Category / Bat Segundo

by Edward Champion

The Bat Segundo Show #50

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Author: John Updike

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Defending himself against obnoxious talk show hosts and ready to move on.

Subjects Discussed: Epigraphs, faith and disbelief, starting Terrorist with a Catholic priest, first person vs. third person, on writing upon Americana, post-9/11 symbolism, humanism vs. pessimism, blow jobs, Christopher Hitchens, the state of the September 11 novel, Norman Mailer, Neil LaBute’s The Mercy Seat, applying “On Not Being a Dove” to Iraq, airport X-ray machines, external sexual imagery vs. internal emotion in prose, why Updike concentrates on explicit anatomical detail, Goths, language, challenging Updike on the BEA speech and the Internet.

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by Edward Champion

The Bat Segundo Show #49

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Author: Dave King

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Unknown, replaced temporarily by a shady documentary producer fulfilling a contractual obligation.

Subjects Discussed: Modeling, painting, making a transition to writing, ambition, disabilities, self-help, italicized words, iambic pentameter, sincerity in an age of literary realism, Richard Yates, the early ending to The Ha-Ha, getting The Ha-Ha published, Vietnam and war, Tim O’Brien, cities as reference points, conformity vs. uniqueness, sincere language co-opted by Hallmark, Matthew Sharp, the semantics of symbolism, Americans and passports, on being skeptical about self-improvement, A Clockwork Orange, Akiva Goldsman and the Ha-Ha film adaptation.

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by Edward Champion

The Bat Segundo Show #48

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Author: Colson Whitehead

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Dismayed by advertising jingle trios and interruptions; more than vaguely litigious.

Subjects Discussed: Living in San Francisco, working at CNET, writing on the clock, the importance of names, Theodore Judah, microhistories, the influence of 9/11 upon Apex, metaphors, toes, writing about work, James Wood, didacticism, masculinity, the influence of pop culture, Generation X novels, Sven Birkets, whether the reader or the author has the obligation to make connections, the value of reviews, self-criticism, avoiding cliches, Altamont, compulsive writing, research, translating cultural experience into fiction, comic books, and brokering a detente with Richard Ford.

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by Edward Champion

The Bat Segundo Show #47

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Author: Hal Niedzviecki

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Temporarily replaced, due to being incapable of being crass and making a generalization at the same time.

Subjects Discussed: The advantages of studying American culture from Canada, individualism vs. conformity, pop star aspirations, American Idol, karaoke, television, the economics of media, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Yeah, William T. Vollmann, the end of Western expansion, German billionaires, on one-upping explorers, the disadvantages of genius, media conformity vs. community, fundamentalists, homophobia, the BattleCry protests in San Francisco, the human ego, and retreating from society.

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