Save Me From My Shelf

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal.This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-fifth episode (which coincides with International Women's Day), we examine Margaret Attwood's dystopia about far-right misogyny, The Handmaid's Tale (1985). Turkey basters and Orwell klaxons at the ready!Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Gabriel Faure, 'Pie Jesu', Requiem.

The fifteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Duchess of Malfi episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal.This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-fourth episode and Valentine's Day special, we spent some sexy time with Gustave Flaubert's adulteress, Madame Bovary (1856), which was immediately banned for offenses against morality under the conservative rule of Napoleon III. We also play 'Spot the "Big F*ck"', develop the hashtag #NotAllNuns, and watch a character go through a C19th French version of It's Always Sunny's 'The D.E.N.N.I.S. System'.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Charles Gounod, 'La nuit de Walpurgis' (Act V), Faust (1859), Performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra

The fifteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Duchess of Malfi episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixty-third episode, we open Season 6 with a look at banned and controversial books with John Webster's hyper-violent Jacobean revenge tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi (1614). This play gives us our first authentic himbo sting in a while, as well as an Oscars-worthy In Memoriam.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Carlo Gesualdo, Moro lasso al mio duolo (1611), Performed by the MIT Chamber Chorus.

The fourteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Little Women episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixty-second episode and Christmas Special, we plunge through the ice into Louisa May Alcott's bildungsroman and first strong example of girls' YA fiction, Little Women (1869). We declare an ethno-feud on the Germans, figure out which March sister is the Wario, and discuss which is worse (in Alcott's universe): hitting or hitting on a minor.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Émile Waldteufel, 'The Skaters' Waltz', Op. 183 (1882)

The thirteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Heart of Darkness episode.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixty-first episode, we finally cover the most glaring omission on the show: Joseph Conrad's 1899 pre-modernism Imperial Gothic novella, Heart of Darkness. We close the circuit on our Things Fall Apart episode from S2 and get a cool International Man of Mystery sting which can sadly never be used in another episode.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Karol Szymanowski, 'Nocturne and Tarantella, Op. 28', 1915.