SFULTRA

SFUltra is my attempt as a lifetime science fiction skeptic's attempt to get into the genre by reading 100 science fiction books I purchased in Wales one time. It gets published every two weeks.

SFULTRA #33 - UXA.GOV - Blake Butler 11/14/2024

SFULTRA #33 - UXA.GOV - Blake Butler "The Stumbling Block is an ark of extinction. A bouillon hive of the murdered past, frozen dry to a mass. Something has warmed its corner, the oxoed grit bleeds a vein of contagion, virulent in its passion to embrace and swim in human tides" - Brian Catling, The Stumbling Block /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33933422

SFULTRA #32 - The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien 10/26/2024

SFULTRA #32 - The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien "Cough up a pointless lecture Does it matter? Vomit me more conjecture Doesn't matter Argue till your left brain dies Does it matter? Presume to abuse my time Doesn't matter Let me paint a perfect picture Let it read like a holy scripture The words that leave my mouth Are just words you can live without Found community a struggle for me It's a collision: clash and grieve Nonsense screws and breeds Thoughts untethered went lost at sea" - Touché Amore, Circa 95 /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33622352

SFULTRA #31 - The Cipher - Kathe Koja 10/10/2024

SFULTRA #31 - The Cipher - Kathe Koja "...okay, that's life, that's what I was told anyway And picking your feet till they bleed may be the half of it If every fourth animal in the world is a beetle Maybe every fourth person is a dumb fuck Listen, listen carefully now: here's the answer It rhymes with axe Why it's those personal acts, of course Those personal acts Those suicide pacts Those carelessly stored razorblades in the hands of small children It's my face smeared on the pavement It's Everyday It's Everyday" - Everyday I Start To Ooze, Nomeansno /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33404312

SFULTRA #30 - Rammellzee - Racing For Thunder 09/26/2024

SFULTRA #30 - Rammellzee - Racing For Thunder "BE WHO YOU ARE, WRECK THEM, AND THEN DIE" - Rammellzee /episode/index/show/allunits/id/33226562

Explanatory Collapse #20 - On The Beach: Empty Space 09/09/2024

Explanatory Collapse #20 - On The Beach: Empty Space "There are no castles without ghosts And no spirits without hope But nobody passes the test of time I do not fear the buried sounds Of words that echo underground A memory is a loaded gun And I remember everyone I remember everyone I remember you" - Ghosts, Nomeansno /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32981087

Explanatory Collapse #19 - On The Beach: Nova Swing 09/02/2024

Explanatory Collapse #19 - On The Beach: Nova Swing "For every detective novel, regardless of its story, is for every reader, above all, a novel about himself: about what happened to the reader as a human individual in general, as an individual developing from a child into an adult; as a living being who experiences continuous transitions there and back, from layer to layer of consciousness..." - On The Detective Story, Sergei Eisenstein /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32868532

Explanatory Collapse #17 - On The Beach: Light 08/25/2024

Explanatory Collapse #17 - On The Beach: Light "Some roads are only seen at night Ghost roads, nothing but neon signs But some nights, the neon gas gets free And turns into walking dead like me And I've been making promises I know I'll never keep One of these days, I'm gonna leave you in your sleep I'll have to go when the whistle blows, the whistle knows my name Baby, I was born on a train" - Born On A Train, Magnetic Fields /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32729037

Explanatory Collapse #9 - Viriconium Pt 3 07/06/2024

Explanatory Collapse #9 - Viriconium Pt 3 patreon.com/sfultra "...'For I aint, you must know,' said Betty, 'much of a hand at reading writing-hand, though I can read my Bible and most print. And I do love a newspaper. You mightn't think it, but Sloppy is a beautiful reader of a newspaper. He do the Police in different voices." - Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens /episode/index/show/allunits/id/32033082

Explanatory Collapse #8 - Viriconium Pt 2 06/30/2024

Explanatory Collapse #8 - Viriconium Pt 2 "The fire of wild abandon burns so beautiful and bright The ashes fade away after consuming all the light The fire of wild abandon burns so beautiful and hot I used to know the way back home but somehow I forgot Through all the smoke I can’t see you What’s the thing you been turned into? Something fun, or someone new The fire of wild abandon Feel the lie becoming true Whose eyes are you seeing through? Teeth, turn in on yourselves and chew The parasite expanding Through all the heat waves you can’t see The thing you thought I used to be Distorted uncontrollably Beyond misunderstanding And in the wreckage, nothing there Only the cold spell in the air I cried for you like you were dead But it’s just that you’re something else instead And as I felt myself float away, way up there Up above all the houses and the people and the trees And I thought I’d go back, back down there, be like them But I can’t anymore, ‘cause I don’t know which one was me I don’t know which one was me" - Fire Of Wild Abandon, Evil Sword patreon.com/sfultra /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31952472

