Episode 280: Considering Farah Mendlesohn

Feast on a Full English breakfast with Farah Mendlesohn as we discuss whether their Hugo-nominated Heinlein book changed the conversation about that author, if there's such a thing as an inverse of The Suck Fairy, why it might be wrong to chat about The Female Man while nibbling on toast, the reason Russ's novel took so long to get published, the probable purpose of the self-critique within the book, the difficulties in communicating with cross-cultural metaphors, why The Female Man is a version of The Christmas Carol , the reason the book isn't Postmodernist but Modernist, why I failed to pick up on the novel's Jewishness, what surprised them most during their rereading of the novel, the reason Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ was so painfully hard to write, and much more.

You can listen to Episode 280: Considering Farah Mendlesohn online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 280: Considering Farah Mendlesohn is an episode from Eating the Fantastic by Scott Edelman.

This episode is 01:35:13 long.

This episode was published on Apr 23, 2026.

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