March 21, 2025 • 50 mins
Class is in session! It’s time for the debut of the Pod Meets World Book Club.
The inaugural selection is “Blob: A Love Story” by Maggie Su, a Sci-Fi romantic mind-bender and our hosts have done their homework!!
While sharing their thoughts and opinions on the book’s symbolism, the gang is faced with the eternal question: which Boy Meets World character’s body part would you choose for your “blob?”
How many Turners do you give Blob?? And how many Feenies?
Face forward and pay attention! Don’t miss your chance to join the Pod Meets World Book Club today…
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Pod Meets World, where we usually rewatch Boy
Meets World episodes and talk about what it was like
making the show, But today we're trying something new. We
spent a lot of time on here. We're visiting the past,
the nineties, our television show and our memories of making it,
and so a lot of this podcast is about us
as hosts and you as listeners, figuring out who we
(00:42):
were back then, But what about who we are now?
What stories are we engaging with and how are they
helping us meet the world. So today we launch Pod
Meets World book Club Edition. We're going to pick a book,
read it, come together and talk about it. No scripts,
no lessons from Feenie, just the real I wrote, oh okay, please,
(01:06):
I didn't read the book. I watched the movie. No scripts,
some scripts, I guess maybe, no lessons from Feenie. Just
a real conversation about storytelling, literature, and whatever weird tangents
we end up on. Welcome to Podmeet's World. I'm Writer Strong,
I'm Danielle Fischel, and I'm will Fredell. Wow different order.
(01:26):
Love it was going to follow me love it all?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So how is this going to work? Well? We are
not completely sure, but here's what I'm thinking. Since I
picked the book today, I will introduce it and give
a brief synopsis of its plot, and then explain why
I picked it. And then uh, let's run this book
club like we are going back to the classroom. We'll
start with roll call, which is our initial overall thoughts
(01:53):
of the book. Then we'll move into put it on
the Board, which is where we can talk about the
themes or the big ideas that we found while we
were reading it. Then show your work, which is where
we'll talk about the writing itself on a sentence by
sentence level, characters, those kinds of things. Then we'll have
a pop quiz, we'll get to play a game or
ask a fun question about the book. And then finally
(02:15):
report card. We'll give our big takeaways and we will
give a rating that is based on awarding the book
either Feenie's or Turners. So I'll explain, okay, wow. For
our first book club pick, we are diving into Blob,
a love story by Maggie Sue. And before I get
(02:36):
into it, I think I should clarify a few things
about book selection, because you know, this is a little
different I realized than other book clubs that are out there,
like Oprah's or I think Reese Witherspoon has one where
they people listen to those and people trust what they
trust what they say. Well, you know, the difference is,
(02:57):
I think they select a book that they've already read
or that they are sort of giving editorial approval to
before they have the discussion. So it's usually like, if
that book has been selected, it's because they already knew
it was going to be good. Where's you know, and
we could probably move into that if we want to
down the line where each of us could pick a
favorite book or something that's you know, impacted us in
(03:17):
some way. But in this case, I really felt like
exploring something, you know, trying something that maybe will push
us out of our comfort zone because I guess fundamentally,
I am a literary omnivore. I tend to read about
six books at a time, and I'll read anything that
somebody recommends to me, but especially if it sounds different
(03:39):
than something that I've read before. You know, I like
to just try things out, which doesn't mean that I
don't have strong opinions. If that anybody's listening to this
podcast knows. I'm definitely interested in, you know, deciding whether
I like or don't like something and sharing those opinions
and debating them, changing them. And I think that my
(03:59):
goal is that by having those conversations, we make literature better,
we make culture better, right, and that we're not landing
on whether the book is ultimately good or bad, or
that we have the right or the wrong opinion. I
just like keeping the conversation going. But I'm going to
probably come down pretty passionately. Okay, So I.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, here's the thing, because I you know, I think
when we're assessing Boy Meets World, it's one thing, right,
We're talking about a show that we're part of the creation.
I think people give us permission to have our opinions.
But we're talking about someone else's work, it might feel
a little different. So I just wanted to, you know,
clarify we're just exploring. Okay. So I picked this book
Blob because I think it it just was an excellent
(04:43):
hook for a novel. It's something that the second I
heard what it was about, I wanted to read it
and I wanted to see where it went. I think
a lot of books are written and published and bought
because you know they fall in line with existing genres,
things that you've already read and you want to read
more like that, right, So that's where you get romance
and fantasy and mystery, and so that's the way. A
(05:04):
lot of books that are out there fall into those categories,
and I like a lot of them. But then I
like to read books that just mashup genres or try
to break from precedent. Blob a Love Story is just that,
a contemporary romance, maybe coming of age, with a level
of realism when it comes to the setting and the characters,
(05:24):
and yet we get a magical, mysterious, maybe alien blob
PLoP down in the middle, and that becomes the main
engine of its plot. Blob a Love Story is written
by Maggie Sue. She's a writer whose work has appeared
in New England Review, Four Wave Review, tri Quarterly Review,
and many more. She received her PhD in fiction from
the University of Cincinnati and has an MFA from Indiana University.
(05:47):
This is her debut novel. It was published in January
of this year, twenty twenty five, and it quickly got
a lot of attention for its unique premise. The synopsis
V Lou has always felt like an outsider in her
Midwestern college town, caught between her Taiwanese father's heritage and
her white mother's world. After dropping out of college and
(06:08):
still recovering from a recent breakup, she's stuck between her
job working at the front desk of a hotel, where
she greets guests and dodges the relentless cheer of her coworker, Rachel.
The story begins when V, in a rare moment of extraversion,
decides to join Rachel for a night out. They attend
a drag show, where, stepping into an alley behind the bar,
(06:29):
V stumbles upon a peculiar, squishy creature with tiny black
eyes on a whim. Equal parts drunk and lonely, she
takes the blob home. But this mysterious blob isn't just
a stray pet. It begins to grow, take shape, and
even follow V's commands. Seeing an opportunity, she decides to
mold it into the perfect companion. Fueled by sugary cereals
(06:50):
and a steady diet of pop culture, the blob transforms
into a strikingly attractive white man seemingly designed to love
her without question. All right, let's get into roll call
our initial overall thoughts. Guys, who wants to start? What
was your initial reaction to this book?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
You want to go first? Well, or you want me
to go first?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You go first?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Okay, So like you, I love a book that has
a real realistic setting but something about it is just
fantastical or totally mysterious. I also love a book where,
because of that, you would imagine it's the type of
feeling where you put it down because you have to
(07:34):
go to sleep or because you have to go do
something else, and then you just you keep thinking about,
like what is going to happen next.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It kind of has you on the edge of.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Your seat, like I can't because anything could happen, and
I can't really envision where it's going. And I was
thinking I was going to feel that way about this book.
What I will say, although I overall thoughts, I thought.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
There were very interesting elements.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
There were very funny elements, although in a very dry,
kind of understated way. It's it's not beating you over
the head with its humor, but the humor is there, uh.
And I loved some of the characters. There's like several
things I really liked about it. I will say about
halfway through the book, I put it down because I
had to go pick up the kids from school, and
(08:18):
I didn't get to it later that night and like
a couple days past, and I thought, I'm not sure
if I didn't have to finish this for book club,
I would even care whether or not I finished the book.
I'm okay not necessarily knowing what ends up happening with
the Blob env So in that sense, it didn't necessarily
(08:40):
hook me the way I wanted it to.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I also.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Am a very like I envision things when you know
when when a writer writes something and they give it
in detail, and like, definitely the blob is a man.
Is something Maggie Sue wants you to envision. She gives
you reference points, you know, famous Hollywood men, and she's
describing this like hot dude, and like, all right, I'll
(09:06):
picture a hot dude. I had a hard time picturing
anything other than the water shape man from the movie Elemental.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Oh interesting because I haven't seen it, but I.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Could so easily picture the gelatinous blob. I could in
no way get my imagination to go to a place
where that gelatinous blob actually.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Became human skin, man and human shape.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I thought of him still as kind of a gelatinous man, right,
and so that always kept I kept bumping up against that, like, wait,
he's he's passable at all as a as a as
a man. So that those are I would say, those
are kind of my overall thoughts.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah good. I also was wondering, like, if I was
going to make a movie of this, what would it
actually look like? And it was hard. It was hard
to pin down, which maybe a strength and you know
I'm not a weakness, but I'm not sure. Will How
did it compare with your expectations? I had none.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I truly had no expectations going in. You know the
kind of books I left to read. So if you're
gonna have some sort of a magical element, I'm one
of those people where I need an explanation of some
sort of magical element, the idea of like it can
be anything.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Just use your imagination. I don't want to use my imagination.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I want you to use yours and tell me more
about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
My favorite fantasy novels are novels where the worlds are
so built out that the intricacy is I mean again,
the first series of books that I ever found are
called the Belgariad series, And after he wrote these fourteen books,
he wrote something called the Riven Codex, which was a
breakdown of the entire world down to the weights and
measures of every country that's involved in this world.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So that's the kind of intricacy I like when you're
doing anything fantastical.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It was an easy read, very quick.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Again, I felt exactly like Danielle, where if I didn't,
I'm a completist, so will the second I read one word,
I have to finish it. But I wasn't excited to
finish it. It wasn't like I can't wait to see
what happens next. I had a little trouble connecting with
the lead character just because it's you know, it's an
Asian woman who's dealing with depression and alcoholism, so seeing
(11:24):
anything from her point of view is obviously something that's
a very difficult thing for me to do. But I
thought at times she described it well. But I also
agree with Danielle where a lot of the descriptions and
again I'm very used to fourteen hundred page books where
there will be five pages on the rug you're standing on,
So it gets to be a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But you know exactly what the rug look.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Likes when you turn the page, if you had had
a chapter about or not even a chapter even lines
of every time the blob does do a shift, what
does it sound like?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
What is you know? What does the skin feel like?
What is it look like?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
What does the transformation taking place feel like it? I
thought she could have gone into more depth with that.
