Andrew Limbong
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Hey, what's up?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Favorite articles?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean... Okay, okay. All right. I take it back. All right, all right, all right. Favorite articles. Favorite articles.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I think the books that I've been gravitating towards are about writing and the power of like storytelling and reading. And I mean that in a not kind of, you know, when like at the Oscars that they always award the movies about movies. Yes, yes. And it's like, oh, wow, the artist. Cool, guys. Great, great job.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
A lot of writers have been reckoning with the power of writing in a very serious way, really kind of trying to understand what it means to have this power. The book that everyone's talking about this year is James by Percival Everett, who, if I'm not mistaken, is Dancy Senna's partner?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Oh, wow. It's a power couple, eh?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
James, for listeners who don't know, it is a retelling of Huck Finn through the point of view of Jim, his friend escaping slavery. And like most Everett books, it starts off being one thing, but is just kind of sneakily about another thing. And this book, there's a joke that runs throughout the whole novel, if we can call it a joke or like a frame, that all the black characters can speak about.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
let's call it like the Queen's English. And then they hide it from all the white characters in a very kind of a really funny, hilarious way. And there's also a plot thread that involves Jim knowing how to write and also hiding that fact from other people. Stuff about writing kind of unfurls later on in the novel.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
And it's really powerful stuff that I think it's interesting that he's writing about it. Also, in what I think is his most accessible novel, like my boy goes kind of wild sometimes. Like I read Dr. No, there's like all math jokes.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Yeah, but I think this is his most straightforward novel yet. And even in this one, he finds a way to put like a little twist on it. And, you know, just talking about the power of writing. And I think you see that in like a lot of the big nonfiction too. You know, the Ta-Nehisi Coates book, The Message. It's a three essay book.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
The third one has been getting all the attention because it's his essay about the war in Gaza and just like the history of it and feeling lied to, you know, throughout his like come up in quote unquote mainstream media about the Israel-Palestine issue. That essay kind of doesn't work without the other two essays, right? The first essay is about him going to like Dakar and kind of
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
buying a story about, you know, where the ships left for the slave trade, even though like, it's not 100% accurate, but it's like, I'll believe it just to believe it just to feel these feelings, you know, that I'm being sold. And then the middle essay is about him traveling to South Carolina, to talk to a teacher who is trying to teach his books that are that are being banned.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
And that's about sort of correcting the historical record correcting the mythology that has been set and sort of the consequences of that. And so all three are interested in the power of narrative, the power of myth making, you know, for both good or ill. And I think that's the part that is unsaid. It's like, oh, everybody's sort of reckoning with what's the point of writing.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Damn, there was a week where my wife was reading Splinters. I was stressed out. I was like, bro, what do you do? You good? We good? We happy?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Do you need a cup of tea? Yeah, a glass of wine. You all right?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
One of my favorite books this year was called The Bullet Swaller by Elizabeth Gonzalez James. It's a Western. It takes place in like the 1800s and it follows this, let's call him like a cowboy or whatever in the Mexican-American border. The dude gets shot in the face. He survives. And then now he's out for revenge. I've been in the mood for like just a fun book.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
You know, I read a lot of like literary fiction. I read a lot about like families that don't get along. I read a lot of... You know, just like a lot of that sort of stuff. I'm looking for like a really fun book to just like keep me entertained, keep me going. And this book like hits those things like alligators, you know, the dudes like also shooting other dudes. Do it out for revenge.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
And it's fun as hell, dude. And I also think it sets a deadline for the book, right? There's so many novels where it's like, all right, where are we headed? Where are we going?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Where it's like, this is like, we know exactly where we're going. We're headed to exact revenge on this one dude. Yeah.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
She had a great press tour for this book that I thought was really funny. I listened to her interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, and she kind of big dogs him a couple times in a way that's really funny.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Yeah, she was like, oh, that's how you're going to start this question?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I think the other book I got a shout out is There's Always This Year. It's the newest by Hanif Abdurraqib. It is his essay collection, I think we can call it that, about grief and basketball and the passage of time. Obviously, there's a lot of meditation about LeBron James, but there's also meditations about other people in
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
you know, who have played basketball in Ohio, who have achieved a certain level of greatness, but that aren't household names and the sort of both beauty and sadness of that. You know, he's obviously been doing this for a while. I think he's a MacArthur genius, Grant T, right? He sure is.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
I've noticed, you know, we have enough of his materials now that like I'm highlighting like, oh, this is like a Hanifism. The way that, you know, a great director has like signature shots, right?
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
There are certain moments of rhythm that he builds towards. So they're like, All right.
It's Been a Minute
Drones, TikTok & Luigi Mangione have us asking: who's watching us?
Yeah. And it's especially good for anyone who doesn't particularly care about basketball. I don't think you have to because we all age and time affects us all in different ways. And so, yeah, there's always this here.