S8 Ep. 16: Charles Baxter on the Dangers of Knowing the Future

fiction/non/fiction

Acclaimed novelist Charles Baxter joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his recent novel Blood Test: A Comedy. Baxter talks about turning to humor in dark times, the burden of expectations, and writing a protagonist, Brock Hobson, who some readers love and others detest. He discusses how seeing websites and ads that predicted his likes and dislikes led to him inventing a fictional company, Geronomics, which predicts a certain future for Brock and is invested in that scenario playing out one way or another. Baxter also analyzes the craft of writing an antagonist who is a Trumper, but who is never explicitly identified as such. He reads from Blood Test.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/.

This podcast is produced by Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan.

Selected Readings:

Charles Baxter

• Blood Test: A Comedy
• Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature
• Gryphon
• Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction
• There’s Something I Want You to Do
• The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot
• Shadow Play

Others:

• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 5 Episode 33: "The Politics of Craft: Charles Baxter on How His Essays on Writing Respond to a Changing World"
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 4 Episode 6: "Hope on the Horizon: Charles Baxter and Mike Alberti on Despair and Renewal in Fiction"
• Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 1 Episode 4: "We're All Russian, Now"
• Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellows
• Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
• Macbeth by Shakespeare

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