I loved the pop culture references. I loved how she
used the pop culture references. There's a lot of pop
culture references. I'm guessing most readers, including the two of you,
probably did not pick up. There are direct lines in
here from Seinfeld, direct lines in here from friends.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
She named her best friends named is Rachel. I'm telling you, with.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
All her pop culture stuff, that is a take off
of Rachel from Friends. And her building manager is Jerry,
and I'm guessing that's Jerry Seinfeld. I mean, she loves
the pop culture stuff so much, so I like that stuff.
I also love an occasional good cringey moment. And there
were a couple in here that were so cringing that
you want to drop the book, which again I dig that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I kind of like that.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
So yeah, with no expectations going in, I finished and
I was like, Okay, I read it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
You're right.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Well, there are definitely references I did not pick up on.
But so much of the the book could very easily
fall into a category that would be like op culture commentary.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
So much of it is commenting on who we are
because of the media or because of the things we consume.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Yeah, like what is our output because of what we input?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
A lot of it is also I think a lot
of it has to do with Maggie Sue, the author,
trying to She makes so many references to America and Americana.
It's almost like she grew up in her life as
a Taiwanese American in the Midwest having to prove she
was an American. So in this book, it's like I
(13:38):
wrote down the names that she used for the characters Rachel, Walter, Luke, Alex, Mary, Bob, Stephanie, Doug, Matt,
Paul Tony. These are all like the easiest American names.
She's constantly talking about eating I got my chicken sandwich
at McDonald.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
She's like, I'm an American. I'm an American. It's almost
seemed like the restaurants, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Had to constantly prove to herself because she was a
Taiwanese American that she was as American as everybody else.
And I don't know if that was deliberate or that's
led into her writing because she's I want everyone I'm
an American.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
No, I think that's that's very much what this book is, right,
Let's put it on the board because I think I think, yeah, like,
let's get into the big themes or the ideas that
we can really pull out from from this book. And
I let's start with exactly what you're saying. It seems
like a lot of this book is about identity, right
(14:33):
like how we beforem who we are and in these
case that it has to do with race, gender, and job.
So do you guys, could you isolate? Could you say
one theme that you think that this book is definitely about.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
It would be hard, but I think if I were
to pick one thing, I would think I would say
it is about these realization that she is capable.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Of self determination.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Well, yes, in deciding who she is without needing external
validation or external like a sounding board. She's like, who
do you think I am? And then that's maybe that
will to help me define myself. She can define herself
without input from an external source. If I had those,
(15:25):
if I had to say one sentence, it would be that.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I felt the same way. It's like almost like she
finds a blob, and then we get these chapters describing her,
like basically memoir chapters, going back into her history and
time and time again, it seems like, oh, she's the blob, right,
she has let herself be amorphous and let herself be
determined by her classmates, her crushes, whatever. And so by
(15:49):
the process of making taking this blob and making it
into her perfect boyfriend, she's actually discovering that she has
been allowed herself to be molded by her job, by
her family, family friends.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
And also that her perfect boyfriend she thinks is a
white man, the same people she's been getting a lot
of feedback from her entire life, right, right.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So where do you think that lands?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Then?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
When she doesn't end up with Bob.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
But that's the thing, is I think that that's the
the the also a theme of the it's it's an idealism.
It's the idea that perfection is unattainable, even if you're
the one creating it. Yes, So it's like, oh, I've
got the perfect idea if I just get this is
this is.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Unfortunately, what the American dream is becoming.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And when you you mix that with the mass amounts
of anxiety and depression that are going on in our
culture right now, the idea of if I just get this,
I'll then be happy, right, And then when you attain
that and you're still not happy, you're like, well, then
what the hell do I do? So I think in
her mind, she's building the perfect man, and then when
(16:56):
he eventually up and leaves her for her perfect white
toothed best friend, it's like, oh, I can't even build
my ideal person right.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Because she figured out he's person right exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I just wish she didn't. I wish the author didn't
spell that out. And there is a specific line there
where she's like, and that's when I realized I had
become the blob. And it's like, Okay, you didn't need
to write like let us figure that out.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
You don't.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You don't need to put that in there. It's like,
I got where you were going with that. I didn't
need it thrown thrown at me.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well, but I think I think the bigger, the bigger
thought that I like jotted down. I think we tend
to think as a culture and as individuals, we tend
to think of our identity as as something that is
self contained, that it's ours, right, Like I am this
type of person, I come from this type of family,
and if I'm going to change my identity, I have
to change me. I have to work on myself, right.
(17:48):
But it seems to me, actually, so much of the
notion of identity gets broken down. So it's more about
how other people perceive you, so that when you change
your identity, it changes everyone around you. So when she's
pretending to be Elliott's boy girlfriend for a night right,
that destabilizes her and everybody around It's like, whatever choices
(18:10):
you make about yourself, they don't just determine who you are,
they also determine who everybody else is. Right, everybody else
has to potentially change their pronouns based on your gender.
Everybody else is affected, and so it's like this sort
of interconnectedness of identity. Ultimately, more where the book lands,
which I thought was pretty cool and kind of revolutionary. Like,
(18:30):
you know a lot of these sort of coming of
age stories that I would put this in, you know,
they tend to land where somebody's like and then I
changed who I am and I became my true self.
This book kind of ends with her just saying I'm
going to keep trying. I'm gonna photography might be my thing,
but yeah, but she's gonna She's going to look at
the people around her and engage with them in a
(18:53):
new way.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
The king that's also interesting, and they have a couple
a couple of the characters literally do this is everybody
at one point or another is playing a role, right,
So it's like her parents are playing the role of
looking like the perfect American family, her friend is playing
the role of being the good friend, but is also
actually an actor. Elliott is playing the role of being straight.
The blob is trying to play a role of then
(19:16):
what is his role?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And it's a human being?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And he literally becomes an actor at the end because
he's absorbed so much. He's me in a way in
that he just sat there absorbing so much TV that
now he's got to go be TV.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So there's you know there, but everybody was playing a role.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And I think at the end she realized she was like,
I'm just not going to play anymore, and I'm just
going to kind of try to figure out what the
hell my next steps are.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Right well, to combine the things you two said, it's
really she comes to terms with realizing like, oh, I
have played a role in society. I've played a role
in my family and the way they react to me,
the way she often describes the way her mom tenses
up when she says or does something, and she knows
like they're so used to me being reactionary or they
(20:00):
are so used to me being this way that it
affects the way they talk about me, It affects where
we go, it affects and like, instead of just putting
that on them, she goes, I also am contributing to this.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
We're all feeding off of each other.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, yeah, that's part of what I love. When she
brings the blob home for Bob as a man home
is when she finally starts noticing things about her family
but she's never noticed did my mom always cook this? Well?
Not always. It's like she's finally able to see her
relationships or see other people because she's brought through Bob's
eyes and it helps her be like, oh, I've also
(20:40):
I've also been an asshole. Like that's what's so funny
that the book begins from a kind of defensive place
of like, I'm just a wallflower. Everybody else has so
strong opinions and I just sort of am passive. Like
that's the way she kind of introduces herself. And then
throughout the course of the book, you're like, she's a drunk,
she's kind of a she's mean to people, she's terrible,
and you know, it's like it's like the slow realization
(21:02):
that she is actually affecting everybody around her house and
that she's kind of made her own bed, like she's
put herself in this position. I thought that was really effective,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Did you also notice that her journey as a character
mimicked Bob growing meaning, meaning when Bob was just eyes,
she started to see everything around. When Bob began a hand,
she started to get out and actually physically touch people.
She had her doing that. When Bob grew legs, she
was going out more. So it was like everything that
happened with Bob was almost mirrored in kind of her
(21:33):
journey as a person, which I thought was again and
then that's again her first reaction when he grew legs
was like, Okay, do I chain him up? How do
I keep him here to? I mean, it's just yeah,
it's really kind of amazing. And again, that's one of
the first tropes you talked about her parents them selling
the house right out from under her.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
That's a storyline in Friends.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
That's what That's what Monica's parents do, is they sell
her house out from So there's a couple things that
happen here that are straight from pop culture.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Okay, well, let's let's move into the next section, which
I'm calling show your work and get into the writing itself,
her voice as a character and as a narrator. What
did you guys think of it? How would you describe it?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I would say it is dead pan comedy. Yes, it's
ry y, Yes, it's ry. It's self deprecating. It's also yeah,
she's right hard on herself, hard on herself constantly. Yeah, yeah, incriminating, deprecating, uh,
(22:34):
and also casual. There's nothing there's nothing pretentious or formal.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Read it is very easy.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
This this to me, and you know, we always do this.
We do this all the episodes of Boying th World.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Here's what I would have done.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
And it's like, it's like, oh yeah, when I write
my novel, but this to me seem like what would
have been cool?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I would love to have seen this. And again, it's
just the way my mind works.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
If say I was fourteen and it was a while
and she finds the blob and the first half of
the book she's raising the blob. In the second half
of the book, it joins her in high school. Like,
that's kind of where the tone of this was for me,
which then thrown in kind of it threw me then
because then you turn the page and she'd be talking
about masturbating and it was like, oh, oh that came Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That's right. It's not a young not like it's you
know what I mean, it's right. Well, I do think
that the book, you know, it makes this transition I
would say, what fifty or sixty pages in where we
get our first sort of flashback sequence. Yeah, and it does.
The book ends up spending a lot of time in
her youth. And I found those transitions a little hard.
