Sep 1, 2026 · 2 hr 9 min · 11 segments
We're back in the Tunnel! This week, we discuss how Gass does and does not make his characters sympathetic, how Kohler would be as a professor, and a major twist in the story!
I have the summary here.
Maybe the most grab bag chapter with subdued prose.
It first recounts the titular first winter of Kohler's married life, which is predictably miserable.
whether it's because of the heightened contact that marriage brings the tissue thin walls of their post-war prefab apartment or kohler's increasing resentment and being denied access to martha's body we are shown how martha and kohler drift apart we then pick up on the theme of individuals leaving traces for the experimental family album section which consists of descriptions of photographs from the kohler family album before it drops us into a harrowing recollection of the death of kohler's father who appear to have suffered neglect at the hands of Kohler's alcoholic mother and hoarder aunt.
There's also a section entitled Child Abuse, where Kohler describes shaking his child's crib to stop the screaming, and a section about Kohler's unfortunate penis and a childhood experience of phimosis.
Which, listener, if you're not familiar with phimosis, that's when you don't clean your foreskin, and then the doctor has to forcibly force Kohler's foreskin back so that it can be cleaned properly.
Yeah,
the
reveal
episode.
And listener, if you're wondering what we're referring to, John was speculating about whether or not Kohler was into the idea of an uncircumcised penis because he doesn't have one.
It turns out he does.
Which we can get into that later.
But yeah,
like, yeah, no, I want to talk about that later because I feel like that's again, gas kind of doing actually like a pretty masterful subversion in a way.
Yeah.
And again, weirdly, you know, people complain about the tunnel when they read it, that he talks about his penis too much.
And I feel like he does, but also he really talks about it in foreskinned.
And it seems like the name of that section.
And it's an important section overall.
But to go back to First Winter of My Married Life.
Yes.
So.
I have the summary here.
Maybe the most grab bag chapter with subdued prose.
It first recounts the titular first winter of Kohler's married life, which is predictably miserable.
whether it's because of the heightened contact that marriage brings the tissue thin walls of their post-war prefab apartment or kohler's increasing resentment and being denied access to martha's body we are shown how martha and kohler drift apart we then pick up on the theme of individuals leaving traces for the experimental family album section which consists of descriptions of photographs from the kohler family album before it drops us into a harrowing recollection of the death of kohler's father who appear to have suffered neglect at the hands of Kohler's alcoholic mother and hoarder aunt.
There's also a section entitled Child Abuse, where Kohler describes shaking his child's crib to stop the screaming, and a section about Kohler's unfortunate penis and a childhood experience of phimosis.
Which, listener, if you're not familiar with phimosis, that's when you don't clean your foreskin, and then the doctor has to forcibly force Kohler's foreskin back so that it can be cleaned properly.
Yeah,
the
reveal
episode.
And listener, if you're wondering what we're referring to, John was speculating about whether or not Kohler was into the idea of an uncircumcised penis because he doesn't have one.
It turns out he does.
Which we can get into that later.
But yeah,
like, yeah, no, I want to talk about that later because I feel like that's again, gas kind of doing actually like a pretty masterful subversion in a way.
Yeah.
And again, weirdly, you know, people complain about the tunnel when they read it, that he talks about his penis too much.
And I feel like he does, but also he really talks about it in foreskinned.
And it seems like the name of that section.
And it's an important section overall.
But to go back to First Winter of My Married Life.
Yes.
So.
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