Podcasts about Franz Kafka

Can Literary Wisdom Counter Despair and Deepen Your Faith? In this episode of Good Faith Presents: Reading to Make Sense of the World, Curtis Chang and author-professor Jessica Hooten Wilson explore the spiritual insights of Flannery O'Connor's prayer journal. They examine how O'Connor's raw honesty, humility, and startling imagery confront the modern obsession with self and offer a radical vision of divine grace. Jessica helps listeners see why O'Connor's work is more than provocative—it's prophetic. Resources or references mentioned in this episode: Flannery O'Connor at 100 Excerpts from Flannery O'Connor's journal (printed in The New Yorker) Flannery O'Connor's A Prayer Journal Jessica Hooten wilson's Flannery O'Connor's Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress A Life in Psychiatry and Literature: (an interview with Robert Coles) Good Faith episode featuring Amy Low (Facing Cancer with Humor and Hope) Good Faith episode featuring Nancy French (Ghosted: an American Story) What Is Kafkaesque? - The 'Philosophy' of Franz Kafka (video explainer) More From Jessica Hooten Wilson: Jessica Hooten Wilson's website Explore Jessica's books HERE Read articles and Essay by Jessica HERE Follow Us: Good Faith on Instagram Good Faith on X (formerly Twitter) Good Faith on Facebook   Sign up: Redeeming Babel Newsletter

Donald Trump has been ripping up the rule book on global trade, implementing huge tariffs and sending markets into a frenzy. But is there any method in his apparent madness? Legendary Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek regales Aaron with his thoughts on US trade policy – not to mention Franz Kafka, fully automated luxury communism and whether […]

Franz Kafka - jeśli ten wielki pisarz, autor „Procesu”, „Zamku” czy „Przemiany” kojarzy się nam z czymś najmniej, to jest to pisanie liryczne i romantyczne. Niewidoczne w jego prozie delikatność i uczuciowość odkrywamy czytając listy Kafki do Mileny, jego wielkiej niespełnionej miłości. Czy te intymne i niezwykle szczere teksty mogą być kluczem do głębszego odczytania literackiego dzieła jednego z największych pisarzy XX wieku?Lektura „Listów do Mileny” prowokuje też wiele innych pytań, np. takie – czy słowo ma potencjał miłosnotwórczy? A jeśli tak, to co to nam mówi o naturze języka, uczucia i literatury?Gościem tego odcinka jest znakomity literaturoznawca profesor Ryszard Koziołek.Gość: Ryszard KoziołekProwadzenie: Agata KasprolewiczKsiążka: „Listy do Mileny” Franz Kafka, wydawnictwo Znak---------------------------------------------Raport o stanie świata to audycja, która istnieje dzięki naszym Patronom, dołącz się do zbiórki ➡️ ⁠https://patronite.pl/DariuszRosiak⁠Subskrybuj newsletter Raportu o stanie świata ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠➡️ ⁠https://dariuszrosiak.substack.com⁠Koszulki i kubki Raportu ➡️ ⁠https://patronite-sklep.pl/kolekcja/raport-o-stanie-swiata/⁠ [Autopromocja]

Familienchronik • Großeltern, die Fernbeziehungen führen, Eltern, die alles anders machen wollen, Literaturübersetzung als Lebensrealität und ein junger Erwachsener, der Orientierung sucht. Hundert Jahre Familiengeschichte zwischen Istanbul und dem Ruhrgebiet: Mobilität, Literatur und Erfahrungen von Krieg und Verlust von Privilegien entwickeln generationenübergreifende Fliehkräfte, denen die Figuren nicht immer gewachsen scheinen. | Von Akin Emanuel Sipal | Mit Timur Isik, Elif Esmen, Ercan Durmaz, Sibylle Canonica, Walter Hess, Dunja Bengsch, Jelena Kuljíc, Soraya Bouabsa, Sebastian Brandes, Kilian Gehl u.a. | Regie: Jakob Roth und Pauline Seiberlich | BR 2025 | Podcast-Empfehlung: "Der Process" - 13teiliges Hörspiel nach Franz Kafka: https://1.ard.de/kafka-process-hoerspiel-audiothek

In this (spoiler-free) episode, we give YOU, the listener, all the tools you need to confidently and appropriately use the term Kafkaesque the next time Severance comes up in conversation. During Why This, Why Now?, Hannah guides Marcelle through some very compelling ideas about the show's popularity (did someone say "pandemic?"). We then move into The Theory We Need where the conversation turns to Marxism, surrealism, anti-capitalism and, you guessed it, Franz Kafka! The best news? By the end of the episode, you earn a MUSIC DANCE EXPERIENCE! Not really, (because we're a podcast), but we do end the episode with Hannah's thesis about state power, repression of grief, corporate culture and entertainment — and in a way, isn't that just as "elite" and "coveted AF?"To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back in two weeks with a Material Concerns episode, but until then, go check out all the other content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease! Patreon is how we produce the show and pay our team! Thanks again to all of you who have already made the leap to join us there! We're currently doing a Patreon push, so please consider joining today to get all our extra perks, along with the backlog of bonuses!***Material Girls is a show that aims to make sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both. Materialist critique is really interested in the question of why a particular cultural work or practice emerged at a particular moment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are strange books, a testament to their author's defiant unconventionality. Through them, Lewis Carroll transformed popular culture, our everyday idioms and our ideas of childhood and the fantastic, and they remain enormously popular.Anna Della Subin joins Marina Warner to explore the many puzzles of the Alice books. They discuss the way Carroll illuminates other questions raised in this series: of dream states, the nature of consciousness, the transformative power of language and the arbitrariness of authority.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrffIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsffFurther reading in the LRB:Marina Warner: You Must Not Askhttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v18/n01/marina-warner/you-must-not-askDinah Birch: Never Seen A Violethttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n17/dinah-birch/never-seen-a-violetMarina Warner: Doubly Damnedhttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n03/marina-warner/doubly-damnedGet the books: https://lrb.me/crbooklistNext episode: The stories of Franz Kafka, with Adam Thirlwell.Marina Warner is a writer of history, fiction and criticism whose many books include Stranger Magic, Forms of Enchantment and Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale. She was awarded the Holberg Prize in 2015 and is a contributing editor at the LRB.Anna Della Subin's study of men who unwittingly became deities, Accidental Gods, was published in 2022. She has been writing for the LRB since 2014. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The itinerary of Faithfully Seeking Franz comprises an irregular quest for dead mentor, modernist author Franz Kafka--in places he lived, worked, vacationed and convalesced, and in the body of work he left: fiction, diaries, notebooks, and correspondence. The search for the man inside the writer is both a personal journey and a joint venture of two in the field: E. and M. in pursuit of K. The story might even be said to unfold as a love note to triangulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books.Please consider supporting ARB's Patreon!Credits:Guest: Marita ArvanitiTitle: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope MirrleesHost: Jake Casella BrookinsMusic by Giselle Gabrielle GarciaArtwork by Rob PattersonOpening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John BroughReferences:A Meal of Thorns and the Ancillary Review of Books are Hugo finalists! We are delighted and honored; a big congratulations to all the finalists.Dianna Wynne Jones, Greer Gilman, Elizabeth BearDianna Wynne Jones' Fire and HemlockElizabeth Hand's Mortal LovePamela Dean's Tam LinTerri Windling & Ellen Datlow edited fairytale collectionsRobin Hobb's Mad Ship Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin booksAmal El-Mohtar's The River Has RootsRobert Jackson Bennett's A Drop of CorruptionE.R. EddisonLaurie J. Marks' Elemental Logic seriesKatherine Arden's The Bear and the NightingaleEuripedes' The BacchaeFriedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of TragedyMichael Swanwick's Hope in the MistJ.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit & The Lord of the RingsC.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically Prince CaspianRobert Luketic's Legally BlondeEdgar Allen Poe, Julio Cortázar, Franz Kafka, H.P. LovecraftUrsula K. Le Guin's The Farthest ShoreAnne Carson's translation of BakkhaiChristina Rossetti's Goblin MarketSusanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr NorrellFritz Lang's MetropolisN.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand KingdomsSofia Samatar's Olondrian novelsSylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly WillowesNaomi Mitchison's To the Chapel Perilous and Memoirs of a SpacewomanT.H. White, Tanith LeeEllen Kushner's Thomas the RhymerJo Walton's Among OthersKat Howard's Roses and RotElizabeth Hand's Waking the MoonTerri Windling's The Wood WifeGuardian Article on romantasyCopyright romantasy caseSarah J. MaasJacqueline Carey Kushiel's DartNicholas Stuart Gray's Seven SwansMarita's Instagram

The itinerary of Faithfully Seeking Franz comprises an irregular quest for dead mentor, modernist author Franz Kafka--in places he lived, worked, vacationed and convalesced, and in the body of work he left: fiction, diaries, notebooks, and correspondence. The search for the man inside the writer is both a personal journey and a joint venture of two in the field: E. and M. in pursuit of K. The story might even be said to unfold as a love note to triangulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The itinerary of Faithfully Seeking Franz comprises an irregular quest for dead mentor, modernist author Franz Kafka--in places he lived, worked, vacationed and convalesced, and in the body of work he left: fiction, diaries, notebooks, and correspondence. The search for the man inside the writer is both a personal journey and a joint venture of two in the field: E. and M. in pursuit of K. The story might even be said to unfold as a love note to triangulation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Pour René Girard, la rivalité est une conséquence du désir : nous désirons les mêmes choses, et nous nous faisons mutuellement obstacle. Derrière toute rivalité, nous dit-il, il y a le désir secret de nous approprier ce que possède l'autre, ou de l'en déposséder. Analyse de cette conception.Distribué par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

El protagonista de 'Canon de cámara oscura' de  Enrique Vila-Matas , el supuesto androide y escritor Vidal Escabia, recibe una herencia y un trabajo del que fuese su maestro Altobelli. Hereda todos su biblioteca y debe reducirla haciendo un canon subjetivo e intempestivo. Debe seleccionar  entre todos los libros aquellos que, por la razón que sean, le llamen la atención. Es una labor totalmente subjetiva del narrador. Su autor, Vila-Matas, además de dejarnos hoy 'Canos de cámara oscira (Seix Barral) nos ha donado otros dos libros: 'Diarios' de Franz Kafka (DeBolsillo) y  'Maupassant y el otro' de Alberto Savinio (Acantilado). El otro gran donante de la semana ha sido, como siempre, nuestro bibliotecario Antonio Martínez Asensio que nos ha dejado por motivos de actualidad 'Gran bar distopía' de Manuel García Rubio (Ediciones de la Torre) y 'Triste tigre' de Neige Sinno (Anagrama)., y luego m por su programa 'Un libro una hora',  'Un viejo que leía novelas de amor' de Luis Sepúlveda (Tusquets). En el capítulo de novedades, el empleado de La Biblioteca de Hoy por Hoy Pepe Rubio nos ha traído 'Te siguen' de Belén Gopegui Durán (Random House) y  'Tim' de Ray Loriga (Alfaguara) . El libro perdido y recuperado por Pascual Donate fue 'Mañana tal vez el futuro' de Sarah Watling (Taurus). Y los últimos donantes de nuestra Biblioteca, que siempre son los primeros, fueron los oyentes que dejaron en nuestros anaqueles: 'Solo los escarabajos vuelan al amanecer' de María Gripe (SM) , 'Las minas del Rey Salomón' de H. Rider Haggard (Reino de Cordelia) y 'Los lobos del bosque de la eternidad' de Karl Ove (Anagrama) 

Neurasthenie war die Diagnose und Unkraut-jäten die Therapie: Kafka hoffte, mit körperlicher Arbeit und „Boden unter den Füßen“ seine nervösen Zustände bekämpfen zu können.

Great Shorties: "Kannibalen" von Hartmut MerktGelesen von Uwe Kullnick(Hördauer ca. 25 min)Hartmut Merkt † war Mathematiker, Schriftsteller und Literaturhistoriker, Lyriker, Dramatiker und lyrischer Prosaist."Schon früh beschäftigte sich Hartmut Merkt intensiv mit der Lyrik Georg Trakls und Paul Celans sowie mit Franz Kafka.Hartmut Merkt entdeckte die Lyrik als die ihm geeignetste literarische Ausdrucksform und begann mit ihr zu experimentieren. Er gab die Zeitschrift „Bisbala“ heraus und gründete die Gruppe Literateam.Merkt entwickelte den für ihn typischen Stil einer „gestörten Naturlyrik“; allerdings setzte er sich auch in kritischen politischen Gedichten und magisch-politischen Erzählungen mit dem Zeitgeschehen auseinander. Die Beziehungen zu aktuellen politischen oder sozialen Themen finden sich bis heute in seinen Werken. Seine Literatur stellt eine Symbiose aus Magie und Realismus seiner Lyrik und Prosa dar und weist ihn auch dem sogenannten magischen Realismus zu.Er verfasste experimentelle Hörspiele und schrieb zusammen mit dem Dichter und Komponisten Alexander Bertsch Anfang der 80er Jahre das Theaterstück „Philemon und Baukis 81“ und später weitere Theaterstücke.Hartmut Merkt beherrscht Altgriechisch Althochdeutsch, Deutsch, Englisch, Finnisch, Französisch, Italienisch, Jiddisch, Latein und Mittelhochdeutsch. Er ist Mitglied bei Greenpeace, Mitglied im Verband deutscher Schriftsteller (VS); Mitglied in der Gewerkschaft verdi.ÜbersetzungenHartmut Merkt übersetzt aus dem Finnischen, Englischen und Lateinischen und ins Finnische, Englische und FranzösischePreiseInternationaler Lyrikpreis des Invandvarnas Kulturcentrum von Schweden (1978), Teilnahme Endauswahl Leonce-und-Lena-Preis der Stadt Darmstadt anläßlich des Literarischen März 1987 (1987), Stipendium des Förderkreises deutscher Schriftsteller in Baden-Württemberg (1988), Einladung beim Literarischen Colloquium Berlin, Stipendium des Förderkreises deutscher Schriftsteller in Baden-Württemberg (1991), Förderung des Innen- und Kunstministeriums Baden-Württemberg (2000)FunkbeiträgeFunkerzählung: Augenrollen zum Beispiel, WDR 12.07.1988Literatur Radio Bayern:Lyrik am SonntagGreat Shorties: KannibalenGreat Shorties: Der AufstiegGreat Shorties: „Ferifan" von Hartmut MerktGreat Shorties: „Treffen mit C" von Hartmut MerktGreat Shorties: „Augenrollen zum Beispiel" von Hartmut MerktTheaterstückePhilemon und Baukis 81, Theaterstück in 18 Bildern, 1986, Zimmertheater Tübingen, 08.02.1987VideosVerfilmung von Gedichten, Ein Projekt der Universität Stuttgart mit dem Seminar für Erziehung und Didaktik Stuttgart, zus. mit Jürgen Wolff, Dillmann, Schwieberdingen 1985Siehe auch: Autorinnen und Autoren in Baden-Württemberg

Gianluca Gatta presenta in questo episodio “La metamorfosi” di Franz Kafka, un racconto che narra la storia di Gregor Samsa, un commesso viaggiatore che si sveglia una mattina trasformato in un enorme insetto. Una tragica storia di alienazione che, partendo da suggestioni autobiografiche, mette a nudo i meccanismi utilitaristici che regolano la nostra società moderna.