(23:38):
I was every time I was like, wait, why are
we getting this this flashback of this scene. I could
have almost done without them entirely. I because when we
were in the present tense, when we were with with V,
are we going with V or V? Which was I
thought it was V? I thought it was very like
I thought V I. I thought it was short for
violet or something I was. I would say, you.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Say, we're saying the but you said that.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
That's what you say Potatoe else in the world.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, I found those flashbacks. I think that they they
helped develop some of the conflicts that you know, we've
already talked about, you know, cultural conflicts and racial and
gender identity and all that, but they were not nearly
as entertaining and and I'm not sure that they contributed
much to the current story. And you know, my experience
(24:25):
going back to Danielle's first overall impression was where you
had to put you put the book down and you
were like, do I want to go back? I definitely
went on a similar journey. And I think this is
why is because I think that middle section of the book,
once we get the plot of Bob Blob, anytime that
we take a pause, go back to being eleven years old,
I'm like, where's this that doesn't I don't know if
(24:47):
I need that. But then when the book picked back
up again with the current plot of Bob getting out,
Bob leaving her, her being Elliott's date, and that so
much energy, and then then I really tore through the
rest of the book because that picked it back up.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
You're exactly right. I felt exactly the same way.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
There was like a midway point before we got into
all of that where I was like, I don't know
that I would normally finish this, But once I got
back into it, I was like.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Oh, I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, no, I literally I I yelled at one point
where with the whole party scene where where she was
everyone looks over and everyone's watching or kiss. The guy
was like, oh, you want to drop the book at
that point. So, I mean there were moments in it
that were absolutely chef's kiss.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And I think that that's you know, that's an accomplishment,
you know, like that that we we we did lose
she lost us a little bit, you know, it slowed
down a little bit, but the fact that it picks
back up, and I do think that, you know, and
the book is short we're not talking too long. So
even when we're talking about like it's slowing down, we're
really only talking about twenty Yeah. So I but I
(25:56):
do think that the writing, you know, an editorial like slicing,
it could have been shorter, It could have been a
little just just a little bit. All right, let's pop quiz.
(26:18):
This is the section where we're gonna ask a question
or play get a buzzer or there's We're not gonna
play a game with this one. This is a question
that Jensen carp Our, lovely producer, came up with podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Oh god, I bet you I know what the question
is going to be. Really yeah, it's gonna be something
like if you had a blob of your.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Own, your own blob? There you go? Which body part
from a Boy Meets World character? Are you picking? First?
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Wait? Am I supposed to want to have sex with
this blob?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
It's your ultimate or your ultimate partner?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Oh gosh, is like Mary f kill my god.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
This is tough. Let's see you do you give do
you give it? Phoene's brain do you give it? Writer
Strong's hair? Do you give it? I don't want to
bang Daniel.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Okay, not to sound creepy, but Daniel Fisher lips is
not a bad place to start.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
But I don't want to start with the lips.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I might go Ben Savage washboard apps.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Okay, I might go Amy Matthew's Compassion.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Oh well, it's true.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I mean if you start there, right, did you love
a mommy?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, that's so creepy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That is so creepy. No, I would go the girl
like Tushy danced with No right, right right? I don't
know what about you writer? You have one? I don't actually, yeah,
I'm trying to think, Uh, there was with such with
such good hair in general, and boy, it's kind of
hard to avoid that.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
We also don't have We only have like two real girls,
our own idea to pick from.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
So it's like I want Danielle Like, that's not gonna
as a word, right, you can't do that. I watched that,
which I hadn't even thought about was Phoene's brain, right,
Like brain's a good one. It's like, really if you can, Yeah,
I don't know how I would get the blob to
form that way? I can question? Can I switch up
the question? Please? If each of us could pick.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
One body part for another person, like writer, if you
had to build the perfect partner for Danielle, what's the
first body part from a Boy Meets World cast member
you would put on Danielle's partner.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Just Matt Lawrence. When we talked about him coming to
the set, she was like, Wow, we had some good
looking guys on the show, but now we have.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
You guys were good looking.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Your liver lab Matt Lawrence became blobs. Matt Lawrence took over.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
That's pretty funny.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I just would like to point out that YouTube picked
compassion and Brains and I picked.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
So you're more like the we take it nice, very sweet,
all right, report card? Okay, any of the sort of
or any other coming of age or maybe Redemption story books?
Is there another book that you would compare this to.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
You know, for me, I have a very hard time
relating to this modern a modern coming of age?
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Me too, I found it. That's for me. That was
the problem, the pop cultural references that I was like,
I am so old. This is your pop culture.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
No, your pop culture alliterate because the references that she's
using are references from when we were She did a
ton of ninety stuff. I mean, it was friends and
Seinfeld I will.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Say it didn't make me feel old. I didn't feel
old reading it.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
What I felt was coming of age for millennials or
gen X.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
There's a lot more.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Commitment to work ethic rat Race like six, like classic
success in the sense of like I had to go
to college. My school is very important to my family.
I don't want to let them down. I finished school.
I have to get a job. And then finding yourself going,
(30:44):
oh my gosh, I'm exhausted and how did I get here?
And I don't know that this is the life I
would have chosen for myself. But look at what I've built.
It seems like a lot of modern coming of age
is like I don't want to get out of bed today.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I'm just going to show up late.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
To my job on a Tuesday. Yeah, I get I.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Get drunk every night.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
I'm like, and I was just like, I can't I do.
I don't hide. This is giving me edge, aed like
I've never heard of anybody be worse.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
At their job.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah, this is I know that this is what gen
Z experiences and I just have you know, like Will
saying he's not Asian, and so he does he doesn't
pretend to be able to know what it feels like.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Similarly, I don't.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
I cannot relate to that feeling, and so I I
just know it's not for me.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
It doesn't mean it's bad. It's just I'm not the demo.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
I'm not the I'm not the person who's supposed to
go got it relate?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
You're speaking my language, right.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
So if she's was gonna do flashbacks flashing back to
right before the breakup, yeah, even more than we did,
because we we see.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
What she's like.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I mean, we're coming up on this, this in mid
depression where she cannot get over this break even though
it's this breakup, even though it happened I think she
said eight months ago, it's been very rough on her.
If we saw a couple of flashbacks from before that
where she was actually very good at her job, she
was attentive, she was not maybe not climbing the ladder,
but was cleaning up her apartment, was doing you know,
(32:19):
and it's the breakup that made her like this, I
think I would have had more compassion for the character
than I do, where it's just kind of like, oh,
you are the blob, which I get was kind of
what it was supposed to be, but it's like you
don't care about your job. You're rude to your friends
a lot of the times, if you even have any,
You're very selfish at times, you're a raging alcoholic.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I mean, it's like, did all of that.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Happen because of the breakup, because then that's one character,
and I would think about the character a certain way,
or was she like that?
Speaker 1 (32:47):
And just it's been exacerbated by the break I think
she was like that. I think. So that's the takeaway.
And so I think you guys are both kind of
saying the same thing differently, which is that this is
really a specifically an eel on we this sort of
like we have all the opportunities, right, Like we have
all the avenues open to us. I could be a
(33:08):
doctor like my brother, I could be, you know, married
at this age like my parents were. I could be
everybody else seems to have like content with their paths,
and yet she just shuts down and has never been able.
And I think that is specifically something you know, like
at this age for me, like I was just so
driven in too many directions right. If anything, it was
(33:28):
like I didn't take enough time to just relax and enjoy,
and I think that that speaks to something that the
younger general, the younger generation for whom I think this
book is written. You know, I think this book is
clearly aimed at people thirty five and under or maybe
forty and under, and we're just on the other side
of that. I think part of the problem generationally is
(33:50):
that they do have so much comfort. They can just
sit at home and get everything on their screen. They
can't have entirely developed social life without leaving their computer.
You know that that is that's new. That's not something
we We had to get out of the house. We
had to have jobs just to have a life. That's
not true anymore. And so why work? Why why go
(34:12):
to college? Why do you any you know, just so
you can get more money, you know, like to sit
at home and flip through Instagram anyway.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
And think that's a very right problem anyone else's life
as being so good, Like it's not like she looked
at her brother. Her brother was also super stressed and
always and her parents didn't seem like they were thrilled
with their lives either, So she kind of was looking around,
like all these paths lead to me.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
The only the only one. I think it was truly
happy in the entire book. Was her boss walters like,
I'm pathetic in her eyes exactly because it assaults her
when she points that out. Yeah, so I think that
that's what we're meant to feel, that everybody's kind of
a sucker if they pick a path, right, Like, no
matter what path you choose, you're kind of either you're
(34:59):
falling for somebody else's narrative that's not going to make
you happy. So it's Ethan Hawk again in reality bites.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It's the kind of you pick a path, you're a sellout,
or where it's not even sellout, because.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I think I think this book is smarter than that.
I think it's describing the problem. And also, you know
it's not it's certainly not celebrating v like it's you know,
it's not saying that she's doing the right things by
succumbing to this perfect man her exactly.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
So I mean, yeah, that's the whole point is that
she is this is you know, well it's not supposed
to be.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Well, what what do you think about the end? Then?
What does the ending give you? Is there hope? Is
this a is this ultimately a hope filled novel about
she does find a path or does it? What do
you guys think of?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Where do you think it landed and ended very hopefully.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
I thought it landed in a place that I really
did think there was enough of a realization, enough of
a self awareness that came to her throughout the course
of this experience, and men all the experiences that this
experience brought into her life that did actually make her
decide that she needed to be an active participant in
(36:05):
her life and that decisions needed to be made, and
that she couldn't just keep like letting life passer by.
So whether or not she's going to get it all right,
there's no real right. I didn't feel like she's now
going to have a great life, but I felt hopeful
that there was going to be a change, a positive change,
that she was at least going to start in acting,
And so I felt very hopeful at the end.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, me too, will I felt kind of the same
way I felt her life was.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's weird. I had a strange combination.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I felt her life was definitely on the upswing, and
there is certainly hope, and I don't need to check
back on.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Her to make sure her life is doing okay. It's
interesting because I think story wise, plot wise, there's this
potential boyfriend, the new guy that she hands up with,
and there's the photography and going back to school. But
it didn't feel like either one of those things is
the definite solution. It just felt like those were sort
of the engines too for her to realize, I get
(36:59):
to pick my own path and I no longer need
to succumb to somebody else's pressure of who I should be,
nor just sit around and think it's gonna happen. I'm
going to have to just do it, and whatever I do,
I should be happy with, you know, just you know,
kind of a weird paradoxical zen you know, maybe nonsensical,
(37:19):
but it's true, right, Like by just making a decision,
she's going to feel better, and then that decision is
going to give her meaning and a sense of purpose.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
It reminds me of a friend of mine who once said,
all right, I've decided I am going to join online
dating and I.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Was like, wow, really you're going to do it?
