Know Your Enemy
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Political Fictions (w/ Vinson Cunningham)
🕑 Added 2024-08-31 19:56:12 +0000 UTCToday, we're joined by one of our favorite writers and thinkers, Vinson Cunningham, to discuss his excellent debut novel, Great Expectations, which tells the story of brilliant-but-unmoored young black man, David Hammond, who finds himself — by fluke, folly, or fate — working on a historic presidential campaign for a certain charismatic senator from Illinois. A staff writer at the New Yorker, Vinson also worked for Barack Obama's 2008 campaign in his early twenties. (He bears at least some resemblance to his protagonist.) And the novel provides a wonderful jumping-off point for a deep discussion of political theater, the novel of ideas, race, faith, the meaning of Obama, and the meaning of Kamala Harris.
Also discussed: Christopher Isherwood, Saul Bellow, Garry Wills, Ralph Ellison, Marilynne Robinson, Paul Pierce, and Kobe Bryant! If you can't get enough Vinson, check out his podcast with Naomi Fry and Alexandra Schwartz, Critics at Large.
Sources:
Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations: A Novel (2024)
— "The Kamala Show," The New Yorker, Aug 19, 2024
— "Searching for the Star of the N.B.A. Finals," The New Yorker, June 21, 2024
— "Many and One," Commonweal, Dec 14, 2020.
Saul Bellow, Ravelstein (2001)
Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg (1992)
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
— Shadow and Act (1964)
David Haglund, "Leaving the Morman Church, After Reading a Poem," New Yorker Radio Hour, Mar 25, 2016.
Phil Jackson, Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior (1995)
Glenn Loury, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative (2024)
Matthew Sitman, "Saving Calvin from Clichés: An Interview with Marilynne Robinson," Commonweal, Oct 5, 2017
Comments
H K
Listened to the pod, read the book, and listened again, and caught Vinson say ".., right, ..." - serendipity! Great pod & gorgeous writing!
Chad Bailey
Terrific take on the showmanship of politics.
Gregory Bryon
I agree with you. Obama’s style isn’t trumpeting. That’s Trump’s style. I also don’t mean for them to be identical but I find it helpful to compare the two to highlight what they have in common as well as their differences. Obama has self proclaimed that he’s a bit of a megalomaniac which can also be used to describe Trump. It’s just their styles are different. Obama is a covert narcissist while Trump is an outright narcissist. It’s style that they differ
Jerry Callen
Fascinating episode. I was put off a bit by the description, but then was completely sucked in by the listen. I liked the comment that politicians who are NOT good at managing their presentation are committing political malpractice.
Jerry Callen
I liked most of your comment, but this: The fact that Obama was obsessed with optics like carrying his bag off the plane really mirrors Trump’s obsession with crowd size. doesn't seem right to me. Obama didn't trumpet his bag carrying, or complain about how other politicians carried their bags worse than he did. :-)
Nik
This was lovely. When you're well and truly tired of the conservatism beat (in 10 months or 10 years) you would be great hosts of a book program in the Michael Silverblatt vein.
Gregory Bryon
There is this writer Mitchell S Jackson who wrote a book called Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion which is another avenue of how basketball reflects the culture on so many levels.
Gregory Bryon
I found this interview really interesting. After reading Naomi Kline’s book Doppelgänger: A trip into the mirror world I can’t help but think of Obama’s presidency with Trump’s. The fact that Obama was obsessed with optics like carring his bag off the plane really mirrors Trump’s obsession with crowd size. When Vinson started making connections with theater I couldn’t help but also think how Trump got his acting chops from the WWF(Home Alone and the Apprentice as well which reality TV has a lot of similarities to wrestling). Wrestling has this term Kayfabe. It’s basically a term where the crowd and the performers are all in on pretending that this acting is really real. Thus wrestler’s never admitting the fighting is fake in and out of the ring. If the democrats are preforming theater then the republicans are doing kayfabe. So I guess that’s what we are really voting for. Theatre or Kayfabe.
Gregory Bryon
On the Media with Brooke Gladstone did a recent interview with Vinson Cunningham as well as Carlos Lozada who actually commented on Obama carrying his bags off the plane. Carlos claims it came from the book “Power Forward: My Presidential Education “ by Reggie Love who was BHO’s handler who coincidentally played for Duke
Know Your Enemy
Yes! I've actually said that before, though not on the pod. (I was tempted to during the episode.) My line is that basketball is the most poetic, distance running the most philosophical, and baseball the most theologically significant sport. No I won't be explaining (Matt)
Peter Jenkins
Basketball talk on KYE!!! This is such a great day!!!
Kevin Spicer
My thoughts about basketball is that it is the most poetic sport. A sport where every motion made is important, the way one carries one's body is how one achieves ones goals. The most body obsessed sport.
Dan Abitz
I've always thought KYE needed more Ray Allen talk. And I was right.
Rick Perlstein
Fun detail: if BHO said he got the idea for carrying his own bags from JFK, that might have been DOUBLY sophisticated impression management, because that actually was something Carter was famous for, in 1976, abd Obama definately would have been aware of--it was a big deal in the media--as a 16-year-old. But no candidate wants to be associated with the loser Carter! So maybe he just claimed be heard Kennedy did it instead...
Where there’s a Wills there’s a Way
Lolllllll heeehawww
drizzly_november
Wonderful conversation, and such a flex to give your debut the same name as one of the most well-known novels ever in English. It’s like titling your mixtape Abbey Road.
Luke Wheeler
Such a great episode, loved this dialogue
None
If politics is downstream from culture, perhaps culture is downstream from the distribution of personalities of the population. Please read a free book, one so well recommend that John Dean included in his book “Authoritarian Nightmare” see https://theauthoritarians.org/ and I think you’ll agree that right wing intellectualism is basically an ever changing cover story for people who are high in authoritarianism traits and high levels in social dominance orientation. it’s a really quick read. Fun too,
Where there’s a Wills there’s a Way
Paul’s nickname: The Truth
Where there’s a Wills there’s a Way
I Wills
Sam
NUMBER ONE RULE OF THE POD DONT APOLOGIZE. NUMBER TWO RULE OF THE POD DONT APOLOGIZE.
Ian Derk
One day, we will get our Gay Vatican Gossip episode...