ANTUMBRA Welcome to the ÜberCube! It's the perfect society where everyone enjoys fun social gatherings every night; where everyone enjoys tasty, expertly balanced nutritious food; where everybody has a job and a home of their own, complete with the latest model EMILY personal helper to manage all those parts of life you don't need to; where you can buy the latest must-have items and have them delivered immediately to your personal Cube the very second they are announced by the NewsFeeds! Angela had the perfect life in the perfect society where all of her needs were met instantly, and where everyone was perfectly happy. Only Angela wasn't. Angela felt like a stranger in the ÜberCube where she had lived all her life, she just couldn't understand why everyone else was so blissfully content while she alone dreaded the mandatory social occasions and the saccharine pleasantries they entailed.  That was until her only friend disappeared suspiciously overnight and she was catapulted into a journey of discovery leading her to the inevitable horror of her existence and the ultimate question: can she ever become truly free? TOPICS OF CONVERSATION The Dystopian World – Controlled society in Uber Cubes, AI surveillance (EMILYs), and the illusion of comfort. Character Arcs – Angela's reluctant rebellion and Gabe's contrasting role and values. Themes of Control – Media manipulation, emotion suppression, and AI influence. Symbolic Elements – The mysterious Metacube and Kiddie Cubes as tools of indoctrination. Writing Process & Impact – The book as a cautionary tale, character-driven changes, and reader reactions. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paul L Merryfellow is a British-Irish author and software engineer based in London, UK. His love of science fiction stems from authors such as Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, and Douglas Adams, and he further enjoys a variety of authors in other genres, such as P G Wodehouse, Franz Kafka, and James Herbert. Paul is a keen (though lousy) archer, and he spends much time examining the nuances of communication and societal norms through language and culture. He is a Licenced Lay Minister under the Church of England, a puppeteer, and plays the guitar, ukulele, and banjo (in various degrees of "terrible"). Paul is at his happiest when discovering something new and bizarre to investigate! CONNECT WITH PAUL MERRYFELLOW! https://linktr.ee/PaulMerryfellow https://paulmerryfellow.co.uk/ https://goodreads.com/paul-merryfellow  https://amazon.com/author/paul-merryfellow  https://medium.com/@paul_merryfellow  https://bsky.app/profile/plmerryfellow.bsky.social  https://www.facebook.com/pmerryfellow  https://x.com/PLMerryfellow 

Performer Tony Miyambo joined Clarence Ford in studio for more on Kafka’s Ape – a globally acclaimed and multi-award-winning adaptation of Franz Kafka’s, A Report to an Academy now showing at the Baxter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"This composition tells the story of an iron bridge, interweaving history, tragedy, and renewal. Drawing from Franz Kafka's enigmatic short story The Bridge and Renzo Piano's speech at the inauguration of the Genoa Saint George Bridge, it explores the profound symbolism of bridges—not just as structures, but as living entities that connect, endure, and sometimes fall. "At the heart of this work are two iconic bridges: The Iron Bridge, Gorge – The world's first iron bridge, completed in 1779 over the River Severn, a pioneering feat of engineering and a tribute to human ingenuity. The Saint George Bridge, Genoa – Designed by Renzo Piano, this bridge was born from tragedy, rising in place of the collapsed Ponte Morandi, which claimed lives on August 14, 2018. Its reconstruction symbolises resilience and the power of renewal. "The composition is deeply connected to sound as a storytelling medium. The barking of dogs forms the foundation of the recording, evoking both a raw, primal presence and the echoes of history. To further enhance the conceptual depth, I chose a quote from Kafka's The Bridge to be read by an AI voice. This artificial rendering of Kafka's words adds an uncanny, almost spectral presence—blurring the line between the human and the mechanical, much like the bridges themselves, which are both engineered structures and deeply symbolic entities. "Interwoven with the music of renowned composer Lucio Lazzaruolo, these sonic elements create an immersive and emotional landscape—one where bridges breathe, speak, and remember. "By merging Kafka's poetic vision of bridges as human-like beings with the legacies of these remarkable structures, this piece seeks to exalt the heritage, memory, and deeper meaning of bridges in our world." Ironbridge Gorge reimagined by Giovanna Iorio (concept) Lucio Lazzaruolo (music). ——————— This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world's most famous sights. Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage

durée : 00:15:02 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En 1920, Gustav Janouch, lycéen, rencontre Kafka. Ils nouent une relation amicale et Gustav Janouch note avec précision dans ses carnets les discussions avec Franz Kafka, parues sous le titre "Conversations avec Kafka". Un témoignage rare analysé dans l'émission "Etranger mon ami" en mars 1978. - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé - invités : Monique Nemer; Dominique Arban

Als sie dieses Mal Berlin besuchte, stellte die israelische Autorin Zeruya Shalev keinen neuen Roman vor: Denn seit dem 7. Oktober 2023 und dem darauf folgenden Krieg kann sie nicht mehr schreiben. Andere Dinge sind jetzt drängender: Demonstrieren gehen, Grabreden schreiben, kritische Artikel und Essays veröffentlichen. Anne-Dore hat die Bestsellerautorin im Berlin Verlag getroffen, in dem seit einem Vierteljahrhundert Shalevs Romane erscheinen. Sie sprechen über ihren momentanen Alltag, ihre Kritik an Netanjahus Politik, über den Roman, der in der Schublade wartet und Zeruya Shalev erzählt, warum sie schon als Fünfjährige Erzählungen von Franz Kafka kannte. Die Autorin Zeruya Shalev wurde 1959 im Kibbuz Kinneret am See Genezareth geboren und lebt heute in Haifa. Ihre Romane sind Bestseller, auf Deutsch erschienen u.a. "Liebesleben", "Mann und Frau", "Schmerz" und "Schicksal" – alle im Berlin Verlag, übersetzt von Mirjam Pressler bzw. Anne Birkenhauer. Zeruya Shalev empfiehlt Virginia Woolf: "Zum Leuchtturm", neu übersetzt von Antje Rávic Strubel, Anaconda Verlag, 288 Seiten 7,95 Euro. Anne-Dore empfiehlt Zeruya Shalev: "Nicht ich". 30 Jahre nach seinem ersten Erscheinen ist 2024 Zeruya Shalev Debüt das erste mal auf Deutsch erschienen. Eine wilde Geschichte über eine junge Frau, die Kind und Mann verlässt und ihre Sexualität auslebt. Übersetzt von Anne Birkenhauer, Berlin Verlag, 208 Seiten, 24,00 Euro.

本期摘要 友友们好！这期节目有点特殊，是我上周去芝加哥时和我的导师、好朋友，也是超级影迷Dave的第二次聊天。因为我们两年没见，我就让他跟我分享这两年里他看过的最喜欢的电影，也拉拉杂杂聊了很多别的。Shownotes写得太累了，这里就不多写了，留两段他在节目里引用和说的话在下面与大家分享： “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.” — Franz Kafka （“我认为，我们应该只读那些会伤害或刺痛我们的书。如果我们正在阅读的书不能像一记重击那样把我们惊醒，那么我们读它又有什么意义？是为了让我们感到快乐，就像你所写的那样吗？天哪，如果我们没有书，我们反而会真正感到快乐。而那些让我们感到快乐的书，恰恰是我们自己若有必要也能写出来的书。但我们需要的是那些对我们而言如同一场灾难般的书，它们让我们深深悲恸，如同失去比我们自己更爱的人，如同被放逐到远离一切的森林，如同自我了断。一本书必须成为砍向我们内心冰封大海的斧头——这就是我的信念。”） "I like movies that show how people attempt to show love, experience joy, make art, or build community in the face of death, grief, and the hardness of being a human living with other humans." — Dave S.（我喜欢那些展现人们在面对死亡、悲伤以及作为人类与他人共同生活的艰难时刻，如何表达爱、体验快乐、创造艺术或建立联系的电影。） 本期提及 第一期和Dave的节目 编号17 Mickey 17 汉江怪物 玉子 冰血暴 Fargo 严肃的男人 A Serious Man 小姐 Fingersmith 色，戒 像这样的小事 Small Things Like These 隐秘的生活 A Hidden Life 秘密会议 Conclave 好家伙 GoodFellas 物质主义者 Materialists 挑战者 Challengers 酷儿 Queer 梦想情景 Dream Scenario 音乐大师 Maestro 饥饿游戏3：嘲笑鸟(上) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 欢乐时光 驾驶我的车 温蒂和露西 Wendy and Lucy 生活多美好 It's a Wonderful Life 冰风暴 The Ice Storm 丧日少女 Shiva Baby 我以前很有趣 I Used to Be Funny 垫底俱乐部 Bottoms 尸体游戏 Bodies, Bodies, Bodies A Deadly Education 科尔森·怀特黑德 Colson Whitehead 厄休拉·勒古恩 Ursula K. Le Guin Martyr! The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois Dave过去两年里最喜欢的七部电影 （排名分先后） Past Lives 过往人生 2. Killers of the Flower Moon 花月杀手 After Love 爱的后事 The Starling Girl 椋鸟女孩 Reality 告密者 (tie) Laapatta Ladies 迷途新娘 & Thelma 末路老奶 男主播的list （排名不分先后） A bright summer day 牯岭街少年杀人事件 Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy 偶然与想象 Kelly Reinchardt's films: Certain Women 某种女人, 昨日欢愉 Old Joy, 开展在即 Showing Up 旺达 Wanda 爱我就让我快乐 Happiness 摄影机不要停 one cut of the dead 节目备注 好小气的电报频道 好小气的长毛象 支持我们 订阅听友通讯请点击这里。 欢迎通过微博关注我们的节目@不丧Podcast和女主播@constancy好小气。 关于线上读书微信群：由于目前群人数超过200人，无法继续通过扫码入群。想要入群的朋友可以先加我的微信号（ID: hongming_qiao），然后再拉你入群。

How do you follow an industry-shaking debut like SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE? If you're Steven Soderbergh, the answer is obvious: a weird, downer sort-of-biopic of Franz Kafka shot in black and white. We're joined by filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell (MISS ME YET, THE WINDS THAT SCATTER) to talk 1991's KAFKA, Soderbergh's influence, and Chris's outstanding new film FAILED STATE. Great ep! Further Reading: "In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka The Trial by Franz Kafka The Castle by Franz Kafka Los Angeles Times article by David Gritten Further Viewing: THE THIRD MAN (Reed, 1949) THE TRIAL (Welles, 1962) AMERICAN GIGOLO (Schrader, 1980) BRAZIL (Gilliam, 1985)   Follow Chris: https://linktr.ee/christopherjasonbell Watch the trailer for FAILED STATE   Follow Pod Casty For Me: https://www.podcastyforme.com/ https://twitter.com/podcastyforme https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/ https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe Artwork by Jeremy Allison: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart  

Po dramatizaci Zprávy pro Akademii se na scénu pražského Studia Hrdinů opět vrací Franz Kafka. I nová adaptace je dílem režisérky Kathariny Schmitt. Ta se ve své práci dlouhodobě zabývá vztahem mezi diváky a performery, vzájemným pohledem. A pohled jakožto určující téma nese podle ní i povídka V kárném táboře, kterou převádí na jeviště pod názvem Aparát.Všechny díly podcastu Mozaika můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Po dramatizaci Zprávy pro Akademii se na scénu pražského Studia Hrdinů opět vrací Franz Kafka. I nová adaptace je dílem režisérky Kathariny Schmitt. Ta se ve své práci dlouhodobě zabývá vztahem mezi diváky a performery, vzájemným pohledem. A pohled jakožto určující téma nese podle ní i povídka V kárném táboře, kterou převádí na jeviště pod názvem Aparát.

