two month review – Three Percent

TMR 18.3: “Why This Eternal Escaping?” [Ann Quin]

Chad Post — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 15:03:39 +0000

Dead dummies, drowned tramps, resolving the Oedipal complex, the forever incompleteness of the number “3,” sex, the sea, slapstick comedy, irony, competing desires of domesticity versus the desire to escape, the beautiful ending and the reverse coda, and much more is discussed on this episode covering the whole of Ann Quin’s ��.��

Now Chad and Brian move on to Quin’s second novel,��Three, which came out in 1969 and, in a way, begins right where we left off, opening�� “with the disappearance at sea, possibly suicide, of a young woman, identified only as S.” You can get the book via , , , or This is the book that got Chad completely hooked on Quin, so read along and tune in!

This week’s music is “” by Superchunk.

You can watch live on YouTube at 4pm ET on Wednesday, November 9th. (Reading schedule can be found here.) And you can find all previous seasons of TMR on our .

And you can support us at and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc.

��Ǳ��Ƿ��and��for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

All of Ann Quin’s books are available through , or at better bookstores everywhere. Be sure to order Brian’s book, , which is available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions.

TMR 18.1: Who Was Ann Quin?

Chad Post — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 11:55:59 +0000

The eighteenth season of the Two Month Review is all about Ann Quin’s books—all four novels and her collected stories and fragments—and starts off with an overview of who she was, the context of experimental British writing in the 1960s, how/why Quin has been underappreciated, some info on supplementary critical materials, and much more.

This week’s music is “” by twen.

You can watch live on YouTube at 4pm ET on Wednesday, November 2nd. (Reading schedule can be found here.) And you can find all previous seasons of TMR on our .

And you can support us at and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc.

��Ǳ��Ƿ��and��for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

All of Ann Quin’s books are available through , or at better bookstores everywhere. Be sure to order Brian’s book, , which is available at better bookstores everywhere thanks to BOA Editions.

The large image associated with this post comes from��with credit to Oswald Jones for this photo from the Larry Goodall Collection.

TMR Season Thirteen: “Ada, or Ardor” by Vladimir Nabokov

Chad Post — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 14:00:11 +0000

The public has spoken, and the next book to be featured in the Two Month Review is��by Vladimir Nabokov!

Which is kind of perfect. We follow the thread of��Anna Karenina��from��The Book of Anna��by Carmen Boullosa to this novel, originally written in 1969, which opens:

“All happy families are more or less dissimilar, all unhappy ones are more or less alike,” says a great Russian writer in the beginning of a famous novel (Anna Arkadievitch Karenina, transfigured into English by R. G. Stonelower, Mount Tabor Ltd., 1880). That pronouncement has little if any relation to the story to be unfolded now, a family chronicle, the first part of which is, perhaps, closer to another Tolstoy work,��Destivo i Otrochestvo��(Childhood and Fatherland, Pontius Press, 1858).

As is pointed out in the “Notes from Vivian Darkbloom” (an anagram for Vladimir Nabokov for anyone not in the know), this is an inversion of the opening line of��Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” And, as you can see in Vivian Darkbloom’s note, that’s just the beginning of the fun Nabokov is having here:

pg. 3. All happy families etc.:�� mistranslations of Russian classics are ridiculed here. The opening sentence of Tolstoy’s novel is turned inside out and Anna Arkadievna’s patronymic given an absurd masculine ending, while and incorrect feminine one is added to her surname. “Mount Tabor” and “Pontius” allude to the transfigurations (Mr. G. Steiner’s term, I believe) and betrayals to which great texts are subjected by pretentious and ignorant versionists.

And we’re off! But off to what exactly? Vintage’s jacket copy is almost cryptic in its elusiveness:

Published two weeks after his seventieth birthday,��Ada, or Ardor is one of Nabokov’s greatest masterpieces, the glorious culmination of his career as a novelist. It tells a love story troubled by incest. But more: it is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue. Ada, or Ardor��is no less than the supreme work of an imagination at white heat.