Speaker 4 (37:38):
And he was like yeah, but only because I realized
girls don't just knock into your apartment door and we're
to go out with you, right, you have you've realized
that if a relationship is something you want, you cannot
sit on your couch every single day and wait for that.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
But you can't tell somebody that they got to kind
of discover it themselves, right, Yeah, we all have to
live through it.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, And I love how she was standing right next
to Rachel behind this counter because essentially you have two
people in exactly the same place in their life, literally
exactly in the same place in your life. You have
one who can fake it when she needs to and
one who can't. And sometimes you need to fake happiness
until you can actually find happiness.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And it's the people that don't know how to fake
it ever, who are like five, You know, when you
had Rachel, who was you could tell was also depressed
and upset, and her life is exactly where Vice is,
but could just fake it.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
And where Rachel ends up is way sadder than where
v ends up, right, because Rachel and the blobber they're
they're so they're making their dreams come true, but it
feels way worse.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
It's fake and vapid, and it is two big toothy
smiles out in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah. Yeah, Okay, let's let's rate this book by giving
it Phoeni's or Turners, now a turner one through five,
one through five of each. Uh. Turner, as we all remember,
is the hip, cool teacher who makes reading fun. Okay,
makes it makes it a fun easy read.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
And you maybe are absorbing a lot, but that's not
the point. The point is to enjoy the process. Until taught,
Phoenie was a stodgy, old fashioned card to understand classic
ultimately good for you. He taught you the life lesson,
gave you the value. So the amount of Phoenies one
(39:34):
through five is how much is this book good for you?
How much did it teach you? Did you take away?
As the actual I'm going to carry this forward in
my life.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Being the most educational one being okay, right.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Who wants to go first? I'll go first?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Should we do Turners and then Phoenie' or should Phoene? However, well,
then starting with Turner. If you're talking about hip easy
to read, then it'll score high on the Turner scale
for me. You know, I would say, between are we
allowed points? Can I do like a three point five?
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Like at you pa?
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
If I would give this a three point five Turners
and that you know, again it is a fast read.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
The pros is good.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You know, it's well written, So yeah, I would as
as it's got great pop culture references. There's you know,
they're throwing in She's being texted and you've got which
again is going to be a whole new part of literature,
or how texting comes into play and when you.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Text and why you text.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
There's a whole culture behind that, so you know, in
that sense, I think it will score higher on the
Turner scale for me, and I'm going to give it
three point five.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Holding your helmet, Turners.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Okay, my Feenie's of what I learned again exactly like
what Danielle was saying, I think I just missed my
window for a lot of what this book means because
I'm from a different generation, so it while it might
resonate with somebody thirty who dealt with just lying on
their couch and drinking on a Tuesday night and not
really having any motivation and not cleaning up after themselves
(41:03):
and being a dick to their boss and not being
good at their job, in that sense, I didn't learn
much other than I'm glad I'm not part of that generation,
if that, if that's what that generation is like.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
And again that's a huge generalization, of.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Course, but for the most part, I would say I
didn't learn a whole lot, so I would say.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Two point five Phoenies.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
So two point five Pheenies and three point five turners
I would.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Say for for this book. No, no, I take that back.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I'm gonna say three Phoenies and three point five turners
is what I would say for this book. I did
I raise it. I think I was being a little harsh. Yeah,
I'll do three point five turners and three Phoenies.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
For the turners. I think I would give this a
three out of five turners.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
I think.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
Right right around three is it feels good for me? Definitely,
a lot of cool references like Will said, lots of
things I liked, I love I love some dead pan humor.
And as far as the Phoenies go, I think for
a younger generation, I'll say for someone under thirty, I
(42:13):
think this struggle and this realization about the active role
you have to play in your own life and the
active role the people you have in your life, how
they affect you and how you affect them.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
If you if you are just.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Now starting to your brain's starting to turn on and
recognize those things and see that.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
I could see this book being very helpful and very enlightening.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
So I think if you are under thirty, I could
see how this could be a three or a four
out of five Feenies for you. For me, I would
say it was about a one and a half Phoenies,
so mind on the scale, low on the Phoenie scale
for me, but I could see how for I'm, like
I said, I am not trying to pretend that I'm
(42:58):
who this book is written for. I still enjoyed it.
I still it was, like you said, so easy. It's
not like I look back on it and I think, oh,
I wish I didn't read that. I'm happy that I
read it. Isn't isn't going to change my life. But
I do think for a younger generation it could be.
It could be very helpful.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah, I'm right with you, Danielle. I'm I'm same exact
thinking I give it higher marks on the Turner scale.
I'm actually going to give this like a four point
five because I really I just like, I think we're
kind of taking for granted just the idea, just the concept,
if you think about if you think about this, this
book in the tradition of stories about romance, like, especially
(43:40):
for younger generation, romance with a monster, like the Twilight
books or or Shape of Water as a movie, did
you I'm trying to. I mean, even going back to
like Beauty and the Beast, there is a tradition of like,
uh oh, there was a movie called Warm Bodies about
falling in love with the zombie. I think this book
is really a clever like to do the blob or
(44:02):
a blob as like the monster that you fall in
love with. That's super cool, and I think she does
a really good job of taking that metaphor or surreal
element and pulling a lot out of it. Actually, so
it's super fun. I think it's an easy, easy read
for anybody, and like, this would be a good gift
(44:23):
book because I feel like you hand this to somebody
and they're going to be like what, and that just
that question of like what, and then it's not a
slog like you get through it so fast. Yeah, she
nailed it. So to me, it's it's short enough and
fun enough to read, especially for younger people. It's really
an accomplishment to pull that off, so four point five turners.
Poene's exactly like you, Danielle, if I'm thinking about for
(44:45):
me too at most, But if I think about the
way that young people think about the world, I mean
even just looking at my son Indy and how he
communicates with his friends, I think this book could really
get under their skin in a way that Phoene could
and teach them a lot. So I'm going to give
it three phoenies ultimately, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Can I I want I have one other question.
Speaker 4 (45:19):
I have one other question that because I and I
wonder if Will thought of it at all, or if
it's just because I'm a.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Parent, did it bump any of you or did at
any point.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
You wonder why she didn't think of the Blob more
as a child than as a as a partner.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
That's exactly what I Yeah, I forgot that the title
was actually Blob a love story, So at a certain
point I started thinking right early on, I started thinking, oh,
this is going to be about raise, and she makes
references to this is how my mom must have felt
when she's taking care of the Blob, and I thought
that that that was going to and I think maybe
even Maggie Sue as a writer started it and didn't know,
(45:55):
Like I think it kind of evolved the same way
that Bob evolved. When I first heard about this book,
I thought it was going to be more surreal and
more Actually my brain went darker, I guess because I
thought of like the Blob as a monster, as a
horror thing or an alien. Like some of my favorite
authors in this wheelhouse of like surreal touches is this
woman Amy Bender, and then this other woman Carmen Maria Machada,
(46:19):
and they both write short stories, which I think is
important to note, like they do similar things, but they
keep it very short. And like Amy Bender has this
incredible short story about I think it's called the Potato People,
and it's about her or this woman carving people out
of potatoes and then they start to come to life
and then she has to take care of them and
they keep multiplying. You know. This book had to like
(46:41):
stay in the real world, have actual consequences. It was
pop culturally connected, so it's very different tones. But yeah,
I thought that I thought it was going to go
the motherhood route. I was convinced that was going to
be the point of this This also is a kind
of a generational thing, right, Yes, I think for our
generation finding purpose in life. For a lot of people,
for better or worse, became well, I'll have kids and
(47:02):
that'll fix all my problems. Yeah, which I don't think
that even occurs to people under thirty five these days.
I think their first thought is if I just found
the perfect partner that would fix all my problems. Both
are you know, probably bad ideas, and this book explored
the one that I think concerns their generation. One. I
do too, but I don't think VI knows either.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
And I think that's what Maggie Sue did that's very
interesting is at the end, because of the Blob, because
of Bob, she has a better relationship with both her
parents and a potential mate. Yeah, so it worked on
both levels where she did see him at times like wow,
maybe my mom felt like this and.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Their relationship got better. Well, well my ex boyfriend what
Alan was an Alex r ex boyfriend was Luke? What
Luke thought about that?
Speaker 2 (47:41):
And maybe she used some of that and so she's
maybe starting to date a new guy. So it kind
of taught her a little bit about both. But yeah,
she didn't seem particularly maternal.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Do we have a book that we're going to pick next.
Will do you want to pick the next one?
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I would love to if we can.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
Okay, let's do it. Do you have one?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I do?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I was going to pick one, but now I'm going
to switch it up. Song okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Oh wow, I'm going to get it right now. This
is exciting.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
So I was going to start with the first book
that ever got me into fantasy, which is a much
younger book called The Pawn of Prophecy.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
We will do that eventually. It's wonderful and amazing.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
But what I want to keep with more of the
I want to get writer.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
I can kind of figure out how to get there.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
I think if with Danielle and fantasy, if I go
something that smacks a little bit of Harry Potter m hmm,
without it being Harry Potter, that if I hit on
some of those tropes, I think I might be able
to hook Danielle into the world of fantasy. So we
were going with an absolutely phenomenal author. Her name is
Nao Minovic, and she just came out with a trilogy
(48:42):
that's called A Deadly Education. It's less than one of
the School Elements books.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Great and have you already read this book. I have
read this book. I have wrote this book. Yes, and
I will be reading it in different mode, dude, slightly
different mode.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
No, well, it's this is a Deadly Education is the first.
It's less than one of the school emans. So this
is an absolutely wonderful, dark kind of take it is.
I mean, should we read the No, I'm not even
to let you guys figure everything out.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Let everybody go check it out.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Deadly Education.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
She's an absolutely wonderful and incredible writer. It's a great,
a great fantasy series.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
So this is and it's relatively new, this is this
is I think the first one came out in like
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
So yeah, you're gonna like this one.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
I think anybody who likes the idea of a magical
school or a school where there's murder and death coupled
with magic, this is absolutely going to be your jam.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
You're going to do it all right.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Awesome, So you have about one month to read it.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Thanks for joining us for this episode of Pod meets
World Book Club Edition. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.
And we've got merch, But what does the merch mean?
