PODCAST

Upper Middlebrow

A podcast in which we discuss high-craft works of popular culture

arts books

All Episodes

1:13:20

Episode 27: “Don’t Believe your Eyes,” or Colson...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/08/14

Whitehead’s neo-noir crashes to a climax, but does it stick the landing? In the end, the Dukes and Bagg wonder if the weight of the the author’s allegory overloads the elevator car laden with plot and character. The lads continue to marvel at Whitehead’s sentences, and sheer originality and ambition of this remarkable novel.

en-US

1:21:57

Episode 26: “Uplift!” or Colson Whitehead’s The...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/07/31

The lads are quite impressed with Colson Whitehead’s debut novel, which packs an allegory about race, class, and futurism into a unique take on hard-boiled noir. Bagg challenges Dukes to unpack exactly how the tone of irony is detected in the novel, and they both marvel over Whitehead’s delicious sentences. Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm

en-US

1:34:09

Episode 25: “Deus Ex Rockina,” or N.K. Jemisin’s The...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/07/17

Jemisin weaves three major threads into one in the second half of The Fifth Season, but the lads take issue with some of the convenient plot wrapping. Dukes + Bagg remained blown away by the power of imagination on display, but Dukes raises the question of whether the book deals honestly with the moral dilemma at its heart.

en-US

1:18:48

Episode 24: “How to Make a Pangea Omelette,” or N.K....

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/07/06

The Fifth Season is… a lot. Fantasy? Sure. Sci-fi? Maybe. Allegory? Definitely. The first half introduces us to three apparently different protagonists, with action in an uncertain number of timelines, and the sense that this particular world is about the be transformed. But why? And how?

en-US

1:20:45

Episode 23: “In Search of the Perfect Read, Part...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/06/26

We hear from you! We share listener summer read recommendations in the form of voicemails and texts. Dukes + Bagg each share a summer reading recommendation, and somehow, the conversations keeps getting dragged back to baseball.

en-US

58:33

Episode 22: “In Search of the Perfect Read, Part II”...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/06/15

We’re joined by two journalists and avid readers, Susie An and Arionne Nettles, both former colleagues of Jesse’s from WBEZ in Chicago. Susie and Ari both like the IDEA of a beach read, and both say they use summer as a time to catch up on books they WANT to read, as opposed to books they’re SUPPOSED to read. Susie recommends The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, and Ari recommends You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi.

en-US

1:15:35

Episode 21: “In Search of the Perfect Read, Part I”...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/06/05

We’re joined by two veteran high school English teachers, each with a summer reading recommendation for a teenager. We talk about about how speculative fiction (including sci-fi, fantasy, horror, alt. history) engages teenagers in different ways, and why magic gets a bad rap among “literary” readers.

en-US

1:16:42

Episode 20: “The Eye of the Speculator,” or Octavia...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/05/25

Lauren Olamina leaves her ruined home in the second half of Octavia E. Butler's 1993 novel/theology document/allegory/philosophical text, heading for the mysterious utopia of Branscombe first and then...the stars? Bagg and Dukes try to locate the climax of this work, discuss the figurative vs. denotative nature of the novel, and close things out with some Muppets impersonations.

en-US

1:24:45

Episode 19: “A Wizard of Earthseed,” or Octavia E....

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/05/15

Parable of the Sower purports to be a work of speculative fiction, but Bagg points out that “speculative” is in the eye of the speculator. Dukes calls it the founding document of a theology that both UMBs find rather coherent and attractive. Whatever the book is, it is the work of a gifted writer, who was overlooked when she was alive, and died too young.

en-US

1:14:53

Episode 18: “No Apocalypse,No Foul,” Andy Weir’s...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/05/04

Dukes and Bagg’s challenge each other to recap the second half in three and a half sentences before diving into what makes Weir’s hard sci-fi novel about interstellar friendship so satisfying. Bagg unveils an elaborate beat map [link or insert here] based on insights from Robin D. Law’s Hamlet’s Hit Points, and Dukes wonders what is lost and gained by the mostly happy ending.

en-US

1:14:09

Episode 17: “Bromancing the Stone Carapace,” or Andy...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/04/24

