Radio War Nerd, Episode #9 — Dune + Bay Area Literary Scene circa-1965

I just listened to this, simply fantastic. I just subscribed and I can see know that I will get a nearly infinite amount of content.

I'm a huge fan Vance, and it makes me sad so many of my younger SF reading friends have no idea who he is.

Just one small quibble: I'm surprised when discussing the best things about the Dune movie, you didn't mention Brad Dourif's terrific performance as the psychopathic mentat, Peter De Vries. It is only a small part of the movie, but it's just one of those cases where the casting and performance is so good, it's impossible to ever again imagine anybody else playing the part.

Great episode. You guys should do one dedicated to Philip K Dick. Or to your favourite sci-fi novels in general. Now that I think of it, it would be great to have Eileen back on and do an episode on the best sci-fi movies. It might be straying a bit far from the topic of warfare, but I don't think it really matters. As a long time fan of the eXile and Dolan, I'd be willing to pay good money for it.

I find myself regularly returning to this episode... The Dune conversation is just awesome, guys,

"pynchon is unreadable garbage." Thank you! I remember trying to read The Crying of Lot 49 and getting very, very angry about characters with names like Oedipa Maas, Mucho Maas, Mike Fallopian, etc. One of my copies of a PKD novel had the very same back handed compliment comparing PKD and pynchon, and it absolutely pissed me off. Not sure which is worse, that, or WIlliam T. Vollman doing an afterword in newer editions of Journey to the End of the Night.

I was really pleased to hear the discussion of PKD and Perky Pat's Layouts. I just finally got a friend to read "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" a couple of weeks ago, explaining that it is probably the best literary representation of that weird dream-state feeling that you get from being up for several days on an amphetamine binge that I've ever encountered. I kept trying to explain the book, and finally gave up, saying, "just read the damn book!" I'd never made the connection before between the quality of Three Stigmata, and PKD's discipline that he developed by having to churn out novels basically on spec.

This, originally reported by AFP, makes no goddamned sense: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/05/iraq-orders-turkey-to-immediately-withdraw-troops-sent-across-border," rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/05/iraq-orders-turkey-to-immediately-withdraw-troops-sent-across-border,</a> It's not so much that Turkey would be willing to violate Iraq's sovereignty that beggars belief, because 'Iraqi sovereignty' is an oxymoron. Rather, it is this part that rings alarm bells: "Peshmerga forces from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region are deployed in the area, and Turkey’s Anatolia news agency said the troops were there to train them." Now I know that the PKK, YPG, and the KDP often don't see eye to eye, but I cant square this up with everything going on in this war. What's this about?

what is the origin of that guitar bit at the start of the podcast?

If anyone sets up a gofundme or kickstarter or whatever for "The World of Perky Pat," I will contribute to it.

The old tradition of Sippenhaft- blaming the entire family for your crimes- see Lidice, etc...