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Upper Middlebrow

Upper Middlebrow

By: Upper Middlebrow
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About this listen

 A podcast in which we discuss high-craft works of popular culture Art Literary History & Criticism
Episodes
  • Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II

    Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II
    Jun 26 2025
    The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three Body Problem. The UMBers revisit some of our old friends, like Neal Stephenson’s habit of setting up narrative chessboards for a long time and eventually letting the game unfold, examining if Liu’s narrative setups have plausible payoffs. They also identify some of the “hapless protagonist” effect they’ve seen before in The Diamond Age and The Arrest, and talk about Liu’s claim that his work does not allegorize IRL history and action. Despite some misgivings, Jesse is excited for his third time through the subsequent two books, and Bagg is also looking forward to discovering how the earth responds to the Trisolaran “problem.”
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    Less than 1 minute
  • Review: John Scalzi’s “When the Moon Hits Your Eye”

    Review: John Scalzi’s “When the Moon Hits Your Eye”
    Jun 23 2025
    Jesse Dukes offers a quick review of popular science fiction writer John Scalzi's newest novel, "When the Moon Hits Your Eye". While he initially put the book down after reading the first chapter, due to frustration with the absurd premise, on a second read, Dukes found that the book has its charms.
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    10 mins
  • Episode 89: “A Creeping Awareness” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part I

    Episode 89: “A Creeping Awareness” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part I
    Jun 16 2025
    The Three Body Problem begins with an inexplicable series of tragic mysteries, most notably, that physics as we know it has stopped working. Slowly, the reader is given enough clues to start to suspect various causes, although halfway through, we still don’t really know what’s going on. Dukes has read it before, and Bagg has not, so they lads compare notes as to their experience of the creeping awareness of the disturbing truth dawning on the characters.
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    1 hr and 7 mins
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These two charmers are funny, smart, and know their way around books. Give it a listen!

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