Episode 244 — Hilton Als

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.8 • 554 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2014

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hilton Als is the guest. His latest book, White Girls, is now available from McSweeney's—and it has just been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Junot Díaz raves "I read Als not only because he is utterly extraordinary, which he is, but for the reason one is often drawn to the best writers—because one has a sense that one’s life might depend on them. White Girls is a book, a dream, an enemy, a friend, and, yes, the read of the year." And John Jeremiah Sullivan says "Hilton Als’s White Girls...is a leap forward not merely for Als as a writer but for the peculiar American genre of culture-crit-as-autobiography. Its bravery lies in a set refusal to allow itself all sorts of illusions—about race, about sex, about American art—and the subtlety of its thinking is wedded maypole-fashion to a real confessional lyricism [...] Als taught me that I have a lot of white girl in me, too, and so does he. And so do you, is where it gets interesting. If you think that sounds like another blurb-job or post-postmodern twaddle, I defy you to read this book and come away with a mind unchanged." Monologue topics: drought, fire, climate change, the (likely) dystopian future, Finland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:10.1	You are not alone.
1:12.6	You have found other people.
1:16.0	You and I have a friend in common.
1:18.5	Every stupid thing that a writer could do I've done.
1:21.3	I think it's really beautiful.
1:23.0	Jesus, they did what I struggle, you know?
1:25.3	It was incredible.
1:26.5	You know, it was like your head exploded, seeing what was really there. And now here's your host, Brad Listy. Just one person at just one time. All right, folks, here we go again. This is it. This is other people. This is invisible information. This requires some, but not all of your attention. How are you today? Thanks for listening. I'm Brad Listy. I'm
	...

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