The Podcast for Social Research, Episode 13: Poetic Experiments (Coste Lewis and Nelson)
The thirteenth episode of the Podcast for Social Research considers a recent work of poetry by Robin Coste Lewis (Voyage of the Sable Venus) and a recent work of poetic, theoretical memoir by Maggie Nelson (The Argonauts)—both of which deploy the metaphor of travel by ship. Rebecca and Yanyi converse about narrative and fragmentation in contemporary poetry, Coste Lewis’s subversive genealogy of representations of the black female body, theories of voice and self, conceptual writing, and Nelson’s meditations on queer family-making and love.
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Notations
Rebecca’s note: I describe Locke as an eighteenth-century philosopher. To to be strictly accurate, I should have called him a philosopher of the long eighteenth century since he produced his major philosophical works in the seventeenth century and the last years of his life coincide with just the first four years of the 1700s. But it’s fair to call him an eighteenth-century philosopher in spirit, given that the spirit in question is the spirit of the Enlightenment (and especially the spectral reach of classical liberalism). We’re still grappling with that vexatious ghost, which spills over the casing of the century marker in both directions. Call it a vicious case of Enlightenment hangover with no regard for the arrow of time.
Technical Details: Recorded on April 23rd, 2016 with a Studio Projects B1, a Shure SM-58, a SONY-PCM-M10, a Behringer mixer, and several pots of hojicha. This episode of the Podcast for Social Research was edited by Susan Lee.