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 #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 #12 - The Employees - Olga Ravn 09/01/2023

SFULTRA #12 - The Employees - Olga Ravn "Art is creation in response to lack. Quite different from a stand-in for the archetype, which must be there, somewhere, the art object is a kind of fetish, a replacement for some real thing that is missing." - Mike Kelley /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27918573

SFULTRA #11 - Cleansed - Sarah Kane 08/17/2023

SFULTRA #11 - Cleansed - Sarah Kane "Rattled by and by As if someone was right Drawn and downed Indifference stands But a light from deep It glows They must have seen it too Rattled" - Scald Scar of Water, Altar of Plagues /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27785661

Murder House Sold #2 - "...in cold blood with not a bother on him" 08/10/2023

Murder House Sold #2 - "...in cold blood with not a bother on him" I'm happy to welcome Mark O'Connell on this second episode of Murder House Sold, a Perfect Taste Forever miniseries about True Crime, to talk about his new book A Thread Of Violence. Mark's a fantastic author and journalist whose previous books To Be a Machine and Notes From The Apocalypse are both remarkable examinations of grim insistence entropy can be defied. Ultimately along the same lines, his new work A Thread Of Violence is recounts extended conversations Mark had with one of Ireland's most famous living murders in order to write a book about him that doubles as a meditation on what it means to write true crime. It's one of the best true crime books I've ever read, though I think neither author nor subject would be totally comfortable that description. I know Mark so decided to ask him loads of annoying questions, and even a few "more of a comment than a question"s, about it. He kindly agreed. Murder House Sold is Perfect Taste Forever miniseries, a show usually only available to SF Ultra 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/27716784

SFULTRA #10 - Ice - Anna Kavan 08/06/2023

SFULTRA #10 - Ice - Anna Kavan "I know that. The difference between male and female perversion. The action of the man is directed toward a symbol, not himself. The woman acts against herself." - In the Cut, Susanne Moore /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27675174

OhleFans - The Age Of Sinatra - David Ohle 07/21/2023

OhleFans - The Age Of Sinatra - David Ohle "Ok, that's life, that's what I was told anyway And picking your feet till they bleed may only be the half of it If every fourth animal in the world is a beetle Perhaps 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" - Every Day I Start To Ooze, Nomeansno /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27534903

Ohle? Olé Olé - Motorman - David Ohle 07/04/2023

Ohle? Olé Olé - Motorman - David Ohle "Well, they called me a little so and so and so Yeah? Now they're hummin' a different tune Oh, this is a job for a stupid man Smoke it down to the filter and put it out on your hand" - Glamorous, Jesus Lizard /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27368595

SFULTRA #9 - We Who Are About To... - Joanna Russ 06/21/2023

SFULTRA #9 - We Who Are About To... - Joanna Russ "The streets were empty as I drove home, the air was cool and the sky was dark Streetlamps cast their mockery of light over ghostly shapes in an empty night Should I believe in the things I see? Am I in you, are you in me? What should I believe? Tell me, what should I believe? At home, on the porch, the wind in the trees murmured a background for my waking dream Where I drive through a city with labyrinth streets, where no one walks, where no voices speak Where empty towers above me rise toward an empty, starless sky Like a cold wind washing over me, I saw the meaning of this dream I felt that I was finally free, I felt that I was finally free But you know what they say The world wasn't built in a day You know what they say The world wasn't built in a day (no way) You lie before me sleeping, your eyes flutter in a dream Am I in you? Are you in me? What should I believe? Tell me What should I believe?" - The World Wasn't Built In A Day, Nomeansno /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27230073

SFULTRA #8 - I, Vampire - Jody Scott 06/07/2023

SFULTRA #8 - I, Vampire - Jody Scott "Besides myself, the basement is totally empty. It is dark and musty. It serves no purpose. And yet the entire world is down here, the whole universe" - Down Here, Bosse-De-Nage /episode/index/show/allunits/id/27075561

SFULTRA #7 - Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany 05/25/2023

SFULTRA #7 - Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany "If I'm the talker, here's the thing Just who the hell is listening? And if I am not tongue but ears Then whose voice is it that I hear? I swallow, choke, and clear my throat Here comes another anecdote A narrative of restlessness Of what's been done and what is next Does it love me, does it not? Will this seduction never stop? Hear the clacking parrot's beak That speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks" - Nomeansno, Can't Stop Talking /episode/index/show/allunits/id/26952405

SFULTRA #6 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin 05/10/2023

SFULTRA #6 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin "Well, is it true what they say about it? You oughta do what I do and doubt it He won and now he's gonna do something about it Ain't it sad? And if you don't wanna feel like a putz Collect the clues and connect the dots You'll see the pattern that is bursting your bubble And it's bad See the idiot walk See the idiot talk See the idiot chalk up his name on the blackboard They say, "this is all i need to get by" The truth is, baby, it's a lie It's a... It's a lie (This is what it boils down to) If you review the winning combination Body at work and a mind on vacation Who had the brain where it started to sink in? It was you" - Walk Idiot Walk, The Hives /episode/index/show/allunits/id/26803527

SFULTRA #5 - Camp Concentration - Thomas M Disch 04/26/2023

SFULTRA #5 - Camp Concentration - Thomas M Disch "A group of us, just strangers, got together and we formed a committee to discuss the problem, We talked about things like assured mutual destruction and emotional responsibility, I couldn't remember my name, so I called myself Bob, It's weird being a Bob, but i'll get used to it, I guess I'll fucking have to" - The Day Everything Became Nothing, Nomeansno /episode/index/show/allunits/id/26663391

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