The Sears Christmas Wish Book was (truly) great American literature

December 19, 2017 00:51:13
The Sears Christmas Wish Book was (truly) great American literature
Deviate with Rolf Potts
The Sears Christmas Wish Book was (truly) great American literature

Dec 19 2017 | 00:51:13

/

Hosted By

Rolf Potts

Show Notes

"The Sears Christmas Wish Book was, for me, a kind of foundational text — a secular counterpoint to the Bible stories I learned around that time in Sunday School. I paged through the holiday catalog’s 620 glossy pages as if they amounted to an intoxicating graphic novel of desire, rich with abundance and possibility." - Rolf Potts, from "Literature of Desire" In this episode Rolf reads an audio version of his Christmas-themed essay "Literature of Desire," and discusses the wonders of the Sears Christmas Wish Book with novelist Tod Goldberg (@todgoldberg). Tod is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including the novel Gangsterland, which is currently being developed into a television series. He is also the director of the University of California-Riverside Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA, and the co-host of the Literary Disco podcast. Introduction (00:35 - 11:20) Literature of Desire essay (11:20 - 32:20) Sears Wish Book memories (32:20 - 50:10) This episode was sponsored by the Paris Writing Workshop, an intensive one-month course in the artistic heart of Europe. The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel's 2017 album Lumber.
Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we're happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at [email protected].

Other Episodes

Episode

January 02, 2018 01:05:50
Episode Cover

Novelist Cynthia Sweeney on getting your big creative break at mid-life

“I thought that if things were hard it somehow meant that you shouldn’t be doing them. I think that was a youthful notion.” --Cynthia...

Listen

Episode

August 21, 2018 00:43:16
Episode Cover

How to survive a natural disaster (and recover when it's over)

"Social capital is as important as formal training when it comes to disaster response. We see in every event people who have never had...

Listen

Episode

November 13, 2018 01:30:52
Episode Cover

Deviate Season One finale with Ari Shaffir

“The hashtag level of social media discourse can be really frustrating. It tends to bend narratives toward the hashtag slogan. But when we start...

Listen