Literary Friction Literary Friction

Like the friendship of the two hosts. Also appreciate the “other cultural things we’re into” section. The July 2019 interview with Ocean Vuong made me want to move to Massachusetts to enroll in all his classes. So good!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any millennial reader who has time enough to read for pleasure must be in want of a guide. But with the deafening din arising from the literary blogospheres, where is guiding wisdom to be found?

I’d submit ‘Literary Friction’ is where.

The visual appeal of the ‘Spice Girls’ though Octavia Bright and Carrie Plitt may have, you’d be mistaken to assume that these two spout out little else than highbrow formulations of ‘girl power’: for they have the minds of Cantabrigian scholars, and give the impression that they rank among the few of their generation stoking the flame first lit by the ‘Bright Young Things’. Halfway in to the livelier LF podcasts, you may get the impression that they know how to get down with a book but also how to have a rollicking time. With such Renaissance women for hosts, LF shows never suffer for lack of erudition or wit (saucy literary in-jokes abound), but their shows go especially well when the month’s guest winds up catalyzing lively banter between the hosts, whose interpersonal chemistry can be as therapeutic as that of pleasure reading itself and, so, sets this podcast apart.

So strong is their effect that, I would’ve sworn during one enchanted hour last June that my partner and I were overhearing literary-minded friends carry on in a trendy London teahouse even though we were lounging – poolside, matching wayfarers on, books perched on our chests – in the American West.

Yes, that’s right: the show can even make for some fantastic date listening, provided that your date is bookish. I favor Carrie’s analytical intensity, while my partner is partial to Octavia’s flamboyant sparkle, but together we remain united in our devotion to the friendly transatlantic “friction” that arises among the hosts, their literary guests, and us listeners – a friction that, when it subsides at the end of each hour-long show, finds the sensibilities of everyone involved more finely attuned to the sensibilities of the wider reading world.

what a great show! if you love thoughtful recommendations and conversations, with humor and intelligence, on all things books: this is the show for you!!