Rerun - Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
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What is the premise of the live‑recorded episode and who are the hosts?
Hi, it's Nikki.
Hi, it's Andy. And it's John.
And this is another backlisted rerun. What have we got this week?
We have this week. We're going back five years um to September twenty twenty one. Um and It is Oh
was the dark days or was it the bit of sunshine in the dark days? Well
no it this is excitingly the first time Andy and I had seen each other for twenty months and it was the first live bat listed we'd recorded since before lockdown. So it was a it was memorable. It was also memorable 'cause we were recording it live at the Galway International Arts Festival. and also memorable because it was on a novel by J. M. Kurzier, Elizabeth Costello, and the guest was, remarkably enough, Mary Costello, wonderful Irish novelist, author of The Academy Street and the River Capture. And the highlights I'm gonna 'cause I have listened to it and No spoilers though, John. Despite get No spoilers, but I'm gonna say that there is Andy reading from a uh a brilliant bit reading from an a novelist that he loves, that's all I'm gonna say.
And me reading from a f an Irish philosopher who I'd recently discovered. And then there is some really high quality discussion about Curtis's work. Anyway, so plenty to enjoy in this episode.
Okay, and it's a bit of luck because actually over on our Patreon we are all uh in our our book club where we're all reading uh Booker Prize winner, one Booker Prize winner every month, which we're calling Posh Bingo. Thanks, Julian Barnes. Um we are reading uh J M Kurtzier's Booker Prize winning novel Disgrace.
So I book a prize in nineteen ninety nine. It's his second winner. It's five years ago though, John, since we were in uh Galway. Oh, that was a such a nice trip, everybody. I know you don't want to hear this 'cause like you you've just tuned into this to listen to s uh a serious discussion of uh uh novel about a curse uh I just want to reminisce about all the nice meals we had while we were over over there. Also, Nikki said was it during the dark days? It was at the tail end of the second batch of lockdowns. You had to show your passport if you wanted to get in and do anything. That's what I remember.
Yeah, we drove across Ireland and then we went to see the Leo Carracks film which Yes, the Sparks the Sparks film. Is that what it's called?
Right. I'm gonna s stop your holiday reminiscing. Uh you can hear more about the holiday if you carry on listening to the podcast and also in books
to be honest, it's not much about the holiday on the podcast. Good. Lots of talk about literature and meaning.
And not about Guinness and all the fun you had. No, no. No,
no Guinness. There's no Guinness in it all.
Another thing you can hear if you are on the Patreon is a really fantastic episode of our batlisted readers show on um the book Capital by Maureen Duffy. And that's with uh listener Dan Jenkins. And the next show we've got coming up, we've just recorded it. It's on the book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark. And that's coming up in a in a couple of weeks. So lots of great content. Support us on Patreon. We'd be super grateful. Patreon.com forward slash backlisted.
In the meantime, enjoy the sound of several people not literally whining and dining when you listen to this, but they will be shortly afterwards and they'll be full of life, full of joie de vive. Uh but in but and nevertheless, enjoy this lovely discussion of Elizabeth Costello by Jam Kurtsay, and we'll see you next time.
Hey. Yay!
And welcome to Batlisted, the podcast that gives new life to old books. Today you find us recording From Galway International Festival in the O'Donohue Theatre on the campus of the National University of Ireland in the city of Galway. This is our very first time. uh that we've done on stage in Ireland are backlisted. Um in fact it's our first time in front of a live audience since the uh Since the Proust Christmas special. Uh uh our uh Christmas special devoted to all seven of the volumes of A la recherche de Temp Perdue by Marcel Proust, which we recorded in the London Library in December two thousand nineteen twenty nineteen.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the premise of the live‑recorded episode and who are the hosts?
0:01–7:30
2
How does the discussion introduce Mary Costello and her Irish literary background?
7:30–16:17
3
Why do the hosts bring up Sally Rooney’s *Beautiful World, Where Are You?* and what relevance does it have?
16:17–24:59
4
What insights does John Moriarty’s *A Hut at the Edge of the Village* provide for the conversation?
24:59–32:50
5
How does the opening passage of *Elizabeth Costello* set the tone for the novel’s themes?
32:50–40:40
6
What are the central arguments about animal rights, evil, and the limits of fiction in Coetzee’s work?
40:40–48:05
7
How do the hosts evaluate J M Coetzee’s narrative technique and its philosophical impact?
48:05–56:51
8
What final thoughts and take‑aways do the speakers leave listeners with about the book and the live event?
56:51–1:04:05