DEATH // SENTENCE

Vampires are having a bit of a moment, and the best book in the current wave is Genevieve Jagger's Fragile Animals, a literary maybe-vampire story set in Scotland. We talk about why vampires are back, Catholicism, trauma and the best vampire films (Near Dark and The Only Lovers Left Alive). Music by Glassing and Inter Arma

Eden sits down with the non-fictional representative of the book of webs, Jesse Kohn, to talk about the weird, beguiling, and bubbling Love Chronicles of the Octopodes by Karen An-hwei Lee! Gene editing, Emily Dickinson, internal monologue, cosmic adventures, the Moon personified, and more whirl in this unique and scintillating book! Music played - TWRP - Online (feat. Tom Cardy & Montaigne) https://twrp.bandcamp.com/track/online-feat-tom-cardy-montaigne

In honor of the world-ending eclipse that's scheduled for today, Gareth and Eden sit down to tackle Sven Holm's Termush! The novel explores an atomic post-apocalypse and the parasitic, depraved, neurotic, and straight up weird well-to-do people who try to survive it. The two tackle ideas of middle class violence and manners, radiation and climate change, cooperation vs. selfish survival, and elite panic! Music played: Savage Oath - Blood For the King https://savageoath.bandcamp.com/track/blood-for-the-king

Ernst Bloch is probably going to be unknown to many listeners, but, according to Horror Vanguard's Jon Greenaway, he's one of the most overlooked and important philosophers of the 20th century. We talk about what Utopia means and what it can mean now that it seems further away than ever. Music by Necrot.

What if nasty commoners were going around breaking all the nice people's art? What if we've been getting morality all wrong? We consider all this and more when talking about Kay Dick's rediscovered masterpiece They. Music by Sleepyime Gorilla Museum: https://sleepytimegorillamuseum1.bandcamp.com/album/of-the-last-human-being

What if everything you were taught about Neoliberalism was wrong? What if it's not a free-market free-for-all but as tightly controlled as any planned economy? Grace Blakeley joins us to discuss her new book about this, why everything is so expensive, where all the money went and what we can do about it. Music by Full of Hell.

Langdon talks to Ian Cory, former editor-in-chief of the almighty Invisible Oranges blog and now lead of genre-agnostic (but generally heavy) band Lamniforms.

We're 'mad for it' on this episode! And by 'mad for it' we mean mad about how Manchester, the city where capitalism and communism were invented, has turned into a nightmare of hotdesking 'spaces', dumb concept bars that last two weeks and towers to store insufferable yuppies. Isaac Rose is here to talk about his new book The Rentier City: Manchester And The Making Of The Neoliberal Metropolis and what has happened to this once-adequate city. Music by Genital Shame. Join our Patreon community and get an invite to our Discord, where you can ask us questions about things: https://www.patreon.com/DeathSentence

It's a very chipper and uplifting episode, as Langdon and Eden tackle the question of revolutionary optimism, the role of hope (or lack thereof) in revolutionary politics, and the question of "doomerism". Then, they dive deep into a workplace novel unlike any other, the incisive, empathic, and deeply sad Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind. Dreams, quotas, debt, rent, and monsters mix and clash as they tear the protagonist's (and our) lives apart. Also, join us on Discord - https://discord.gg/A2RXQXmtrq Music played: Wishbone Ash - Throw Down the Sword https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-BHRQrMglo Wishbone Ash - The Pilgrim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoCnt-yP6_o

This time around, Langdon and Eden talk about how the Internet is dead, actually, and who has killed it. Then, they stay on the topic of demise by diving into Nicole Kornher-Stace's Archivist Wasp, a weird and twisted exploration of death, the afterlife, and trying your best. Music played: Vitriol - Locked in Thine Frothing Wisdom https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/track/locked-in-thine-frothing-wisdom Chapel of Disease - A Death Though No Loss https://chapelofdisease.bandcamp.com/track/a-death-though-no-loss

Josie Riesman joins us to talk about her book on Vince McMahon, the head of the WWE and arguably the creator of modern wrestling, who is now undergoing a long-overdue downfall after certain allegations came to light. Music by Darkspace: https://darkspace.bandcamp.com/ I'm sure you'd like a tasty beer to go with this episode - give the cooperatively run, community-owened Lacada Brewery from Portrush, Northern Ireland a go: https://www.lacadabrewery.com/

