Third Person Limited is a literary podcast about books and culture with hosts Nathan Pensky and Mason Stockstill, two writers living in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. Their chats include book reviews, author interviews, semi-insightful cultural analysis, snack discourse, complaining, very funny jokes, and also less funny jokes. More information can be found on their website: https://www.thirdpersonlimited.com/
As a recurring column on our site, an episode of their podcast will be released every Tuesday. For episode 1, Pensky and Stockstill discuss the age-old question: is reading good?
Specifically, is reading fiction inherently good, as well as instrumentally good (meaning, it’s good for some other reason, like making you smarter)? We grapple with this, mostly by talking. The podcast was called “Untitled Podcast” when we recorded this one. Also: Why do so many YA novels use orphans as protagonists?
Works Cited in this episode:
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell
“Can 35 Million Book Buyers be Wrong? Yes,” Harold Bloom, The Wall Street Journal
“I said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let me Explain,” Martin Scorsese, The New York Times
The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Pricksongs and Descants, Robert Coover
Moonrise Kingdom, dir. Wes Anderson
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
“The Pleasures of Tragedy,” Susan Feagin, American Philosophical Quarterly
Prisoners, dir. Denis Villeneuve
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
“Lemon of Troy,” The Simpsons
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
Finding Nemo, dir. Andrew Stanton
Bambi, Walt Disney
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
The Hooded Hawk Mystery, Franklin W. Dixon
