Ep. 295 Severance by Ling Ma -- The Stacks Book Club (Mitchell S. Jackson)
The Stacks
Traci Thomas
4.9 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2023
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Author Mitchell S. Jackson returns for our book club discussion of Ling Ma's post-apocalyptic novel Severance. On this episode we try to piece together the story's timeline, unpack the ending, and we cast the TV show adaptation. We also discuss quote marks, capitalism, and the role of religion throughout the novel.
There are spoilers on this episode.
Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our December book club pick will be.
You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' website:
https://thestackspodcast.com/2023/11/29/ep-295-severance
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Transcript
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| 0:13.6 | Welcome to the Stax, a podcast about books and the people who read them. I'm your host Tracy Thomas and today is the Stacks Book Club Day. That's right we are joined again by |
| 0:18.2 | Pulitzer Prize winner and author Mitchell S Jackson. We were talking about the 2018 post-apocalyptic pandemic novel |
| 0:27.9 | Severance by Ling Ma. |
| 0:30.8 | The book follows Candice Chen before and after an incurable infection gradually wipes out all of civilization |
| 0:37.5 | and we dive into the similarities between this book and COVID, the critique of capitalism, and that ending. Holy cow! |
| 0:47.0 | All right y'all, there are spoilers on today's episode, so if you haven't read the book, |
| 0:51.5 | pause now, read the book, come back and listen. |
| 0:54.5 | At the end of today's episode, I will announce our December Book Club pick, so make sure you listen all the way to the end |
| 1:00.8 | to find out what book we will be ending 2023 with. |
| 1:04.0 | Quick reminder, everything we talk about on each episode of the Stacks can be found in the |
| 1:08.1 | link in the show notes. If you love this show and you want inside access to it, |
| 1:12.1 | head to Patreon.com slash the Stacks and join the Stacks |
| 1:16.0 | pack. That's our community of bookish people who have extremely good taste. If I do say so myself, |
| 1:21.2 | I mean hello, they do like this podcast, so they're geniuses. |
| 1:24.8 | It's only $5 a month to join and you earn perks like access to our discord channel, |
| 1:29.2 | our virtual monthly book club meetups, bonus episodes, and more. |
| 1:33.5 | Plus, if you're a member of the Sex Pack |
| 1:35.2 | at the end of this year, |
| 1:36.5 | you will get access to my extremely detailed |
| 1:39.7 | and fantastic and perfect amazing reading tracker. |
| 1:43.5 | So yes, go to Patreon.com slash the Stacks |
| 1:45.8 | and join the Stacks pack. |
... |
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