Explanatory Collapse #7 - Viriconium Pt 1 06/22/2024

Explanatory Collapse #7 - Viriconium Pt 1 “I have said before that the music is the words and the words are the music. It is all there for you to understand if you can and for you to feel, regardless.” - Sun Ra, This Planet is Doomed patreon.com/sfultra /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31849572

SFULTRA #29 - Liege-Killer - Christopher Hinz 05/18/2024

SFULTRA #29 - Liege-Killer - Christopher Hinz "I fire myself ten times a day I throw myself in a watery grave With fourteen horses on top of my head I hear the voice again and again" - I Fire Myself, Mary Timony /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31365882

SFULTRA #28 - The Third Eye - Lobsang Rampa 05/04/2024

SFULTRA #28 - The Third Eye - Lobsang Rampa "eurt si em tuoba yas yeht gnihtyrevE" - Euphoria, Kendrick Lamar (intro sample from The Wiz) I'm happy to welcome back Matt to tackle this terrible book. Matt's youtube channel Bookpilled is one of the main inspirations behind SFUltra and his engaging, thoughtful reviews make him official YouTube Book GOAT. His patreon is worth it and then some. Matt's channel: Matt's patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Bookpilled /episode/index/show/allunits/id/31125878

SFULTRA #27 - Monarch - Candice Wuehle 04/21/2024

SFULTRA #27 - Monarch - Candice Wuehle “...Thank God you let me crash on your couch Who's my God that I’m prayin' to now? … Made her go home, felt the virus Web of life is my weed, false dreams stripped by silence … Deals they had us sign, for years, it had mе blind Think I had to hit rewind and think about why I do shine … My whole family cursed, now get the fuck out my ride … Nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin' … If a killer say shit, then get these motherfuckers ... Get the fuck out” - Buzzcut Feat. Danny Brown - Brockhampton /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30917703

SFULTRA #26 - Radiant Terminus - Antoine Volodine 04/03/2024

SFULTRA #26 - Radiant Terminus - Antoine Volodine "You lie in the graveyard Well you're rotting away When I talk to you daily You've got nothing to say You lie in the graveyard Well you are down making plans Well you control all my thoughts Well you make dust fall" - Graveyard , Butthole Surfers /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30667013

SFULTRA #25 - Mumbo Jumbo - Ishmael Reed 03/16/2024

SFULTRA #25 - Mumbo Jumbo - Ishmael Reed "Fear stalks the land. (As usual; so what else is new?)" - Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30402803

SFULTRA #24 - Blue Lard - Vladimir Sorokin 03/02/2024

SFULTRA #24 - Blue Lard - Vladimir Sorokin "He looked round her drawing-room and marvelled how he, who prided himself on not being able to endure any-thing in bad taste, could tolerate this chamber of horrors. Everything, he mused, was beautified by his passion.." - Laughter In The Dark, Vladimir Nabokov One year anniversary blog: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sfultra-year-1-99301744 /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30201303

WDYTYA?IA #5 - The Fifth Wound - Aurora Mattia 02/22/2024

WDYTYA?IA #5 - The Fifth Wound - Aurora Mattia Who Do You Think You Are? I Am. is a Perfect Taste Forever series about memoir and biography. PFT is usually patreon exclusive but this episode is free for everyone. patreon.com/sfultra I'm joined on this episode by Jolene, the host of the podcast When A Guy Has. We talk about The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia. /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30058428

SFULTRA #23 - How I Killed The Universal Man - Thomas Kendall 02/18/2024

SFULTRA #23 - How I Killed The Universal Man - Thomas Kendall "I'm living a fake, People say "You are entitled to and great" But I haven't wrote for 90 days, I'll get a good deal and I'll go away, Away from the empty brains that ask" - How I Wrote Elastic Man, The Fall /episode/index/show/allunits/id/30002143

SFULTRA #22 - An Exchange Of Hostages - Susan R. Matthews 01/31/2024

SFULTRA #22 - An Exchange Of Hostages - Susan R. Matthews "I do not deny that, among an infinite number of acts of violence and folly, some good may have been done. They who destroy everything certainly will remove some grievance." - Edmund Burke /episode/index/show/allunits/id/29741533

SFULTRA #21 - The Physiognomy -Jeffery Ford 01/20/2024

SFULTRA #21 - The Physiognomy -Jeffery Ford "...when I put on my holster, I put God out of my mind" - Cop /episode/index/show/allunits/id/29572483

