Bonus: Disability Humor & Creating in Community with Steven Verdile
Julia discusses disability, comedy, creativity, and treating people like people with Steven Verdile, the founder of the disability satire publication The Squeaky Wheel.
123 Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield — Monsters of the Deep Subconscious
Julia and Victoria learn what the word “flannel” means in British English and formulate their own theories about what happened to a stranded deep-sea researcher in the devastatingly beautiful novel Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.
122 How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu — Throw the Baby
Julia and Victoria conclude that How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a very good book–Julia is just sad.
121 Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan — Gossip and the Grotesque
Julia and Victoria grapple with the grotesque narrative choices in Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, translated by Chi-young Kim. Julia incorrectly uses the word “epigraph” when she means “epitaph” approximately 25 times.
120 Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule & Ryan Browne — What Would You Wish For?
Julia and Victoria try to decipher the rules of Eight Billion Genies, the newest comic book series from Charles Soule and Ryan Browne, because Julia likes rules. They also learn about how one random French guy playing fast and loose with a One Thousand and One Nights translation made up most of what the “Western” world “knows” about “genies.” Tale as old as time.
119 The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber & David Wengrow— People Have Always Been People
Julia and Victoria are surprised to find hope and belonging in a new story of humanity with The Dawn of Everything by “the Davids” (Graeber and Wengrow), the anthropological clapback to Sapiens by Harrari.