If you really dissect it? Podmeetsworldshow dot com. Danielle send
(50:11):
us out.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 4 (50:15):
Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
by Danielle Fischel Wilfridell and writer Strong Executive producers Jensen
Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and
Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is
by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at
(50:36):
podmeets World Show or email us at Podmeets Worldshow at
gmail dot com
Welcome to Pod Meets World, where we usually rewatch Boy
Meets World episodes and talk about what it was like
making the show, But today we're trying something new. We
spent a lot of time on here. We're visiting the past,
the nineties, our television show and our memories of making it,
and so a lot of this podcast is about us
as hosts and you as listeners, figuring out who we
(00:42):
were back then, But what about who we are now?
What stories are we engaging with and how are they
helping us meet the world. So today we launch Pod
Meets World book Club Edition. We're going to pick a book,
read it, come together and talk about it. No scripts,
no lessons from Feenie, just the real I wrote, oh okay, please,
(01:06):
I didn't read the book. I watched the movie. No scripts,
some scripts, I guess maybe, no lessons from Feenie. Just
a real conversation about storytelling, literature, and whatever weird tangents
we end up on. Welcome to Podmeet's World. I'm Writer Strong,
I'm Danielle Fischel, and I'm will Fredell. Wow different order.
(01:26):
Love it was going to follow me love it all?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So how is this going to work? Well? We are
not completely sure, but here's what I'm thinking. Since I
picked the book today, I will introduce it and give
a brief synopsis of its plot, and then explain why
I picked it. And then uh, let's run this book
club like we are going back to the classroom. We'll
start with roll call, which is our initial overall thoughts
(01:53):
of the book. Then we'll move into put it on
the Board, which is where we can talk about the
themes or the big ideas that we found while we
were reading it. Then show your work, which is where
we'll talk about the writing itself on a sentence by
sentence level, characters, those kinds of things. Then we'll have
a pop quiz, we'll get to play a game or
ask a fun question about the book. And then finally
(02:15):
report card. We'll give our big takeaways and we will
give a rating that is based on awarding the book
either Feenie's or Turners. So I'll explain, okay, wow. For
our first book club pick, we are diving into Blob,
a love story by Maggie Sue. And before I get
(02:36):
into it, I think I should clarify a few things
about book selection, because you know, this is a little
different I realized than other book clubs that are out there,
like Oprah's or I think Reese Witherspoon has one where
they people listen to those and people trust what they
trust what they say. Well, you know, the difference is,
(02:57):
I think they select a book that they've already read
or that they are sort of giving editorial approval to
before they have the discussion. So it's usually like, if
that book has been selected, it's because they already knew
it was going to be good. Where's you know, and
we could probably move into that if we want to
down the line where each of us could pick a
favorite book or something that's you know, impacted us in
(03:17):
some way. But in this case, I really felt like
exploring something, you know, trying something that maybe will push
us out of our comfort zone because I guess fundamentally,
I am a literary omnivore. I tend to read about
six books at a time, and I'll read anything that
somebody recommends to me, but especially if it sounds different
(03:39):
than something that I've read before. You know, I like
to just try things out, which doesn't mean that I
don't have strong opinions. If that anybody's listening to this
podcast knows. I'm definitely interested in, you know, deciding whether
I like or don't like something and sharing those opinions
and debating them, changing them. And I think that my
(03:59):
goal is that by having those conversations, we make literature better,
we make culture better, right, and that we're not landing
on whether the book is ultimately good or bad, or
that we have the right or the wrong opinion. I
just like keeping the conversation going. But I'm going to
probably come down pretty passionately. Okay, So I.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, here's the thing, because I you know, I think
when we're assessing Boy Meets World, it's one thing, right,
We're talking about a show that we're part of the creation.
I think people give us permission to have our opinions.
But we're talking about someone else's work, it might feel
a little different. So I just wanted to, you know,
clarify we're just exploring. Okay. So I picked this book
Blob because I think it it just was an excellent
(04:43):
hook for a novel. It's something that the second I
heard what it was about, I wanted to read it
and I wanted to see where it went. I think
a lot of books are written and published and bought
because you know they fall in line with existing genres,
things that you've already read and you want to read
more like that, right, So that's where you get romance
and fantasy and mystery, and so that's the way. A
(05:04):
lot of books that are out there fall into those categories,
and I like a lot of them. But then I
like to read books that just mashup genres or try
to break from precedent. Blob a Love Story is just that,
a contemporary romance, maybe coming of age, with a level
of realism when it comes to the setting and the characters,
(05:24):
and yet we get a magical, mysterious, maybe alien blob
PLoP down in the middle, and that becomes the main
engine of its plot. Blob a Love Story is written
by Maggie Sue. She's a writer whose work has appeared
in New England Review, Four Wave Review, tri Quarterly Review,
and many more. She received her PhD in fiction from
the University of Cincinnati and has an MFA from Indiana University.
(05:47):
This is her debut novel. It was published in January
of this year, twenty twenty five, and it quickly got
a lot of attention for its unique premise. The synopsis
V Lou has always felt like an outsider in her
Midwestern college town, caught between her Taiwanese father's heritage and
her white mother's world. After dropping out of college and
(06:08):
still recovering from a recent breakup, she's stuck between her
job working at the front desk of a hotel, where
she greets guests and dodges the relentless cheer of her coworker, Rachel.
The story begins when V, in a rare moment of extraversion,
decides to join Rachel for a night out. They attend
a drag show, where, stepping into an alley behind the bar,
(06:29):
V stumbles upon a peculiar, squishy creature with tiny black
eyes on a whim. Equal parts drunk and lonely, she
takes the blob home. But this mysterious blob isn't just
a stray pet. It begins to grow, take shape, and
even follow V's commands. Seeing an opportunity, she decides to
mold it into the perfect companion. Fueled by sugary cereals
(06:50):
and a steady diet of pop culture, the blob transforms
into a strikingly attractive white man seemingly designed to love
her without question. All right, let's get into roll call
our initial overall thoughts. Guys, who wants to start? What
was your initial reaction to this book?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
You want to go first? Well, or you want me
to go first?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
You go first?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Okay, So like you, I love a book that has
a real realistic setting but something about it is just
fantastical or totally mysterious. I also love a book where,
because of that, you would imagine it's the type of
feeling where you put it down because you have to
(07:34):
go to sleep or because you have to go do
something else, and then you just you keep thinking about,
like what is going to happen next.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It kind of has you on the edge of.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
Your seat, like I can't because anything could happen, and
I can't really envision where it's going. And I was
thinking I was going to feel that way about this book.
What I will say, although I overall thoughts, I thought.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
There were very interesting elements.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
There were very funny elements, although in a very dry,
kind of understated way. It's it's not beating you over
the head with its humor, but the humor is there, uh.
And I loved some of the characters. There's like several
things I really liked about it. I will say about
halfway through the book, I put it down because I
had to go pick up the kids from school, and
(08:18):
I didn't get to it later that night and like
a couple days past, and I thought, I'm not sure
if I didn't have to finish this for book club,
I would even care whether or not I finished the book.
I'm okay not necessarily knowing what ends up happening with
the Blob env So in that sense, it didn't necessarily
(08:40):
hook me the way I wanted it to.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I also.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Am a very like I envision things when you know
when when a writer writes something and they give it
in detail, and like, definitely the blob is a man.
Is something Maggie Sue wants you to envision. She gives
you reference points, you know, famous Hollywood men, and she's
describing this like hot dude, and like, all right, I'll
(09:06):
picture a hot dude. I had a hard time picturing
anything other than the water shape man from the movie Elemental.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Oh interesting because I haven't seen it, but I.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Could so easily picture the gelatinous blob. I could in
no way get my imagination to go to a place
where that gelatinous blob actually.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Became human skin, man and human shape.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I thought of him still as kind of a gelatinous man, right,
and so that always kept I kept bumping up against that, like, wait,
he's he's passable at all as a as a as
a man. So that those are I would say, those
are kind of my overall thoughts.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah good. I also was wondering, like, if I was
going to make a movie of this, what would it
actually look like? And it was hard. It was hard
to pin down, which maybe a strength and you know
I'm not a weakness, but I'm not sure. Will How
did it compare with your expectations? I had none.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I truly had no expectations going in. You know the
kind of books I left to read. So if you're
gonna have some sort of a magical element, I'm one
of those people where I need an explanation of some
sort of magical element, the idea of like it can
be anything.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Just use your imagination. I don't want to use my imagination.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
I want you to use yours and tell me more
about what's going on.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
My favorite fantasy novels are novels where the worlds are
so built out that the intricacy is I mean again,
the first series of books that I ever found are
called the Belgariad series, And after he wrote these fourteen books,
he wrote something called the Riven Codex, which was a
breakdown of the entire world down to the weights and
measures of every country that's involved in this world.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So that's the kind of intricacy I like when you're
doing anything fantastical.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It was an easy read, very quick.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Again, I felt exactly like Danielle, where if I didn't,
I'm a completist, so will the second I read one word,
I have to finish it. But I wasn't excited to
finish it. It wasn't like I can't wait to see
what happens next. I had a little trouble connecting with
the lead character just because it's you know, it's an
Asian woman who's dealing with depression and alcoholism, so seeing
(11:24):
anything from her point of view is obviously something that's
a very difficult thing for me to do. But I
thought at times she described it well. But I also
agree with Danielle where a lot of the descriptions and
again I'm very used to fourteen hundred page books where
there will be five pages on the rug you're standing on,
So it gets to be a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But you know exactly what the rug look.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Likes when you turn the page, if you had had
a chapter about or not even a chapter even lines
of every time the blob does do a shift, what
does it sound like?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
What is you know? What does the skin feel like?
What is it look like?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
What does the transformation taking place feel like it? I
thought she could have gone into more depth with that.
I loved the pop culture references. I loved how she
used the pop culture references. There's a lot of pop
culture references. I'm guessing most readers, including the two of you,
probably did not pick up. There are direct lines in
here from Seinfeld, direct lines in here from friends.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
She named her best friends named is Rachel. I'm telling you, with.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
All her pop culture stuff, that is a take off
of Rachel from Friends. And her building manager is Jerry,
and I'm guessing that's Jerry Seinfeld. I mean, she loves
the pop culture stuff so much, so I like that stuff.
