Nathan Wainstein
Nathan Wainstein is an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah, author of "Grant Us Eyes: The Art of Paradox in Bloodborne" (2025) and "Bad Writing in the Modernist Novel" (JHU Press, 2026).
2
APPEARANCES
2
PODCASTS
Sep 23, 2026
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
Actually, it was recommended to me by my colleague, Mira Schreiber, at the University of Utah, who was like, oh, you're writing about bad modernism.
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
You got to read me, you know, and you have to read this novel because it's really bad.
8 MINS LATER
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
Well, I feel like you've set me up really well here, and I'm going to try to do justice to it.
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
Because, yes, the book is about bad writing, but really this is a book of close reading.
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
And as such, maybe only in a negative way or in sort of contradistinction to the topic, but I think it's a book about beauty as well.
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
And I'll try to explain why that is, but let me just try to ground the book a little bit and explain where I'm coming from.
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
Because with this book, it may seem a little, I don't know, counterintuitive or odd to say, but I wanted to write a book that felt to me like methodologically defensible or methodologically durable.
Nathan WainsteinGUEST
And by that, I mean, I wanted a book that is actually in touch with why I care about literature and literary criticism.
43 MINS LATER