The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
2d 15h ago by piefed.blahaj.zone/u/leraje in books from thedevilslibrary.libsyn.com
New episode is out now here, or wherever you get your podcasts from. This time we talked about Iain Banks' debut 1984 novel The Wasp Factory, which is simultaneously a very well written book and also difficult to get through at times due to things like the extended and very graphic scenes of animal cruelty in it.
As ever; no ads, no sponsors, no AI, just talking. Note: we're no longer pushing episodes to Spotify.
When I first read it in the eighties, it felt really radical. When I reread it recently, it felt rather tame. Guess we've all been desensitised in the past thirty years or so.
Interesting. I had the opposite reaction. I also read it in the 80's and re-read it least once before re-reading it for the podcast and I felt more disquieted by it this time. We agreed on the podcast episode that the animal cruelty is necessary to establish the sociopathy of the main character but it was more affecting this time for me.