I also love an occasional good cringey moment. And there
were a couple in here that were so cringing that
you want to drop the book, which again I dig that.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I kind of like that.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
So yeah, with no expectations going in, I finished and
I was like, Okay, I read it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
You're right.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Well, there are definitely references I did not pick up on.
But so much of the the book could very easily
fall into a category that would be like op culture commentary.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
So much of it is commenting on who we are
because of the media or because of the things we consume.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Yeah, like what is our output because of what we input?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Ye?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
A lot of it is also I think a lot
of it has to do with Maggie Sue, the author,
trying to She makes so many references to America and Americana.
It's almost like she grew up in her life as
a Taiwanese American in the Midwest having to prove she
was an American. So in this book, it's like I
(13:38):
wrote down the names that she used for the characters Rachel, Walter, Luke, Alex, Mary, Bob, Stephanie, Doug, Matt,
Paul Tony. These are all like the easiest American names.
She's constantly talking about eating I got my chicken sandwich
at McDonald.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
She's like, I'm an American. I'm an American. It's almost
seemed like the restaurants, it's.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Had to constantly prove to herself because she was a
Taiwanese American that she was as American as everybody else.
And I don't know if that was deliberate or that's
led into her writing because she's I want everyone I'm
an American.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
No, I think that's that's very much what this book is, right,
Let's put it on the board because I think I think, yeah, like,
let's get into the big themes or the ideas that
we can really pull out from from this book. And
I let's start with exactly what you're saying. It seems
like a lot of this book is about identity, right
(14:33):
like how we beforem who we are and in these
case that it has to do with race, gender, and job.
So do you guys, could you isolate? Could you say
one theme that you think that this book is definitely about.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
It would be hard, but I think if I were
to pick one thing, I would think I would say
it is about these realization that she is capable.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Of self determination.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Well, yes, in deciding who she is without needing external
validation or external like a sounding board. She's like, who
do you think I am? And then that's maybe that
will to help me define myself. She can define herself
without input from an external source. If I had those,
(15:25):
if I had to say one sentence, it would be that.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I felt the same way. It's like almost like she
finds a blob, and then we get these chapters describing her,
like basically memoir chapters, going back into her history and
time and time again, it seems like, oh, she's the blob, right,
she has let herself be amorphous and let herself be
determined by her classmates, her crushes, whatever. And so by
(15:49):
the process of making taking this blob and making it
into her perfect boyfriend, she's actually discovering that she has
been allowed herself to be molded by her job, by
her family, family friends.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
And also that her perfect boyfriend she thinks is a
white man, the same people she's been getting a lot
of feedback from her entire life, right, right.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So where do you think that lands?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Then?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
When she doesn't end up with Bob.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
But that's the thing, is I think that that's the
the the also a theme of the it's it's an idealism.
It's the idea that perfection is unattainable, even if you're
the one creating it. Yes, So it's like, oh, I've
got the perfect idea if I just get this is
this is.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Unfortunately, what the American dream is becoming.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
And when you you mix that with the mass amounts
of anxiety and depression that are going on in our
culture right now, the idea of if I just get this,
I'll then be happy, right, And then when you attain
that and you're still not happy, you're like, well, then
what the hell do I do? So I think in
her mind, she's building the perfect man, and then when
(16:56):
he eventually up and leaves her for her perfect white
toothed best friend, it's like, oh, I can't even build
my ideal person right.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Because she figured out he's person right exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I just wish she didn't. I wish the author didn't
spell that out. And there is a specific line there
where she's like, and that's when I realized I had
become the blob. And it's like, Okay, you didn't need
to write like let us figure that out.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
You don't.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
You don't need to put that in there. It's like,
I got where you were going with that. I didn't
need it thrown thrown at me.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well, but I think I think the bigger, the bigger
thought that I like jotted down. I think we tend
to think as a culture and as individuals, we tend
to think of our identity as as something that is
self contained, that it's ours, right, Like I am this
type of person, I come from this type of family,
and if I'm going to change my identity, I have
to change me. I have to work on myself, right.
(17:48):
But it seems to me, actually, so much of the
notion of identity gets broken down. So it's more about
how other people perceive you, so that when you change
your identity, it changes everyone around you. So when she's
pretending to be Elliott's boy girlfriend for a night right,
that destabilizes her and everybody around It's like, whatever choices
(18:10):
you make about yourself, they don't just determine who you are,
they also determine who everybody else is. Right, everybody else
has to potentially change their pronouns based on your gender.
Everybody else is affected, and so it's like this sort
of interconnectedness of identity. Ultimately, more where the book lands,
which I thought was pretty cool and kind of revolutionary. Like,
(18:30):
you know a lot of these sort of coming of
age stories that I would put this in, you know,
they tend to land where somebody's like and then I
changed who I am and I became my true self.
This book kind of ends with her just saying I'm
going to keep trying. I'm gonna photography might be my thing,
but yeah, but she's gonna She's going to look at
the people around her and engage with them in a
(18:53):
new way.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
The king that's also interesting, and they have a couple
a couple of the characters literally do this is everybody
at one point or another is playing a role, right,
So it's like her parents are playing the role of
looking like the perfect American family, her friend is playing
the role of being the good friend, but is also
actually an actor. Elliott is playing the role of being straight.
The blob is trying to play a role of then
(19:16):
what is his role?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And it's a human being?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And he literally becomes an actor at the end because
he's absorbed so much. He's me in a way in
that he just sat there absorbing so much TV that
now he's got to go be TV.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So there's you know there, but everybody was playing a role.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And I think at the end she realized she was like,
I'm just not going to play anymore, and I'm just
going to kind of try to figure out what the
hell my next steps are.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Right well, to combine the things you two said, it's
really she comes to terms with realizing like, oh, I
have played a role in society. I've played a role
in my family and the way they react to me,
the way she often describes the way her mom tenses
up when she says or does something, and she knows
like they're so used to me being reactionary or they
(20:00):
are so used to me being this way that it
affects the way they talk about me, It affects where
we go, it affects and like, instead of just putting
that on them, she goes, I also am contributing to this.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
We're all feeding off of each other.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, yeah, that's part of what I love. When she
brings the blob home for Bob as a man home
is when she finally starts noticing things about her family
but she's never noticed did my mom always cook this? Well?
Not always. It's like she's finally able to see her
relationships or see other people because she's brought through Bob's
eyes and it helps her be like, oh, I've also
(20:40):
I've also been an asshole. Like that's what's so funny
that the book begins from a kind of defensive place
of like, I'm just a wallflower. Everybody else has so
strong opinions and I just sort of am passive. Like
that's the way she kind of introduces herself. And then
throughout the course of the book, you're like, she's a drunk,
she's kind of a she's mean to people, she's terrible,
and you know, it's like it's like the slow realization
(21:02):
that she is actually affecting everybody around her house and
that she's kind of made her own bed, like she's
put herself in this position. I thought that was really effective,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Did you also notice that her journey as a character
mimicked Bob growing meaning, meaning when Bob was just eyes,
she started to see everything around. When Bob began a hand,
she started to get out and actually physically touch people.
She had her doing that. When Bob grew legs, she
was going out more. So it was like everything that
happened with Bob was almost mirrored in kind of her
(21:33):
journey as a person, which I thought was again and
then that's again her first reaction when he grew legs
was like, Okay, do I chain him up? How do
I keep him here to? I mean, it's just yeah,
it's really kind of amazing. And again, that's one of
the first tropes you talked about her parents them selling
the house right out from under her.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
That's a storyline in Friends.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
That's what That's what Monica's parents do, is they sell
her house out from So there's a couple things that
happen here that are straight from pop culture.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Okay, well, let's let's move into the next section, which
I'm calling show your work and get into the writing itself,
her voice as a character and as a narrator. What
did you guys think of it? How would you describe it?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I would say it is dead pan comedy. Yes, it's
ry y, Yes, it's ry. It's self deprecating. It's also yeah,
she's right hard on herself, hard on herself constantly. Yeah, yeah, incriminating, deprecating, uh,
(22:34):
and also casual. There's nothing there's nothing pretentious or formal.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Read it is very easy.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
This this to me, and you know, we always do this.
We do this all the episodes of Boying th World.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Here's what I would have done.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
And it's like, it's like, oh yeah, when I write
my novel, but this to me seem like what would
have been cool?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I would love to have seen this. And again, it's
just the way my mind works.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
If say I was fourteen and it was a while
and she finds the blob and the first half of
the book she's raising the blob. In the second half
of the book, it joins her in high school. Like,
that's kind of where the tone of this was for me,
which then thrown in kind of it threw me then
because then you turn the page and she'd be talking
about masturbating and it was like, oh, oh that came Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That's right. It's not a young not like it's you
know what I mean, it's right. Well, I do think
that the book, you know, it makes this transition I
would say, what fifty or sixty pages in where we
get our first sort of flashback sequence. Yeah, and it does.
The book ends up spending a lot of time in
her youth. And I found those transitions a little hard.
(23:38):
I was every time I was like, wait, why are
we getting this this flashback of this scene. I could
have almost done without them entirely. I because when we
were in the present tense, when we were with with V,
are we going with V or V? Which was I
thought it was V? I thought it was very like
I thought V I. I thought it was short for
violet or something I was. I would say, you.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Say, we're saying the but you said that.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
That's what you say Potatoe else in the world.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, I found those flashbacks. I think that they they
helped develop some of the conflicts that you know, we've
already talked about, you know, cultural conflicts and racial and
gender identity and all that, but they were not nearly
as entertaining and and I'm not sure that they contributed
much to the current story. And you know, my experience
(24:25):
going back to Danielle's first overall impression was where you
had to put you put the book down and you
were like, do I want to go back? I definitely
went on a similar journey. And I think this is
why is because I think that middle section of the book,
once we get the plot of Bob Blob, anytime that
we take a pause, go back to being eleven years old,
I'm like, where's this that doesn't I don't know if
(24:47):
I need that. But then when the book picked back
up again with the current plot of Bob getting out,
Bob leaving her, her being Elliott's date, and that so
much energy, and then then I really tore through the
rest of the book because that picked it back up.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
You're exactly right. I felt exactly the same way.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
There was like a midway point before we got into
all of that where I was like, I don't know
that I would normally finish this, But once I got
back into it, I was like.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Oh, I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, no, I literally I I yelled at one point
where with the whole party scene where where she was
everyone looks over and everyone's watching or kiss. The guy
was like, oh, you want to drop the book at
that point. So, I mean there were moments in it
that were absolutely chef's kiss.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And I think that that's you know, that's an accomplishment,
you know, like that that we we we did lose
she lost us a little bit, you know, it slowed
down a little bit, but the fact that it picks
back up, and I do think that, you know, and
the book is short we're not talking too long. So
even when we're talking about like it's slowing down, we're
really only talking about twenty Yeah. So I but I
(25:56):
do think that the writing, you know, an editorial like slicing,
it could have been shorter, It could have been a
little just just a little bit. All right, let's pop quiz.
