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C.P. Snow's The Two Cultures: the original stemcels vs shape rotators beef
This week we're discussing C.P. Snow's influential 1959 lecture 'The Two Cultures', on the growing division between literary and scientific intellectuals: "So the great edifice of modern physics goes up, and the majority of the cleverest people in the western world have about as much insight into it as their neolithic ancestors would have had." Why do literary types tend to be Luddites? Is it kinda good that hubristic tech bros refuse to read the classics? Has the gap narrowed or widened in recent decades? How closely does The Two Cultures map onto the stemcels vs shape rotators meme? And of course Cam analyses the various status dynamics at play. Trickling out episodes atm while Rich is on paternity leave. Normal service will resume shortly WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at [email protected] to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
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Butcher's Crossing: John Williams's rougher cut
Back to the novels. This week, the DYEL boys decide to try Butcher's Crossing, the first novel from John Williams, the author famous for writing the so-underrated-it-might-be-overrated-but-probably-is-now-just-correctly-rated novel Stoner. As to be expected, it's not on the same level of Stoner but we still enjoy it. Decline of the buffalo: Rich reminds Cam that we already had this discussion in our episode of Blood Meridian but Cam forgot it and found himself in new disbelief on the staggering decline of the North American Bison. Emerson and finding yourself: It turns out Rich went through an Emerson phase. Well, actually more of a Thoreau phase but the both had three names and wrote around the same time so it counts. We discuss Emerson's idea of transcendence and whether this novel is meant as a refutation or embodiment of it. Miller: Not on the level of the Judge in Blood Meridian but a memorable character in his own right. Rich has some small gripes with his characterisation. CHAPTERS (00:00:01) Intro (00:06:10) Summary (00:07:53) Emerson's transcendentalism (00:17:30) American Buffalo: Decline, hunting, skinning (00:26:02) Miller's stoicism and characterisation (00:34:24) Schneider's empty (Chekhov's) gun (00:41:18) Does Miller's motive make sense? (00:46:26) Lesser work to Stoner (00:48:54) Anti-Emerson (00:53:02) Ending and nihilism (01:00:15) Outro and next picks WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at [email protected] to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
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Borges's Library of Babel: Ctrl + F for meaning
The Do You Even Lit boys put down the heavy tomes and choose a short story. Well, we're not sure if it counts as a story. Maybe a thought experiment? This week we’re talking about one of our favourite authors: Jorge Luis Borges. We read The Library of Babel, Borges’s classic meditation on infinity (well, not infinity exactly — but an almost-might-as-well-be infinity). There are a lot of books. Nonsense: Not to complain about pLoT hOlEz, but we take slight issue with the fact that it's no feasible for a librarian to find any coherent passages, even if the library contains everything collectively. How would you know? We worry about the metaphysical horror of not being able to know you found the book with all the codes in it even if you found it. We're reassured by reminding ourselves that we won't stumble across The library: How are the hexagons actually connected? Can you piss off the railing? Was it designed to be pissed off? And if you jumped, which book would you bring on the way down? CHAPTERS (0:11) Banter and boners (2:13) Thought experiments vs short stories (4:28) Summary (06:07) How many books is it really? (08:23) It'd all be nonsense, practically speaking (10:23) Metaphysical layers 1 and 2 (18:06) the real world website (21:10) Falling down the shaft (27:06) No author doesn't quite hit the same (39:06) How do they have history? (44:30) What does the library look like? (47:25) Multiverse (59:03) Wrap up WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at [email protected] to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Butcher's Crossing - John Williams James Joyce...
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Anna Karenina FINALE: Revenge of the Reddit Atheists
What an absolutely dogshit ending to an otherwise incredible book. We made it through 800 pages for this?? I still love you Tolstoy but seriously wtf bro. This discussion covers parts 6, 7, and 8 of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Anna's unhappy ending: Look how they massacred my girl. Is this a tale of a wanton harlot who got what was coming to her, or a good woman driven mad by society's strictures? What is it exactly that Tolstoy disapproves of about Anna's actions? How much would he hate her revival as a feminist icon? Is Aella the modern Anna K? Levin's leap of faith: Is there any way this isn't totally unredeemable bullshit that ruins the end of the book? Sadly, no. Nevertheless we explore Levin's 'undefined but significant ideas'. Should we turn our brains off, and disregard reason and philosophy in favour of tradition? Is Christianity the final word in moral progress? Cam is more sympathetic to the leap of faith: if we replace religion, what do we replace it with? Final thoughts: Jordan Peterson has a line about Dostoevsky being the great psychologist of the 20th century and Tolstoy being the great sociologist. Is he right? Where do we land on this book overall? Would we recommend it wholeheartedly? What are our favourite things about Tolstoy? Do we have to read War and Peace now? ...and, if you can believe it, more CHAPTERS (00:00:00) hot takes (00:05:30) Anna’s unhappy ending (00:24:26) the feminist reading of Anna vs society (00:29:55) Parallels with the Kitty/Levin arc (00:44:05) Vronsky’s teeth discourse (00:49:35) Levin’s depression and rejection of reason (01:05:40) Cam makes the case for the leap of faith (01:11:43) Dostoevsky vs Tolstoy: who’s the better psychologist? (01:19:12) Would we recommend this book? WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at [email protected] to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges Butcher's Crossing - John Williams
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Anna Karenina part 2: I am begging you to touch grass
Levin is a turbo nerd who runs away from social awkwardness to theorise on agrarian economics or whatever. Sound like anyone you know?? Anyway he finally touches grass and gets the girl. Meanwhile we are falling out of love with Anna. It feels like something bad is gonna happen? The foreshadowing is very subtle, only experts in Media Literacy will be able to catch it. On Levin's journey away from intellectualism: Is the peasant life really that appealing? Does doing good need to come from the heart, not from the mind? Rich gets mad about Tolstoy basically shitting on effective altruism; benny offers a partial defence. Nikolai's gruesome death: Kitty steps up and shows her worth. Is she meant to be the paragon a good Christian, or a good woman? Rich is now terrified of dying and wants to be euthanised. Anna & Vronsky's empty self-gratification: Tolstoy literally accuses Vronsky of jerking himself off with the whole 'amateur artist in Italy' pose. Anna gives in to passion, abandoning her 8yo child in the process. Seems bad. We notice we are falling out of love with Anna. Karenin's emotional repression cracks: First he gets big mad and is on the verge of joining the manosphere. Then he has a proper Christian moment and forgives both Anna and Vronsky; a move so powerful that Vronsky attempts to kill himself in shame. Then he backslides a little but it's progress. We are warming up this cold fish. This discussion covers parts 3, 4, and 5 of the book. Tune in next week for the finale. Can't wait to see how this ends. CHAPTERS (00:00:00) yes I'm mad (00:02:35) Levin's journey from cerebral dork to touching grass (00:11:32) Leave effective altruism alone! (00:22:45) Trouble in paradise for the newlyweds (00:27:45) Nikolai's gruesome death as an argument for euthanasia (00:37:18) Karenin finally gets in touch with his emotions (00:51:48) Anna and Vronsky empty self-gratification spiral (01:03:51) Listener mail: Dawkins on Kafka redux WRITE US: We love listener feedback. Send us a note at [email protected] to correct our hot takes, add your own, or ask a question. NEXT ON THE READING LIST: Anna Karenina finale: parts 6-8 The Library of Babel - Jorge Luis Borges
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1:09:51