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That's an amazing discussion about the short story. I had similar thoughts about the different storylines as channels which switch like in the story itself the babysitter switches the TV channels. And there is so much more about it to analyse. You did a great job, thank you✨

I like this book

Like, like, like. Count them. Like.

I have enjoyed this one thoroughly and was glad to find that you haven't given up on this podcast. March on, dear fellows. Your actions do reverberate

Bananafish- SPOILER 😮😅 I’m still going to read it 😂

Look up Diane Schuler

Okay, I didn't like the story the first time I read it cause I felt like it was pointless. Later on I read one of his other shorts called "Barn Burning" and I liked it but I still didn't get it but then the movie called "burning" based on Barn Burning came out and I finally understood that the story was a about a serial killer! But told in a very subtle way. So when it came time to revisit this short story "With the beatles" I was looking for the signs and I think I have a theory. The brother has a sort of traumatic amnesia. I think he abused his sister, and he did it regularly. The boyfriend was supposed to meet the girlfriend on Sunday, but something happened to her the night before, and all the family members rushed her to the hospital. However, the family kept it under wraps and kept this secret within the family. I assume the sister was not allowed to talk about it too. That's why she never spoke about her brother. The sister then lied to the narrator about their scheduled date and the narrator just believed her. Fast forward to later in her life, and she is an adult but realizes that her abuser (her brother) still has not faced justice. Her whole family ignores this issue, leading to her own trauma, and she eventually committed suicide. The brothers supposed "genetic memory loss disorder" was a lie he made up or a lie his parents told him. He would commit these crimes on the sister and most likely block out these memories. This is my theory. Her suicide was not random, and the brothers' Memory loss was not random. I believe Murakami is giving us all the clues to piece the story together, but I think we are so used to believing characters in normal stories. We should be investigators regarding his stories. The only character you should believe is the narrator because he is just as ignorant as we are, but he also, much like us, was not privy to what was happening to his own girlfriend. The narrator looks back to this memory and realises he missed something. He missed something important. Evil is everywhere, and it's not easy to see.

Fun fact: anarchist bees are a naturally occurring phenomenon

The child didn't die. That wouldnt be sad enough. He disassociated, all of the language in the text is odd and distant, itself disassociated.

The forum Nazi that keeps commenting that some issues should be in other forums is a great repeating joke. Writing a story that utilitizes the format of a reddit post or a CZcams comments section, for example, could adapt a repeating joke as well. But as you said, there's a particularity to forum Nazis that I'm not sure can be easily replicated in other - more common - formats.

He really can paint a scene so well, loved this story.

I love this story! It’s one of King’s best. A nugget of great short fiction.

most talented living american story teller / writer

U guys rock. Why wasn’t Symour kissing that girl on the leg on the beach brought up.

11:21 - yes exactly. It is one of my favorite lines in fiction, cause the setup for it is so perfect, and it' just a gut-punch of a line, as a paragraph all by itself, and as soon as you read it your heart sinks, and now you know it's only downhill from here. It's both hilarious and tragic.

I wish I had empathy.

The Thunderstorm is coming

Loving your content, would really enjoy hearing your thoughts on a Borges story!

Awesome podcast, making my way through Barthelme's 'Sixty Stories' now.

English was the first language he learned, via home tutors, concurrently with Russian.

Its an interesting story because the guy actually isn't tuned into her feelings at all the whole time, essentially treating her like an object. And when they're in his bed he's making these stupid porn movie remarks. And then finally at the end the truth comes out. - a guy

Not that it overcomes my gratitude for you exposing great stories, but YOU GOT TO READ THE WHOLE STORY. Especially here, and with an another like Barthelme. ITS ALREADY SHORT. Whew. Sorry for the shouts. Cheers mates. Carry on.

Hi, I'm a big fan of your podcast. You should do an episode of "Cruising Paradise" of Sam Shepard. It's a great short story. Greetings from Mexico.

Love these, keep them coming. Thanks

Recently I started reading short stories and stumbled upon this one. It seem very different from what I usually read. Now I kinda feel that I miss out on really good stuff by only choosing to read books of a certain genre. Thanks for the great discussion - it answered a lot of questions!

