This time I chat with Spencer, Steven, and Cecilia about Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. We talk about silence, meaning, nothingness, God, nihilism, play, love, friendship, endurance, suicide, amnesia, King Lear, Charlie Chaplin, happiness, and more!

Emily, Allie, and I talk about more sections of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. We discuss the value of literature as a witness to human pain, the dangers of ideology, what it means to take responsibility for our suffering, how Solzhenitsyn could end up saying "bless you, prison," the power of small individual actions, how one book can change the world, and much more. 

Carter and I discuss some early chunks of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, and consider the implications of the archipelago metaphor, why it's valuable to read about atrocities, why this book has such lyrical power, what happens when we do not value freedom enough, Solzhenitsyn's provocative claim that the Gulag inmates "deserved everything" that happened to them, the dangers of lying, the consequences of political ideology, and much more. 

Emma, Rachel, and I enthuse over As You Like It. We chat about what it can teach us about writing poetry in the 21st century, in what ways poetry can delight and instruct, how Shakespeare manages to conjure believable humans, what literary irony is, why Rosalind is so captivating, why Orlando's poetry is bad, in what ways all the world is a stage, how the play itself refutes its most famous soliloquy, and much more. 

Ysa and Ethan help me celebrate the beautiful conclusion of Camus' novel The Plague. We talk about the problem of evil and suffering, how Christianity can be kept honest, how we can choose between accepting everything or denying everything, what it means to attain a happiness that knows death, in what ways we are all called upon to be healers, why there are more things in humans to admire than to despise, what it means that "the plague" never really goes away, and much more. 

Ysa, Emily, and I celebrate Whitman's masterpiece Song of Myself. We talk about what it feels like to stand in the presence of great art, what makes Whitman's poetry timeless and democratic, what aspects of his poem we can still use as models in the 21st century, how to make truth statements in poetry, how to use abstractions, how to notice moments of quiet beauty, what the poem's rhythmical power is, and much more. 

Porter, Nathan and I talk first about Camus's parable "The Myth of Sisyphus." We describe why life can rightly be called "absurd," and ask how it's possible to be happy even in pointless or futile struggle. We then touch briefly on the first half of Camus's The Plague, asking how this novel might display Sisyphean attitudes, why it opens with a suicide attempt, how the emotional struggles of these characters map our to our own during the COVID-19 pandemic, whether it makes sense to blame an...

Remy and Kelly and I swoon over a few more Frost masterpieces, and talk about how poems offer temporary stays against confusion. We examine metrical variation, the relationship between the specific and the universal, the importance of getting lost, how poetry can turn the mundane into the sacred, how to rhyme well, how life imitates art, and much more. 

I chat with Calli and Brenna about Woolf's A Room of One's Own. We ask why it's hard to create literary masterpieces and what particular obstacles women have faced through the centuries. We consider Woolf's claim that "it would have been impossible...for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare." Then we react to her admonition to give voice to Shakespeare's sister, and ask what excuses we (men included) really have not to try, what progress has been made...

Taylor and Conner and I chat about Chaplin's masterpiece The Kid. We discuss a few things films can do that books can't, what aspects of film Chaplin perfected that are still around, the balance of comedy and tragedy, what makes this film "Modern," what it has to say about urban life in America, why we love the character of the Tramp even in his vices, where evil comes from, why we should distrust utopias, and how much power we actually have, despite suffering and poverty, to make the world...

Esther, Alexander and I chat about three of our favorite Frost poems. We examine what specifically makes them so beautiful, including: rhythm and meter, sonic texture, the power of monosyllables, universality in poetry, aphoristic wisdom, the tension between form and content, Frost's darker side, dialectical tensions in poetry, tone, and much more. 

#WeAreAllRatLickers

Melissa, Sydney, and I talk about death. What does it mean to think well about death? How much can we or should we think about our eventual demise? Should we live every day as if we were dying? Even if we could, would this be desirable? Why might it be healthy to be close to death, and how should we react to deaths of those around us? To help us answer these questions, and many others, we consider Tolstoy's brilliant novella, and highlight many of its most beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking...

