cold war – Jacke Wilson

April 18, 2022

The History of Literature #389 – Thomas Pynchon (with Antoine Wilson)

“A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.” Such is the opening of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), the novel that won the National Book Award but repulsed the Pulitzer Prize Committee. Pynchon’s special blend of paranoia and postmodernism made him one of the hallmark authors Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature

books, cold war, Literature, Podcast

September 30, 2020

The History of Literature #243 – Keeping Secrets! Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, and the CIA (with Lara Prescott)

Author Lara Prescott joins Jacke to talk about her novel The Secrets We Kept, which is based on the incredible but true story of the CIA’s efforts to use a novel (Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago) as part of its Cold War battle against the Soviet Union. LARA PRESCOTT is the author of The Secrets We Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

boris pasternak, cia, cold war, doctor zhivago, Literature, olga ivinskaya, russian novels, Tolstoy

May 24, 2018

The History of Literature #141 – Kurt Vonnegut (with Mike Palindrome)

http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL2248778305.mp3 “The year was 2081,” the story begins, “and everyone was finally equal.” In this episode of the History of Literature, Jacke and Mike take a look at Kurt Vonnegut’s classic short story, “Harrison Bergeron.” In this 1961 story, Vonnegut imagines a world of the perfectly average, where no one is allowed to be Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

cold war, harrison bergeron, Science fiction, Short Stories, vonnegut

January 18, 2017

History of Literature #76 – Darkness and the Power of Literature: News from North Korea (with Terry Hong)

For 70 years, the people of North Korea have lived through a totalitarian nightmare – and those of us in the outside world have had little access to their experience. How have generations of oppression and terror affected the psychology of everyday people? How do they feel about their situation? What are their hopes? What are Continue reading

Arts, books, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

bandi, cold war, dissident literature, kim jong-il, north korea, the accusation, totalitarian