SFULTRA #20 - The Warren - Brian Evenson 01/05/2024

SFULTRA #20 - The Warren - Brian Evenson "He did not work for posterity, nor did he work for God, whose literary preferences were largely unknown to him." - The Secret Miracle, Jorge Louis Borges /episode/index/show/allunits/id/29361323

SFULTRA #19 - Overlay - Barry Malzberg 12/19/2023

SFULTRA #19 - Overlay - Barry Malzberg "Delight dwindles. Blame stays the same." - Briggflatts: An Autobiography, Basil Bunting I'm happy to welcome Matt on this last episode of SFUltra for 2023. Matt's youtube channel Bookpilled is one of the main inspirations behind SFUltra and his engaging, thoughtful reviews of books exactly like the one we're covering this week are precisely what makes him the best book reviewer on YouTube. Matt's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Bookpilled Matt's patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Bookpilled /episode/index/show/allunits/id/29157428

SFULTRA #18 - Ruination - Katie Jean Shinkle 12/06/2023

SFULTRA #18 - Ruination - Katie Jean Shinkle "At the top of the hill You watch the world below Writhing with life You have two heads You feel one pushing out Trying to see Seeds Are planted In your mouth Whеn they bloom They burst from you Face Yoursеlf Your new Self" - Fawn, Body Void /episode/index/show/allunits/id/28964358

SFULTRA #17 - Sweet Blood/The Birth Machine - Elizabeth Baines 11/30/2023

SFULTRA #17 - Sweet Blood/The Birth Machine - Elizabeth Baines "Sometimes when I get up and emerge from the mists of slumber, my whole room hurts, my whole bedroom, the view from the window hurts, kids go to school, people go shopping, everybody knows where to go, only I don't know where I want to go..." - Bohumil Hrabal, Total Fears: Selected Letters to Dubenka /episode/index/show/allunits/id/28854963

SFULTRA #16 - Revival - Stephen King 11/07/2023

SFULTRA #16 - Revival - Stephen King "Death's meaning I cannot read. To me death is above all things a smell, a very bad smell, and that, like the skeletons which terrify children, is not death at all. If I had to smell it more often, if I had to work in the catacombs, I would think nothing of it. And a few years or decades from now, I will think nothing about everything." - William T. Vollmann, Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means /episode/index/show/allunits/id/28549247

SKULL FRICTION ULTRA - The Magician - Christopher Zeischegg 10/30/2023

SKULL FRICTION ULTRA - The Magician - Christopher Zeischegg "The relation between God and human beings is often mediated by the sign of the weapon" - Elaine Scarry /episode/index/show/allunits/id/28460117

SFULTRA #15 - The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers 10/12/2023

SFULTRA #15 - The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers "All alone at the '64 World's Fair Eighty dolls yelling "Small girl after all" Who was at the DuPont Pavilion? Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?" - They Might Be Giants, Ana Ng /episode/index/show/allunits/id/28300136

SFULTRA #14 - I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman 09/28/2023

SFULTRA #14 - I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman "Being empty, not being a complete, separate being, having no self to groove on and needing to be constantly in female company, he sees nothing at all wrong in intruding himself on any woman's thoughts, even a total stranger's, anywhere at any time, but rather feels indignant and insulted when put down for doing so, as well as confused -- he can't, for the life of him, understand why anyone would prefer so much as one minute of solitude to the company of any creep around." - Valerie Solanas, The Scum Manifesto /episode/index/show/allunits/id/28172978

SFULTRA #13 - Memoirs Found in a Bathtub - Stanisław Lem 09/16/2023

SFULTRA #13 - Memoirs Found in a Bathtub - Stanisław Lem There’s something they aren’t telling us. Something we don’t know about. There’s more to it. There’s always more to it. This is what history consists of. It’s the sum total of all the things they aren’t telling us. –David Ferrie in Don DeLillo’s Libra (1988) /episode/index/show/allunits/id/28054281

Murder House Sold #5 - The larger the prisoner’s pain, the larger the torturer’s world. 09/06/2023

Murder House Sold #5 - The larger the prisoner’s pain, the larger the torturer’s world. I'm happy to welcome Astrid Rose on this fifth episode of Murder House Sold, a Perfect Taste Forever miniseries about True Crime. We talk about Gordon Burn's Happy Like Murderers, a book about Fred and Rose West. Annoyingly, Astrid is an amazing writer of both horror fiction and criticism. She is also the co-host of Live At The Death Factory, the only perfect podcast ever to exist. Most recently, she was one of the writers of this video game: You can find her horror fiction here: Murder House Sold is Perfect Taste Forever miniseries, a show usually only available to SFUltra patrons. The other episodes are solo, like SFUltra itself, and cover the more esoteric end of long form, largely literary, cultural criticism. /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27955731

SFULTRA

TOPICS