Litbits

Failure! You know it. We know it. Literature knows it. Think Percy Bysshe Shelley. Think Geoff Dyer. Think Thomas Chatterton. Think DBC Pierre. Think George Gissing. Think Laurence Sterne. Think John Milton—as sports people Stateside say— “fumbling the ball”. Curious phrase! And then, after all that, think Jane Austen, eating ice-cream with a wooden spoon, in bed on a Tuesday afternoon, listening to FiveLive. Actually that sounds rather nice. Pass the tutti frutti, Cassandra!

Reviews! That’s right: REVIEWS. I’ve said it twice now so it should be clear. But what do we mean? Well, centrally, this: what happens when Othello and Amazon Prime collide? How do online reviewers respond to the canon? And how does this, our present age, relate to the long history of judging books? James “Book Reviewer” Kidd (left) and Adam “Dabbler in said Art” Smyth (left, hand extended) gather once more to think about literary reputations, readers, and books in the world. HOW DO WE TALK ABOUT BOOKS IN THIS OUR FALLEN AGE? Pip pip and pass the jolly snuff.

Cash! Money! Greenbacks! Lucre! You know what we’re talking about. It’s Adam “99 pence” Smyth and James “3 for 2” Kidd, joined by wizard financial journalist Emma Simon to talk literature and money (NB: not an actual wizard). Value? Worth? Why not! 50 cent. Jeffrey Archer. Patricia Cornwall. TS Eliot. Samuel Pepys. Dickens. James Patterson. Shakespeare. After all, wasn’t it Erasmus who said, ‘Dirty cash / I want you / Dirty cash / I need you, oh’? First broadcast on Resonance FM in May 2015.

In which James Kidd and Adam Smyth—frolicsome to the max—consider how literature does celebration. Are we all too down with ambivalence to have a darn good time? So: Dickens does Christmas. Milton does Shakespeare. Carver does vodka. Gerard Manley Hopkins does the night. Frank O’Hara does love. And Kool and the Gang does … well, joyful tat-pop, I suppose. (Yaa-HOO!) Now pick up that loose pom pom—that one, over there, the one that looks like a weird cat—and join the literary party. [first broadcast on Resonance FM in December 2015.]

Driving! Rain? Golf clubs? No! We mean cars! That’s right: literature and driving. George Herbert in a Saab, the windows down. Adam “failed driving test due to causing a crash” Smyth & James “cannot drive” Kidd clamber in a clapped-out old Honda Civic and motor along to Jack Kerouac, Michel Faber, J.G. Ballard, Iris Murdoch, Raymond Carver, and more. Is reading a novel like driving a car? Is it? IS IT? First broadcast on Resonance FM in October 2015

Hamlet? Hamlet! Why on earth not. In which James ‘Ophelia’ Kidd and Adam ‘Second Servant’ Smyth are joined by Professor Emma Smith of Oxford University. THEN—wait for it—dressed in black cloaks—they rush to the very core of the very centre of the very heart of the quintessence of the canon, and talk English literature’s biggest cheese. And we don’t mean Jeffrey Archer! Seriously, we don’t. Why does the drum come hither? Listen on and find out, posters.

It’s freezing! But we go on, stumbling, rubbing our hands, teeth chattering, towards the distant dim glow of … LITERATURE AND THE COLD! How do writers represent below zero? What does the cold mean, in novels and poems? James Kidd and Adam Smyth ponder Petrarch, Thomas Wyatt, Keith Richards, Keats, Christina Rossetti, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, Captain Scott, Charles Dickens, and more. Wrap up warm, people (we suggest the Litbits-branded deep tog “hammock towel”). [First broadcast in December 2015 on Resonance FM.]

To start! Or not? Perhaps we should. So pull up a hammock, crack open a hot bottle of vodka jelly, and join podders James Kidd and Adam Smyth as they muse on origins. How do books begin? Where do books begin? What are the great openings in literature? Featuring Saul Bellow, Christopher Isherwood, John Donne, Margaret Atwood, and John Milton. You want more? Well have a warm slice of Samuel Beckett and some sprinklings of Henry James and Thomas Hardy and Laurence Sterne. Pip pip! [first broadcast on Resonance FM in September 2015

The night! To sleep? Or to cavort? Ah, the agony of choice. Adam Smyth and James Kidd, finding themselves standing in a cold rural field amid an inky night, fumble onwards with fellow nocturnal stalkers Dylan Thomas, Margaret Atwood, John Milton, Robert Frost, Gerard Manley Hopkins, WH Auden, and Samuel Pepys. Plus a dash of 4.17am talk radio. Bring a lantern: it’s dark out here. [first broadcast on Resonance FM in October 2015]