(26:18):
This is the section where we're gonna ask a question
or play get a buzzer or there's We're not gonna
play a game with this one. This is a question
that Jensen carp Our, lovely producer, came up with podcast.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Oh god, I bet you I know what the question
is going to be. Really yeah, it's gonna be something
like if you had a blob of your.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Own, your own blob? There you go? Which body part
from a Boy Meets World character? Are you picking? First?
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Wait? Am I supposed to want to have sex with
this blob?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
It's your ultimate or your ultimate partner?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Oh gosh, is like Mary f kill my god.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
This is tough. Let's see you do you give do
you give it? Phoene's brain do you give it? Writer
Strong's hair? Do you give it? I don't want to
bang Daniel.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Okay, not to sound creepy, but Daniel Fisher lips is
not a bad place to start.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
But I don't want to start with the lips.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I might go Ben Savage washboard apps.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Okay, I might go Amy Matthew's Compassion.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Oh well, it's true.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I mean if you start there, right, did you love
a mommy?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, that's so creepy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That is so creepy. No, I would go the girl
like Tushy danced with No right, right right? I don't
know what about you writer? You have one? I don't actually, yeah,
I'm trying to think, Uh, there was with such with
such good hair in general, and boy, it's kind of
hard to avoid that.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
We also don't have We only have like two real girls,
our own idea to pick from.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
So it's like I want Danielle Like, that's not gonna
as a word, right, you can't do that. I watched that,
which I hadn't even thought about was Phoene's brain, right,
Like brain's a good one. It's like, really if you can, Yeah,
I don't know how I would get the blob to
form that way? I can question? Can I switch up
the question? Please? If each of us could pick.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
One body part for another person, like writer, if you
had to build the perfect partner for Danielle, what's the
first body part from a Boy Meets World cast member
you would put on Danielle's partner.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Just Matt Lawrence. When we talked about him coming to
the set, she was like, Wow, we had some good
looking guys on the show, but now we have.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
You guys were good looking.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Your liver lab Matt Lawrence became blobs. Matt Lawrence took over.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
That's pretty funny.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
I just would like to point out that YouTube picked
compassion and Brains and I picked.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
So you're more like the we take it nice, very sweet,
all right, report card? Okay, any of the sort of
or any other coming of age or maybe Redemption story books?
Is there another book that you would compare this to.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
You know, for me, I have a very hard time
relating to this modern a modern coming of age?
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Me too, I found it. That's for me. That was
the problem, the pop cultural references that I was like,
I am so old. This is your pop culture.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
No, your pop culture alliterate because the references that she's
using are references from when we were She did a
ton of ninety stuff. I mean, it was friends and
Seinfeld I will.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Say it didn't make me feel old. I didn't feel
old reading it.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
What I felt was coming of age for millennials or
gen X.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
There's a lot more.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Commitment to work ethic rat Race like six, like classic
success in the sense of like I had to go
to college. My school is very important to my family.
I don't want to let them down. I finished school.
I have to get a job. And then finding yourself going,
(30:44):
oh my gosh, I'm exhausted and how did I get here?
And I don't know that this is the life I
would have chosen for myself. But look at what I've built.
It seems like a lot of modern coming of age
is like I don't want to get out of bed today.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I'm just going to show up late.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
To my job on a Tuesday. Yeah, I get I.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Get drunk every night.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
I'm like, and I was just like, I can't I do.
I don't hide. This is giving me edge, aed like
I've never heard of anybody be worse.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
At their job.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Yeah, this is I know that this is what gen
Z experiences and I just have you know, like Will
saying he's not Asian, and so he does he doesn't
pretend to be able to know what it feels like.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Similarly, I don't.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
I cannot relate to that feeling, and so I I
just know it's not for me.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
It doesn't mean it's bad. It's just I'm not the demo.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
I'm not the I'm not the person who's supposed to
go got it relate?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
You're speaking my language, right.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
So if she's was gonna do flashbacks flashing back to
right before the breakup, yeah, even more than we did,
because we we see.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
What she's like.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I mean, we're coming up on this, this in mid
depression where she cannot get over this break even though
it's this breakup, even though it happened I think she
said eight months ago, it's been very rough on her.
If we saw a couple of flashbacks from before that
where she was actually very good at her job, she
was attentive, she was not maybe not climbing the ladder,
but was cleaning up her apartment, was doing you know,
(32:19):
and it's the breakup that made her like this, I
think I would have had more compassion for the character
than I do, where it's just kind of like, oh,
you are the blob, which I get was kind of
what it was supposed to be, but it's like you
don't care about your job. You're rude to your friends
a lot of the times, if you even have any,
You're very selfish at times, you're a raging alcoholic.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I mean, it's like, did all of that.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Happen because of the breakup, because then that's one character,
and I would think about the character a certain way,
or was she like that?
Speaker 1 (32:47):
And just it's been exacerbated by the break I think
she was like that. I think. So that's the takeaway.
And so I think you guys are both kind of
saying the same thing differently, which is that this is
really a specifically an eel on we this sort of
like we have all the opportunities, right, Like we have
all the avenues open to us. I could be a
(33:08):
doctor like my brother, I could be, you know, married
at this age like my parents were. I could be
everybody else seems to have like content with their paths,
and yet she just shuts down and has never been able.
And I think that is specifically something you know, like
at this age for me, like I was just so
driven in too many directions right. If anything, it was
(33:28):
like I didn't take enough time to just relax and enjoy,
and I think that that speaks to something that the
younger general, the younger generation for whom I think this
book is written. You know, I think this book is
clearly aimed at people thirty five and under or maybe
forty and under, and we're just on the other side
of that. I think part of the problem generationally is
(33:50):
that they do have so much comfort. They can just
sit at home and get everything on their screen. They
can't have entirely developed social life without leaving their computer.
You know that that is that's new. That's not something
we We had to get out of the house. We
had to have jobs just to have a life. That's
not true anymore. And so why work? Why why go
(34:12):
to college? Why do you any you know, just so
you can get more money, you know, like to sit
at home and flip through Instagram anyway.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
And think that's a very right problem anyone else's life
as being so good, Like it's not like she looked
at her brother. Her brother was also super stressed and
always and her parents didn't seem like they were thrilled
with their lives either, So she kind of was looking around,
like all these paths lead to me.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
The only the only one. I think it was truly
happy in the entire book. Was her boss walters like,
I'm pathetic in her eyes exactly because it assaults her
when she points that out. Yeah, so I think that
that's what we're meant to feel, that everybody's kind of
a sucker if they pick a path, right, Like, no
matter what path you choose, you're kind of either you're
(34:59):
falling for somebody else's narrative that's not going to make
you happy. So it's Ethan Hawk again in reality bites.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
It's the kind of you pick a path, you're a sellout,
or where it's not even sellout, because.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I think I think this book is smarter than that.
I think it's describing the problem. And also, you know
it's not it's certainly not celebrating v like it's you know,
it's not saying that she's doing the right things by
succumbing to this perfect man her exactly.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
So I mean, yeah, that's the whole point is that
she is this is you know, well it's not supposed
to be.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Well, what what do you think about the end? Then?
What does the ending give you? Is there hope? Is
this a is this ultimately a hope filled novel about
she does find a path or does it? What do
you guys think of?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Where do you think it landed and ended very hopefully.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
I thought it landed in a place that I really
did think there was enough of a realization, enough of
a self awareness that came to her throughout the course
of this experience, and men all the experiences that this
experience brought into her life that did actually make her
decide that she needed to be an active participant in
(36:05):
her life and that decisions needed to be made, and
that she couldn't just keep like letting life passer by.
So whether or not she's going to get it all right,
there's no real right. I didn't feel like she's now
going to have a great life, but I felt hopeful
that there was going to be a change, a positive change,
that she was at least going to start in acting,
And so I felt very hopeful at the end.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, me too, will I felt kind of the same
way I felt her life was.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's weird. I had a strange combination.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I felt her life was definitely on the upswing, and
there is certainly hope, and I don't need to check
back on.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Her to make sure her life is doing okay. It's
interesting because I think story wise, plot wise, there's this
potential boyfriend, the new guy that she hands up with,
and there's the photography and going back to school. But
it didn't feel like either one of those things is
the definite solution. It just felt like those were sort
of the engines too for her to realize, I get
(36:59):
to pick my own path and I no longer need
to succumb to somebody else's pressure of who I should be,
nor just sit around and think it's gonna happen. I'm
going to have to just do it, and whatever I do,
I should be happy with, you know, just you know,
kind of a weird paradoxical zen you know, maybe nonsensical,
(37:19):
but it's true, right, Like by just making a decision,
she's going to feel better, and then that decision is
going to give her meaning and a sense of purpose.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
It reminds me of a friend of mine who once said,
all right, I've decided I am going to join online
dating and I.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Was like, wow, really you're going to do it?