I chat with Baylie and Makayla about why life is worth living. We explore Father Zosima's life as an embodied refutation to Ivan Karamazov's rational arguments about the nature of suffering. We consider how each person is indeed responsible for the sins of all people everywhere, why this attitude will lead to salvation, why Christ is such a potent model for how to live in the world, how to react to suffering, why birds, leaves, and trees make life worth living, why the earth deserves to be...

I chat with Liam and Elizabeth about Ivan Karamazov's objections to life and the world. We consider the ubiquity of human suffering, and agree with Ivan that if we had to found a universal harmony on the tears of one child, we would not do it. After this we chat about Ivan's "poem" and explore the relationship between freedom and suffering, the ways in which this text predicts the totalitarian mindset, and the mysterious significance of Christ's kiss.   

Kailey, Lydia and I talk about Sylvia Plath's Ariel. We consider only a few of the ways this "autobiography of a fever" achieves its most daring effects: metaphor, pronouns, vivid imagery, provocative plainness, and repetitions combined with variation. We consider her bee poems as a series of ars poetica, and explore the possibility that her most famous poems might actually be overshadowing her best poems. 

Jacob, Felix, and I chat about Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground. We discuss how reliable this narrator is, why humans can sometimes enjoy pain and despair, what causes us to act knowingly against our own self-interest, the dangers of Utopian thinking, the limits of human improvement, the relationship between free will and suffering, the limits of reason, the problem of proving the existence of God, what a "whole life" means, and much more. 

Josh and Heather and I talk about a few of our favorite Derek Walcott poems, and the reasons why they're so great. We discuss how being more specific actually helps poems be more universal; what makes the typical Walcott line so taut and vivid; how and why poets can echo the great poets of the past, and much more. 

I chat with Tacey and Cassidy about Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. We discuss some relevant details of Shelley's life, the novel's innovative structure, the Prometheus myth, the dangers of knowledge, what counts as a human and what counts as a monster, the blank slate theory, nature vs nurture, what makes this novel "Romantic," how it rebels against key Enlightenment tenets, where cruelty comes from, how this novel invented many modern sci-fi tropes, and much more. 

William and I enjoy a few early poems by Derek Walcott, and talk about the relationship between talent and practice, how to load your poem with surprises, how to write politically without being didactic, what it means to increase the emotional stakes in a poem, what the bare minimum ingredients for a great poem might be, how to make the particulars of your life seem significant and universal, and much more. 

I swoon with Claire over maybe the best poem in English, and talk about its strange non-title, what makes this poem "Romantic," the relationship between the self and nature, between the past and the present, and between childhood and adulthood. We consider Wordsworth's claim that "all which we behold is full of blessings," how the mind can become a mansion full of lovely forms, and come to the conclusion that every single second of our lives is a potential masterpiece. 

Claire and I chat about maybe the best poem in English, and discuss Romanticism and its varieties, death and immortality, why "but to think is to be full of sorrow," why we long for nature yet feel exiled from it, Eden and its aftermath, how the form of this poem helps contribute to its greatness, why a life of sensations can be more attractive than a life of thoughts, our failed attempt to make a Keats pilgrimage, and more.  

Zach and Kevin and I celebrate the conclusion of Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities. We talk about the transformation of Sydney Carton, the rage of Madame Defarge, the heroism of Miss. Pross, how giving even one person comfort counts as success in life, and how important it is to recognize both the hero and villain inside each of us. Throughout, we ask maybe the most important question: what does it mean to live "a life you love"?   

I chat with Liberty and Eliza about the middle third of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. We discuss which characters appeal to us the most, the relationship between vengeance and justice, how to overcome the desire for vengeance, and why keeping a list of offenses committed against us is a bad way to live. We also chat about mob mentality and connect this novel to recent events at the US Capitol building: what explains the phenomenon of mob mentality, and how can we balance the benefits of...

I chat with Megan and Maura about the first 3rd of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. We discuss why its opening sentence has become one of the most famous sentences in English, the pros and cons of presenting history through fiction, what makes Dickens' style so appealing, how the first sections of this novel depict both French and English society, and much more.