Upper Middlebrow

We go all the way back to episode 17, in honor of the release of the major motion picture, starring Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace. Our part 1 was originally titled Bromancing the Stone Carapace, perhaps the single greatest podcast title in history. 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 time.

Isaac Asimov doesn’t PERFECTLY predict today’s era of anxiety and excitement around AI. But he does pretty well for somebody writing eighty years ago. In this 1990 collection of Asimov’s classic robot stories, we see corporations trying to make money while navigating human anxiety around robots, and humans trying to determine whether robots should have human rights, and whether it’s OK to be friends with a robot. Bagg was busy for this one, so we’re joined by friend of the show Justin Reich, host of the Teachlab podcast, and a frequent collaborator of Dukes. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server!https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU Join us!

The second half of Feinstein’s book of minor league baseball stories and characters feels very much like the first half. The reporting is extensive, and Feinstein has a knack for the well described scene, brief characterization, and finding the drama in the everyday. In spite of those virtues, the book continues to overwhelm the reader with names, numbers, and anecdotes, until they all blend together into something rather soupy. It’s not unpleasant, and it certainly has wonderful moments, but the UMBs conclude that the book fails to transcend the category of good sport reporting. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server!https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU Join us!

John Feinstein’s baseball writing is as sharp as ever, the anecdotes of Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball portraying a desperate but determined subculture of professional baseball. The many characters of Feinstein’s book hunger to make it to the bigs, whether they are past their prime, approaching that point, or beginning to suspect that their prime won’t be good enough for that callup. It’s a heartbreaking and affecting yarn, but does some of the impact fade into a forest of similar stories?

In the second half of Halberstam's nonfiction account of the 1984 sculling Olympic trials, we go to the Olympics, to see how Biglow, Lewis, Wood, et al fare at the world's most famous sports event. 5 major characters each have big stakes, and while the actual events cluster together, Halberstam keeps the reader focused on the drama. The results are predictably mixed, and one wonders if the work these Olympians go through is worth it. Structurally, the second half of the book remains tight, perhaps even tighter than the first half, and all of the loose ends, questions, and promises of the first half are fulfilled in the second half. It's not entirely atisfying, but neither, as we learn, is amateur athletics in a low-glamor sport.

We continue Bagg’s “Revenge of the Jock-Nerds” series (the last series of Season Three!), with David Halberstam’s The Amateurs, which tells the story of four men competing for the single solo sculling spot on the 1984 Olympic team. Halberstam, who usually worked on more popular sports and in bigger political arenas, offers a nuanced glimpse into the small, hermetic, oral world of American rowing, where athletes compete in a sport where “the rewards cannot justify the efforts.”

On October 6th, Dukes and Bagg invite you to join us for the Season 4 Live Draft. We will tape an episode live on a video call, and you can join as our loyal live audience. Drafts are where we choose the next fifteen or so books or movies we'll discuss (nearly a year's worth of episodes). Dukes and Bagg each pitch eachother four series, and then each choose two. We will have doorprizes for EVERYBODY who comes, and you'll have a chance to vote on a Listener's Choice series. To join the video call, RSVP here, and we'll email you the link.

Tim Krabbe's novel is barely a novel. It is a thinly veiled autobiogrpahical essay, with fictional details and composite characters, allowing the author to navigate his story just to one side of the fiction/nonfiction divide. The lads ponder why it does not fall into the "bike porn" genre, and why the images of teeth and glass continually emerge.

The lads wrap up Cixin Liu’s sprawling and massive Three Body Trilogy, building something that somehow seems to transcend traditional literary structures and devices. We look back at how far this particular plot has wandered from whence it came, and both Jesse and Chris are impressed at Liu’s ability to continue adding obstacles and stakes without letting the book fall apart. Still, there is a lot of plot to find a way through—does the grandness of the project match the execution?