Speaker 4 (37:38):
And he was like yeah, but only because I realized
girls don't just knock into your apartment door and we're
to go out with you, right, you have you've realized
that if a relationship is something you want, you cannot
sit on your couch every single day and wait for that.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
But you can't tell somebody that they got to kind
of discover it themselves, right, Yeah, we all have to
live through it.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, And I love how she was standing right next
to Rachel behind this counter because essentially you have two
people in exactly the same place in their life, literally
exactly in the same place in your life. You have
one who can fake it when she needs to and
one who can't. And sometimes you need to fake happiness
until you can actually find happiness.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And it's the people that don't know how to fake
it ever, who are like five, You know, when you
had Rachel, who was you could tell was also depressed
and upset, and her life is exactly where Vice is,
but could just fake it.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
And where Rachel ends up is way sadder than where
v ends up, right, because Rachel and the blobber they're
they're so they're making their dreams come true, but it
feels way worse.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
It's fake and vapid, and it is two big toothy
smiles out in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah. Yeah, Okay, let's let's rate this book by giving
it Phoeni's or Turners, now a turner one through five,
one through five of each. Uh. Turner, as we all remember,
is the hip, cool teacher who makes reading fun. Okay,
makes it makes it a fun easy read.
Speaker 4 (39:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
And you maybe are absorbing a lot, but that's not
the point. The point is to enjoy the process. Until taught,
Phoenie was a stodgy, old fashioned card to understand classic
ultimately good for you. He taught you the life lesson,
gave you the value. So the amount of Phoenies one
(39:34):
through five is how much is this book good for you?
How much did it teach you? Did you take away?
As the actual I'm going to carry this forward in
my life.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Being the most educational one being okay, right.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Who wants to go first? I'll go first?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Should we do Turners and then Phoenie' or should Phoene? However, well,
then starting with Turner. If you're talking about hip easy
to read, then it'll score high on the Turner scale
for me. You know, I would say, between are we
allowed points? Can I do like a three point five?
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Like at you pa?
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
If I would give this a three point five Turners
and that you know, again it is a fast read.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
The pros is good.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
You know, it's well written, So yeah, I would as
as it's got great pop culture references. There's you know,
they're throwing in She's being texted and you've got which
again is going to be a whole new part of literature,
or how texting comes into play and when you.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Text and why you text.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
There's a whole culture behind that, so you know, in
that sense, I think it will score higher on the
Turner scale for me, and I'm going to give it
three point five.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Holding your helmet, Turners.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Okay, my Feenie's of what I learned again exactly like
what Danielle was saying, I think I just missed my
window for a lot of what this book means because
I'm from a different generation, so it while it might
resonate with somebody thirty who dealt with just lying on
their couch and drinking on a Tuesday night and not
really having any motivation and not cleaning up after themselves
(41:03):
and being a dick to their boss and not being
good at their job, in that sense, I didn't learn
much other than I'm glad I'm not part of that generation,
if that, if that's what that generation is like.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
And again that's a huge generalization, of.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Course, but for the most part, I would say I
didn't learn a whole lot, so I would say.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Two point five Phoenies.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
So two point five Pheenies and three point five turners
I would.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Say for for this book. No, no, I take that back.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I'm gonna say three Phoenies and three point five turners
is what I would say for this book. I did
I raise it. I think I was being a little harsh. Yeah,
I'll do three point five turners and three Phoenies.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
For the turners. I think I would give this a
three out of five turners.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
I think.
Speaker 4 (41:51):
Right right around three is it feels good for me? Definitely,
a lot of cool references like Will said, lots of
things I liked, I love I love some dead pan humor.
And as far as the Phoenies go, I think for
a younger generation, I'll say for someone under thirty, I
(42:13):
think this struggle and this realization about the active role
you have to play in your own life and the
active role the people you have in your life, how
they affect you and how you affect them.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
If you if you are just.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Now starting to your brain's starting to turn on and
recognize those things and see that.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
I could see this book being very helpful and very enlightening.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
So I think if you are under thirty, I could
see how this could be a three or a four
out of five Feenies for you. For me, I would
say it was about a one and a half Phoenies,
so mind on the scale, low on the Phoenie scale
for me, but I could see how for I'm, like
I said, I am not trying to pretend that I'm
(42:58):
who this book is written for. I still enjoyed it.
I still it was, like you said, so easy. It's
not like I look back on it and I think, oh,
I wish I didn't read that. I'm happy that I
read it. Isn't isn't going to change my life. But
I do think for a younger generation it could be.
It could be very helpful.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah, I'm right with you, Danielle. I'm I'm same exact
thinking I give it higher marks on the Turner scale.
I'm actually going to give this like a four point
five because I really I just like, I think we're
kind of taking for granted just the idea, just the concept,
if you think about if you think about this, this
book in the tradition of stories about romance, like, especially
(43:40):
for younger generation, romance with a monster, like the Twilight
books or or Shape of Water as a movie, did
you I'm trying to. I mean, even going back to
like Beauty and the Beast, there is a tradition of like,
uh oh, there was a movie called Warm Bodies about
falling in love with the zombie. I think this book
is really a clever like to do the blob or
(44:02):
a blob as like the monster that you fall in
love with. That's super cool, and I think she does
a really good job of taking that metaphor or surreal
element and pulling a lot out of it. Actually, so
it's super fun. I think it's an easy, easy read
for anybody, and like, this would be a good gift
(44:23):
book because I feel like you hand this to somebody
and they're going to be like what, and that just
that question of like what, and then it's not a
slog like you get through it so fast. Yeah, she
nailed it. So to me, it's it's short enough and
fun enough to read, especially for younger people. It's really
an accomplishment to pull that off, so four point five turners.
Poene's exactly like you, Danielle, if I'm thinking about for
(44:45):
me too at most, But if I think about the
way that young people think about the world, I mean
even just looking at my son Indy and how he
communicates with his friends, I think this book could really
get under their skin in a way that Phoene could
and teach them a lot. So I'm going to give
it three phoenies ultimately, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
Can I I want I have one other question.
Speaker 4 (45:19):
I have one other question that because I and I
wonder if Will thought of it at all, or if
it's just because I'm a.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Parent, did it bump any of you or did at
any point.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
You wonder why she didn't think of the Blob more
as a child than as a as a partner.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
That's exactly what I Yeah, I forgot that the title
was actually Blob a love story, So at a certain
point I started thinking right early on, I started thinking, oh,
this is going to be about raise, and she makes
references to this is how my mom must have felt
when she's taking care of the Blob, and I thought
that that that was going to and I think maybe
even Maggie Sue as a writer started it and didn't know,
(45:55):
Like I think it kind of evolved the same way
that Bob evolved. When I first heard about this book,
I thought it was going to be more surreal and
more Actually my brain went darker, I guess because I
thought of like the Blob as a monster, as a
horror thing or an alien. Like some of my favorite
authors in this wheelhouse of like surreal touches is this
woman Amy Bender, and then this other woman Carmen Maria Machada,
(46:19):
and they both write short stories, which I think is
important to note, like they do similar things, but they
keep it very short. And like Amy Bender has this
incredible short story about I think it's called the Potato People,
and it's about her or this woman carving people out
of potatoes and then they start to come to life
and then she has to take care of them and
they keep multiplying. You know. This book had to like
(46:41):
stay in the real world, have actual consequences. It was
pop culturally connected, so it's very different tones. But yeah,
I thought that I thought it was going to go
the motherhood route. I was convinced that was going to
be the point of this This also is a kind
of a generational thing, right, Yes, I think for our
generation finding purpose in life. For a lot of people,
for better or worse, became well, I'll have kids and
(47:02):
that'll fix all my problems. Yeah, which I don't think
that even occurs to people under thirty five these days.
I think their first thought is if I just found
the perfect partner that would fix all my problems. Both
are you know, probably bad ideas, and this book explored
the one that I think concerns their generation. One. I
do too, but I don't think VI knows either.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
And I think that's what Maggie Sue did that's very
interesting is at the end, because of the Blob, because
of Bob, she has a better relationship with both her
parents and a potential mate. Yeah, so it worked on
both levels where she did see him at times like wow,
maybe my mom felt like this and.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Their relationship got better. Well, well my ex boyfriend what
Alan was an Alex r ex boyfriend was Luke? What
Luke thought about that?
Speaker 2 (47:41):
And maybe she used some of that and so she's
maybe starting to date a new guy. So it kind
of taught her a little bit about both. But yeah,
she didn't seem particularly maternal.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Do we have a book that we're going to pick next.
Will do you want to pick the next one?
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I would love to if we can.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
Okay, let's do it. Do you have one?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I do?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I was going to pick one, but now I'm going
to switch it up. Song okay, okay, cool.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Oh wow, I'm going to get it right now. This
is exciting.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
So I was going to start with the first book
that ever got me into fantasy, which is a much
younger book called The Pawn of Prophecy.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
We will do that eventually. It's wonderful and amazing.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
But what I want to keep with more of the
I want to get writer.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
I can kind of figure out how to get there.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
I think if with Danielle and fantasy, if I go
something that smacks a little bit of Harry Potter m hmm,
without it being Harry Potter, that if I hit on
some of those tropes, I think I might be able
to hook Danielle into the world of fantasy. So we
were going with an absolutely phenomenal author. Her name is
Nao Minovic, and she just came out with a trilogy
(48:42):
that's called A Deadly Education. It's less than one of
the School Elements books.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Great and have you already read this book. I have
read this book. I have wrote this book. Yes, and
I will be reading it in different mode, dude, slightly
different mode.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
No, well, it's this is a Deadly Education is the first.
It's less than one of the school emans. So this
is an absolutely wonderful, dark kind of take it is.
I mean, should we read the No, I'm not even
to let you guys figure everything out.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Let everybody go check it out.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Deadly Education.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
She's an absolutely wonderful and incredible writer. It's a great,
a great fantasy series.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
So this is and it's relatively new, this is this
is I think the first one came out in like
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
So yeah, you're gonna like this one.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
I think anybody who likes the idea of a magical
school or a school where there's murder and death coupled
with magic, this is absolutely going to be your jam.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
You're going to do it all right.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Awesome, So you have about one month to read it.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Thanks for joining us for this episode of Pod meets
World Book Club Edition. As always, you can follow us
on Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us
your emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.
And we've got merch, But what does the merch mean?
If you really dissect it? Podmeetsworldshow dot com. Danielle send
(50:11):
us out.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 4 (50:15):
Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
by Danielle Fischel Wilfridell and writer Strong Executive producers Jensen
Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and
Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is
by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at
(50:36):
podmeets World Show or email us at Podmeets Worldshow at
gmail dot com
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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