Welcome to Literary Friction. I'm Carrie Plitt, here as always with my co-host Octavia Bright.

Hello, dear Octavia Bright. How are you?

Hi, my darling Carrie. I am good. I'm very good. I'm looking at an extremely luscious, actually slightly alarmingly enormous plant that's growing outside my living room window that I need to

cut back but at the moment it's making me feel like I'm in Little Shop of Horrors. Do you remember that movie? Oh yeah, the plant. Exactly. It eats people. That eats people. So I'm kind of, I'm looking at it. It's looking at me. Is it thinking that I'm dinner? I think maybe it is. I'm kind of hungry. That's how I am. How are you?

I'm good. I'm going to hungry. That's how I am. How are you?

I'm good. I'm going to immediately listen to the little Shop of Horror soundtrack as soon as we hang up this call.

You've really inspired me. It's a banger. It is a banger. It's such a banger. And weirdly, maybe this is extremely boring. But I got a line from it stuck in my head the other day, but I couldn't remember

what musical it was from. And you mentioning Little Shop of Horace has made me realize that it was

that musical. Happy to serve. I'm really great. I feel like I've solved a mystery inside of my head.

So, hi.

My gift to you, baby.

But on to the show.

Today we're thrilled to welcome the American writer Curtis Sondfeld to talk about her new novel, Romantic Comedy.

This is a book narrated by late-night comedy TV writer Sally, who thinks she's over romance. But then a pop icon with a

reputation for exclusively dating models is the guest host on her show. And he might upend all of her

expectations. I should also say, I was flying solo for the interview. Octavia was not well. And so it's

me talking to Curtis, but then Octavia's

here for the rest of the show, which is very exciting. And Curtis's book offered us the perfect

opportunity to have a wider discussion about the genre of romantic comedy, from Pride and Prejudice

to De- Transition Baby. We'll be thinking about how rom-coms can be a source of great pleasure, fun, and comfort,

but also asking whether they will always be mired in patriarchal and heteronormative structures.

Thanks, babe.

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