Not terribly helpful, except for the trigger warning re incest . . . The original�� provides both a bit more info, and a source for that jacket copy:

“Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle” (its full title) spans 100 years. It is a love story, an erotic masterpiece, a philosophical investigation into the nature of time. Almost twice as long as any previous Nabokov novel, its rich and variegated prose moves from the darkest to the lightest of sonorities as Nabokov sensually evokes the widest range of delights. Nabokov the lepidopterist once said that he was “born a landscape painter,” and he has never “painted” more luminous landscapes than in “Ada.” It is an extraordinarily visual book, teeming with allusions to painters and paintings, and many scenes are veritable��tableaux vivants��of works ranging from Beardsley’s illustrations for “Lysistrata” to the idyllic landscapes of Monet and Prendergast. As the family chronicle to end all such chronicles, “Ada” is a kind of museum of the novel, and it employs parody to rehearse its own history.

More specifically, “Ada” is presented as the memoir of Dr. Ivan (Van) Veen, psychologist, professor of philosophy and student of time, who chronicles his life-long love for Ada Veen. The story of the affluent and ingrown Veen family is not a simple one. The novel’s first three chapters are difficult reading and the narrator himself addresses remarks to “the reader.” Two first cousins, “Demon” and Dan Veen, marry twin sisters, Aqua and Marina. On the prefatory Family Tree it appears that Aqua and Demon have produced Van (b. 1870) and that Ada (b. 1872) is the child of Dan and Marina. In fact, however, Van and Ada are the result of Demon and Marina’s continuing affair.

More recently (uh, a decade ago), Garth Risk Hallberg wrote about it for��:

Ada’s greatest puzzle, in all senses, is its setting. The opening line – a misquotation from “Anna Arkadievitch Karenina” – signals that the world of this novel will be a somewhat garbled translation of our own: an “anti-Terra.” In place of��Borges, Anti-Terra has Osberg. In place of French Canadians, it has Russian Estotians. It is sometimes called Demonia. “Our demons,” we are told, “are noble iridescent creatures with translucent talons and mightily beating wings; but in the eighteen-sixties the New Believers urged one to imagine a sphere where our splendid friends had been utterly degraded, had become nothing but vicious monsters, disgusting devils.” In short, Nabokov has thrown us into the deep end, and expects us to stitch our own life preservers.

Doing so means reconstructing the history and geography not only of anti-Terra, but also of “Terra” – the mythical “sphere” alluded to above. This mirror-world turns out to be, from our standpoint, nearer to reality, but from the perspective of of anti-Terra, as far-out as Zembla. Who but those wacky New Believers could possibly credit the existence of Athaulf the Future, “a fair-haired giant in a natty uniform…in the act of transforming a gingerbread Germany into a great country?” [. . .]

Aesthetically, intellectually, and even morally, this is a Difficult Book par excellence. It demands a lover’s patience.

Excellent. Sigh. I have a feeling this will end up being the most challenging book we’ve done to date, partially because Nabokov is always four steps ahead of his readers, but also because there are a lot of experts out there who love this book, and we’re just two guys of middling intelligence . . . So if you are��an expert (or even if you’re not!) and would like to come on to talk about this book—or Nabokov in general—hit me up. Here’s the reading schedule:

September 9: Part I, Chapters 1-9 (pgs 1-60)

September 16: Part I, Chapters 10-19 (pgs 61-122)

September 23: Part I, Chapters 20-29 (pgs 123-180)

September 30: Part I, Chapters 30-37 (pgs 181-235)

October 7: Part I, Chapters 38-40 (pgs 236-290)

October 14: Part I, Chapters 41-43; Part II, Chapters 1-2 (pgs 291-346)

October 28: Part II, Chapters 3-6 (pgs 347-395)

November 4: Part II, Chapters 7-11 (pgs 396-446)

November 11: Part III, Chapters 1-6 (pgs 447-501)

November 18: Part III, Chapters 7-8 (pgs 502-532)

November 25: Parts IV & V (pgs 533-589)

December 2:��Ada��Scholarship

Two Month Review #7.9: Radiant Terminus (Chapters 39-49/END)

Chad Post — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 20:00:43 +0000

Chad and Brian finish off��Radiant Terminus and talk about possible interpretation of the ending, whether anyone came out of this book OK, the balance between humor and horror, written vs. oral culture, possible readings or approaches to the novel, and a desire for a “Post-Exotic” journal.

They also revisit Volodine’s two-part series, “” from The New Inquiry, and mention McKenzie Wark’s “.”

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our the day before they’re released in podcast form.

Season Eight will launch in mid-April (details TK) and will focus on Sjón’s��. Get your copy now!

Follow , and for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season’s music is all from��Mother Earth’s Plantasia��by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear “A Mellow Mood for Maidenhair.”

