Today we’re joined by writer, researcher, and podcaster Edward Ongweso Jr. to discuss “the essence of The Dialectic,” as a highly-fictionalized Herbert Marcuse proclaims in Hail, Caesar! Dialectics: what are they, what is their function, and how might their theory and praxis manifest multifariously across the Coens’ body of work? We discuss the history of the term, how the concept of keeping two ideas in tension is expressed within individual characters, and we finally tackle the loop-de-loop structure of Inside Llewyn Davis. This conversation is a deep dive and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Ed’s podcast: This Machine Kills

Ed’s substack: The Tech Bubble

Coens Covered: Hail, Caesar!, Inside Llewyn Davis, A Serious Man, No Country for Old Men, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo

Plus: No Direction Home

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