Aunque la piscología lleva tiempo intentando que nos libremos del sentimiento de culpa, seguimos escuchando la voz de la conciencia que nos dice que no somos cómo debieramos ser. Nuestro temor más profundo es que un día se haga evidente la realidad de todo aquello que logramos ocultar con nuestras palabras y disimulos. Jesús anuncia al final del capítulo 12 del Evangelio según Juan que ha llegado la Luz que pondrá en evidencia todo lo que está en tinieblas (vv. 44-50). Tras la sintonía de nuevo a cargo de Depeche Mode, el grupo británico que José de Segovia conoció cuando dos de sus miembros iban a un festival cristiano a principios de los años 80. Esta vez escuchamos su versión de Ruta 66 en vivo en Pasadena (California) en 1988. Otro de los grupos que unía los sintetizadores a las melodías pop en aquella época desde la fe cristiana era Vector. Formada en Sacramento (California) escuchamos la canción de su primer albúm, "La virtud del maniquí" (Mannequin Virtue 1983) que nos habla de la necesidad de esa Luz (All Around The Word). A ese momento de revelación se refiere también el granadino José Ignació Lapido, que después de 091 sigue escribiendo canciones tan sugerentes como ésta de su último álbum (Curado de espanto). José Moreno Berrocal habla de cómo el escritor checo Franz Kafka (1883-1924) "nos enseña la realidad de ser humano, que arrojado a la existencia en un mundo que no asimila, carece de rumbo". De Segovia habla a raíz de los comentarios de su amigo Moreno Berrocal, por el centenario de este escritor judío, sobre su libro "El Proceso", publicado de modo postumo en 1925 por su amigo Max Brod. Escuchamos escenas de la película de Orson Welles en 1962, después de la canción del grupo británico The Cure inspirada en su obra (At Night 1980). La música instrumental de fondo es de la película "Kafka" (1991) por Cliff Martínez y "El inquilino" (1976) de Polanski por Philippe Sarde. La canción de "blues" del Ciego Willie Johnson, "No es culpa de ningún otro, sino mía" (It´s Nobody´s Fault But Mine) en 1927 fue llevada al "rock" por el grupo Led Zeppelin. La grabaron varias veces. La escuchamos en la reciente versión que volvieron a hacer juntos, Jimmy Page y Robert Plant. No es tarde para el arrepentimiento. Vivimos todavía un tiempo de gracia. El guitarrista de Bob Dylan en la Rolling Thunder Revue, T-Bone Burnett, tiene toda una carrera en solitario y como productor, que une su fe cristiama a la música americana con raíces. El nieto del pator, secretario de la Convención Bautista del Sur, criado en la iglesia episcopal, nos dice que "No es demasiado tarde" (It´s Not Too Late) en el álbum en que confiesa ser "El criminal bajo su propio sombrero" (The Criminal Under My Own Hat 1992).

