Episode Description

What do psychedelic concert visuals, furniture shopping, and Raymond Carver's comma obsession have in common? They're all ways writers process the concept of spectacle—and avoid talking about revision while actually talking about revision the entire time.

From King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's mass hypnosis event to the masculine ambition of doorstop novels, Josh and Dasha explore what makes art spectacular and whether quiet, dialogue-driven stories can compete with literary behemoths like Moby Dick. Along the way, furniture becomes a metaphor for creative decision-making, and the eternal struggle between gut instinct and endless tinkering reveals itself in both interior design and sentence-level revision.

Then, addressing a vulnerable question from Table Grapes about writing difficult autobiographical material for YA audiences, we navigate the delicate balance between graphic honesty and age-appropriate storytelling, plus practical strategies for creating emotional distance from traumatic personal material—including the therapeutic power of puppy videos.

Links:

• How Book Revision Is Like Buying New Furniture

• King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

• Forest Hills Stadium, Queens

• Moby Dick by Herman Melville

• Middlemarch by George Eliot

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

• Edith Wharton

• Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”

• When Your Characters Break Free: Character Defamiliarization Techniques for Writing Trauma Fiction Safely

• /r/writing

• Too Cute on Animal Planet

• Puppy videos for recovery

Theme music: “1982” by See Jazz