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Every book Richard Powers recommended on podcasts
Richard Powers appears on literary and writing podcasts as a Pulitzer-winning novelist and professor with a deep reverence for the mechanics of storytelling, the history of literature, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. Powers analyzes narrative craft by drawing on canonical classics and contemporary masterworks alike. During interviews, Powers discussed several influential books and their own literary creations. Powers referenced Constantin Stanislavski's An Actor Prepares to explain methods of character creation and the ways actors inhabit roles on stage. Herman Melville's Moby-Dick was brought up as a quintessential American novel engaging with humanity versus nature, while Don DeLillo's White Noise was highlighted for its brilliant and artificial dialogue. Powers also extensively discussed their own novel Bewilderment, exploring its themes of an alternate Earth and emotional resonance. When unpacking Bewilderment, Powers compared its narrative premise to Daniel Keyes's classic Flowers for Algernon and noted the influence of an epigraph drawn from Plato's Republic, providing listeners with a window into the rich intertextual layers of their fiction.
Books recommended by Richard Powers
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an actor Prepares
Discussed“and how how to uh an actor prepares is one of one of his works and you know how how to inhabit a role of someone on stage who isn't you”
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Bewilderment
Discussed“oh it's my great pleasure thanks for having me on this new novel bewilderment has at its heart three people”
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Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon by David Rogers and Daniel Keyes is a poignant science fiction masterpiece that chronicles a mentally disabled man who undergoes experimental surgery to drastically enhance his intelligence, only to experience a tragic intellectual decline.
Discussed“and that's what propels the story which is a kind of flowers for algenon if you will”
Where to get it
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MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville is a classic American novel detailing Captain Ahab's obsessive quest for revenge against the giant white sperm whale.
Discussed“you got to go back to mobi dick where you got to go back to the frontier”
Where to get it
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The Republic
The Republic by Plato is a foundational philosophical text exploring justice, the ideal political state, the nature of reality through the allegory of the cave, and the evolution of various political regimes including democracy.
Discussed“and when I went back to the key story I was really intrigued at his use of an epigraph from Plato's Republic”
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White Noise
White Noise by Don DeLillo is a celebrated postmodern masterpiece that examines consumer culture, academic life, and airborne toxic events through sharply stylized dialogue.
Discussed“and you could look at a book like white noise and you could look at the dialogue in that book which is crazy you know”
Where to get it
Books Richard Powers wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meet Pulitzer-Winning Stanford Professor (Richard Powers Interview) | How I Write | 2024-10-09 | 3 |
| Richard Powers on ‘Bewilderment’ | The Book Review | 2024-07-18 | 6 |
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“well I'm very close to the to the people in playground still”
“and then as I got deeper into into over story it was oh this guy you know it's not a red oak”