The final installment in Cixin Liu’s trilogy is long. And strong. We begin in the “deterrence” era, in which humans and Trisolarans enjoy a truce enforced by mutually ensured destruction. But all things must pass, and when the truce breaks, humanity gazes at the possibility of its own destruction. Death’s End is part interstellar chase, part Cold War allegory and introduces a new anti-villian, Sophon, who is perhaps Liu’s greatest creation. Bagg finds the characters are less realistic humans, and more ideas, but grudgingly acknowledges the ideas themselves are interesting and worth the ride. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server! https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU

The boys carve through the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling, imaginative, and haunting The Dark Forest. Bagg has questions about how much we can trust our author and the characters he uses to make his plot work, while Dukes identifies the fact that the most important “character” in this novel is humanity itself. Regardless of your opinion of this quixotic book, you cannot dispute the ambition of its author—and his ability to transform his imagination into an ever-expanding epic.

The premise of the Dark Forest, that Humanity must make a secret plan stored in our hidden thoughts to defeat an enemy that can spy on our every move, is wonderful. But the lads find the action in the first half a bit tepid, as Cixin Liu builds sets up the chess pieces we expect he’ll start knocking down in the second half of the book. There are some hot spots, and wonderful moments, including a depiction of the best group photo ever taken, but you have to read through a lot of narrative chaff to find htem. Here is the video of a six year old watching Star Wars for the first time with his Dad. Hint, at the end, the kid says “It’s the most amazingest thing I’ve ever saw in my whole entire, whole entire, whole entire, whole entire life.” And here is the Hildebrandt Brothers poster art for Star Wars, using models who were not actually Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill.

The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three Body Problem. The UMBers revisit some of our old friends, like Neal Stephenson’s habit of setting up narrative chessboards for a long time and eventually letting the game unfold, examining if Liu’s narrative setups have plausible payoffs. They also identify some of the “hapless protagonist” effect they’ve seen before in The Diamond Age and The Arrest, and talk about Liu’s claim that his work does not allegorize IRL history and action. Despite some misgivings, Jesse is excited for his third time through the subsequent two books, and Bagg is also looking forward to discovering how the earth responds to the Trisolaran “problem.”

Jesse Dukes offers a quick review of popular science fiction writer John Scalzi's newest novel, "When the Moon Hits Your Eye". While he initially put the book down after reading the first chapter, due to frustration with the absurd premise, on a second read, Dukes found that the book has its charms.

The Three Body Problem begins with an inexplicable series of tragic mysteries, most notably, that physics as we know it has stopped working. Slowly, the reader is given enough clues to start to suspect various causes, although halfway through, we still don’t really know what’s going on. Dukes has read it before, and Bagg has not, so they lads compare notes as to their experience of the creeping awareness of the disturbing truth dawning on the characters.

The boys wrap up their discussion of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and come away somewhat ambivalent: this is clearly a work of importance, imagination, and invention, but it feels…unfocused. We posit that the undeserved press and social pressure clouds what is otherwise an incredible meditation on creation: what are a creator’s responsibilities to their creation, and what effect does the fulfillment (or neglect) of those responsibilities have upon the created?

Friend of the show Justin shares another update, as well as his foray into what he terms Contemporary Victorian Episolary Short Travel Non-Fiction. Justin is paddling a solo canoe (and often carrying the canoe) along the 700 Mile Northern Forest canoe trail, and we are digressing from our regular programming to share his dispatches. We are pleased to include Justin's drawings of canoe sailings rigs including the standard rafted canoe rig. And the author's innovative solo canoe sailing rig. As well as the pdf of his entire account as a downloadable .pdf. BJFR Canoe Sailing NarrativeDownload

We reach Upper Middlebrow education expert Justin Reich on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, at the edge of mobile phone reception. He gives us a dispatch, mid journey, from a rather literary setting. Justin is finishing his sabbatical with nothing but a canoe, a backpack, a couple of paddles, and aluminum pole (for poling up river) and a canoe portage cart. The North Woods in May bring long days, rainy weather, and if you're lucky, few black flies, and reasonable water level. From the Northern Forest Canoe Trail website: The Northern Forest Canoe Trail is a 700-mile water trail from Old Forge, New York to Fort Kent, Maine, that goes through private and public lands. The trail follows traditional travel routes used by Native American, settlers and guides. It is the longest inland water trail in the nation.

