MEOW Podcast Ep. 7: Chelsea Martin: Tell Me I'm an Artist, Simulacra, and False Consciousness

In her newly released Tell Me I’m an Artist, Chelsea Martin’s obliquely autobiographical protagonist embarks upon a seemingly absurd project of self-disclosure, embodying the Self as a homebrew remake of Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, a film she’s never seen. In so doing, she reifies her own identity -- alternately self-reflexive and self-abolishing, embodying the deepest contradictions of the archetypal Outsider -- in ways not possible in any other form. The threat that this project, through its knowing absurdity, poses to the enveloping class-narrative of the elite art school overseeing its creation becomes overwhelming, at last liberating protagonist, author, and reader from the bounds of an all-enveloping false consciousness.

In this episode, we pay homage to Martin’s anarchic methods by meowing nonstop for over twenty-five minutes, an act which has nothing to do with her book, which we know little about and have never read.

MEOW is the first and only literary podcast for your cat, conceived and presented in its native language.

This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats).

Praise for Meow: A Novel

"Breathtaking... a revelation." - Stubbs, Unaltered Domestic Shorthair

"Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow. Meow? Meow." - Joan Didion

Follow us on Instagram: @meowliterature and Facebook: facebook.com/themeowlibrary