The Pupcast

Summer (with music)

This is Summer, a 1940 short story by Italian, Communist, author, parliamentarian, and woman Natalia Ginzburg, translated form the Italian by Alex Valente. This is something of a downer, concerning as it does the then-taboo subjects of depression, suicide, and a rejection of motherhood. BUT she's white this time, and I think the Duolingo owl has more than enabled me to capture and understand the nuances in the Italian perspective. Watch out for me really putting my shoulder to the wheel in pronouncing "Osteria". I am almost a whole day behind schedule on this one due to struggling to find a suitable recording time - the uptick in traffic makes the room noisier during the day, and Pidge insists on beetling around during the night. I apologise, MY QUEEN The backing track is Two Rights Make One Wrong by Mogwai, which I chose because I think it is, like the story, somehow both uplifting and depressing, somehow both spacious and claustrophobic. Perhaps, coupled with the story, it is a challenging pairing that may not relax as well as it could, but it is certainly a bold combination that I think will be best appreciated by the true connoisseur.

Summer (no music)

This is Summer, a 1940 short story by Italian, Communist, author, parliamentarian, and woman Natalia Ginzburg, translated form the Italian by Alex Valente. This is something of a downer, concerning as it does the then-taboo subjects of depression, suicide, and a rejection of motherhood. BUT she's white this time, and I think the Duolingo owl has more than enabled me to capture and understand the nuances in the Italian perspective. Watch out for me really putting my shoulder to the wheel in pronouncing "Osteria". I am almost a whoel day behind schedule on this one due to struggling to find a suitable recording time - the uptick in traffic makes the room noisier during the day, and Pidge insists on beetling around during the night. I apologise, MY QUEEN There is no background music to this one, lest the pup be desirous of no music.

What It Means When a Man Falls From The Sky (music)

What It Means When a Man Falls From The Sky is part of a 2017 collection of Short Stories, by the same name, by Lesley Nneka Arimah. It’s a sort of quasi-sci-fi magical realism where a whole world gets built deftly and almost indirectly, but very vividly. One that rewards paying attention to the nuance, I suppose. Is it interesting that I should have chosen a Jamaican writer and a Nigerian writer right off the bat, leaving myself with choices to make about how, if at all, it is possible or acceptable for me to adopt these personae, voice their characters, and give life to their well-observed inner thoughts? Yes. It is interesting. The background music on this reading are four different tracks, all by a band called Labradford, called C, P, G, and S, respectively.

What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (no music)

What It Means When a Man Falls From The Sky is part of a 2017 collection of Short Stories, by the same name, by Lesley Nneka Arimah. It’s a sort of quasi-sci-fi magical realism where a whole world gets built deftly and almost indirectly, but very vividly. One that rewards paying attention to the nuance, I suppose. Is it interesting that I should have chosen a Jamaican writer and a Nigerian writer right off the bat, leaving myself with choices to make about how, if at all, it is possible or acceptable for me to adopt these personae, voice their characters, and give life to their well-observed inner thoughts? Yes. It is interesting. There is no background music to this one, lest the pup be desirous of no music. I love you!

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid (no music)

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid appeared first in the New Yorker in June 1978. It is a very arresting and structurally unusual piece, which makes it singularly inapposite for reading alound, and it is foundationally connected to a mother-daughter relationship in the specific context of an Antiguan family, making it singularly inapposite to be read by some white guy. Nonetheless, I liked it as a short story and so here it is. I have refrained from doing voices and/or accents for reasons that I assume will be uncontroversial. There are also a couple of stabs of colourful language that I think probably... isn't for me? And may also detract from this as a restful enterprise. But perhaps you will fall asleep before they kick in. This version lacks the Aphex Twin backing track found in its counterpart, in case that is what a pup prefers.