Discussion Notes: Landfill

Find this week’s story here: Landfill by Joyce Carol Oates

Next week’s story: Christmas Party by Russell Banks

Rated: Clean Language, Sensitive Topic

Gerald, Maya and Anais discuss Landfill by Joyce Carol Oates. They struggle to discuss a story that too closely resembles a real life tragedy while painting an insensitive picture of the victim. For this reason, the story quickly became controversial after publication in 2006, and has raised ethical questions from literary critics.

Among those critical voices is Amardeep Singh’s, an Associate Professor of English at Lehigh University, and Anais’s former professor. We highly recommend you read his critique at his blog.  If you enjoyed Professor Singh’s critique, consider subscribing to his blog Electrostani.

We also apologize for the audio issues we experienced this week. We’re still an indie podcast and your contributions on Patreon go a long way in helping up cover or expenses and smooth out our production.

Have thoughts on this story?

Did we miss a crucial piece of this story? Tell us below! Or on Twitter @litroadhouse or in our FB group.

Join the Literary Roadhouse Readers FB Group Join the Literary Roadhouse Readers FB Group

Support us on Patreon

We’re still a self-funded podcast. We work hard every week to bring you the best content possible.


Support Literary Roadhouse on Patreon


Psst: Full list of short stories discussed on the podcast >>

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.