Many many many many writers take on “hard” science fiction, and get lost in the science, leaving behind such niceties as plot, character development, human insight, or deep emotional stakes. Somehow, Andy Weir imagines a thrilling and scientifically plausible adventure, that’s really just about friendship in space. Amidst the ammonia, burritos, and penis blood, sits a tale that brings both Dukes and Bagg to occasional tears. So much so that Bagg wonders if this is the “perfect novel” for our

en-US

1:16:28

Episode 16: “Big Claws! Big MECHANICAL Claws!” or...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/04/13

Jonathan Lethem’s climax is fun, exciting, and surprises both Bagg and Dukes by not requiring much action from its already largely inactive protagonist, Journeyman. The UMBs once again consider the virtues and drawbacks of a hapless protagonist, and wonder if post-apocalyptic tales are replacing the western, as the dominant form of American mythmaking.

en-US

1:18:48

Episode 15: “Big Tank! Big NUCLEAR Tank!” Jonathan...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/04/03

Jonathan Lethem imagines not so much an apocalypse, but a kind of slow pause of most (but not all) advanced technologies, he calls “The Arrest”. Dukes and Bagg find the scenario fascinating and are not much troubled by the lack of a scientific explanation. Bagg IS troubled by the first sentence, (an important one) and Dukes wonders if our protagonist will manage to do a thing (anything!) in the book’s second half.

en-US

1:31:04

Episode 14: “The Impervious Battleship Egan,” or A...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/03/23

In the second half of Goon Squad, many of the characters end up…surprisingly OK, especially when you consider their struggles and self-destructive capacity displayed in the first half. Bagg and Dukes talk about whether the happy-ish outcomes are earned, and meditate on Proust’s epigram about memory. They wonder if the opposite of time as a ravager would be "Time, The Accepted Force that Propels Our Life Forward for Better or Worse?"

en-US

1:37:38

Episode 13: “Time the Ravager” or Jennifer Egan’s...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/03/13

After a camel cricket update (!), Jesse and Chris try to untangle the conga line of affection and destruction that forms the structure of Egan's remarkable 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Bagg plays the babyface/fanboy while Dukes combines admiration for Egan’s craft with a deep sense of discomfort with the characters' circumstances. We wrap it up with some trivia about titans of tech and shoplifting spin.

en-US

1:30:01

Episode 12: “Hitler’s Springtime + Ziegfried’s...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/03/03

Play along with Dukes and Bagg as we play Neal Stephenson Bingo. We find that the final third does pick up a bit, with Goto Dengo’s story in particular providing a satisfying character arc. There are moments of DENSE AND BEAUTIFUL PROSE and descriptions of MATH EMBODIED, but we also find that too often, PLOT IS GREATER THAN CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, leaving both UMBs a bit frustrated (and many characters suddenly dead).

en-US

1:12:54

Episode 11: “The Utopia of Fresno” or Neal...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/02/24

Dukes and Bagg wonder about the length of the middle section of the book, which as far as they can tell, only establishes one major plot point. And they wonder at the stakes of the novel? Who cares if a couple of comfortably well off tech guys find some old gold? But Stephenson’s insight into the little told impacts of technological development during the War remains impressive. What if the Germans HAD developed a "Rocket Sub?"

en-US

1:10:11

Episode 10: “Underlying Math Skeleton” or Neal...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/02/17

Bagg and Dukes are…a little tired of Neal Stephenson, but our two codebreaking huffduff operators soldier on into Stephenson’s large 1999 novel Cryptonomicon. Haiku-composing marines, lots of math via bicycle chains and other analog metaphors, passive-aggressive academic tracts about beards, and Stephenson’s solving of an earlier problem of his: simply write two books but connect them via plot.

en-US

Episode 9: “Underwater Burning Man,” or Neal...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/02/07

Dukes and Bagg talk scruffiness and the virtues of whiskers more broadly. Then they complain about Stephenson’s propensity to want to write three books into every book, his tendency to orphan MacGuffin’s and the challenge of sorting out whether the reader’s disorientation is intended, or the result of sloppiness. But for it all, the UMBs agree this is Stephenson’s most ambitious and thoughtful work of this career thus far.

en-US

Episode 8: “Stephenson’s a flame-kindling kind of...

Upper Middlebrow ·

2023/01/24

We hit pause on recapping, and talk the intersection of education and technology with a genuine educational technologist, Professor Justin Reich (and the man who introduced Dukes + Bagg). Justin considers Stephenson’s take on the ancient debate about whether education resembles “filling a pail” or “kindling a flame” and notes his preoccupation with the probabilistic nature of education tech.

en-US

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Upper Middlebrow

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