After enjoying her new book Open Socrates so much (and having written about her previous book Aspiration in Second Act), I was delighted to talk to Agnes Callard, not least because, as she discusses in Open Socrates, she is a big Tolstoy admirer. We talked about Master and Man, one of my favourite Tolstoy stories, but also about the value of reading fiction, the relationship between fiction and a thought experiment, and other topics of related interest. George Eliot makes an appearance too. In the discussion about the use of fiction in philosophy classes, I was slightly shocked to hear about how much (or how little) reading her undergraduates are prepared to do, but I was interested that they love Pessoa. Agnes has previously written that the purpose of art is to show us evil. Here is Agnes on Twitter. Transcript below, may contain errors!I found this especially interesting.Exactly, and I mean, 10 seconds, that's a wild exaggeration. So do you know what the actual number is? No. On average. Okay, the average amount of time that you're allowed to wait before responding to something I say is two tenths of a second, which, it's crazy, isn't it? Which, that amount of time is not enough time for, that is a one second pause is an awkward pause, okay? So two tenths of a second is not long enough time for the signal that comes at the end of my talking, so the last sound I make, let's say, to reach your ears and then get into your brain and be processed, and then you figure out what you want to say. It's not enough time, which means you're making a prediction. That's what you're doing when I'm talking. You're making a prediction about when I'm going to stop talking, and you're so good at it that you're on almost every time. You're a little worse over Zoom. Zoom screws us up a little bit, right? But this is like what our brains are built to do. This is what we're super good at, is kind of like interacting, and I think it's really important that it be a genuine interaction. That's what I'm coming to see, is that we learn best from each other when we can interact, and it's not obvious that there are those same interaction possibilities by way of text at the moment, right? I'm not saying there couldn't be, but at the moment, we rely on the fact that we have all these channels open to us. Interestingly, it's the lag time on the phone, like if we were talking just by phone, is about the same. So we're so good at this, we don't need the visual information. That's why I said phone is also face-to-face. I think phone's okay, even though a lot of our informational stream is being cut. We're on target in terms of the quick responses, and there's some way in which what happens in that circumstance is we become a unit. We become a unit of thinking together, and if we're texting each other and each of us gets to ponder our response and all that, it becomes dissociated.Transcript (AI generated)Henry: Today, I am talking to Agnes Callard, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, author of Aspiration, and now most recently, Open Socrates. But to begin with, we are going to talk about Tolstoy. Hello, Agnes: .Agnes: Hello.Henry: Shall we talk about Master of Man first?Agnes: Yeah, absolutely.Henry: So this is one of Tolstoy's late stories. I think it's from 1895. So he's quite old. He's working on What is Art? He's in what some people think is his crazy period. And I thought it would be interesting to talk about because you write a lot in Open Socrates about Tolstoy's midlife crisis, for want of a better word. Yeah. So what did you think?Agnes: So I think it's sort of a novel, a story about almost like a kind of fantasy of how a midlife crisis could go if it all went perfectly. Namely, there's this guy, Brekhunov, is that his name? And he is, you know, a landowner and he's well off and aristocratic. And he is selfish and only cares about his money. And the story is just, he takes this, you know, servant of his out to, he wants to go buy a forest and he wants to get there first before anyone else. And so he insists on going into this blizzard and he gets these opportunities to opt out of this plan. And he keeps turning them down. And eventually, you know, they end up kind of in the middle of the blizzard. And at kind of the last moment, when his servant is about to freeze to death, he throws himself on top of the servant and sacrifices himself for the servant. And the reason why it seems like a fantasy is it's like, it's like a guy whose life has a lacuna in it where, you know, where meaning is supposed to be. And he starts to get an inkling of the sort of terror of that as they're spending more and more time in the storm. And his initial response is like to try to basically abandon the servant and go out and continue to get to this forest. But eventually he like, it's like he achieves, he achieves the conquest of meaning through this heroic act of self-sacrifice that is itself kind of like an epiphany, like a fully fulfilling epiphany. He's like in tears and he's happy. He dies happy in this act of self-sacrifice. And the fantasy part of it is like, none of it ever has to get examined too carefully. It doesn't like, his thought doesn't need to be subjected to philosophical scrutiny because it's just this, this one momentary glorious kind of profusion of love. And then it all ends.Henry: So the difficult question is answered the moment it is asked. Exactly, exactly, right?Agnes: It's sort of, it's, I see it as like a counterpart to the death of Ivan Ilyich.Henry: Tell me, tell me more.Agnes: Well, in the death of Ivan Ilyich, the questions surface for even, you know, when death shows up for him. And he suddenly starts to realize, wait a minute, I've lived my whole life basically in the way that Brekhunov did. Basically in the way that Brekhunov does as, you know, pursuing money, trying to be a socially successful person. What was the point of all that? And he finds himself unable to answer it. And he finds himself, it's the exact opposite. He becomes very alienated from his wife and his daughter, I think.Henry: Yeah.Agnes: And the absence of an answer manifests as this absence of connection to anyone, except an old manservant who like lifts up his legs and that's the one relief that he gets. And, you know, it's mostly in the gesture of like someone who will sacrifice themselves for another. Right, that's once again where sort of meaning will show up for a Tolstoy, if it ever will show up in a kind of direct and unashamed way.Henry: Right, the exercise of human compassion is like a running theme for him. Like if you can get to that, things are going great. Otherwise you've really screwed up.Agnes: Yeah, that's like Tolstoy's deus ex machina is the sudden act of compassion.Henry: Right, right. But you think this is unphilosophical?Agnes: I think it's got its toe in philosophical waters and sort of not much more than that. And it's in a way that makes it quite philosophical in the sense that there's a kind of awareness of like a deep puzzle that is kind of like at the heart of existence. Like there's a sensitivity to that in Tolstoy that's part of what makes him a great writer. But there's not much faith in the prospect of sort of working that through rationally. It's mostly something we just got a gesture at.Henry: But he does think the question can be answered. Like this is what he shares with you, right? He does think that when you're confronted with the question, he's like, it's okay. There is an answer and it is a true answer. We don't just have to make some, he's like, I've had the truth for you.Agnes: Yes, I think that that's right. But I think that like the true answer that he comes to is it's compassion and it's sort of religiously flavored compassion, right? I mean, that it's important. It's not just. Yeah, it's a very Christian conclusion. Right, but the part that's important there in a way, even if it's not being Christian, but that it's being religious in the sense of, yes, this is the answer. But if you ask for too much explanation as to what the answer is, it's not going to be the right answer. But if you ask for too much explanation as to why it's the answer, you're going the wrong way. That is, it's gotta, part of the way in which it's the answer is by faith.Henry: Or revelation.Agnes: Or, right, faith, exactly. But like, but it's not your task to search and use your rational faculties to find the answer.Henry: I wonder though, because one of the things Tolstoy is doing is he's putting us in the position of the searcher. So I read this, I'm trying to go through like all of Tolstoy at the moment, which is obviously not, it's not currently happening, but I'm doing a lot of it. And I think basically everything in Tolstoy is the quest for death, right? Literature is always about quests. And he's saying these characters are all on a quest to have a good death. And they come very early or very late to this. So Pierre comes very early to this realization, right? Which is why he's like the great Tolstoy hero, master of man, Ivan Ilyich, they come very, and Tolstoy is like, wow, they really get in under the wire. They nearly missed, this is terrible. And all the way through this story, Tolstoy is giving us the means to see what's really going on in the symbolism and in all the biblical references, which maybe is harder for us because we don't know our Bible, like we're not all hearing our Bible every week, whereas for Tolstoy's readers, it's different. But I think he's putting us in the position of the searcher all the time. And he is staging two sides of the argument through these two characters. And when they get to the village and Vasily, he meets the horse thief and the horse thief's like, oh, my friend. And then they go and see the family and the family mirrors them. And Tolstoy's like, he's like, as soon as you can see this, as soon as you can work this out, you can find the truth. But if you're just reading the story for a story, I'm going to have to catch you at the end. And you're going to have to have the revelation and be like, oh my God, it's a whole, oh, it's a whole thing. Okay, I thought they were just having a journey in the snow. And I think he does that a lot, right? That's, I think that's why people love War and Peace because we go on Pierre's journey so much. And we can recognize that like, people's lives have, a lot of people's lives happen like that. Like Pierre's always like half thinking the question through and then half like, oh, there's another question. And then thinking that one through and then, oh, no, wait, there's another question. And I think maybe Tolstoy is very pragmatic. Like that's as philosophical as most people are going to get. Pierre is in some ways the realistic ideal.Agnes: I mean, Pierre is very similar to Tolstoy just in this respect that there's a specific like moment or two in his life where, he basically has Tolstoy's crisis. That is he confronts these big questions and Tolstoy describes it as like, there was a screw in his head that had got loose and he kept turning it, but it kept, it was like stripped. And so no matter when you turned it, it didn't go. It didn't grab into anything. And what happens eventually is like, oh, he learns to have a good conventional home life. Like, and like not, don't ask yourself these hard questions. They'll screw you up. And I mean, it's not exactly compassion, but it's something close to that. The way things sort of work out in War and Peace. And I guess I think that you're sort of right that Tolstoy is having us figure something out for ourselves. And in that way, you could say we're on a journey. There's a question, why? Why does he have us do that? Why not just tell us? Why have it figured out for ourselves? And one reason might be because he doesn't know, that he doesn't know what he wants to tell us. And so you got to have them figure out for themselves. And I think that that is actually part of the answer here. And it's even maybe part of what it is to be a genius as a writer is to be able to write from this place of not really having the answers, but still be able to help other people find them.Henry: You don't think it's, he wants to tell us to be Christians and to believe in God and to take this like.Agnes: Absolutely, he wants to tell us that. And in spite of that, he's a great writer. If that were all he was achieving, he'd be boring like other writers who just want to do that and just do that.Henry: But you're saying there's something additional than that, that is even mysterious to Tolstoy maybe.Agnes: Yeah.Henry: Did you find that additional mystery in Master in Man or do you see that more in the big novels?Agnes: I see it the most in Death of Ivan Ilyich. But I think it's true, like in Anna Karenina, I can feel Tolstoy being pulled back and forth between on the one hand, just a straight out moralistic condemnation of Anna. And of, there are the good guys in this story, Levine and Kitty, and then there's this like evil woman. And then actually being seduced by her charms at certain moments. And it's the fact that he is still susceptible to her and to the seductions of her charms, even though that's not the moral of the story, it's not the official lesson. There's like, he can't help but say more than what the official lesson is supposed to be. And yeah, I think if he were just, I think he makes the same estimation of himself that I am making in terms of saying, look, he finds most of his own art wanting, right? In what is art? Because it's insufficiently moralistic basically, or it's doing too much else besides being, he's still pretty moralistic. I mean, even War and Peace, even Anna Karenina, he's moralistic even in those texts, but his artistry outstrips his moralism. And that's why we're attracted to him, I think. If he were able to control himself as a writer and to be the novelist that he describes as his ideal in what is art, I don't think we would be so interested in reading it.Henry: And where do you see, you said you saw it in Ivan Ilyich as well.Agnes: Yes, so I think in Ivan Ilyich, it is in the fact that there actually is no deus ex machina in Ivan Ilyich. It's not resolved. I mean, you get this little bit of relation to the servant, but basically Ivan Ilyich is like the closest that Tolstoy comes to just like full confrontation with the potential meaninglessness of human existence. There's something incredibly courageous about it as a text.Henry: So what do you think about the bit at the end where he says he was looking for his earlier accustomed fear of death, but he couldn't find it. Where was death? What death? There was no fear whatsoever because there was no death. Instead of death, there was light. Suddenly he said, oh, that's it, oh bliss.Agnes: Okay, fair enough. I'd like forgotten that.Henry: Oh, okay. Well, so my feeling is that like you're more right. So my official thing is like, I don't agree with that, but I actually think you're more right than I think because to me that feels a bit at the end like he saw the light and he, okay, we got him right under the line, it's fine. And actually the bulk of the story just isn't, it's leading up to that. And it's the very Christian in all its imagery and symbolism, but it's interesting that this, when it's, this is adapted into films like Ikiru and there was a British one recently, there's just nothing about God. There's nothing about seeing the light. They're just very, very secular. They strip this into something totally different. And I'm a little bit of a grumpy. I'm like, well, that's not what Tolstoy was doing, but also it is what he was doing. I mean, you can't deny it, right? The interpreters are, they're seeing something and maybe he was so uncomfortable with that. That's why he wrote what is art.Agnes: Yeah, and that's the, I like that. I like that hypothesis. And right, I think it's like, I sort of ignore those last few lines because I'm like, ah, he copped out at the very end, but he's done the important, he's done the important, the important work, I think, is for instance, the scene with, even on his wife, where they part on the worst possible terms with just hatred, you know, like just pure hatred for the fact that she's forcing him to pretend that he isn't dying. Like that is like the profound moment.Henry: What I always remember is they're playing cards in the other room. And he's sitting there, he's lying there thinking about like the office politics and curtain, like what curtain fabrics we have to pick out and the like, his intense hatred of the triviality of life. And I love this because I think there's something, like a midlife crisis is a bit like being an adolescent in that you go through all these weird changes and you start to wonder like, who am I? What is my life? When you're an adolescent, you're told that's great. You should go ahead and you should, yes, lean into that. And when you're like in your forties, people are going, well, try and just put a lid on that. That's not a good idea. Whereas Tolstoy has the adolescent fury of like curtains and cards. Oh my, you know, you can feel the rage of his midlife crisis in some of that seemingly mundane description. Yeah. I think that's what we respond to, right? That like his hatred in a way.Agnes: Yeah. I mean, maybe we, many of us just have trouble taking ourselves as seriously as Tolstoy was able to, you know? And that's something, there's something glorious about that, that anyone else would listen to the people around them telling him, hey, don't worry, you're a great guy. Look, you wrote these important novels. You're a hero of the Russian people. You've got this wife, you're an aristocrat. You've got this family, you've got your affairs. I mean, come on, you've got everything a man could want. Just be happy with it all, you know? Many of us might be like, yeah, okay, I'm being silly. And Tolstoy is like, no one's going to tell me that I'm silly. Like I'm the one who's going to tell myself, if anything. And that kind of confidence is, you know, why he's sort of not willing to dismiss this thought.Henry: Yeah, yeah, interesting. So how do you think of Master and Man in relation to all the others? Because you know Tolstoy pretty well. You teach him a lot. How do you place it? Like how good do you think it is?Agnes: I don't teach him a lot. I'm trying to think if I ever taught Tolstoy.Henry: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I read that you had.Agnes: I've taught The Death of Ivan Ilyich. That's the one, I have taught that one. I wish, I mean, I would love to teach. I just can't imagine assigning any of these novels in a philosophy, my students wouldn't read it.Henry: They wouldn't read it?Agnes: No.Henry: Why?Agnes: It's pretty hard to get people to read long texts. And I mean, some of them certainly would, okay, for sure. But if I'm, you know, in a philosophy class where you'd have to kind of have pretty high numbers of page assignments per class, if we're going to, I mean, you know, forget War and Peace. I mean, even like Ivan Ilyich is going to be pushing it to assign it for one class. I've learned to shorten my reading assignments because students more and more, they're not in the habit of reading. And so I got to think, okay, what is the minimum that I can assign them that where I can predict that they will do it? Anyway, I'm going to be pushing that next year in a class I'm teaching. I normally, you know, I assign fiction in some of my classes but that's very much not a thing that most philosophers do. And I have to sign it alongside, you know, but so it's not only the fiction they're reading, they're also reading philosophical texts. And anyway, yeah, no, so I have not done much, but I have done in a class on death, I did assign Ivan Ilyich. I don't tend to think very much about the question, what is the level of quality of a work of art?Henry: Well, as in, all I mean is like, how does it compare for you to the other Tolstoy you've read?Agnes: I, so the question that I tend to ask myself is like, what can I learn from it or how much can I learn? Not, it's not because I don't think the question of, the other one is a good one. I just think I trust other people's judgment more than mine unlike artistic quality. And I guess I think it's not as good as Death of Ivan Ilyich and I kind of can't see, like, it's like, what do I learn from it that I don't learn from Death of Ivan Ilyich? Which is like a question that I ask myself. And, there's a way in which that like that little final move, maybe when I'm reading Death of Ivan Ilyich, I can ignore that little final bit and here I can't ignore it. Tolstoy made it impossible for me to ignore in this story. So that's maybe the advantage of this story. Tolstoy makes his move more overt and more dominating of the narrative.Henry: Yeah, I think also, I've known people who read Ivan Ilyich and not really see that it's very Christian. Yeah, oh yeah.Agnes: I don't think I- Much less.Henry: Yeah.Agnes: That's what I'm doing. I'm erasing that from the story.Henry: But that's like much less possible with this one. I agree.Agnes: Right, exactly. That's sort of what I mean is that- Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, here the message is more overt. And so therefore I think it's actually a pretty important story in that way. Like, let's say for understanding Tolstoy. That is, if you were to try to take your view of Tolstoy and base it on Death of Ivan Ilyich, which sometimes I do in my own head, because it's occupied such an important place for me, then this is a good way to temper that.Henry: Yeah, they make a nice pairing. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Let's pick up on this question about philosophers and fiction because you write about that in Open Socrates. You say, great fiction allows us to explore what we otherwise look away from. So it makes questions askable, but then you say only in relation to fictional characters, which you think is a limitation. Are you drawing too hard of a line between fictional characters and real people? Like if someone said, oh, we found out, we were in the archives, Ivan Ilyich, he didn't, it's not fiction. He was just a friend, just happened to a friend, basically word for word. He just did the work to make it kind of look okay for a novel, but basically it's just real. Would that really change very much?Agnes: I think it wouldn't, no. So it might change a little bit, but not that much. So maybe the point, maybe a better thing I could have said there is other people. That is one thing that fictional people are is resolutely other. There's no chance you're going to meet them. And like they are, part of what it is for them to be fictional is that, there isn't even a possible world in which you meet them because metaphysically what they are is the kind of thing that can't ever interact with you. And, like the possible world in which I run into Ivan and Ivan Ilyich is the world in which he's not a Tolstoy character anymore. He's not a character in a novel, obviously, because we're both real people. So I think it's that there's a kind of safety in proving the life of somebody who is not in any way a part of your life.Henry: The counter argument, which novelists would make is that if you gave some kind of philosophical propositional argument about death, about what it means to die, a lot of people just wouldn't, they'd like, maybe they'd understand what you're saying, but it just wouldn't affect them very much. Whereas if they've read Ivan Ilyich, this will actually affect them. I don't want to say it'll resonate with them, but you know what I mean. It will catch them in some way and they're more likely then to see something in their own life and be like, oh my God, I'm appreciating what Ivan Ilyich was telling me. Whereas, this is the argument, right? The statistics of social science, the propositions of philosophy, this just never gets through to people.Agnes: Yeah, so one way to put this is, novelists are fans of epiphanies. I mean, some novelists, like Tolstoy, it's quite explicit. You just get these epiphanies, right? Like in this story, epiphany. James Joyce, I mean, he's like master of every story in Dubliners, epiphany. Novelists have this fantasy that people's lives are changed in a sudden moment when they have a passionate, oh, I just read this story and I'm so happy about it. And I don't actually doubt that these things happen, these epiphanies, that is people have these passionate realizations. I don't know how stable they are. Like they may have a passionate realization and then, maybe it's a little bit the novelist's fantasy to say you have the passionate realization and everything is changed. In this story, we get around that problem because he dies, right? So, that, I don't know. I somehow am now James Joyce. I don't know. I somehow am now James Joyce is in my head. The final story in Dubliners is the dead. And there's this like, amazing, I don't know who read the story.Henry: Yeah, yeah. Also with snow, right?Agnes: Yeah, exactly.You know, and it's this amazing where this guy is realizing his wife, their relationship is not what he thought it was, whatever. But then the story ends, does he really change? Like, do they just go on and have the same marriage after that point? We don't know. I mean, Joyce avoids that question by having the story end. But, so you might say, you know, novelists like epiphanies and they're good at writing epiphanies and producing epiphanies and imagining that their readers will have epiphanies. And then there's a question, okay, how valuable is the epiphany? And I think, not nothing. I wouldn't put it at zero, but you might say, okay, but let's compare the epiphany and the argument, right? So, what philosophers and the social scientists have, what we have is arguments. And who's ever been changed by an argument? And I think I would say all of human history has been changed by arguments and it's pretty much the only thing that's ever done anything to stably change us is arguments. If you think about, like, what are the things we've moved on? What are the things we've come around on? You know, human rights, there's a big one. That's not a thing in antiquity. And it's a thing now. And I think it's a thing because of arguments. Some of those arguments, you know, are starting to come in their own in religious authors, but then really come in, the flourishing is really the enlightenment. And so you might think, well, maybe an argument is not the kind of thing that can change very easily an adult who was already pretty set in their ways and who is not going to devote much of their time to philosophizing. It isn't going to give them the kind of passionate feeling of your life has suddenly been turned around by an epiphany, but it might well be that if we keep arguing with each other, that is how humanity changes.Henry: I think a lot of the arguments were put into story form. So like the thing that changed things the most before the enlightenment maybe was the gospels. Which is just lots of stories. I know there are arguments in there, but basically everything is done through stories. Or metaphor, there's a lot of metaphor. I also think philosophers are curiously good at telling stories. So like some of the best, you know, there's this thing of micro fiction, which is like very, very short story. I think some of the best micro fiction is short stories. Is a thought experiment, sorry. Yeah. So people like Judith Jarvis Thompson, or well, his name has escaped my head, Reasons and Persons, you know who I mean? Derek Parfit, right. They write great short stories. Like you can sit around and argue about long-termism with just propositions, and people are going to be either like, this makes total sense or this is weird. And you see this when you try and do this with people. If you tell them Parfit's thought experiment that you drop a piece of glass in the woods, and a hundred years later, a little girl comes in and she cuts up. Okay, everyone's a long-termist in some way now. To some extent, everyone is just like, of course. Okay, fine. The story is good. The famous thought experiment about the child drowning in the pond. And then, okay, the pond is like 3000. Again, everyone's like, okay, I get it. I'm with you. Philosophers constantly resort to stories because they know that the argument is, you have to have to agree with you. You've got to have the argument. The argument's the fundamental thing. But when you put it in a story, it will actually, somehow it will then do its work.Agnes: I think it's really interesting to ask, and I never asked myself this question, like what is the relationship between a thought experiment and a story? And I think that, I'm fine with a thought experiment with saying it's a kind of story, but I think that, so one feature of a thought experiment is that the person who is listening to it is given often a kind of agency. Like, which way do you push the trolley? Or do you care that you left this piece of glass there? Or are you, suppose that the pond was so many miles away but there was a very long hand that reached from here and you put a coin in the machine and at the other end, the hand will pull the child out of the water. Do you put the coin in, right? So like you're given these choices. It's like a choose your own adventure story, right? And that's really not what Tolstoy wrote. He really did not write choose your own adventure stories. There's a, I think he is-Henry: But the philosopher always comes in at the end and says, by the way, this is the correct answer. I'm giving you this experiment so that you can see that, like, I'm proving my point. Peter Singer is not like, it's okay if you don't want to jump into the pond. This is your story, you can pick. He's like, no, you have to jump in. This is why I'm telling you the story.Agnes: That's right, but I can't tell it to you without, in effect, your participation in the story, without you seeing yourself as part of the story and as having like agency in the story. It's by way of your agency that I'm making your point. Part of why this is important is that otherwise philosophers become preachers, which is what Tolstoy is when he's kind of at his worst. That is, you know, the philosopher doesn't just want to like tell you what to think. The philosopher wants to show you that you're