In which Adam “I think I’ve missed” Smyth and James “the 10.34 to Chertsey” Kidd are joined by Dr Laurence Scott to talk about things aligning, and things just missing. Do we read to be understood? Is everyone alone? Does literature console, or push us away? How has the digital era changed what it means to be on the same wavelength as someone? What is a wavelength, anyway? And could Craigslist teach EM Forster a thing or two about ‘only connect’? We talk Ben Lerner, Stephen Spender, Stefan Zweig, Fry and Laurie, and more. Ships in the night. What larks! [first broadcast on Resonance FM in November 2015]

Home! Where the heart is? Maybe. Or maybe ... not? Podders Smyth and Kidd ponder all things domestic. Tom Waits. TS Eliot. Larkin. Milton. Estate agents. James’s curious relationship with Pat Cash. IT"S ALL HERE, PEOPLE.

In which James ‘Slow Reader’ Kidd, and Adam ‘Easily Distracted and Also Slow Reader’ Smyth, discuss the merits and perils of abandoning books. Too long? Too boring? Too difficult? And we haven’t even started talking about the books yet! Of course we’re joking. Pull up a hammock, slip off your pumps, and start listening—you can potter off to “make a cup of tea” after a couple of minutes. No one need know.

In which James ‘Tricky’ Kidd and Adam ‘Tricky’ Smyth talk hard poems, hard novels, hard plays, for no hard cash. Why do we need literary works that we can’t understand? Join the pod as it orbits a galaxy of complexity and struggle featuring Geoffrey Hill, T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, and James Patterson. That’s right: James Patterson. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THE PATTERSON?

In which James Kidd and Adam Smyth are joined by bibliophile and jaunty-walker Gill Partington (left) to talk burning, eating, and cutting. What happens to a book when it is licked by flames? Can we literally consume fictions? And is that a pair of blades in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me? Complete with practical demonstrations and that ‘outdoorsy’ feel we know will listeners like—and all to celebrate the publication of this little beauty. What ho!

Holidays! And Literature! In which we go back in time to September 2013, when “Adam” and “James” meet in a pub to commiserate about the end of their vacations. Are holidays a good thing? Why are they over so quickly? Mark Twain speaks through Tom Sawyer. Andrew Marvell gets in that holiday spirit. Stanley Middleton describes a wet weekend in the pub. Bakhtin opens his mouth and other orifices. Madonna leads us in a rousing 80s singalong. Don your shorts, and short your dons (that doesn’t mean anything—ed.), and join us. The water’s lovely and damp. (First broadcast on Resonance FM in September 2014.)

You’re looking tired. Knackered, in fact. Us too. So what better than LITERATURE AND EXHAUSTION? Well obviously a holiday would be better but we can’t offer you that. What we can offer you is this: 29 minutes 46 seconds of drowsy musings on authors – Beckett, Woolf, Shakespeare, Tennyson – writing about being tired. If that isn’t better than two weeks on the beach, then my name’s Hattie Jacques. Download, relax, slumber, and before you know it, it’ll be February. Yours, Hattie. (First broadcast on Resonance FM.)

In which Adam “Smyth” Smyth and James “Smyth” Kidd discuss literary censorship. Explosive, non? Just what is Banned Books Week? Why are books so dangerous? In the e-book age, is censorship a thing of the past? Why is Captain Underpants the most dangerous literary character in America? Should some books be banned for crime against literature? These questions, and more. Hang on, podders. (First broadcast on Resonance FM on October 1st, 2013).

In which tardy Adam Smyth and sloth-like James Kidd muse—FINALLY!—on the business of putting things off. They dance an intimate dance with deferral and trip gingerly to delay’s sweet hum. Mark Twain. Geoff Dyer. Raymond Chandler. Kafka’s four hour-long naps. T.S. Eliot’s bank job. Thomas Bernhard. Shakespeare’s over-hastiness. Chaucer’s oxon. And more. But before you do that: pair those socks, listeners! (First broadcast on Resonance FM.)

In which James Kidd and Adam Smyth are joined by bestselling writer Samantha Ellis to talk reading books and rereading books and falling in love with characters and living by what by read. Cathy! Cathy! CATHY!

In which James Kidd and Adam Smyth—both dressed to the nines (as ever)—are joined by film wiz Alex von Tunzelmann to talk Hollywood’s big night. The politics. The money. And Woody Allen. Who will win? Who shouldn’t win? (Tom Hanks, obviously). And what would Ben Jonson say if he accepted a posthumous award for William Shakespeare for best hairdressing? These, and other urgent questions. Join us on the red carpet: there’s plenty of room.