Send us Fan Mail

This month, the fine folks at Just In Case We Die post the first episode in a series of discussions in which they will dissect a difficult novel that has baffled readers, delighted conspiracy theorists, exhausted English majors, and earned its place among the most intimidating masterpieces in American literature: Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

Published in 1973, this mammoth of a novel throws readers right smack dab into the chaos of World War II, where rockets fall from the sky, shadowy organizations pull the strings, paranoia is practically a survival skill, and the line between genius and complete madness gets thinner with every page. At the center of it all is Tyrone Slothrop, an American lieutenant whose bizarre connection to German V-2 rocket strikes sends him spiraling into a labyrinth of sex, science, technology, corporate power, and conspiracies that may—or may not—make sense.
And that’s the thing about Gravity’s Rainbow: just when you think you’ve figured out what Pynchon is doing, he pulls the rug out from under you, hands you a banana, and disappears into a fog of paranoia and obscure pop-culture references.

Aaron is a self-avowed expert. Rebecca’s been trying to finish this novel for years. Rodney is just glad that he doesn’t have to read The Recognitions again.

Send us Fan Mail

It’s October!

Everyone at Just In Case We Die firmly believes that October is the best month of the year. It’s not too hot. It’s not too cold. The leaves are changing colors. Halloween is almost here!

Halloween is the best time of year to read scary stories. No one writes better scary stories than master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. Mr. Poe has three entries on our curated list of 1,318 novels, a fact that is only irritating because Edgar Allan Poe didn’t write novels. He wrote short stories and giving him three slots on a list of novels took up spaces that could have been used for actual, you know, novels. Novels such as Lonesome Dove. Or Dune. Or Fahrenheit 451.

This month’s discussion centers around Edgar Allan Poe. His mysterious death, three of his best stories, and in-depth explanations as to why every member of the Just In Case We Die cast loves his terrifying works.

Send us Fan Mail

In July, the random generator drew #768, which corresponded to a book entitled Max Havelaar. This book was written by an author named Multituli. No one even remotely connected to this podcast had ever heard of either this book or this writer, so some research ensued. As it turns out, Max Havelaar is an 1860 anticolonial work of satire that exposed the brutal exploitation of Javanese coffee farmers in the Dutch East Indies.

Sounds boring, right?

Well, Aaron sure thought so, so he vetoed the novel, swapping it out for a beloved horror novel from his list of veto choices. The selection? We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Chronicling the exploits of a troubled family years after most of them had been murdered, this novel is a well-done exercise in psychological what-the-hell-just-happened?

It’s one of Aaron’s favorite novels. Will Rebecca and Rodney like it, too?