about
The juggernaut
"Any artist walks in the footsteps of giants. Well, maybe there's some genius feral poet or painter out there who's never actually seen anybody else's poems or paintings, creates entirely by instinct, and invents a new artistic idiom by sheer dint of their awesomeness. For the rest of us, though: we're the sum of our influences. In my case, often it feels like I'm chasing my influences. Trying to outdo them, maybe. I think that feeling of trying to swallow the world is at the bottom of just about anything I've ever written.
"So. Who the hell am I to volunteer for this? Yeah, shut up, good question. I mean, I'm a writer, I spend more time writing than I do almost anything else. As such, I am necessarily a quasi shut-in. And like everyone else since, oh, long around Netscape or so, I find connecting with people more ridiculous each passing year. The things people in the coffee shop or at a bar want to talk about aren't things that interest me very much. So I thought: why not actually talk about things that interest me, and see if any like-minded people want to listen, and join in? Is that my enormous ego chiming in? Seriously, I said shut up.
"That's a mighty nebulous statement. What I mean to say is: there were and are giants out there and sometimes their work seems nearly sacred. But instead of feeling like I'm always running behind, instead of feeling like they've accomplished the untouchable impossible, with this podcast I'm just trying to understand them better. I'll bring on writers and musicians and critics and connoisseurs, and we'll all try and chip away. Why do we love the things we love? What's the role of the artist in a post-post-post-postmodern world? What is that beautiful house? Where does that highway go?
"So the plan is: I'm going to talk to people about music and literature and TV and movies. Sometimes they might be creative people you already know. Sometimes they might be creative people I think are awesome, and you just haven't heard of yet. And sometimes they might be folks with terrific opinions who can expose us all to more footsteps, more giants. If you'd like to know whether you and I overlap in aesthetics or anything else, you can find a couple of my novels here and here, and maybe even read the new one, which I talk about here. Oh, yeah, and if you like fantasy football, we've got a podcast about that, too. Hey, thanks for reading! You're the best!"
—Chris Harris
To contact Chris with comments about the show, or to inquire about booking as a guest, visit our Contact Page.