Pleasant Evenings Book Club

Aug 10 2024 32 ep. 77 mins

Pleasant Evenings Book Club Podcast artwork

Welcome to Pleasant Evenings Book Club, a podcast focused on literary criticism and analysis. Our main focus is literature but we also have been known to dabble in movies, television, and frankly whatever we see fit. We’re here to have fun with some heavy texts, and more than anything else, make more evenings pleasant. Currently on a quest to watch all of Mobile Suit Gundam, but we’re still a book club!

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Pleasant Evenings Book Club // Sabres of Paradise (Part 3)

Aug 10 2024 93 mins

The ending to Sabres of Paradise offers a sober counterpart to the high passions of the previous two parts. The story of a rebellion that even in defeat refuses to be forgotten shifts into the story of a man who, in captivity, refuses to sacrifice his dignity and faces his new life and coming death with grace few can imitate. We count down all the pieces that fall into place as his

Mobile Suit Book Club - Victory Gundam (Part 2)

Jun 30 2024 84 mins

It won't be the last we see of it, but this is as far as the Universal Century goes. In some ways compromised but never boring or lacking ambition, Victory Gundam is a true Tomino original and one of our favorite things that we've covered so far. For this discussion we discuss the motivations of colonization's middle-managers, inter-generational conflicts vs. cooperation, and more

Sabres of Paradise by Lesley Blanch // Part 2

May 10 2024 83 mins

Part two of Lesley Blanch's Sabres of Paradise is takes us beyond beyond introductions and scene setting and places the reader in the middle of the push and pull of rebellion. (Though many scenes are still set and characters introduced in Lesley Blanch's signature prose). The Russians acclimate to fighting in the Caucasus and the people of the Caucasus hold fast under the relentles

Mobile Suit Book Club // Victory Gundam (Part 1)

Mar 14 2024 86 mins

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam found yet another way to escalate many of the themes and motifs that defined Gundam. The young pilot is only 13! The main crew is such a scrappy resistance that their base of operations is a big truck! The battles depict more desperation and destruction from the perspective of people that simply want to live normal lives. This was Yoshiyuki Tomino's first

Sabres of Paradise by Leslie Blanch (Part 1)

Feb 22 2024 75 mins

Leslie Blanch's epic biography of Imam Shamyl and the Russo-Caucasian struggle that defined his life for almost 30 years is now mostly remembered for having been a major influence on Frank Herbert's Dune, but it's place as a classic of literary history-writing deserves to be celebrated. Blanch's ambition to cover such a complicated period of time seems incidental to the passion evi

Mobile Suit Book Club // Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

Jan 27 2024 80 mins

The second of the Gundam OVAs cements what War in the Pocket had confirmed: that the world of Gundam is rich and exciting enough to sustain and inspire many stories outside of Tomino's original vision. In this case, it is to tell a relatively straightforward wartime melodrama. We discuss the highs and lows of this series. And using the negative provided here, we uncover what exactl

Ice by Anna Kavan

Jan 06 2024 95 mins

Really proud of how this one came out. Ice is an incredibly slippery novel to try to pin down. The book teeters back and forth between dark anti-romance, bleak rumination on a dying world, and on one occasion, a James Bond parody(?) The story itself is unsteady about its facts and chronology, employing some perspective altering rug-pulls. We had an interesting conversation explorin

Mobile Suit Book Club // Gundam F91

Dec 12 2023 64 mins

Our initial reaction of F91 was as a beautiful but flawed movie. A stylish and emotional evolution of the themes and aesthetics of Gundam that never truly got to bloom. In way that lost potential somehow makes F91 an even more alluring and curious artifact that has only grown in our estimation since our initial reaction. This recording is closer to that initial reaction but even th

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Nov 27 2023 124 mins

It's hard to find new things to say about The Stranger. Occupying a space of historical importance in literature, philosophy, and youth culture across three continents and ultimately around the world, The Stranger is enduringly popular (especially so among people who lack the self awareness to consider whether their opinions are worth sharing). It's no wonder that this episode came

Mobile Suit Book Club // 0080: War in the Pocket

Nov 04 2023 87 mins

I'm starting to think that War is actually bad! This side story in the Gundam universe is the first series not overseen by Yoshiyuki Tomino; and it reflects a difference in style, tone, and scope. Instead of an operatic 50 episode epic, we zoom in on ordinary civilians and disposable grunts for only 6 episodes. The result is one of the most impactful works, not only in Gundam, but