The Rich Roll Podcast Bruce Wagner Writes Transgressive Novels About Tragedy & Transcendence
Bruce Wagner, novelist and former Carlos Castaneda student, author of fifteen books including Amputation. He uses Hollywood as a lab for human behavior. He talks about transgressive fiction that skewers vanity and searches for transcendence. He recounts spiritual influences, writing after the LA fires, inhabiting saints and monsters, and why language drives his work.
02:02:21
Three Modes Of Suffering
- Wagner synthesizes three Buddhist modes of suffering: physical pain, mood fluctuation, and conditional/social suffering.
- He uses these frames to examine impermanence and the human drive for attention.
Call Out Cultural Bullshit
- Attack accepted bullshit and expose inauthenticity in art and society.
- Use a sharp "bullshit detector" to dismantle conventional literary or cultural complacency.
How He Found Castaneda
- Wagner describes how a chance brunch and tensegrity classes led him into Carlos Castaneda's inner circle.
- That initial encounter began a decade-long tutelage that deeply influenced his ideas of perception and the "second attention."
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Intro
00:00 • 50sec
Wagner's Hollywood as a Spiritual Laboratory
00:50 • 2min
Sacred Themes in Dark Satire
02:58 • 2min
Buddhist Suffering and Literary Motifs
05:07 • 2min
Affection for Characters in Extremis
07:31 • 57sec
Family, Fate, and Fatalism
08:27 • 4min
Predeterminism, Agency, and Spiritual Skepticism
12:19 • 3min
Language, Scent, and the Writer's Obsession
15:13 • 3min
Creative Process, Memory, and Aging
18:32 • 3min
Psychedelics, the Muse, and Finality
21:42 • 2min
Early Life in Beverly Hills
23:40 • 6min
Transgression as an Artistic Tool
29:19 • 3min
Ad break
32:48 • 3min
Truth, Perception, and Hollywood's Façade
35:45 • 57sec
Inhabiting Saints and Monsters
36:42 • 2min
Migraines, Addiction, and Post-Ictal Creativity
38:47 • 3min
True Crime Obsession and Human Nature
41:51 • 2min
Dropping Out, Diverse Jobs, and Searching
43:28 • 36sec
Encountering Carlos Castaneda
44:04 • 5min
Castaneda's Charisma and Early Invitation
48:57 • 3min
Becoming Castaneda's Student
51:40 • 3min
Controversy, Slander, and the 'Revenge of Practitioners'
55:05 • 3min
First and Second Attention Explained
57:36 • 5min
Recapitulation and Liberation Practices
01:02:23 • 3min
Path of the Heart and Acquiescence
01:05:14 • 5min
Dreams, Mirrors, and Reunion with the Double
01:09:59 • 32sec
Getting Out of the Way to Write
01:10:31 • 5min
Publishing, Fame, and the Decline of Literary Culture
01:15:10 • 6min
AI, Identity, and the Erasure of Self
01:21:34 • 2min
Writing Amputation After the Fires
01:23:35 • 3min
Tales, Saints, and Sufi Parables
01:27:01 • 6min
Fires, Impermanence, and Political Anger
01:32:42 • 2min
Weaving Real People into Fiction
01:34:59 • 6min
Tragedy, Quadriplegia, and Enlightened Response
01:41:00 • 6min
Language's Power for Trauma and Transcendence
01:46:48 • 4min
Mortality, Mood, and the Writer's Anxiety
01:51:06 • 5min
Artistic Fidelity and Uncompromising Intent
01:55:39 • 6min
Memorable Tiny Moments as Art
02:01:18 • 2min
Outro
02:02:53 • 44sec
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Henry James and Homo-Erotic Desire
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This scholarly anthology edited by John Bradley features essays on homo-erotic themes in Henry James's fiction, including Leland S. Person's chapter 'Deploying Homo-Aesthetic Desire in the Tales of Writers and Artists'.
It explores topics such as queer desire, masculinity, and relationships in James's stories and novels.
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Still Holding
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As one of don Juan's apprentices, Taisha recounts her personal journey through the intricate practices and concepts of Toltec shamanism.
She explores the rigorous discipline, altered states of awareness, and the confrontation with the unknown that characterize this path to knowledge.
The book offers unique insights into the female perspective within this tradition, detailing practices like recapitulation and the development of the dreaming body.
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Hanif Kureishi
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Yannick Garcia Porres
George Saunders
Javier Calvo Perales
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After Willie's death from typhoid fever, his spirit finds itself in a limbo known as the bardo, a concept borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism.
Here, he encounters a diverse group of ghosts who are also trapped between the world of the living and the afterlife.
The story delves into themes of grief, both personal and national, as Lincoln grapples with the loss of his son amidst the broader context of the Civil War. The novel is characterized by its unique narrative style, which includes a multitude of voices and historical quotes, and its exploration of the human experience of suffering and love.
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Journey to Ixtlan
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I Am That
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
F.
Scott Fitzgerald's "The Pat Hobby Stories" is a collection of short stories that offers a darkly humorous and poignant look at the life of a struggling screenwriter in Hollywood.
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Fitzgerald's signature style, characterized by its lyrical prose and insightful character development, is on full display.
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imagination, the decline of chivalry, and the human condition.
Eventually, Don Quixote returns home, regains his sanity, and renounces his chivalric ambitions before his death.
Bruce Wagner is a novelist, former student of Carlos Castaneda, and author of fifteen books, including his latest, "Amputation."
This conversation explores his use of Hollywood as a laboratory for human behavior, crafting transgressive fiction that skewers the desperate while searching for transcendence. We discuss his decade with Castaneda, writing "Amputation" after the LA fires, the relationship between suffering and art, Buddhist and Sufi wisdom, and why fiction is our most potent vehicle to truth.
He describes inhabiting his most malevolent characters with the same proximity as his saintly ones—because we're all interchangeable, all searching for transcendence.
Bruce is infinitely fascinating, one of the most interesting people I've ever met. Enjoy!
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