In this Hollywood special, we pre-empt awards season adaptation by reading Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel Klara and the Sun, soon to be a major motion picture. An excellent book, it balances literary simplicity with philosophical inquiry into the nature of humanity in a world of artificial intelligence and robots (sounds unrealistic, that will never happen).

We devoted the entire episode to this discussion, so grab a copy at your local library and read along with us. Or just listen as we reveal all spoilers — but, you know, in a scholarly way.

Works cited this episode:

The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

M3GAN 2.0, dir. Gerard Johnstone

Westworld, created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy

Blade Runner, dir. Ridley Scott

Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Star Wars, dir. George Lucas

The Jetsons, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera

Honeysuckle, Bar Friedman-Tell

Klara and the Sun, dir. Taika Waititi

The Terminator, dir. James Cameron

Thor: Love and Thunder, dir. Taika Waititi

Jojo Rabbit, dir. Taika Waititi

The inimitable Paige Lewis, “poet who wrote a novel,” joins us to discuss their critically lauded and popular-with-this-podcast’s-hosts epic prose poem Canon, as well as their writing processes and Simpsons fanaticism. You don’t want to miss this one, unless you dislike good things.

Then, Mason reviews the late author James Sallis’s final novel Backwater, and our hosts ponder whether it subverts subversive expectations or is just a meandering story of small-town cop life that doesn’t do much of anything, but does it pretty well.

Canon by Paige Lewis is out now.

Backwater by James Sallis is out now.

Works cited this episode:

The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, Sim Simon, and James L. Brooks

The Odyssey, dir. Christopher Nolan

Book of Judges, the Bible

Annie Allen, Gwendolyn Brooks

The Descent of Alette, Alice Notley

Inferno, Dante Aligheri

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis

Rejected, dir. Don Hertzfeld

It’s Such a Beautiful Day, dir. Don Hertzfeld

Peep Show, created by Andrew O’Connor, Jesse Armstrong, and Sam Bain

The Iliad, Homer

Babylon, South Dakota, Tom Lin

Drive, James Sallis

The Killer is Dying, James Sallis

The Departed, dir. Martin Scorsese

Taxi Driver, dir. Martin Scorsese

Goodfellas, dir. Martin Scorsese

Boogie Nights, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

There Will Be Blood, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

One Battle After Another, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon

Crime fiction legend George Pelecanos sat down with us to talk about his latest novel, The Blue Flame, and his approach toward writing for the page and the screen. George’s attention to realism and reflecting the world as it is makes him one of the greats in this genre (even though he killed off so many characters on The Wire).

Then: How dare an expert on The Odyssey (8th Century BCE) have opinions about The Odyssey (2026) that don’t align with those of fans of The Odyssey (2026). We critique the critics criticizing a critic.

The Blue Flame is out now.

Works cited this episode:

Hard Revolution, George Pelecanos

Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett

Yojimbo, dir. Akira Kurosawa

A Fistful of Dollars, dir. Sergio Leone

Miller’s Crossing, dir. The Coen Brothers

Last Man Standing, dir. Walter Hill

The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett

The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett

“Honaloochie Bookie,” Mott the Hoople

“Cleaning up,” S1E12, The Wire, created by David Simon

“Middle Ground,” S3E11, The Wire, created by David Simon

Treme, created by David Simon

Creed, dir. Ryan Coogler

The Odyssey, Homer

The Odyssey, dir. Christopher Nolan

“An Uncomplicated Man,” Emily Wilson, London Review of Books

“Kicking up Cosmic Dust,” A.O. Scott, New York Times

O Brother, Where Art Thou, dir. The Coen Brothers

Jurassic Park, dir. Steven Spielberg

Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates

Predator Badlands, dir. Dan Trachtenberg

Interview with the Vampire, dir. Neil Jordan

Circe, Madeline Miller

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Interstellar, dir. Christopher Nolan