In this episode, Rosie and Georgie discuss Sterling Karat Gold (Peninsula Press, 2021), the latest novel by Isabel Waidner. At its centre is the sweet and thoughtful Sterling, a young, queer migrant living in contemporary London as a cleaner and performer. As we follow the story of Sterling and their friend's persecution by the state, and their bold methods of resistance, a surreal and whirlwind tale involving footballers, time travel, and bullfighters unfolds.

Listen to us talk about the novel’s rich web of visual and textual references and its whip-smart prose, and how Waidner offers humour, creativity and joy as a counter to the sinister machinations of the ruling classes. We finish with a highly irrelevant, meandering conversation about UK Love Island 2022 (ITV), about three months too late…no hot takes here.

Links

Follow us on Instagram:

@barefruitspodcast

Buy Sterling Karat Gold: https://peninsulapress.co.uk/products/sterling-karat-gold

Mentions

Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925, Verlag Die Schmiede)

Camille Roy, Honey Mine. Eds. Lauren Levin & Eric Smeathen (2017, Nightboat Books)

The Justin Campaign: http://justincampaign.blogspot.com/

Interview with Waidner in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/19/isabel-waidner-different-doesnt-need-to-be-scary-it-can-be-fun

The Beach Boys, Smiley Smile (1967, Brother Records)

Hieronymous Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1503-1515

Fantastic Toiles: https://www.instagram.com/fantastictoiles/?hl=en

The Crucifixion of Christ, Anonymous, 1350

Love Island (2022, ITV

In this episode, Rosie and Georgie discuss Honey Mine (eds. Lauren Levin & Eric Sneathen, Nightboat Books, 2021), a collection of coming-of-age stories by lesbian writer Camille Roy. Stacking together memoir, fiction, essay, pulp techniques, and lyrical prose, Roy tells a multifaceted tale of growing up working-class and lesbian in 1980s(ish) midwest America. Throughout the collection, we encounter a young Camille navigating life on the fringes of society alongside a vast web of unusual characters. It’s a beautiful and challenging book, full of incredible wisdoms on experimental writing and form, and we are excited to share our thoughts with you all!

Hear us discuss New Narrative writing, getting lost in Roy’s delicious prose, lesbian sexuality in writing, ETC. before ending with some nonsensical chatter about the TV show Sex, Love and Goop (Netflix, 2021). Yeah, you guessed it, we fell for Gwyneth Paltrow... listen to us babble about her latest media ploy with her controversial wellness brand, Goop.

Content warning for sexual assault/trauma: 34.53 - 39.45 mins

Links

Follow us on Instagram: @bare_fruits_podcast

Buy Honey Mine:

https://nightboat.org/book/honey-mine/

https://londonbookarts.org/product/honey-mine-by-camille-roy/

Mentions

Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian eds., Writers Who Love Too Much: New Narrative Writing 1977-1997 (2017, Nightboat Books)

https://nightboat.org/book/writers-who-love-too-much/

Lydia Davis, Essays One, Fragmentary or Unfinished (2019, Macmillan)

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374148850

Ann Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality and Lesbian Public Cultures (2003, Duke University Press) - We didn’t mention the full title in the show, sorry!

https://arena-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/10659431/1b1ea4268916e84c9de6f3ad8b36aee3.pdf?1612836647

Sex, Love and Goop (2021, Netflix)

In this episode, Rosie and Georgie chat about Jackie Ess’s debut novel Darryl, which came out with Clash Books in 2021. Darryl is about a man called Darryl Cook, a forty-something white guy who lives off his inheritance with his wife in Oregon, and proudly identifies as a cuck. Throughout the novel, we follow Darryl’s earnest and unfiltered musings through a succession of succinct diary-like entries. As the story evolves, so does he, and through his encounters with others in the cuckolding lifestyle, Darryl embarks on a turbulent journey of both self-discovery and self-destruction.

In the episode, we discuss the voice of Darryl, incels, Darryl's masochistic tendencies, and his relationship to his masculinity, sexuality and gender, before ending with a segment on TV, where we gossip about the latest season of the L Word: Generation Q.

Links

Follow us on Instagram: @bare_fruits_podcast

Buy Darryl: https://www.clashbooks.com/new-products-2/jackie-ess-darryl-preorder

Mentions

Donald Winicott, ‘Fear of Breakdown’ (1974, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis) https://icpla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Ogden-T.H.-2014-Fear-of-Breakdown-Int.-Jour-of-Psych.pdf

Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (2016, Graywolf Press) https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/argonauts

Andrea Long Chu, Females (2020, Verso) https://www.versobooks.com/books/3061-females

Amia Srinivasan, The Right To Sex (2021, Bloomsbury) https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/right-to-sex-9781526612533/

David Futrelle, ‘Incels love to call others “cucks,” but some of them are now claiming the label for themselves’, on We Hunted The Mammoth (2020) https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2020/01/19/incels-love-to-call-others-cucks-but-some-of-them-are-now-claiming-the-label-for-themselves/

Imogen Binnie, Nevada (2013, Topside Press) – NOT Casey Plett as referenced in the episode! https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/imogen-binnie/nevada/9781529092066