Two Month Review #7.8: Radiant Terminus (Chapters 27-38)

Chad Post — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 12:30:35 +0000

This is a jam-packed episode as Rachel Crawford joins Brian and Chad to talk about Kronauer’s “trial,” Hannko and Samiya in the Taiga, the lasting impact of PTSD, the post-post-apocalyptic world, Russian literature and French minimalism, New Jersey, and more. This is the penultimate episode of season seven, and sets up a lot of things to talk about next week, including these by Volodine.

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, March 20.

Follow , and for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season’s music is all from��Mother Earth’s Plantasia��by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear “You Don’t Have to Walk a Begonia.”

Two Month Review #7.7: Radiant Terminus (Chapters 20-26)

Chad Post — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 12:30:17 +0000

Chad and Brian go it alone through Kronauer’s “night of amok” as he attempt to murder Solovyei for his myriad crimes. Then they enter into part four of the book, “Taiga,” which is a collection of “narracts” set some seven hundred (or a thousand?) years in the future. Hannko is recreating the feminist post-exotic texts from before, along with her dad’s crazy ramblings; Kronauer is living in oil, suffering the thousand-plus year punishment Solovyei promised him. Plus, Chad had another Volodine inspired dream . . . as did Brian!

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, March 13.

Follow ��and��, and for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season’s music is all from��Mother Earth’s Plantasia��by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear “Swingin’ Spathiphyllums.”

Two Month Review #7.6: Radiant Terminus (Chapters 17-19)

Chad Post — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 13:30:43 +0000

With just Chad and Brian on this week’s episode, the show turns almost full superhero. We get Chad’s weirdly specific—and unnerving—Volodine-influenced dream. We get to see Samiya Schmidt transform into a raging version of Captain Marvel/Banshee. We get to see Kronauer assume his role as the one chosen to take down Solovyei. Brian and Chad also talk about the influence of language and ideologies on the characters, “cock’s language” and “to rut,” and speculate about just who��is��dreaming the dreamer.

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, March 5.

Follow ��and��, and for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season’s music is all from��Mother Earth’s Plantasia��by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear “Rhapsody in Green.”

Two Month Review #7.5: Radiant Terminus (Chapters 14-16)

Chad Post — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:00:19 +0000

Tobias Carroll (Transitory,��Reel) joins Chad and Brian to talk about the latest installment of��Radiant Terminus. These three chapters get��wild, as Schulhoff (who mysteriously disappeared shortly after his marriage to Hannko, Solovyei’s daughter) returns and tries to get Ilyushenko to kill him. And then the never-ending train finds Radiant Terminus and Solovyei launches a poetic attack . . . They also talk about the numbers in the book, angels, Chad’s dreams of suing the government, and much more.

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, February 20.

Follow ��, and ��for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season’s music is all from��Mother Earth’s Plantasia��by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear “Concerto For Philodendron & Pothos.”

Two Month Review #7.4: Radiant Terminus (Chapters 9-13)

Chad Post — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 12:30:31 +0000

Rhett McNeil joins Chad Post and pinch-hitter Kaija Straumanis to talk about the first half of part two of��Radiant Terminus, “Ode to the Camps.” From recounting Chad’s latest Volodine-inflected dream to a discussion of the ways various ideologies (fairy tales, anarcho-capitalism, Marxism-Leninism) play out in the novel, to the connection between these ideologies and male violence and the way in which the characters are almost like shadows in the novel, this is a wide-ranging, very dialed in episode. As always, there is laughter and a lengthy recap, but it also goes very deep into the novel and Volodine’s overall game.

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, February 20.

Follow ��, , and ,��for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season’s music is all from��Mother Earth’s Plantasia��by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear “Ode to an African Violet.”

Two Month Review #7.3: Radiant Terminus (Chapters 4-8)

Chad Post — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 12:30:53 +0000

This week, former TMR guest Rachel Cardasco returns to talk about speculative fiction in translation, various allegories for��Radiant Terminus��(current political climate,��The Tempest,��The Bible), who dreams the dreamer, the patriarchy and Maria Kwoll’s feminist post-exotic texts, steampunk technology, spider dreams, and much more. This is the college course you wish you’d taken–fun and smart and funny all at once,��and��featuring a genuinely interesting book. With a series of detailed recaps and call backs to earlier chapters, you can enjoy this without having read a page of Volodine. And should.

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, February 13

Follow ��, and ,��for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season’s music is all from��Mother Earth’s Plantasia��by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear “Baby’s Tears Blues.”