One has to imagine that one is, one has been canceled.

One will be canceled.

That's the nature of mortality.

But you have to, you really have to accept that one has to accept one's imperfections.

And imperfections, it's really kind of a, the word doesn't really make sense because there is no perfection in terms of human behavior.

And in all of our lives, we can find areas, sometimes vast, sometimes less accessible, of shame or disappointment

or bad acts. You know, this is the nature of being human. So I don't particularly, I, you know,

I've been canceled already in my head, you know, and that's how

I, that's, that's why I write, that's what the catharsis has always been for me, is to write

about the most vile imagining, because as I said earlier, it's my birthright as a human

being to throw light on dark corners, you know.

Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Down. My guest this week is novelist and

screenwriter Bruce Wagner.

He's the author of 12 novels and the creator of the television series Wild Palms,

among other Hollywood credits. Bruce was a beloved, if not exactly, commercial literary figure

for decades, especially in his home city of Los Angeles. His most recent novel, The Marvel Universe,

was enthusiastically acquired by a small press until he says the publisher objected to certain

problematic language, specifically the word fat, which a character uses to describe herself.

This led to Bruce's decision to release the book into the public domain by making

it available on his website for free. In this conversation, he talks about how this differs from

self-publishing, how sensitivity readers are controlling standards and practices in so much of the

culture now, and what this means for artists who are drawn to the more monstrous qualities

...