A Grain of Sanderson

I had known for a while that I had a lot of Sanderson superfans in my social media feeds and such, so I wanted to look for a more nuanced and balanced approach in a podcast. This took it to the other extreme. I give them 2 stars because they actually read the books, but that’s where my respect for them ends. This podcast seems to actively look for things to gripe about in Sanderson’s work. The hosts talk for upwards of 4 hours per episode on each book. If they liked anything about these books they breeze right past it and spend the vast majority of time looking on a sentence by sentence, line by line basis criticizing Sanderson’s every word. I will admit that I have something of a parasocial relationship with Sanderson as a listener of his podcast and other videos that I feel they are attacking him personally. However regardless of that, why would anyone spend 4 hours of their life listening to people say how bad a book is and making fun of the author?

I thought “I wish there was a Just King Things for Brandon Sanderson” and I manifested this podcast into existence. You’re welcome everyone.

Sanderson is my favorite author. I own all his books and have read all his stuff at least twice and some books more than that, including his more obscure works and short stories. I have backed every single Kickstarter and my shelves are overflowing with his swag. This podcast does not gush over Brandon. If that’s what you want there plenty of other podcasts out there that do. I think they had very fair views of his work and had a great discussion regarding such. Maybe I’ll change my mind further down the road but so far I am enjoying the podcast.

I was recommended this show because I like Sanderson's work pretty well and I enjoy thoughtful media analysis. Unlike a podcast like A More Civilized Age, where the depth of the takes is additive to my experience, A Grain of Sanderson is a collection of frustrating and overly long discussions from (1) a guy who loves Sanderson and spends each episode apologizing for it for fear of being judged by (2) a guy with Very Refined Taste and an undergraduate-level understanding of Marxist intellectual traditions who hates Sanderson (3) and a woman with an MA in Media and Communications whose single-minded, nuance-free, structural gender analysis is the only lens through which she seems to be able to read. The lowlights are many and infuriating, but what truly amazes me is the absolute inability to take these books and critically reflect on them from multiple perspectives; y'know, analyze instead of opine. For example, despite being THE overarching theme of Sanderson's early work, discussions of religion, belief and their effects on society and the characters are confined to "Sanderson's a Mormon who doesn't like sex." The utter obliviousness to obvious psychological themes is only outstripped by an apparent ignorance to broader sociological themes that aren't covered in an introduction to intersectionality (actually, that's not even true, because race is hardly discussed despite snide comments about Sanderson's world building; so only two of three are ever discussed meaningfully and never intersectionally). And the ignorance of broader themes is only outstripped by an inability or unwillingness to take a topic and consider it from multiple perspectives. The finger snapping deference given to takes and lack of discussion, the bizarre misunderstandings of disability literature and the self-congratulatory tone whenever they dunk on the author make this podcast unbearable at times. While I happily engage in criticism of things I read, and there are plenty of things in Sanderson to criticize and reflect upon, this podcast is not it. This is basically a Dunning-Kruger Convention for Literary and Social Analysis, or the crappiest paper seminar from students without a professor to help guide them into interesting or meaningful discussions. My kingdom for someone to say "Thesis please!" or to interrogate proscriptive and moralistic interpretations. So, why TWO stars? Because when they discuss what they're actually trained in—literature—they make really interesting points about things like prose, structure, genre, etc. Those moments have been giving and I appreciate them.