Mary Shelley was 18 when she started writing Frankenstein, which many consider the first science fiction novel. Over the next twenty years, she revised the book several times, and the version she left behind remains a remarkable work of imagination. Shelley is amazingly inventive and talented, but the lads find th novel to be hard going, and a slow starter. They wonder at the use of framed narratives, and how long the book takes to give Frankenstein’s creation a voice.

The lads go bananas over Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes mystery, "A Study in Scarlet," published in 1887. We meet the mercurial Sherlock Holmes and his by turns skeptical then credulous biographer, Dr. John H. Watson, late of Afghanistan. The short novella or long short story wastes no time in driving towards the solving of its central mystery, but then makes a strange swerve into the American West and a bout of extended exposition. Chris and Jesse spend a rollicking hour discussing the book and excavating its odd structure. The final verdict? Two pills up.

Bram Stoker arrays his crew of brave companions against what they've finally realized is an ancient un-dead evil. And the author seems to be elling us something about the nature of the human capacity for scientific inquiry, and love. The lads detect a bit of the old "chessboard problem", the name we've given to an author's struggle to create a compelling third act while artfully tieing up all the character arcs and loose ends established in the first acts. But Bram Stoker's inventiveness and lyrical prose keeps the novel highly readable until the thrilling ending, which manages to be poetic, moving, and suspenseful.

Join us Thursday, May 19th at 4pm PDT / 7 PM EDT for a live viewing and taping of Anthony Minghella's 1999 masterpiece, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Dukes and Bagg think of this as the BEST of the many excellent Tom Ripley films. It stars Matt Damon Tom Ripley, and the amazing cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett. This event will be Live on Discord, which is something we've never tried before, so join us as we pioneer a new type of live podcasting event. (We will greet the audience, and then everybody will need to watch the film on their own. We can chat at eachother on Discord while we watch). We'll then broadcast the audio and video of our live taping via Discord, and give all of you the chance to comment and chat at us.

Neither of the lads had read Stoker’s classic gothic novel, published in 1897, and they suspect that many readers are in the same boat. Over 100 years of vampiric pop culture have made Stoker’s masterful compiling of folklore fade into the background, but the book that launched a thousand bites is bracing, inventive, funny, haunting, and innovative. Chris and Jesse talk about atmosphere, forced intimacy, the anxieties of Victorian society, and the grand missed opportunity of Dracula’s cancelled cooking show.

Chris and Jesse watched this movie together nearly 20 years ago, and it made an impression, due to John Malkovich's memorable, creepy, and charming take on Tom Ripley. Director Calvani seems to enjoy making this Ripley seductive, so that the viewer realizes with horror that we kind of like him, and just like poor Jonathan Trevanny, might find ourselves similarly drawn into his schemes. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server!https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU

The lads get all aughty with Roger Spotiswoode’s charming and unthreatening Ripley, Underground, where Tom Ripley is a glib opportunist instead of the darker, unpredictable Ripleys. The result is an entertaining romp that feels a little like going to a Bare Naked Ladies show: you probably won’t go again but it was fun while it lasted. It’s a welcome addition to the Ripley Cinematic Universe, bringing back an air of fantasy to Highsmith’s invention.

UCLA professor Peter Lunenfeld joins us to talk about Robert Altman's neo-noir based on Raymond Chandler's novel. Some reviewers call the film "satirical" but we argue, it's more a riff than a satire. It treats the source material lovingly, even as it updates it to match the 70's zeitgeist. Our guest Peter argues that the elusive Courry Brand cat food is a metaphor for the film, something that is labelled one way, but containing the unexpected.

The American Friend is loosely based on Patricia Highsmith’s third Tom Ripley novel Ripley’s Game. But Wim Wenders plays fast and loose with the source material, borrowing elements of another novel Ripley Underground and referencing Easy Rider, Rebel Without a Cause, and other cinematic forebears. The visuals are beautiful, and even if the plot is a bit puzzling, the lads find the mood of the film compelling. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server! https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU

Chris and Jesse charge into our next group of works, Ripley en Filmes, beginning with René Clement's visually stunning 1960 film Plein Soleil, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Clement casts Alain Dumont as Tom Ripley, Maurice Ronet as Philippe (a renamed Dickie Greenleaf), and Marie Laforêt as Marge. Clement makes some major divergences from Highsmith's plot in some places while hewing closely to it in others, leading to an interesting discussion about directors' responsibility to their source material. The lads are both thirsty for Alain Dumont, but does the plot rise to the level of the film's metaphorical weight?