already committed to certain conclusions and he's just showing you the way between the premises you already accept and the conclusion that follows from your premises. And that's quite-Henry: No, philosophers want to tell you the particular, most philosophers create a thought experiment to be like, you should be a virtue ethicist or you should give money away. Like they're preaching.Agnes: I don't think that is preaching. So I think that, and like, I think that this is why so many philosophical thought experiments are sort of meant to rely on what people call intuitions. Like, oh, but don't you have the intuition that? What is the intuition? The intuition is supposed to be somehow the kind of visceral and inchoate grasp that you already have of the thing I am trying to teach you. You already think the thing I'm telling you. I'm just making it clear to you what you think. And, you know, like there's like, I want to go back to the gospels. Like, I think it's a real question I have. I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but I feel like something I sometimes think about Jesus and I say this as a non-Christian, is that Jesus was clearly a really exceptional, really extraordinary human being. And maybe he just never met his Plato. You know, he got these guys who are like telling stories about him. But like, I feel like he had some really interesting thoughts that we haven't accessed. Imagine, imagine if Socrates only ever had Xenophon. You know, if Socrates had never met Plato. We might just have this story about Socrates. Oh, he's kind of like a hero. He was very self-sacrificing. He asked everyone to care about everybody else. And he might like actually look quite a bit like Jesus on a sort of like, let's say simplistic picture of him. And it's like, maybe it's a real shame that Jesus didn't have a philosopher as one of the people who would tell a story about him. And that if we had that, there would be some amazing arguments that we've missed out on.Henry: Is Paul not the closest thing to that?Agnes: What does he give us?Henry: What are the arguments? Well, all the, you know, Paulian theology is huge. I mean, all the epistles, they're full of, maybe, I don't know if they're arguments more than declarations, but he's a great expounder of this is what Jesus meant, you should do this, right? And it's not quite what you're saying.Agnes: It's conclusions, right?Henry: Yes, yes.Agnes: So I think it's like, you could sort of imagine if we only had the end of the Gorgias, where Socrates lists some of his sayings, right? Yes, exactly, yes. You know, it's better to have injustice done to you than to do injustice. It's better to be just than to appear just. Oratories should, you should never flatter anyone under any circumstances. Like, you know, there's others in other dialogues. Everyone desires the good. There's no such thing as weakness of will, et cetera. There are these sort of sayings, right? And you could sort of imagine a version of someone who's telling the story of Socrates who gives you those sayings. And yeah, I just think, well, we'd be missing a lot if we didn't hear the arguments for the sayings.Henry: Yeah, I feel stumped. So the next thing you say about novelists, novelists give us a view onto the promised land, but not more. And this relates to what you're saying, everything you've just been saying. I want to bring in a George Eliot argument where she says, she kind of says, that's the point. She says, I'm not a teacher, I'm a companion in the struggle of thought. So I think a lot of the time, some of the differences we're discussing here are to do with the readers more than the authors. So Tolstoy and George Eliot, Jane Austen, novelists of their type and their caliber. It's like, if you're coming to think, if you're involved in the struggle of thought, I'm putting these ideas in and I'm going to really shake you up with what's happening to these people and you're going to go away and think about it and Pierre's going to stay with you and it's really going to open things up. If you're just going to read the story, sure, yeah, sure. And at the end, we'll have the big revelation and that's whoopee. And that's the same as just having the sayings from Socrates and whatever. But if you really read Middlemarch, one piece, whatever, Adam Bede is always the one that stays with me. Like you will have to think about it. Like if you've read Adam Bede and you know what happens to Hetty at the end, this has the, oh, well, I'm not going to spoil it because you have to read it because it's insane. It's really an exceptional book, but it has some of those qualities of the thought experiment. She really does put you, George Eliot's very good at this. She does put you in the position of saying like, what actually went right and wrong here? Like she's really going to confront you with the situation but with the difficulty of just saying, oh, you know, that's easy. This is what happened. This is the bad thing. Well, there were several different things and she's really putting it up close to you and saying, well, this is how life is. You need to think about that.Agnes: So that last bit, I mean, I think that this is how life is part. Yeah. Really do think that that's something you get out of novels. It's not, so here's how you should live it or so here's why it makes sense, or here are the answers. It's none of the answers, I think. It's just that there's a kind of, it's like, you might've thought that given that we all live lives, we live in a constant contact with reality but I think we don't. We live in a bubble of what it's, the information that's useful to me to take in at any given moment and what do I need in order to make it to the next step? And there's a way in which the novel like confronts you with like the whole of life as like a spectacle or something like that, as something to be examined and understood. But typically I think without much guidance as to how you should examine or understand it, at least that's my own experience of it is that often it's like posing a problem to me and not really telling me how to solve it. But the problem is one that I often, under other circumstances, I'm inclined to look away from and the novelist sort of forces me to look at it.Henry: Does that mean philosophers should be assigning more fiction?Agnes: I, you know, I am in general pretty wary of judgments of that kind just because I find it hard to know what anyone should do. I mean, even myself, let alone all other philosophers.Henry: But you're the philosopher. You should be telling us.Agnes: No, I actually just don't think that is what philosophers do. So like, it was like a clear disagreement about, you know, is the, like George Eliot's like, I'm not a teacher, but the philosopher also says I'm not a teacher. I mean, Tolstoy was like, I am a teacher.Henry: Yeah, I'm a teacher.Agnes: I'm ready to guide you all.Henry: You should take notes.Agnes: But I think it's right that, yeah. So I think it's like, you know, maybe they have some other way of forcing that confrontation with reality. But I, my own feeling is that philosophers, when they use examples, including some of the thought experiments, it's sort of the opposite of what you said. It's kind of like they're writing very bad fiction. And so they'll come up with these, like I am philosophy. We have to, we're forced to sort of come up with examples. And, you know, I discuss one in my aspiration book of, oh, once upon a time, there was a guy. And when he was young, he wanted to be a clown, but his family convinced him that he should be an investment banker and make money. And so he did that. But then when he was older, he finally recovered this long lost desire. And then he became a clown and then he was happy. It's a story in an article by a philosopher I respect. Okay, I like her very much. And I haven't read it in a long time. So I'm hoping I'm summarizing it correctly. But my point is like, and this is supposed to be a story about how sort of self-creation and self-realization and how you can discover your authentic self by contrast with like the social forces that are trying to make you into a certain kind of person. But it's also, it's just a very bad piece of fiction. And I'm like, well, you know, if I'm say teaching a class on self-creation as I do sometimes, I'm like, well, we can read some novelists who write about this process and they write about it in a way that really shows it to us, that really forces us to confront the reality of it. And that story was not the reality. So if you have some other way to do that as a philosopher, then great. I'm very instrumental about my use of fiction, but I haven't found another way.Henry: Which other fiction do you use in the self-creation class?Agnes: So in that class, we read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend. And we also read some Fernando Pessoa.Henry: Pessoa, what do your students think of Pessoa?Agnes: They love it. So when I first assigned it, I'm like, I don't know what you guys are going to make of this. It's kind of weird. We're reading like just, you know, 20 pages of excerpts I like from the Book of Disquiet. I mean, it's like my own text I'm creating, basically. I figure with that text, you can do a choose your own adventure. And they like it a lot. And I think that it really, that, you know, the thing that really resonates with them is this stuff where he talks. So there are two passages in particular. So one of them is, one where he talks about how he's like, yeah, he meets his friend. And he can't really listen to what his friend is saying, but he can remember with photographic precision the lines on the face when he's smiling, or like, it's like what he's saying is, I'm paying attention to the wrong thing. Like I'm paying attention to the facial expressions and not to the content. And that I'm somebody who's in a world where my organization of my own experience is not following the rules that are sort of being dictated to me about how my experience is supposed to be organized. And that's sort of his predicament. So that's a thing that they like. And then there's a wonderful passage about how I keep trying to free myself from the social forces oppressing me. And I take away this noose that's around my neck. And as I'm doing it, I realize my hand is attached to a noose and it's pulling me. Like I'm the one who's doing, I'm the one who's suffocating myself all along when I'm trying to free myself from social forces, it's me who's doing the oppressing. Anyway, so those are some passages that we talk about that they like. They like it a lot. They have a lot less trouble making something of it than I had expected that they would.Henry: Is this because he, is he well-suited to the age of social media and phones and fragmented personalities and you're always 16 different people? Is it that kind of thing?Agnes: Partly it's the short texts. I mean, as I said, meeting a problem, right? And so, yeah. So like they like Nietzsche too, probably for the same reason, right? I mean, anything where the-Henry: The aphorism.Agnes: Yeah, exactly. Like no joke. You know, it's not the era for War and Peace. It's the era for the Nietzschean aphorism.Henry: This is so depressing. I thought this wasn't true.Agnes: Yeah, I think it's true. I like, I had a conversation with a student in my office yesterday about this and about how like just his own struggles with reading and how all his friends have the same problem. And, you know, I have made some suggestions and I think maybe I need to push them harder in terms of, you know, just university creating device-free spaces and then people having like, I think we have to view it the way we view exercise. Like none of us would exercise if we didn't force ourselves to exercise. And we use strategies to do it. Like, you know, you have a friend and you're going to go together or, you know, you make a habit of it or whatever. I mean, like, I think we just have to approach reading the same way. Just let's accept that we're in an environment that's hostile to reading and make it a priority and organize things to make it possible rather than just like pretending that there isn't a problem. But yeah, there is. And it's hard for us to see. So you're not as old as me, but I'm old enough that all of my reading habits were formed in a world without all of this, right? So of course it's way easier for me. Even I get distracted, but, you know, for me spending a couple of hours in the evening reading, that's like a thing I can do. But like a lot of people, okay, I was at a like tech, in a little tech world conference in California. And it was early in the morning and my husband wasn't awake yet. So I was just, and it was one of these conferences where there's like a little group room and then you have your own, like we had like a hotel room type room, but like then I would had to be in the room with my husband who was sleeping. I couldn't turn the light on. So it was early. I woke up at four. So I went to the group room just to read. And I'm sitting there reading and someone came up to me and they were like, I can't believe you're just sitting there like reading. I don't think I've seen someone read a book in, you know, he's like ever or something, maybe. I mean, he's a half my age. Like he's like, that's just not a thing that people do. And it was like, he's like, it's so on brand that you're reading, you know? But it's like, it's, I think it's just, it's much harder for people who have grown up with all of this stuff that is in some way hostile to the world of reading. Yeah, it's much harder for them than for us. And we should be reorganizing things to make it easier.Henry: Yeah, I get that. I'm just, I'm alarmed that they can't read, like the depth of Ivan Ilyich. It's like, I don't know, it's like 50 pages or.Agnes: Yeah, for one class, no.Henry: It's very short. It's very short.Agnes: That's not short. 50 pages is not short.Henry: It's an hour or two hours of reading.Agnes: It's like, yeah, between two and three. They also read slower because they don't read as much.Henry: Okay, but you know what I'm like…Agnes: Yeah, right, three hours of reading is a lot to assign for a class. Especially if, in my case, I always also assign philosophy. So it's not the only thing I'm assigning.Henry: Sure, sure, but they read the philosophy.Agnes: Same problem. I mean, it's not like some different problem, right? Same problem, and in fact, they are a little bit more inclined to read the fiction than the philosophy, but the point is the total number of pages is kind of what matters. And from that point of view, philosophy is at an advantage because we compress a lot into very few pages. So, but you know, and again, it's like, it's a matter of like, it's probably not of the level. So I can, you know, I can be more sure that in an upper level class, students will do the reading, but I'm also a little bit more inclined to assign literature in the lower level classes because I'm warming people up to philosophy. So, yeah, I mean, but I think it is alarming, like it should be alarming.Henry: Now, one of the exciting things about Open Socrates, which most people listening to this would have read my review, so you know that I strongly recommend that you all read it now, but it is all about dialogue, like real dialogue. And can we find some, you know, I don't want to say like, oh, can we find some optimism? But like, people are just going to be reading less, more phones, all this talk about we're going back to an oral culture. I don't think that's the right way to phrase it or frame it or whatever, but there's much more opportunity for dialogue these days like this than there used to be. How can Open Socrates, how can people use that book as a way of saying, I want more, you know, intellectual life, but I don't want to read long books? I don't want to turn this into like, give us your five bullet points, self-help Socrates summary, but what can we, this is a very timely book in that sense.Agnes: Yeah, I kind of had thought about it that way, but yeah, I mean, it's a book that says, intellectual life in its sort of most foundational and fundamental form is social, it's a social life, because the kinds of intellectual inquiries that are the most important to us are ones that we can't really conduct on our own. I do think that, I think that some, there is some way in which, like as you're saying, novels can help us a little bit sort of simulate that kind of interaction, at least some of the time, or at least put a question on the table. I sort of agree that that's possible. I think that in terms of social encounters doing it, there are also other difficulties though. Like, so it's, we're not that close to a Socratic world, just giving up on reading doesn't immediately put us into a Socratic world, let's put it that way. And for one thing, I think that there really is a difference between face-to-face interaction, on the one hand, where let's even include Zoom, okay, or phone as face-to-face in an extended sense, and then texting, on the other hand, where text interaction, where like texting back and forth would be, fall under texting, so would social media, Twitter, et cetera, that's sort of- Email. Email, exactly. And I'm becoming more, when I first started working on this book, I thought, well, look, the thing that Socrates cares about is like, when he says that philosophy is like, you know, when he rejects written texts, and he's like, no, what I want to talk back, I'm like, well, the crucial thing is that they can respond, whether they respond by writing you something down or whether they respond by making a sound doesn't matter. And I agree that it doesn't matter whether they make a sound, like for instance, if they respond in sign language, that would be fine. But I think it matters that there is very little lag time between the responses, and you never get really short lag time in anything but what I'm calling face-to-face interaction.Henry: Right, there's always the possibility of what to forestall on text. Yeah. Whereas I can only sit here for like 10 seconds before I just have to like speak.Agnes: Exactly, and I mean, 10 seconds, that's a wild exaggeration. So do you know what the actual number is? No. On average. Okay, the average amount of time that you're allowed to wait before responding to something I say is two tenths of a second, which, it's crazy, isn't it? Which, that amount of time is not enough time for, that is a one second pause is an awkward pause, okay? So two tenths of a second is not long enough time for the signal that comes at the end of my talking, so the last sound I make, let's say, to reach your ears and then get into your brain and be processed, and then you figure out what you want to say. It's not enough time, which means you're making a prediction. That's what you're doing when I'm talking. You're making a prediction about when I'm going to stop talking, and you're so good at it that you're on almost every time. You're a little worse over Zoom. Zoom screws us up a little bit, right? But this is like what our brains are built to do. This is what we're super good at, is kind of like interacting, and I think it's really important that it be a genuine interaction. That's what I'm coming to see, is that we learn best from each other when we can interact, and it's not obvious that there are those same interaction possibilities by way of text at the moment, right? I'm not saying there couldn't be, but at the moment, we rely on the fact that we have all these channels open to us. Interestingly, it's the lag time on the phone, like if we were talking just by phone, is about the same. So we're so good at this, we don't need the visual information. That's why I said phone is also face-to-face. I think phone's okay, even though a lot of our informational stream is being cut. We're on target in terms of the quick responses, and there's some way in which what happens in that circumstance is we become a unit. We become a unit of thinking together, and if we're texting each other and each of us gets to ponder our response and all that, it becomes dissociated.Henry: So this, I do have a really, I'm really interested in this point. Your book doesn't contain scientific information, sociological studies. It's good old-fashioned philosophy, which I loved, but if you had turned it into more of a, this is the things you're telling me now, right? Oh, scientists have said this, and sociologists have said that. It could have been a different sort of book and maybe been, in some shallow way, more persuasive to more people, right? So you clearly made a choice about what you wanted to do. Talk me through why.Agnes: I think that it's maybe the answer here is less deep than you would want. I think that my book was based on the reading I was doing in order to write it, and I wasn't, at the time, asking myself the kinds of questions that scientists could answer. Coming off of the writing of it, I started to ask myself this question. So for instance, that's why I did all this reading in sociology, psychology, that's what I'm doing now is trying to learn. Why is it that we're not having philosophical conversations all the time? It's a real question for me. Why are we not having the conversations that I want us to be having? That's an empirical question, at least in part, because it's like, well, what kinds of conversations are we having? And then I have to sort of read up on that and learn about how conversation works. And it's surprising to me, like the amount of stuff we know, and that it's not what I thought. And so I'm not, maybe I'm a little bit less hostile than most philosophers, just as I'm less hostile to fiction, but I'm also less hostile to sort of empirical work. I mean, there's plenty of philosophers who are very open to the very specific kind of empirical work that is the overlap with their specialization. But for me, it's more like, well, depending on what question I ask, there's just like, who is ready with answers to the question? And I will like, you know, kind of like a mercenary, I will go to those people. And I mean, one thing I was surprised to learn, I'm very interested in conversation and in how it works and in what are the goals of conversation. And of course I started with philosophical stuff on it, you know, Grice and Searle, speech act theory, et cetera. And what I found is that that literature does not even realize that it's not about conversation. I mean, Grice, like the theory of conversational implicature and you know, Grice's logic on conversation, it's like if you thought that making a public service announcement was a kind of conversation, then it would be a theory of conversation. But the way that philosophers fundamentally understand speech is that like, you know, speakers issue utterances and then somebody has to interpret that utterance. The fact that that second person gets to talk too is not like part of the picture. It's not essential to the picture. But if you ask a sociologist, what is the smallest unit of conversation? They are not going to say an assertion. They're going to say something like greeting, greeting or question answer or command obeying or, right? Conversation is like, there's two people who get to talk, not just one person. That seems like the most obvious thing, but it's not really represented in the philosophical literature. So I'm like, okay, I guess I got to say goodbye philosophers. Let me go to the people who are actually talking about conversation. You know, I of course then read, my immediate thought was to read in psychology, which I did. Psychology is a bit shallow. They just don't get to theorize. It's very accessible. It's got lots of data, but it's kind of shallow. And then I'm like, okay, the people who really are grappling with the kind of deep structure of conversation are sociologists. And so that's what I've been reading a lot of in the past, like whatever, two months or so. But I just wasn't asking myself these questions when I wrote the book. And I think the kinds of questions that I was asking were in fact, the kinds of questions that get answered or at least get addressed in philosophical texts. And so those were the texts that I refer to.Henry: So all the sociology you've read, is it, how is it changing what you think about this? Is it giving you some kind of answer?Agnes: It's not changing any, my view, but any of the claims in the book, that is the exact reason that you brought out. But it is making me, it's making me realize how little I understand in a sort of concrete way, what like our modern predicament is. That is, where are we right now? Like what's happening right now? Is the question I ask myself. And I get a lot of, especially in interviews about this book, I get a lot of like, well, given where things are right now, is Socrates very timely? Or how can Socrates help or whatever? And I'm like, I don't think we know where things are right now. That is that given that, where is it? Where is it that we are? And so part of what this kind of sociology stuff is making me realize is like, that's a much harder question than it appears. And even where do we draw the lines? Like, when did now start happening? Like my instinct is like, one answer is like around 1900 is when now started happening. And, and so like, so I guess I'm interested both at the very micro level, how does the conversational interaction work? What are the ways in which I am deciding in this very conversation, I'm deciding what's allowed to be in and what's not allowed to be in the conversation, right? By the moves I'm making, and you're doing the same. How are we doing that? How are we orchestrating, manipulating this conversation so as to dictate what's in it and what's out of it in ways that are like below the surface that we're not noticing, that we either that we are doing it or that we're doing it ourselves. Neither of us is noticing, but we're doing that. So that's at the micro level. And then at the macro level is the question about when did now start happening? And what are the big shifts in like the human experience? And, are we at a point somehow in human history where culture like as a mechanism of coordination is a little bit falling apart and then what's going to come next? That's like a kind of question that I have to put in that kind of vague way. So maybe the right thing to say is that reading all these sociology texts has like, has given me a sets of questions to ask. And maybe what I'm trying to do is, it's like, what my book does is it describes a kind of ideal. And it describes that ideal, you know, using the power of reason to see what would it take to sort of set us straight? What is the straightened version of the crooked thing that we're already doing? And I think that that's right, but that's not at all the same thing as asking the question like, what's our next step? How do we get there from here? That's the question I'm asking now. But part of trying to answer the question, how do we get there from here is like, where are we now? And where are we both very, very locally in an interaction, what are we doing? And then in a big picture way, where are we? What is the big, what is like, you know, in the Taylor Swift sense, what era are we in? And, you know, I guess I still feel like we are, we are living in the world of Fernando Pessoa, Robert Musso, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Hermann Bruch, Franz Kafka, like that set of writers, like around 1900-ish set of writers who didn't all know each other or anything, didn't coordinate, but they all, there was this like primal scream moment where they were like, what the hell is going on? What has happened to humanity? Where are the rules? Like, who are we supposed to be? I mean, of all of those, I would pull out Musso as like the paradigm example. So this is me, I guess, taking inspiration from literature again, where I feel like, okay, there's something there about we're lost. There's an expression of, there's a thought we're lost. And I'm trying to understand, okay, how did we get lost? And are we still in that state of being lost? I think yes. And let's get a clear, once we get very clear on how lost we are, we'll already start to be found. Cause that's sort of what it is to, you know, once you understand why you're lost, like that's situating yourself.Henry: Those writers are a long time ago.Agnes: Yeah, I said around 1900.Henry: Yeah, but you don't, you don't, but there's nothing more recent that like expresses, like that's a very long now.Agnes: Yeah. Well, yes, I agree. So I say, when did now start happening? I think it started happening around 1900. So I think-Henry: So are we stuck?Agnes: Yeah, kind of. I think, so here's like a very, he's like a very simple part of history that must be too simple because history is not, is like, it's very mildly not my strong suit. I can't really understand history. But it's like, there is this set of writers and they don't really tell stories. It's not their thing, right? They're not into plot, but they are issuing this warning or proclamation or crisis, like flashing thing. And then what happens? What happens after that? Well, World War I happens, right? And then, you know, not very long after that, we got World War II and especially World War II, the result of that is kind of, oh no, actually we know what good and bad are. It's like fighting Nazis, that's bad. And, you know, so we got it all settled. And, but it's like, it's like we push something under the rug, I guess. And I think we haven't dealt with it. We haven't dealt with this crisis moment. And so, you know, I think I could say something very similar about Knausgaard or something that is, I think he's kind of saying the same thing and his novel has a novel, whatever you want to call it, the, you know, I'm talking about the later one. That's the kind of weird sort of horror quadrilogy or something. It has this feeling of like trying to express a sense of being lost. So there's more recent stuff that, a lot of it's autofiction, the genre of autofiction has that same character. So yeah, like maybe there is some big progress that's been made since then, but if there is, then it has passed me by.Henry: Agnes: Callard, thank you very much. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

