We’re thrilled to welcome back podcaster Brittany Luse to discuss Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer for The Stacks Book Club. We discuss how race does and doesn’t show up in the book, and what worked for us versus what didn’t. We also consider the nature of punishment and redemption when it comes to monstrous celebrities, and ask whose genius we miss out on when we make space for the monsters.
Be sure to listen to the end of today’s episode to find out what our book club pick will be for October 2023.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
- Monsters by Claire Dederer
- It’s Been a Minute (NPR)
- “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?” (Claire Dederer, The Paris Review)
- Woody Allen
- Roman Polanski
- Richard Wagner
- “Mad at Miles” (Pearl Cleage, Ebony)
- Soon-Yi Previn
- “Woody Allen’s ‘Coup De Chance’ Gets 5-Minute Ovation At Venice Film Festival, Protestors March Past Red Carpet” (Melanie Goodfellow and Armando Tinoco, Deadline)
- Michael Jackson
- Kanye West
- Bill Cosby
- O.J. Simpson
- Pearl Cleage
- Miles Davis
- Raymond Carver
- “Crying for Ana Mendieta at the Carl Andre Retrospective” (Marisa Crawford, Hyperallergic)
- Think Twice (Wondery)
- On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson
- “Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson, 1982)
- Quentin Tarantino
- Uma Thurman
- Kill Bill (Quintin Tarantino, 2003)
- “Uma Thurman Reveals Quentin Tarantino Choked Her, Spit In Her Face While Filming ‘Kill Bill’” (Jade Budowski, Decider)
- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Kanye West, 2010)
- Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)
- R. Kelly
- The Cosby Show (NBC)
- Sinéad O’Connor
- Kobe Bryant
- Ernest Hemingway
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- “Joni Mitchell’s problematic history of wearing blackface” (Tyler Golsen, Far Out Magazine)
- Kendrick Lamar
- Donald Glover
- Atlanta (FX)
- Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar
- Dr. Dre
- Eminem
- Renaissance by Beyonce
- “Every Time Blue Ivy Carter Joined Beyoncé on Stage – Watch the Videos and See the Pics” (Zoey Lyttle, People)
- Toni Morrison
- Doris Lessing
- Valerie Solanas
- Virginia Woolf
- Andy Warhol
- Things I Should Have Told My Daughter by Pearl Cleage
- Things I Should Have Told My Daughter by Pearl Cleage (audiobook)
- Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
- Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2014)
- Gina Prince-Bythewood
- Nate Parker
- “A Timeline of the Nate Parker Rape Scandal, and the Damage Control That Has Followed” (Nate Jones and Rachel Bashein, Vulture)
- Pablo Picasso
- Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
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