They will never not be talking about The Plains by Gerald Murnane. That’s because, The Plains is life, which means everything and nothing all at once. In this episode: Ethan is not a 14-year-old girl waiting for her date. Well, he’s not one of those things. They take the “No Girls” sign down from the door. With Ethan’s wife, they all get very dramatic. Michael gives Ethan an epiphany about the book’s religion(?) They talk about The Rules of the Game, which they talked about before. If we create a revolution, we didn’t mean to. (But seriously, Michael has no qualms with the psychological field.) Everyone knows how slot machines work. But they digress from slot machines to talk about women. They delete their 1/2-hour conversation on “Library of Babel.” Michael doesn’t want to talk about this book anymore. (The book mentioned at about 52:45 is Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson.) (It’s Arthur, not Richard: Arthur Lessac. And yes, Michael knows he modified this exercise.) Their next book will be Soulless by Gail Carriger.  Join the discussion!  Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line.  We'd love to hear from you!  And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page. Donate to our Patreon! Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett) "Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco.  Used by permission. "The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua.  Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. "Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere.  Used under an Attribution License. “Old Knight” by Unthunk. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial License.