Back on the ‘pod this week is Naomi Kanakia, author of the just released novel The Default World, which recently earned a glowing review from
on his Substack.The Default World is actually the second novel that Naomi has published this year. Her YA novel Just Happy to Be Here came out in January. She’s also at work on a non-fiction book, under contract with Princeton University Press, provisionally titled What's So Great About the Great Books, which make the case that the great books have a lot to offer to left wing people and to racial, gender, and sexual minorities.
Naomi and I talk about approximately none of that. Instead we talk about Vekhi, a 1909 collection of essays, from ex- and never-Marxist Russian intellectuals, written and collected in the aftermath of the failed 1905 revolution.
But really we talk about
, the dissident Black liberal writer, and whether he’s a brave articulator of the world as he sees it (my position) or a rather craven opportunist (Naomi’s position), and then a whole bunch of other things that utterly betray my stated mission to avoid culture war bullshit. These topics include: internecine battles in the trans woman world, why Naomi and I try (and fail) to stay out of bullshit culture war discussions, why we may go too easy on the right because we don’t really expect much from them, why everyone is so angry, and how all we really need is love.Reading list for this episode:
Vekhi, by various early 20th century Russians
Black and Blue and Blond, by Thomas Chatterton Williams
Sell Out With Me, or: Standing Athwart the Herd of Independent Minds