Se čtyřnásobnou držitelkou Magnesie Litery a členkou Německé akademie pro jazyk a literaturu Radkou Denemarkovou o tom, jestli je její literatura politická, o hořkém smíchu Franze Kafky a o tom, že literatura se musí dělat opravdově a naplno.Protože jsme přátelé, vytáhl jsem z ní, jak probíhá jmenování do Německé akademie pro jazyk a literaturu a co to pro českou spisovatelku znamená. Probrali jsme vydání jejích knih v arabštině, jak její knihy čtou arabští muži a jak arabské ženy, a jak rozdílné jsou reakce na její knihy v Německu, ve Španělsku a v Česku.

A Psychoanalytic Reflection on Narcissistic Parenthood and its Ramifications: The Forgotten Echo (Routledge, 2024) proposes a new perspective on narcissism, focusing on its destructive impact within relationships. Psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Hila Yahalom discusses the patterns and ramifications of traumatizing upbringing by narcissistic parents, exploring the resulting development of a defensive-behavioral pattern and personality structures in the child which constitutes a mirror image of narcissism. Yahalom assesses a wide range of psychoanalytic theories in presenting a broad outlook on narcissism, its roots, and the manner by which pathological narcissism may manifest in interpersonal relationships as ‘narcissistic abuse'. This book considers the narcissist's perverted occupation of the psychic space of others, with both participants usually blind to the phenomenon – a blindness that is reenacted in therapy, affecting its course. This book contains clinical vignettes from the author's work as well as examples from the life stories of Heinz Kohut (Mr. Z), Franz Kafka, and Maria Callas. A Psychoanalytic Reflection on Narcissistic Parenthood and its Ramifications: The Forgotten Echo will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and other clinicians working with narcissism, parenthood, and dysfunctional family relationships. Akilesh Ayyar is a spiritual teacher and writer in New York. He can be reached at ayyar@akilesh.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychoanalysis

A Psychoanalytic Reflection on Narcissistic Parenthood and its Ramifications: The Forgotten Echo (Routledge, 2024) proposes a new perspective on narcissism, focusing on its destructive impact within relationships. Psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Hila Yahalom discusses the patterns and ramifications of traumatizing upbringing by narcissistic parents, exploring the resulting development of a defensive-behavioral pattern and personality structures in the child which constitutes a mirror image of narcissism. Yahalom assesses a wide range of psychoanalytic theories in presenting a broad outlook on narcissism, its roots, and the manner by which pathological narcissism may manifest in interpersonal relationships as ‘narcissistic abuse'. This book considers the narcissist's perverted occupation of the psychic space of others, with both participants usually blind to the phenomenon – a blindness that is reenacted in therapy, affecting its course. This book contains clinical vignettes from the author's work as well as examples from the life stories of Heinz Kohut (Mr. Z), Franz Kafka, and Maria Callas. A Psychoanalytic Reflection on Narcissistic Parenthood and its Ramifications: The Forgotten Echo will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and other clinicians working with narcissism, parenthood, and dysfunctional family relationships. Akilesh Ayyar is a spiritual teacher and writer in New York. He can be reached at ayyar@akilesh.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A Psychoanalytic Reflection on Narcissistic Parenthood and its Ramifications: The Forgotten Echo (Routledge, 2024) proposes a new perspective on narcissism, focusing on its destructive impact within relationships. Psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Hila Yahalom discusses the patterns and ramifications of traumatizing upbringing by narcissistic parents, exploring the resulting development of a defensive-behavioral pattern and personality structures in the child which constitutes a mirror image of narcissism. Yahalom assesses a wide range of psychoanalytic theories in presenting a broad outlook on narcissism, its roots, and the manner by which pathological narcissism may manifest in interpersonal relationships as ‘narcissistic abuse'. This book considers the narcissist's perverted occupation of the psychic space of others, with both participants usually blind to the phenomenon – a blindness that is reenacted in therapy, affecting its course. This book contains clinical vignettes from the author's work as well as examples from the life stories of Heinz Kohut (Mr. Z), Franz Kafka, and Maria Callas. A Psychoanalytic Reflection on Narcissistic Parenthood and its Ramifications: The Forgotten Echo will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and other clinicians working with narcissism, parenthood, and dysfunctional family relationships. Akilesh Ayyar is a spiritual teacher and writer in New York. He can be reached at ayyar@akilesh.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychology

