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What is the link between comedy and tragedy? Why do both laughing and crying involve tears? How is comedy related to tickling? Why do we laugh more in modern times? These and many other questions answered in a philosophical discussion based on René Girard's essay on the topic, "Perilous Balance: A Comic Hypothesis."

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We start where we left off in Part 1: Dostoevsky the romantic wakes up and realizes he lives in the underground, filled with resentment, frustrated ambition, and tormenting idols. The underground man struggles to break free in the character of Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment and the teacher in The Gambler.

We then encounter formidable idols that attract and foment underground passions all around them: Prince Myshkin in The Idiot and Nikolai Stavrogin in The Possessed. Dostoevsky shows how such demons cannot lead anywhere but destruction. The author depicts the depths of rebellion as a human universal and as a particular of his place and age.

Finally, in The Brothers Karamazov, the Devil has a mask-off moment and shows his face. But Christ also shows up. The demonic nature of the underground torment and fascination is fully revealed. Christ stands accused by the Grand Inquisitor, who wants to build a society without him. But only Christ can reveal the perdition of obsessing over idols, enemies, and sinful fathers, whom one inevitably ends up imitating, and the way out that obsession and into a whole, undivided humanity. 

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A review of the life and works of the great Fyodor Dostoevsky following René Girard's book Dostoevsky: Resurrection from the Underground. A masterpiece of literary criticism in its own right, this book brings edifying and brilliant insights into Dostoevsky's own masterpieces, but only by connecting them to the novelist's lesser works and personal life.

Girard traces a coherent arch in Dostoevsky's life and works, from a frustrated naive romantic trying to fit into the literary fads of the age while coping with his personal inadequacies to a man who experiences a spiritual breakthrough and perceives the unflattering, diabolical truths about the motives that drive him. These motives have everything to do with Girard's mimetic theories on desire and on modernity, theories that came to him while reading Dostoevsky, among other novelists, as a young academic. 

We begin to see how Dostoevsky's and Girard's works are coupled and how they provide such a powerful, prophetic interpretation of modernity.

Part 2 will be covered in the next episode, which traces the arch from Dostoevsky awakening in the underground, to struggling to escape it, and finally to the spectacular resurrection out of it.

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René Girard's mysterious quote on masochist reasoning being a model of scientific induction. Connecting masochistic conclusions about the nature of the universe to that of the scientist. What logical genius may have in common with masochism – the idiot-savant stereotype. Why modern materialistic and atheistic ideologies tend to turn sadomasochistic.

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The Devil is trending. Talk of demons can be heard from Tucker Carlson, theorists on UFOs and AI, right-wing podcasters interviewing exorcists, and the Psychedelic Renaissance aficionados. So I go over what I recently wrote about the devil on my blog: Girard's anthropological interpretation of the Devil as the force behind seduction, conflict, and accusation; the victimary mechanism as the Satanic mechanism, depicted in the story of the Gerasene Demoniac and the parable of Satan casting out Satan; the devil in schizophrenia and in psychedelic experiences.

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• Gregory Bateson's double bind as the cause of schizophrenia
• René Girard on the double bind as a universal human experience
• Girard's notion of the haunting double as the source of the double bind and central cause and symptom of schizophrenia

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Last episode for the summer. Shakespeare snobbery. Two audiences of Shakespeare: the mob and the initiates. Two layers in Othello and Hamlet: romanticism and mimesis. Othello: thirst for the exotic and the death wish. Hamlet: disillusionment with the violent sacred. Shakespeare the man: relationship trauma and dramatic genius.

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René Girard wrote a book of literary criticism of Shakespeare titled "Theatre of Envy: William Shakespeare." The book makes centuries of Shakespeare critics look like fools while confirming the bard himself as a monumental literary figure. This podcast summarises some of the big points of Girard's analysis of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare dramatised and reflected on what Girard calls the mimetic nature of desire ("love through others' eyes"), using it as a key plot device in many of his works. In this episode we talk about a few of them, including Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Rape of Lucrece, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Troilus and Cressida.

Furthermore, Girard analyses Shakespeare's depictions of what he calls mimetic crises and sacrificial murder. We discover these elements in Troilus and Cressida and Julius Caesar.

This episode is Part 1 of 2 (for now) on the topic of Shakespeare interpreted by Girard.

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Christ's admonitions to turn the other cheek, love thy enemy, etc., from the Sermon on the Mount unsettle many brave Christians. We interpret these admonitions conclusively with the help of René Girard's mimetic exegesis. Take courage soldier! – Jesus does not advocate cowardice or resignation. We also reference C.S. Lewis, and discuss how "love thy enemy" links to Sun Tzu's precepts in The Art of War.

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• Mexico: A Girardian analysis of Mel Gibson's movie Apocalypto
• China: Girardian notes on Terracotta Warriors and pandas
• Rome: The Gladiator movie; the origin of gladiatorial games
• Greece: The origin of the ancient Olympic Games