Our favorite education researcher joins us to talk about Ted Chiang’s collection Exhalation, which includes the story “The Life Cycle of Software Objects” which Chris read from in our earlier Robot Friends show. We discuss several stories in the collection, and marvel at Chiang’s ability to surface the BIG questions by tugging at a small speculation about what our future might hold.

The Lads finish out James S.A. Corey's 2011 novel Leviathan Wakes, a huge success that powered The Expanse, the SyFy and then Amazon Prime space opera. Bagg and Dukes talk about whether or not you can marry noir and space opera effectively, how important the first sentence of a book can be, and whether or not the novel rises to the level of its ambition. Both of the boys prefer Detective Miller's chapters, but understand that, in novels such as these, your main character (James Holden, in this case) might need a little more curb appeal than the characters one deploys to explore...existential questions. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server!https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU Join us!

Leviathan Wakes is cracking good solar system space opera, combined with very strong elements of noir. The lads think that at moments, the prose is reminiscent of Raymond Chandler’s lyrical voice, but wonder if there’s a little too much action for the noir themes to land. Show Notes We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_brow And a Discord server!https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU Join us!

The lads continue to admire China Miéville's genius premise for this novel, but will the second half of the book escape the issues we've seen in the noir and noir-adjacent works the UMBers have read? As Inspector Borlu closes in on the answer to this spiraling whodunit, the boys discuss the choices Miéville makes and whether or not they are to our taste—we're curious to know what YOU think once you've finished the book, too.

We invite podcast buddy Leah Jones from Finding Favorites to follow up on a recommendation she made to Dukes last year: to watch the film M3gan. We thought it would be fun to talk about films and books with robot friends (and enemies) more broadly, and we each make a recommendation. Since we don’t yet have actual robot friends (although according to Silicon Valley, they’ll be here soon) what are we really talking about when we tell stories about robots? Loyal servants? Monsters? Children? We discuss examples of each, and contemplate what makes a good story with robots.

The City and the City has a wholly original premise, and the pleasure of the book comes from the dawning realization of exactly what is going on between the two adjacent cities, Besźel and Ul Quma. China Mieville dribbles out occasional hints and clues, raising the question of whether the book is a murder mystery, or whether, like the characters in the book, it operates in two places at the same time.

The boys hop to it, chum, and talk about Dashiell Hammett's 1929 debut novel Red Harvest. While the socialist connotations of the title never truly materialize ("Communism was a red herring"), leaving the lads scratching their heads, Hammett definitely crafted a new sound and a new genre. Jesse and Chris find the jaunty dialogue compelling, but both speculate as to why audiences of this period seemed to just love lots and lots and lots of plot.

Dukes and Bagg were both a little disappointed with how LONG the second half of The Long Goodbye is, with a rather Byzantine and confusing series of plot machinations that only slightly support the ending. But, as Bagg says, “the craft creeps in” as Chandler continues to write lyrical and insightful passages. Dukes enjoyed the ending, which feels coherent and profound. And even though Marlowe refers to “A Thousand Crimes”, (and describes many of them), we struggle to articulate THE crime that drives this particular story. We have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/upper_middle_browAnd a Discord server! https://discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU

The lads kick off this series of Chris' called "Relativistic Noir" with Raymond Chandler's remarkable 1959 The Long Goodbye. Both Chris and Jesse are rendered somewhat slack-jawed at the sheer audacity—and skill—of the prose and of Chandler's ability to build a world so stylized while still remaining plausible. They wonder, though, if maybe there aren't just a few too many similar cops, and couldn't this have used maybe one more editorial pass? The plot is, at points, as ponderous as the sentences are lively.

Gary Shteyngart’s overtly Chekhovian novel ends in a distinctly non–Chekhovian manner, with hope. However, the hope is dearly earned, as one of the country friends sadly does not survive the second half of the book. The lads wonder if Act Four is a bit padded, and sort out the layers of satire in which Shteyngart wraps what is at heart, a tender story of love, friendship, and forgiveness.