Although it would be more thematically appropriate of us to NOT tell you about this week's episode, we are going to be rebellious and do it anyway—sans mohawk and safety pins.  Andrew joins Ben this week to ruminate over the work punk.  After discussing what they have been up to, debating the importance of a thesis statement (or lack thereof), and sharing their experiences with the game they have both (YES BOTH) been playing, Dungeon Clawler by Stray Fawn Studio, they embark upon a sensory adventure together… in STEREO!  Following the traditional definition festivities, they explore their thoughts and feelings associated with the word.  Finally, Ben talks about Suda51—recognized by many as one of the most “punk rock” game developers out there in addition to being author responsible for a favorite gaming narrative of his.         *** 00:00:00 - Andrew's Crowdfundr ADHD pin promo and the obligatory 2VP theme song Please contribute to Andrew's latest Crowdfundr campaign and buy a swanky “Advanced Dungeons Have Dragons” ADHD enamel pin! https://crowdfundr.com/dragonpin?ref=ab_5eGT0FGiaC55eGT0FGiaC5 00:02:03 - Book progress, a 25 percent different demon, veggies, and many presidents ago 00:04:37 - Ben breaks kayfabe, the Piper Cafe, the Safehouse, price tags, and trading cards 00:06:37 - Verified on Bluesky, Andrew's 2025 call, allies for decades, and Bash the alarm clock 00:09:25 - Thoughts on the thesis, eating children, Substack review handling, and epic poems 00:14:24 - The Hunt for Red October, embargo date debate, and Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop 00:17:23 - Looking at manuals, divergent vs. diverse, symptoms of life, and rewiring the brain 00:21:01 - Autistic trends, a mom's introduction to Rick and Morty, and a claw machine thesis 00:24:22 - Christopher Nolan, Dungeon Clawler impressions, and Andrew describes the game 00:27:45 - Ben wants more stuff, Count Clawcula, thumbs up, and speaking of potato snacks 00:29:35 - In stereo, lining them up in post, the bouquet, the mouth feel, and a mystery flavor 00:31:53 - Aged in wooden tubes, the proof with vinegar, maltodextrin, and the aging problem 00:34:44 - Ben's bourbon belch, she smelled like soup, the comma, and ten points in Scrabble 00:37:40 - The derogatory definition, Ben's Allen Funt impression, and the skipped definition 00:40:01 - Punk sticks, anarchy, being adjacent, punk credit, and getting out what you put in 00:43:03 - The Bumblebee Tuna theme in Ska, the energy, and questionable stuff in Tucson 00:45:00 - Going to the Meet Rack, the condom machine, lubricated regulars, and river rafting 00:47:24 - Not inherently political, Andrew's Portland punk experiences, and The Young Ones  00:50:00 - The Seattle WTO Protests, moving into retail, against the grain, and hybrid formats 00:53:44 - Not Punky Brewster, punk as a suffix, Daft Punk origin, and Max Headroom shows 00:57:02 - The Video Toaster, actor Matt Frewer, platinums, and Ben sells 100 million albums 00:58:40 - Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, not Sudafed, and the games of Suda51 01:01:23 - Punk Rock sub-genres, Franz Kafka game gets canceled, and Garcia is a Mexi-CAN 01:04:37 - Something that happens, expired donuts, mistook it for a Cybertruck, and food love 01:07:30 - So romantic, Michigan, final thoughts, Joe saved the podcast, and formica dragons  *** Follow Andrew / Partly Robot Industries on… His website: https://partlyrobot.com/ On Instagram: https://instagram.com/partlyrobot On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@partlyrobot On Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/partlyrobot.com On Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/partlyrobot And his TREE o' LINKS: http://linktr.ee/partlyrobot Follow Two Vague on… Our website: https://www.twovaguepodcast.com On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/two_vague_podcast On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@twovaguepodcast On Substack: https://substack.com/@twovaguepodcast On Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/twovaguepodcast.com For show appearance and other inquiries, contact us at: twovaguepodcast@gmail.com -AND-  …for all of your PRI and 2VP merch check out the Partly Robot Industries store at TEEPUBLIC! https://www.teepublic.com/user/partly-robot-industries *** References, Links, and Tags For more information about Stray Fawn Studio's game Dungeon Clawler… https://strayfawnstudio.com/ https://dungeonclawler.com/ For more information about Uncle Chops Rocket Shop, developer Beard Envy Games, and publisher Kasedo Games… https://www.unclechops.com/ https://www.beardenvy.co.uk/ https://www.kasedogames.com/ Check out Ben's review of SlavicPunk: Oldtimer on the Two Vague Podcast Substack… https://substack.com/home/post/p-154373300 Check out Red Square Games and SlavicPunk: Oldtimer on Steam… https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44288282-Red-Square-Games/  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1820140/SlavicPunk_Oldtimer/ Check out SUDA51 / Grasshopper Manufacture's games https://www.grasshopper.co.jp/en/ https://www.shadows-of-the-damned-hellaremastered.com/ #Podbean #DIYPodcast #ApplePodcast #VideoGames #Trivia #Comedy #Talkshow #2VP #TwoVaguePodcast #PodernFamily #InterviewShow #GamersofThreads #Gamer #PartlyRobot #PartlyRobotIndustries #TeePublic #StrayFawnStudio #DungeonClawler #BeardEnvyGames #UncleChopsRocketShop #KasedoGames #GrasshopperManufacture #ShadowsoftheDamnedHellaRemastered #Suda51

From the critically acclaimed artist, designer, and author of the bestsellers The Principles of Uncertainty, My Favorite Things, and Women Holding Things comes a moving meditation in words and pictures on remorse, joy, ancestry, and memory. REGISTER In Conversation with Alex Conner Maira Kalman's most autobiographical and intimate work to date, Still Life with Remorse is a beautiful, four-color collection combining deeply personal stories and 50 striking full-color paintings in the vein of her and Alex Kalman's acclaimed Women Holding Things. Tracing her family's story from her grandfather's birth in Belarus and emigration to Tel Aviv--where she was born--Maira considers her unique family history, illuminating the complex relationship between recollection, regret, happiness, and heritage. The vibrant original art accompanying these autobiographical pieces are mostly still lifes and interiors which serve as counterpoints to her powerful words. In addition to vignettes exploring her Israeli and Jewish roots, Kalman includes short stories about other great artists, writers, and composers, including Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Gustav Mahler, and Robert Schumann. Through these narratives, Kalman uses her signature wit and tenderness to reveal how family history plays an influential role in all of our work, lives, and perspectives. A feat of visual storytelling and vulnerability, Still Life with Remorse explores the profound hidden in the quotidian, and illuminates the powerful universal truths in our most personal family stories. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! (recorded 10/29/2024)

In today's episode, we revisit a riveting conversation with actress, entrepreneur, and mother, Jessica Alba. Featuring new footage and an extended cut, this episode delves deeper into Jessica's journey growing up in the entertainment industry, the impact of her upbringing, and how she navigates modern motherhood. Jessica shares her experiences with proving her worth in Hollywood, dealing with societal expectations of sexiness, and finding herself as a woman and mother. She delves into her childhood, the complexities of her multicultural family background, and the cultural challenges they faced. Jessica also talks about the balance between career and family, the creation of The Honest Company and the significance of having multiple roles beyond just motherhood. Together, Jessica and Valeria reveal their thoughts on parenting, the importance of routines, coping mechanisms, and how personal experiences and philosophy shaped their parenting styles. Follow Jessica Alba: https://www.instagram.com/jessicaalba/ https://www.tiktok.com/@jessicaalba?lang=en  Watch Honest Renovations: https://www.roku.com/en-ca/whats-on/tv-shows/honest-renovations?id=8b926ff837975aedbf18257557f6358c&srsltid=AfmBOor6KzF2h36ZGssYUQipvjtodEhtfzLuF63Fs3hnJQw39GO96ZXy  The Honest Company: https://www.honest.com/  Items Mentioned:  New Earth by Eckhart Tolle: https://a.co/d/2Me1AGt  The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz: https://a.co/d/dvd9Dc1  1984 by George Orwell: https://a.co/d/aSNeDEK  Tarantula by Bob Dylan: https://a.co/d/fGIVFdF  Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: https://a.co/d/4Pu6pqU  What We Talked About:  00:00 Introduction and Early Career Struggles 01:27 Personal Background and Upbringing 02:06 Modern Motherhood and Upbringing Reflections 03:49 Family Dynamics and Cultural Influences 08:54 Navigating Identity and Motherhood 17:17 Creating The Honest Company 18:55 Balancing Motherhood and Personal Identity 31:40 Embracing Parenthood: Defining Moments 32:28 Lessons from the Past: Wisdom from Grandparents 33:55 Building a Business and Raising a Family 37:22 The Struggle for Balance and Overcoming Guilt 44:29 Parenting Insights: From Motherhood to Parenthood Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maira Kalman is one of those multi-talented people. She writes children's books and books for adults. She's also a contributor to the New York Times. She creates covers for the New Yorker and sets for operas Her latest work is a book of essays called Still Life with Remorse that includes family stories and paintings she's done. It also includes vignettes about historical figures like Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka. In fact, Kalman likes to dress up as these characters like Kafka and make little films about them. Her son Alex shoots the movies. They're very funny. We laugh about a lot of crazy things that happen in life on the new episode of “Now What?”

Bobby struggles with the right amount of reflection on a urinal. And join us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56777802  to hear the second half of the episode and how Franz Kafka's character's transformation into a monstrous insect, is a like a reflection of an inmate. You can read more about Bobby and prison reform on our website: notesfromthepen.com   And check out the GoFundMe to help with Bobby's new start https://www.gofundme.com/f/j3khzk-help-for-a-new-start Twitter: https://twitter.com/NotesFromThePen  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJYuOh4pKxa/?igshid=y8lo9kbdifvq    Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/notesfromthepen.bsky.social Shout-out to JD and Ashely Bell for all their behind the scenes support. Intro and Outro music created just for Notes From The Pen by PJ Trofibio and Jeff Quintero and used with permission.

In episode 5: Breaking Down the Structure of Your Writing, Brittany and Jeannetta discuss structure with the first chapter of Jane Alison's Meander, Spiral, Explode, “Point, Line and Texture”, as their guide. They discuss Alison's framework for looking at structure, which proposes to look at the sounds and textures of words and sentences and how form follows content. They also explore how they have used structure in their own writing and the possibilities for disruption that structure offers. Notes Shonda Rhimes universe!  Bridgerton (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8740790/) , Scandal (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837576/), etc! Franz Kafka on his request to burn his work: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html  The Artists Way by Julia Cameron, https://www.google.com/search?q=the+artists+way&oq=the+artists+way&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQLhgKGIAEMgkIAhAAGAoYgAQyCQgDEC4YChiABDIJCAQQLhgKGIAEMgkIBRAAGAoYgAQyCQgGEAAYChiABDIJCAcQABgKGIAEMgkICBAAGAoYgATSAQg0NjQxajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8  Charles Johnson, The Way of The Writer Matt Bell, “Syntatic Symbolism”, https://mattbell.substack.com/p/exercise-20-syntactic-symbolism  David Foster Wallace, “Forever Overhead”, can be read here: https://biblioklept.org/2014/09/01/forever-overhead-david-foster-wallace/ Kathy Winograd,  https://kathrynwinograd.com/  Mathangi Subramanian, https://www.mathangisubramanian.com/about  Dorte Nors, https://www.dorthenors.dk/  D'Angelou, “Untitled” Tao Lin, Shoplifting in American Apparel, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6096464-shoplifting-from-american-apparel  George Saunders, Story Club Substack available here: https://georgesaunders.substack.com/  Episode S2E3, Emotional Beats, with Kara Smith, accessible here: https://writeattention.podbean.com/e/emotional-beats-part-2/  Witches by Brenda Lozano, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59892323-witches 

本期岛上主播：何润哲 2024年，中法建交60周年之际，跳岛FM与法国驻华大使馆共同推出 「法兰西特派！La dépêche française ! 」 特别企划，用6期节目带领中文听众领略法国文学的独特魅力。作为整个系列的收官之作，本期节目迎来了首位来岛上作客的法国作家—— 大卫·冯金诺斯。 被誉为巴黎的"伍迪·艾伦"，冯金诺斯身负电影导演与百万畅销书作家两大头衔，如今已有五本作品被译为中文。在本次对谈中，主播何润哲将与他一起，沿着他的文学创作脉络，探究虚构与纪实，小说与生活之间微妙而隽永的联结。 生活之上，为什么还需要小说？ 冯金诺斯的创作充满变化，如同一场漫无目的的文学游戏。他落笔轻盈，却始终不忘探索创作的本质。他化身成《马丁一家》中灵感枯竭的小说家，随机选择路人作主角；他建起一座《退稿图书馆》，以"书之书"的形态拷问着人与文学间的关联；他多方收集材料，为天才艺术家《夏洛特》重述一段情感史。他始终在追问：身为创作者，该如何游走与现实与想象之间？生活与文学之间，究竟有怎样的关联？ 《微妙》与《回忆》让我们看到他创作的更多面向：人物情感的隐秘辗转，他人与自我生命的互相照见……他写文学，也写生活，因为对他来说，“每个人都能成为小说”。如果有一天，你的生活停滞不前，不如去小说里看看，答案也许就在那里。 【时间轴】 03:08 冯金诺斯的阅读习惯：冬天和夏天读不一样的书！ 05:25 《马丁一家》：每个人都可以成为一本小说？ 10:35 非典型的浪漫爱情故事《微妙》——人应如何与意外相处？ 14:07 为什么说“文学是某种形式的不忠”？ 15:30 爱情故事过时了吗？如何在当下书写浪漫？ 17:14 《夏洛特》：想象如何重构艺术家的真实生命？ 23:01 《退稿图书馆》：金钱将会怎样影响我们与文学的关系？ 26:52 《回忆》：如何借助他人的记忆，理解自己的生活？ 29:52 现代影像记录的便利会影响我们的记忆吗? 31:28 冯金诺斯对人名的研究大揭秘 【节目中提到的】 - 书籍 《微妙》《夏洛特》《回忆录》《退稿图书馆》《马丁一家》[法] 大卫·冯金诺斯 - 人物 路易斯·菲利普·米肖，魁北克作家。年轻时曾因脑瘫经历了一系列重大手术。现已出版奇幻文学作品《新魔法》。 卢基诺·维斯孔蒂，意大利电影与舞台剧导演，代表作有《魂断威尼斯》《诸神的黄昏》等。 夏洛特·萨洛蒙，犹太裔德国画家，第二次世界大战期间在奥斯维辛集中营被迫害致死。代表作有图像小说《人生？如戏？》。 帕特里克·莫迪亚诺，法国小说家，2014年获得诺贝尔文学奖。代表作有《暗夜街》等。 弗朗西斯·斯科特·基·菲茨杰拉德，美国小说家。代表作有《了不起的盖茨比》等。 川端康成，日本新感觉派作家、文学批评家，1968年成为首位日本人诺贝尔文学奖得主。代表作有《雪国》《古都》等。 文森特·威廉·梵高，荷兰后印象派画家。代表作有《星夜》《向日葵》等。 米兰·昆德拉（Milan Kundera），捷克裔法国籍作家，代表作有《生命中不能承受之轻》《笑忘书》等。 弗朗茨·卡夫卡（Franz Kafka），出生于奥匈帝国的德语小说家。代表作有《城堡》《变形记》等。 费奥多尔·米哈伊洛维奇·陀思妥耶夫斯基（Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevskiy），俄国作家，代表作有《罪与罚》《白痴》《卡拉马佐夫兄弟》等。 - 影视 《魂断威尼斯》 【出品方】中信出版集团文学事业部 【制作人】何润哲 广岛乱 【文案编辑】Viann 【运营编辑】黄鱼 不理 【后期剪辑】Viann 茄汁鱼 【配音】刘照坤 【音乐】钱子恒 【视觉顾问】孙晓曦 【视觉指导】汐和 【平面设计】心心

