we experience most of his 50 years of exile.

Episode 279: Herman Melville: Israel Potter, Part 1

Another Herman Melville novel. This one is much more conventional than "Pierre". but it is still a valuable read. "Israel Potter" looks at the life of a Revolutionary War veteran as his service to his country leads him into exile and lets him meet some more famous revolutionary heroes.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 125.2; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Part 2

Part two of my review of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" gives us a chance to explore the empathy test as we watch Deckard begin his mission to hunt down the rogue Nexus-6 androids.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 125.1; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Part 1

The opening chapters of Philip K. Dick's great novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" puts us in a bleak world of mood organs, empathy boxes, lead codpieces, and kipple.

Episode 278: Herman Melville: Pierre, Part 4

The finale of my review of "Pierre" by Herman Melville.

Episode 277: Herman Melville: Pierre, Part 3

So, after deciding to get married to his (maybe) sister, things start to get even stranger for Pierre. Listen to my thoughts on this in part three of my review of Herman Melville's "Pierre".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 124: Faith of Our Fathers

Philip K. Dick's contribution to "Dangerous Visions" was "Faith of Our Fathers", one of his most important stories on false fronts and the prison of state power.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 123: Retreat Match

"Retreat Match" by Philip K. Dick is a really good story on false memories, shifting realities, and the politics of empire.

Episode 276: Herman Melville: Pierre, Part 2

In the second hundred pages of "Pierre" by Herman Melville our hero comes to believe he has what he always wanted, a sister. What will be the cost of this realization? 

Episode 275: Herman Melville: Pierre, Part 1

Time to go mad with Herman Melville as we begin looking at his 1852 novel "Pierre, Or the Ambiguities".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 122.4: Counter Clock World, Part 4

The conclusion to Philip K. Dick's "Counter-Clock World" centers on a failed rescue attempt at the Library, a forthcoming race war, and the question of how our hero Sebastien Hermes can find new meaning in life with the death of his wife and the near destruction of his business.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 122.3: Counter Clock World, Part 3

The Library has become victorious in stealing the Anarch. Can the various factions interested in him get him back before the Library can prevent him from writing any more dangerous books?

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 122.2: Counter Clock World, Part 2

In this section of Philip K. Dick's "Counter-Clock World" we learn that the once-dead Anarch Peak still has something to say and that there are lots of people who will kill to hear what he has to say...or to eradicate what he has to say. Our hero's scheme to make a quick buck gets a lot of more complicated.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 122.1: Counter Clock World, Part 1

In "Counter Clock World", Philip K. Dick takes us to an Earth where time moves backward, knowledge must be destroyed, and the dead come back to life. At least these is still money to be made digging up graves. Beware the library.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 121.4: The Zap Gun, Part 4

The final part of my review of "The Zap Gun" by Philip K. Dick. Is it possible that a toy can stop an alien invasion?

Episode 274: Charles Brockden Brown: Edgar Huntly, Part 2

In the second half of Charles Brockden Brown's "Edgar Huntly" we enter a world of brutal frontier violence as our hero finds out how easy it is to kill. It is one of the darker visions of the American frontier.

Episode 273: Charles Brockden Brown: Edgar Huntly, Part 1

Things get even stranger in Charles Brockden Brown's "Edgar Huntly", a novel of frontier violence, sleepwalking, Indian isolates, and global adventurers.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 121.3: The Zap Gun, Part 3

Comic book weapons, alien slavers, and time traveling androids complicate the live of our hero Lars Powderdry in part three of my review of Philip K. Dick's "The Zap Gun".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 121.2: The Zap Gun, Part 2

In this part of the Zap Gun, we continue to follow Lars Powderdry's depression, but learn that maybe there is a way about by taking the manufacturing of weapons a bit more serious. And it just may be important.

Episode 272: Charles Brockden Brown: Arthur Mervyn, Part 4

The conclusion of my review of Charles Broxden Brown's "Arthur Mervyn".

Episode 271: Charles Brockden Brown: Arthur Mervyn, Part 3

The second half of Charlie Brown's "Arthur Mervyn" drags a bit in my view, but there is still some nice moments and we can start to see the possibilities of a feminist interpretation of early American history in Brown's writing.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 121: The Zap Gun, Part 1

My review of the opening chapters of "The Zap Gun" by Philip K. Dick. An interesting novel exploring the relationship between the military-industrial complex and a consumer economy. In this part of the novel we meet our depressed hero with an explosive name, Lars Powderdry.

Episode 270: Charles Brockden Brown: Arthur Mervyn, Part 2

Part 2 of my review of Charles Brockden Brown's novel "Arthur Mervyn". In this section we experience the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 in stunning brutal detail.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 120: Your Appointment Will be Yesterday

A preview of his novel "Counter-Clock World", "Your Appointment Will be Here Yesterday" introduces us to the Hobart phase and the consequences of the rising dead.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 119: Holy Quarrel

In "Holy Quarrel", Philip K. Dick takes on big data....again. A really good story and more relevant than ever.

Episode 269: Charles Brockden Brown: Arthur Mervyn, Part 1

"Arthur Mervyn" is another strange tale by Charles Brockden Brown, although this one is a bit more down to earth. It tells the story of a young man who falls into a criminal network when he tries to go from the farm to the city. How will he end up?

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 118: We Can Remember It for You Wholesale

In this episode I take on the 1966 short story by Philip K. Dick "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". It has spies, aliens, and world-saving empathy.