Young guy writes a Substack piece about his favorite author, Cormac McCarthy. It gets a few reads, and turns out that one of those readers knows old Cormac and actually reads him the piece. In fact, she’s known and loved old Cormac for 40+ years. She corresponds with the young guy and eventually decides he’s the right person to tell her story, which is a love story that began almost half a century ago, when she was a homeless 16 year-old girl who randomly met a not yet famous author in his 40s sitting by the pool at a run-down motel in New Mexico. Crazy, wild love story/lifelong friendship commences. Young guy writes this forbidden love story, publishes it in Vanity Fair in prissy, easily offended 2024, and all hell breaks loose.

Vincenzo’s Substack is here. Vincenzo’s professor’s Substack is here.

Dare to join us in Montana this summer!

If you’re gonna buy stuff on Amazon, please use this link.

Intro music “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range. “Star People,” by George Michael. “Come on in My Kitchen,” sung by Chris Thomas King.

A few of the questions I ponder in this one: How can we distinguish what’s true for me from what’s just true? How can we tell when the shit’s hitting the fan? Is it always hitting the fan? When is a dress not a dress? How is a bikini like “the N-word?” Was Trump inevitable? Do we choose our world, or are we just observers?

Intro music “Brightside of the…

What does it mean to be a “consenting adult?” (Thoughts on the Neil Gaiman mess.)

Why podcast?

David Milch: “People who are unable to turn their wishes into passions … sit passively in mute outrage, anticipating disasters.”

The original article accusing Gaiman is here. Kat Rosenfield’s thoughts are here. Information about the Becoming Uncivilized event is