On this solo episode, Eden kicks off a series looking at a new format for Death // Sentence - the science fiction poem! He does it by diving deep into two fine examples of the format, Aniara and Deep Wheel Orcadia, focusing on themes of language, translation, belonging, deep space, and religiosity! Music played: Ranges - The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune https://ranges.bandcamp.com/track/i-the-slings-and-arrows-of-outrageous-fortune

The singular entity known as Langdon/Eden records a solo episode continuing the long-promised series on Kazuo Ishiguro. This time around, they tackle "An Artist of the Floating World", Ishiguro's second novel and his attempt to tackle post-WWII Japan, masculinity, old age, honor, shame, and more! Music played: Jesus i betong by Cortex https://heartworkrecords.bandcamp.com/track/jesus-i-betong

This time around, Langdon and Eden explore the shadowy and religious urbanity of The Saint of Bright Doors, a fantasy book about knowledge, imperialism, and violence. But first, they talk about the shadow urbanity of the United States of America and Langdon's trans-dimensional adventures with Power Wash Simulator (yes). Music played: Pessimystic - Burnt Offering https://pessimysticofficial.bandcamp.com/track/burnt-offering Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze - Ekstasis, Enstasis, and The Fractal Ouroboros https://bullofapisbullofbronze.bandcamp.com/track/ekstasis-enstasis-and-the-fractal-ouroboros

Why aren't books hitting like they used to? Partly it's because of how they're sold, Dan Sinykin says in Big Fiction. We talk about how everyone from Cormac McCarthy to Stephen King and the Million Little Pieces guy explains the Conglomeration Era of fiction. Music by Fawn Limbs & Nadja and Panopticon. Theme tune by Caina.

Matt McManus is one of the most perceptive critics of the conservative movement out there, and in The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide on Egalitarian Modernity he takes them on their own terms, reading major figures from Socrates to Burke, Hegel, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche to find what links them. Music by Rosa Faenskap and Afterbirth

On this episode, Adam and Craig of the Acid Horizon podcast join Eden to discuss their new book, "Anti-Oculus: A Philosophy of Escape". The three dive deep into cybernetics, the blindness of the Israeli genocidal apparatus, what it means to control and be controlled, pathways of escape, and how to write good introductions to books. Music played: Exulansis - Overtures of Uprising https://bindrunerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/overtures-of-uprising

Langdon and Eden sink deep into M. John Harrison's masterful, erudite, oppressive, and creepy "The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again"! The two discuss the fading landscape of England, London's dire straits, the numbing reality of the Midlands, forests, ponds, disappearing women, post-modernism, and more. But first, they critique the very current and relevant Game of Thrones and, by way of it, all of fantasy as well! Music played: Xoth - Map to the Stars, Monuments to the Ancients https://xoth.bandcamp.com/track/map-to-the-stars-monument-to-the-ancients Flesh of the Stars - Unseen https://fleshofthestars.bandcamp.com/track/unseen

Highly aerodynamic tech investor Marc Andreessen has written a 'Techno Optimist Manifesto' that cites arch-edgelord dork Nick Land as a 'Patron Saint of Techno Optimism'. Has he read Nick Land? Sean of the Wyrd Signal podcast and I conclude no, he hasn't, and in doing so we talk about Land's ideas, Martin Heidegger, Degrowth, Dystopia and The Meg. Music by MARTHE and Nothing/Full of Hell

This time around, Langdon and Eden begin by talking about literary and epistemological bewilderment before pivoting to the role of knowledge, narrative, and "neutral" understanding in the Palestinian conflict. Free Palestine! Then, continuing the theme of confusion, they tackle the wonderfully beguiling "the book of webs" by Jesse Kohn a fragmented dream journal of a book which offers an option of resistance through weird logic. Music played - Stortregn - Omega Axiom https://stortregn.bandcamp.com/track/omega-axiom Woe - Distant Epitaphs https://woeunholy.bandcamp.com/track/distant-epitaphs