With a small but loyal Zoom audience, Dukes and Bagg propose TWELVE new series, and pick five, including a LISTENER'S CHOICE series. Throughout, they kibbitz, lobby, and respond to chatted questions from the audience. (For people who don't like drama, you can find the list of future works here.) Also, be sure to check out the lads' guest appearance on Big Campaign Stories.

Gary Schteyngart’s 2021 pandemic novel is overtly Chekhovian, and the lads love it. A group of friends and family gather in the Hudson valley during the 2020 pandemic leading to betrayals, love triangles, secrets, lies, but also some joy and camaraderie. We discuss how Schteyngart’s precise portrayal of his characters’ inner lives, and marvel at moments of satirically brilliant prose.

Bagg and Dukes watch Louis Malle's wild 1994 film that takes, as its subject, a rehearsal of Andre Gregory's..."performance" of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. If that sounds convoluted, it is. Gregory and an amazing cast (Julianne Moore, Wallace Shawn, Larry Pine and more) rehearsed the play in a dilapidated theater, inviting a few guests each night to watch what they were working on. Malle's film shoots an entire performance/rehearsal, nesting the theatrical performance in his own film. Yikes.

Anton Chekhov's 1897 play is in many ways even more minimalistic and sad than The Cherry Orchard. Dukes once again struggles to imagine the three dimensions of the story, while recognizing the almost documentary realism of the drama. Bagg finds the pathos of characters struggling for transcendence in the wrong direction heartbreakingly real.

UMB Theater presents Dr. Dukesimov and his old friend Baggya, commiserating about dreary life, and looking forward to the Upper Middlebrow LIVE Draft. That's coming October 10th, at 5pm PDT, and there will be door prizes and a chance to vote on a new Upper Middlebrow series. Watch this space!

The National Theatre production glimmers with an excellent cast, including Zoe Wanamaker and Conleth Hill. Dukes finds that the performances and the direction/translation choices help raise the stakes and steepen the conflict. He wonders if there’s a kind of “oral history” or collective theatrical knowledge of Chekhov that aids live productions, and Bagg suggests that Chekhov’s genius lies in creating a scaffold which great directors and actors flesh out (while acknowledging that having an oral history of prior productions helps A LOT).

The UMBers sit down with a play that Bagg has read a million times and that Dukes is visiting for the first time. The lads discuss what this work is like for a first-timer and then put on their acting shoes to read some dialogue. Dukes wonders if this script is something that only works when the play is staged, and we get some help from a more contemporary pair of scriptwriters.

After Dukes summarizes the plot of Beverly Hills Cop for Bagg, the UMBs get down to business. The second half of The Kite Runner fulfills its promises. Everything is excellent, but again, the lads feel that things are a bit too perfect, and still prefer the rare moments that upset the balance.

Bagg and Dukes haven’t read this 2003 bestseller, and confess to a little snobbishness about a book that is ubiquitous at airport books stores. But…it's really good! Despite being impressed by the novel’s depiction of a childhood event that impacts our protagonist’s entire life, the UMBs wonder if the novel’s narrative physics are a bit TOO perfect.

The UMBers tackle Ray Bradbury’s 1950s classic novella and are impressed by how much influence this book has had on other writers and the intellectual landscape. The lads rattle off at least five or six other works they’ve read that owe Fahrenheit an allusive debt. Both find the prose and dialogue somewhat clunky, but in a role-reversal it’s Dukes this time that thinks Bradbury may have intended the clunkiness for artistic effect, while Bagg is merely triggered by it. Regardless, both agree that this book (and its enduring popularity) are a product of its socio-political moment, when fears of fascism and censorship rippled through American society.

The lads marvel at Margaret Atwood’s delicate prose and “lighter than air” narrative, in which sparse poetic writing conveys an alternative future vividly. But is the ending a bit of a deus ex machina, and if so, is that a problem? Or does that serve to reinforce the ideas at the heart of the book? Dukes and Bagg have a spirited but generally glowing read of Atwood’s 1985 masterwork.