in which episode, norman does a bit of editorializing but mostly to laud george saunders, whose stories "love letter" and "my house" from saunders' 2022 collection "liberation day" are heard here. then norman does a brief reading from the beginning of "predictions and presentiments" by valeria luiselli. your host does this to complain about how too much contemporary fiction is basically memoir. the dread autobiographical fiction. sometimes smartened up with info from travel guides and creative histories. he also tries to find a short piece by dead french men, barthes or bataille. he stumbles through a decontextualized argument made by the latter blaming the calvinists, above all other sects, for the development of capitalism. norman gives up on this tack and then turns, as mentioned above, to the new yorker piece. norman then turns to the other greatest living story writer in the usa, lydia davis. he reads "on the one hand, on the other hand," the first part of the story, "the cottages" from lydia davis's omnibus collected stories. time runs out as he finishes.