S4 Ep. 13: Cancel Culture or Consequences Culture?: Meredith Talusan and Matt Gallagher on Accountability in Literature and Media

fiction/non/fiction

In this week’s episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan are joined by award-winning author and journalist Meredith Talusan and acclaimed writer Matt Gallagher. Talusan reads from her memoir Fairest, and talks about representation in literature, the intersections of their identity as an Asian and transgender woman, and why transphobia is a recurring theme in conversations about problematic faves. Then, Gallagher shares his take on “cancelling” problematic authors, and discusses his recent Intercept article about the new film Cherry, which is adapted from Nico Walker’s autobiographical novel. In the piece, Gallagher parses ethical storytelling and how the American romanticization of crime can depend on the perpetrator’s identity. He also reads from his most recent novel, Empire City.

To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast 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. And check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Selected readings:

Meredith Talusan

• Fairest: A Memoir
• Them
• Opinion | On Being a Trans Woman, and Giving Up Makeup
• Unflinching Honesty: An Interview with Meredith Talusan

Matt Gallagher

• Empire City: A Novel
• “Cherry” and Hollywood's Treatment of Robbers and Victims
• Youngblood: A Novel
• Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War

Others:

• A Letter on Justice and Open Debate, Harper’s Magazine
• Artists and Writers Warn of an ‘Intolerant Climate.’ Reaction Is Swift. by Jennifer Schuessler and Elizabeth A. Harris, New York Times
• She Pulled Her Debut Book When Critics Found It Racist. Now She Plans to Publish. by Alexandra Alter, New York Times
• How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans by Sophie Lewis, New York Times
• Francis Hodgson Burnett
• Roald Dahl
• Ezra Pound
• Enid Blyton
• Another Country by James Baldwin
• The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
• Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
• An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' by Chinua Achebe
• “On Stalin” by W.E.B. Du Bois
• The Woman Warrior: A Memoir of Girlhood Amongst Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
• The Mikado by W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan
• Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil
• Madame Butterfly by Puccini
• M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang
• Cathy Park Hong
• Julie Otsuka
• The Lover by Marguerite Duras
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Perspective | So you’re being held accountable? That’s not ‘cancel culture.’ by Margaret Sullivan

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