{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/4ca34052-7209-4d0b-ba7f-8380dea2dc89/0b66c69e-cfd8-4c72-839a-f27673da9fb5?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"#185: The Devils’ Books","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/61004fe4a4d9fae972ef6d30/61005028d9f77c0012135520.png?height=200","description":"<p>There are a lot of very good, very long books out there:&nbsp;<em>Middlemarch, War and Peace, Don Quixote,</em>&nbsp;the Neapolitan Novels. And then there are the very long books you probably won’t ever want to read, like Leonid Brezhnev’s memoirs, Saddam Hussein’s hackneyed romance novels, or the Kim family’s film theory. This show is about&nbsp;<em>that&nbsp;</em>kind of very long book, and the man who decided to read all of them: Daniel Kalder, who joins us on the show to talk about his journey through&nbsp;<em>The Infernal Library&nbsp;</em>and what&nbsp;these books tell us about the dictatorial soul, assuming&nbsp;there is one. This episode originally aired in 2018.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Go beyond the episode:</strong></p><ul><li>Daniel Kalder’s&nbsp;<a href=\"https://us.macmillan.com/theinfernallibrary/danielkalder/9781627793421/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy</em></a></li><li>Dive into Turkmenbashi’s&nbsp;<a href=\"https://archive.org/details/Ruhnama\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Ruhnama</em></a><em>,&nbsp;</em>if you dare.</li><li>Daniel Kalder reviews&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/mar/31/dictator-lit-saddam-hussein\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Saddam Hussein’s prose</a>—he&nbsp;“tortured metaphors, too”—or you can&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Zabiba-King-Author-Saddam-Hussein/dp/1589395859\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">read it yourself</a></li><li>Or check out Kalder’s dispatches from&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/books/series/dictator-lit\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Guardian’s&nbsp;</em>“Dictator-lit” archives</a></li><li>While we couldn’t find a video of Fidel Castro’s four-hour-and-29-minute address to the United Nations in 1960, you can&nbsp;<a href=\"https://archive.org/details/SpeechAtTheUnitedNationsGeneralAssemblySessionSeptember261960\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">read it</a>&nbsp;here</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.</p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe:&nbsp;<a href=\"http://itun.es/us/XPR6cb.c\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">iTunes</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href=\"http://feeds.feedburner.com/smarty_pants\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Feedburner&nbsp;</a>•&nbsp;<a href=\"http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=92290&amp;refid=stpr\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href=\"https://play.google.com/music/m/Iyowbdfmirqgn33nmdrhywqqeim?t=Smarty_Pants_from_The_American_Scholar\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Google Play</a>&nbsp;•&nbsp;<a href=\"https://www.acast.com/smartypants\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Acast</a></p><p><br></p><p>Have suggestions for projects you’d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes!</p>","author_name":"The American Scholar"}