Here at the podcast factory, we're thrilled to welcome back novelist, translator, collaborator and cultural critic Seth Rogoff to talk about his new novel—a thrilling and unsettling coda to Franz Kafka's unfinished masterwork The Castle. Seth joined us in Season 2 (Ep. #35) to talk about the also thrilling and decidedly unconventional memoir he helped to write with ESPN basketball analyst and former NBA star Kendrick Perkins, The Education of Kendrick Perkins, which took a critical look at racism in America, and in professional sports, and sounded a call for justice and social change—a book hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “a well-balanced blend of activism and memoir.”  In that first interview, we talked a little bit about Seth's work as a noted Kafka translator, and we're picking up that conversation here, as Seth celebrates the publication of The Castle—“a palimpsestic fever dream” of a novel, according to another noted Kafka translator, Ross Benjamin.  (Go ahead and look up palimpsestic—we'll wait.)  In this follow-up conversation, we talk with Seth about the collaborative nature of translation, the state of contemporary memoir, and the never-ending search to find meaningful stories in the life and work of others.  Learn more about Seth Rogoff: Website BlueSky Threads Twitter Please support the sponsors who support our show: Gotham Ghostwriters/ASJA “Andy Awards” Guidelines Ritani Jewelers Daniel Paisner's Balloon Dog Daniel Paisner's SHOW: The Making and Unmaking of a Network Television Pilot Unforgiving: Lessons from the Fall by Lindsey Jacobellis Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Libro.fm (ASTOLDTO) | 2 audiobooks for the price of 1 when you start your membership Film Freaks Forever! podcast, hosted by Mark Jordan Legan and Phoef Sutton Everyday Shakespeare podcast A Mighty Blaze podcast The Writer's Bone Podcast Network Misfits Market (WRITERSBONE) | $15 off your first order  Film Movement Plus (PODCAST) | 30% discount Wizard Pins (WRITERSBONE) | 20% discount

Alright...as you know Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar are the founding members of the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis with Alenka Zupančič as part of their Troika, and this week we have our first episode of a new series we're doing on Mladen Dolar's upcoming book Rumors as part of the Theory Redux editions with Polity Press. A little birdie told me that Tim is busy moving house and we're talking the general rumorization of society from Socrates to Trump, Franz Kafka's the Trial, Lacan's ethology, JD Vance and his couch, Castaways, and Cindy Crawford. A lot of people are talking about it! Thanks to everyone for all of the support and apologies for the episode delay...rumors abound! SUPPORT THE PODCAST HERE - for more episodes, interviews, SHORT SESSIONS and our Discord! See You in Paris! Ž&...

Franz Kafka died 100 years ago and if it were up to him none of his writings were to have survived as he asked his friend Max Brod to gather it all and destroy it. Brod gathered Kafka's writings and documents, but never burned them. Many ended up in the hands of the National Library of Israel which has now put the on display at a new exhibition called “Kafka: Metamorphosis of An Author.” Reporter Arieh O'Sullivan spoke about the exhibition with Stefan Litt, Curator of the Humanities Collection and archivist for the Kafka collection. (photo: courtesy) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Dorian, and Frances as they discuss OVERSTAYING by Ariane Koch, translated from the German by Damion Searls, and chat about their current reading. For our next episode, we will welcome Rohan Maitzen to the podcast to join us in discussion about the books we are most looking forward to in the new year. We would love to have you join us for our conversation coming to you in late December. Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books! Books Mentioned: Overstaying by Ariane Koch, translated from the German by Damion Searls Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals by Ronnie A. Grinberg Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls The Philosophy of Translation by Damion Searls Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst One Shot Harry by Gary Phillips Ash Dark As Night by Gary Phillips Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice You might also be interested in: “The Cares of a Family Man” by Franz Kafka - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cares_of_a_Family_Man Struwwelpeter -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter The Sandman by E. T. A. Hoffmann - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_(short_story) Further resources and links are available on our website at onebrightbook.com. Browse our bookshelves at Bookshop.org. Comments? Write us at onebrightmail at gmail Find us on Twitter at @pod_bright Frances: @nonsuchbook Dorian: @ds228 Rebecca: @ofbooksandbikes Dorian's blog: https://eigermonchjungfrau.blog/ Rebecca's newsletter: https://readingindie.substack.com/ Our theme music was composed and performed by Owen Maitzen. You can find more of his music here: https://soundcloud.com/omaitzen.

Jeff Wall talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work.Wall—who was born in 1946 in Vancouver, Canada, where he still lives, though he also works in Los Angeles—makes photographs but aspires to approach his medium with the freedom, range and openness taken for granted by other artforms. Presented on a large scale, his images are enormously varied, from those that are close to reportage; to what he calls “near-documentary” images—tableaux, where he recreates a scene he has witnessed in reality with actors; to elaborately staged environments responding to art or literature; and even what he calls “hallucinations”. Crucially, he has used the term “cinematographic” to describe his approach, in that his pictures use different degrees of preparation and processing before he presses the shutter and afterwards, thereby applying what Jeff has called “aspects of the arts of dramatisation” to the pictorial practice of still photography. Because of this, his work has long had a fascinating philosophical relationship with truth and reality—two key cornerstones of orthodox claims for his medium's potency—and what Wall has called “blatant artifice”. Initially famous for the technique he pioneered in the art world of presenting vast transparencies on lightboxes, he now mostly works with prints, on a similar scale, in both colour and black and white. As he has engaged closely with the history of art, books and film, Jeff has used the term “prose poems” to describe his photographs: that form's complex structures and language and ability to conjure broad constellations of meanings, perfectly describe his art and how we experience it. He discusses how comics and Bruegel were his earliest visual inspirations, talks about his responses to historic works by Katsushika Hokusai and Albrecht Dürer, reflects on the “accidents while reading” that have led him to make images responding to literary works by Franz Kafka and Yukio Mishima, among others. Plus he answers some of our usual questions, including the ultimate, “what is art for?”Jeff Wall: Life in Pictures, White Cube Bermondsey, London until 12 January 2025; Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal, April-August 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Between 1911 and 1912, Prague was home to Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka, two of the twentieth-century's most influential minds. During this brief but remarkable period, their lives intertwined in surprising ways, driven by a shared intellectual restlessness and a desire to confront life's most profound questions. Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe (Bloomsbury, 2024) brings to life the overlapping journeys of these two men, exploring how their intellectual pursuits, one rooted in science and the other in literature, unfolded against Prague's backdrop. Through a careful examination of Einstein's letters, lectures, papers from the period, and Kafka's meticulous diary entries, Ken Krimstein vividly traces Einstein's year in the city marked by frustration and failure. Ultimately, with the help of Kafka, Einstein is led to groundbreaking insight that reshapes our understanding of the universe. This “lost year” becomes a bridge between months of struggle and the moment of breakthrough many consider “the greatest scientific discovery of all time.” Ken Krimstein is an award-winning cartoonist, author, and educator whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune. He teaches at DePaul University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher are joined by the editorial director of the New York Review of Books and the founder of the NYRB classic series, Edwin Frank, to discuss his first work of nonfiction, the book, Stranger than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth Century Novel. Taking the novel as the preeminent art form of the last century, Frank's book charts its winding path of development, beginning with Fyodor Dostoevskey's Notes from the Underground, published in 1864, and ending with W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz which arrived more than a 100 years later. Along the way, Frank looks at the many different forms and categories great 20th century novels take, from the distinctly modern and popular science fiction of H.G. Wells to the “minorness” of Franz Kafka; the historical precision of Thomas Mann to Gerturde Stein's stress on sentence itself, and James Joyce's stress on words. The book connects an eclectic collection of authors by way of style, sensibility, reception, temporality, and perhaps most importantly the influence of cataclysmic world events on their work and the shaping of their work on the world.

Taking a break from the news, we're sharing uplifting stories from our 'Other Europes' series this week: an Italian city granting every newborn citizenship, a British nursery bridging generations, and a young Irish filmmaker shining a light on marginalized voices. Plus, a sneak peek of New York's “Kafka: Making of an Icon” exhibit. Join us for these stories of hope and resilience across Europe.

Franz Kafka died 100 years ago, but his work is still very much alive today in literature classes and, surprisingly, on social media. This hour, we look at Kafka's life and legacy, discuss the “Kafkaesque,” and investigate why the author resonates so much today. Plus, we revisit his most famous work, “The Metamorphosis,” and talk with a zoologist about the idea of turning into an insect. GUESTS: Benjamin Balint: Author of Kafka's Last Trial; his latest book is Bruno Schulz: An Artist, A Murder, and the Hijacking of History Tim Coulson: Professor of zoology at the University of Oxford; his latest book is The Science of Why We Exist: A History of the Universe from the Big Bang to Consciousness Margarita Mouka: Content creator and creative executive; her TikTok handle is @aquariuscat444 Karolina Watroba: Post-doctoral research fellow in modern languages at Oxford's All Souls College and the author of Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Bradley O'Connor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 8, 2024.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're enjoying the Hardcore Literature Show, there are two ways you can show your support and ensure it continues: 1. Please leave a quick review on iTunes. 2. Join in the fun over at the Hardcore Literature Book Club: patreon.com/hardcoreliterature Thank you so much. Happy listening and reading! - Benjamin

Bret speaks with Matt Taibbi on the subject of the censorship industrial complex. They discuss their views on the recent lack of reaction by traditional liberals to violations of America's First Amendment. Join Matt Taibbi and Bret in Washington DC for Rescue the Republic on September 29th https://jointheresistance.org. Find Matt Taibbi on Substack at http://racket.news and on X at http://x.com/mtaibbi.*****Sponsors:American Hartford Gold: Get up to $5,000 of free silver on your first qualifying order. Call 866-828-1117 or text “DARKHORSE” to 998899.Pique's Nandaka: delicious mushroom, tea, and chocolate drink that provides all day energy. Up to 20% off + free frother+beaker at www.Piquelife.com/darkhorse.*****Join DarkHorse on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.com/Check out the DHP store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://www.darkhorsestore.org/Theme Music: Thank you to Martin Molin of Wintergatan for providing us the rights to use their excellent music.*****Mentioned in this episode:(00:21:03) Facebook study https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2014/06/facebook-can-manipulate-your-mood-it-can-affect-whether-you-vote-when-do-we-start(00:22:47) Murthy v. Missouri https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf(00:23:25) Franz Kafka's “Before the Law”(01:04:41) National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/1540/text(01:15:10) General Michael Hayden's post: https://x.com/GenMhayden/status/1834958138644029764*****Time Stamps:(00:00:00) Introduction(00:02:44) Matt Taibbi's history of covering deplatformed and deamplified individuals and organizations(00:07:47) Evaporation of the will to fight(00:09:15) Sponsors(00:13:18) Three things causing the "evaporation of the will to fight"(00:21:21) How the information environment is shaped(00:28:43) Traps and "Bomb Holding"(00:34:01) Is it against the law?(00:41:56) Biden's Incompetence: Missing front-page news(00:54:01) Why Matt Taibbi is coming back off the bench(01:00:31) Eliminating Words and Unhooking the Constitution(01:08:01) Why we must gather and vote now(01:20:01) ClosingSupport the show

John is joined by The Daily Show's Jordan Klepper to discuss the return of Jon Stewart to the show, the challenges of covering the RNC and DNC live, and his signature forays into the dark, savage, achingly comical heart of the MAGA-sphere at Donald Trump's rallies. The two pals—who worked together when John dragooned Jordan into guest hosting his Showtime series The Circus—also debate the merits of Chicago's iconic but disgusting local liqueur Malort (and even more iconic and appalling style of deep dish pizza), whether Klepper has a crush on former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, and his resemblance to Gregor Samsa, the man-turned-cockroach protagonist in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices