What is Thomas McMullan‘s novel The Last Good Man about? When Duncan Peck arrives at a remote village in Dartmoor, he immediately notices the wall towering over it and displaying messages written by the inhabitants. Podcast host Simon read it as a metaphor for social media and online discourse, Thomas references hacker group Anonymous and public writing in China. The book remains resolutely ambiguous.

Thomas joins us on the pod to discuss the balance of information needed to keep a book ambiguous, with the discussion taking in everything from Gamergate, Twitter, the concept of ‘lore’, the differences between stage and page, the curious magic inherent to the act of reading and his use of third person present tense to create an unsettling atmosphere.

Hosted by Simon Jones and Steph McKenna.

   
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Music by Bennet Maples.

Photo by Jonathan Rin.