Eliot Fintushel's guest appearances

Eliot Fintushel

Rick Kleffel:Narrative Species–The Agony Column

New Books Network

New Books in Arts & Letters

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OwlTail

“The future begins with a traffic jam.”This is how Eliot Fintushel describes the setting of Zen City (Zero Books, 2016), his science fiction novel about the obstacles encountered along the path toward spiritual fulfillment.In Fintushel’s book, the quest for enlightenment manifests as a physical journey as his protagonist, Big Man, makes his way from an eternal traffic jam (in which people have been rooted so long on a highway exit ramp that they’ve created cults around their Econoline vans and Chevrolet Chevelles) to the City, where those who have achieved true enlightenment are literally merged into a single body-consciousness that transcends reality as we know it.More than a commentary on Buddhism, the story is a meditation on religion and the challenge of using “robes and rituals” to find enlightenment, Fintushel explains. The problem is when enlightenment itself becomes a sign of status, he says, undermining the goal of enlightenment, which is supposedly a state of “no status.”Fintushel’s adventure is both poetic and funny, meditating on language as much as belief. He is playing with the “limits of identifying things,” evoking the viewpoint of a baby. “If you watch a baby’s eyes moving around, they don’t fix on objects or even on people the way we do. They don’t have categories of objects and people. And I’m assuming, for the sake of the fiction anyway, that that’s more real than the reality of objects and things and people.”Links related to things mentioned in the podcast: Philip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of ZenChogyam Trungpa’s Cutting Through Spiritual MaterialismLudwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusWallace Shawn’s “The Fever”Shelley Berman’s joke about University of Chicago studentsEliot Fintushel’s YouTube channel and excerpts from his performance of Revelations. Rob Wolf is the author of The Alternate Universe and The Escape.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction

“The future begins with a traffic jam.” This is how Eliot Fintushel describes the setting of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1785353500/?tag=newbooinhis-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Zen City</a> (Zero Books, 2016), his science fiction novel about the obstacles encountered along the path toward spiritual fulfillment. In Fintushel’s book, the quest for enlightenment manifests as a physical journey as his protagonist, Big Man, makes his way from an eternal traffic jam (in which people have been rooted so long on a highway exit ramp that they’ve created cults around their Econoline vans and Chevrolet Chevelles) to the City, where those who have achieved true enlightenment are literally merged into a single body-consciousness that transcends reality as we know it. More than a commentary on Buddhism, the story is a meditation on religion and the challenge of using “robes and rituals” to find enlightenment, Fintushel explains. The problem is when enlightenment itself becomes a sign of status, he says, undermining the goal of enlightenment, which is supposedly a state of “no status.” Fintushel’s adventure is both poetic and funny, meditating on language as much as belief. He is playing with the “limits of identifying things,” evoking the viewpoint of a baby. “If you watch a baby’s eyes moving around, they don’t fix on objects or even on people the way we do. They don’t have categories of objects and people. And I’m assuming, for the sake of the fiction anyway, that that’s more real than the reality of objects and things and people.” Links related to things mentioned in the podcast: Philip Kapleau’s <a href="http://amzn.to/29ku0Wa" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Three Pillars of Zen</a> Chogyam Trungpa’s <a href="http://amzn.to/29MYoml" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism</a> Ludwig Wittgenstein’s <a href="http://amzn.to/29TnJi7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus</a> Wallace Shawn’s <a href="http://amzn.to/2alGmJq" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">“The Fever”</a> Shelley Berman’s <a href="http://scomedy.com/quotes/10322" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">joke</a> about University of Chicago students Eliot Fintushel’s YouTube channel and excerpts from his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p-i_TtHQjQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">performance of Revelations</a>. Rob Wolf is the author of <a href="http://amzn.to/293u0Wk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Alternate Universe</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/292yZYC" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Escape</a>. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>Support our show by becoming a premium member! <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction</a>

Eliot Fintushel, “Zen City,” (Zero Books, 2016)

Kage Baker

Terry Bisson

237: SF in SF Podcast : A Panel Discussion With Kage Baker and Eliot Fintushel Moderated by Terry Bisson

235: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Eliot Fintushel Reads "How the Little Rabbi Grew" at SF in SF

233: Agony Column Podcast News ; Eliot Fintushel at SF in SF