Im listening to this cause I was scared of reading it due to a trigger warning from my teacher. I have an exam about it in like 3 hours and you guys are saving my ass! ty, this was so good to listen to!

WOW WHAT A GOOD STORYYY🤩

Good stuff!!! #1 YT views provider -> Promo`SM.

Great discussions that push me to read that story again from a new starting point.

This essay is not about Tiffany. If people disagree with his depiction of her, that is beside the point. This is an essay about his appreciation and gratitude for the family he actually had relationships with over the years. David makes it clear that he never understood her, nor did he care to. Tiffany did not care for the family the way he did and that's the point. It's a beautiful piece of writing and I think anyone who has had a sibling that they couldn't relate to or understand would empathize with the premise of the essay.

I enjoyed the conversation but I think you completely misinterpreted the story. It isn’t saying “there’s a problem with white men, etc etc” - if anything it’s a critique of those cliched, abstract ways of thinking about human interaction.

Like you both, I was struggling to find any solution or way it could have been prevented. But I was at a loss. It’s very interesting that you posit that the protagonist is inherently broken, as if he doesn’t know how to be human. I never thought about it like that before, how he’s unable to channel empathy and has no personality outside of serving others or what he can do for others. He did register as off but nothing wrong on a technical level, but he really is sort of this shell of a human being. Very interesting discussion, exactly the kind of thing I was craving when I finished the story and it lingered on my mind for days.

Great discussion on this piece, I find it kind of hilarious how a lot of other online reviews of this dismiss the story as 'incel fantasy', almost in a bizarre meta way proving the point of the protagonist.

english was one of his first languages

Wouldn’t it be direct address?

Wish you read the whole thing. This was the first barthelme story I read in an anthology and I felt my head burst open. Pure joy for me

I’m obsessed with barthelme. He set me free. I think he rejected the label or post modernist if I’m not mistaken.

The story is from a collection titled “Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts” and was published in 1968, not 1981. I enjoyed the discussion.

Thanks for this!

❗ ᵖʳᵒᵐᵒˢᵐ

Thom Jones is an underrated writer for whom my praise goes beyond words. His three books have an amazingly wide range of different Short Stories. Several of them count among the best I've ever read. He can be very moving, as in his beautiful Cold Snap or the hawaian love story in Sonny Liston was a Friend of Mine. Or develop a great sense of humour, a dark kind of sense of humour that will make you burst in laughter. Still he is always interesting and his plots are clever ones, with plenty of action. He deals with love, friendship, violence, drugs and sex, mainly. He was fond of Shopenhahuer and mentions him, here and there. Sometimes he uses American slang in his writings and dialogues. It isn't easy sometimes to differentiate between the stories he basically imagines, and the ones he has lived and so he is mainly remembering. He can be very funny, and in other cases also very touching, depending what's his aim each time. I consider him a great reading and he quickly became one of my favourite authors. He died too soon, pity. Because he had everything needed to have become one of the major artists the States ever gave us. 💎❤️👍🤗

𝕡𝐫ｏ𝕄ｏ𝔰𝓶

So underrated. Has so much natural talent. His stories are so thoughtful and thought provoking.

Just finished skinship by yoon Choi and loved the book and this short story. In this short story the class and educational differences of the husband and wife and the racial differences with the son-in-law, Sanjay, were smaller but important details.

I love this short story. Remember Gordon lish eliminated all the extraneous material from carvers’s short stories. And no you do not need to lead the reader anywhere. The reader can interpret the story as she sees fit.

David Sedaris is an excellent writer. I recall reading the bit you read, putting it down, and saying “wow”.

I like your show but... this one is actually not good unless you like a complaining young adult voice.

I liked your effort to discuss your lack of attention span. I was also impressed by how honest your were about hating not being able to watch a preview of it before reading this celebrated short story. I'm willing to bet The White Heron visits your thoughts far more than the films and cable serials whose previews convince you they were worth your time. Your commentary was quite proud, insightful and ambivalent. You must have been forced to read To Kill A Mockingbird and still resent how much you loved it. You have a keen insightful mind and a fine conversational turn of phrase. I trust you are spending most of your time writing your own prose rather than critiquing the published work of others. Those who can do, those who cannot criticize. CHEERS !

underrated channel

Is that told from a first person narrator or third ? I cannot understand that