Do You Even Lit?

Do You Even Lit?

By cam and benny feat. richSociety & CultureArtsBooksPhilosophy
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Do You Even Lit? episodes

  • Borges' Garden of Forking Paths: a ramble through the multiverse

    These days the 'multiverse' idea is standard marvel slop. But if we read this story in 1941 it would have blown our tiny little minds.

    how tf did Borges sit at the cutting edge of philosophy and physics without doing the classic info-dump spergy thing?

    We read one of our favourite stories in search of Clues

    (actual plot-related analysis starts around the 1 hour mark)

     

    CHAPTERS

    (00:00:00) synopsis and throat clearing

    (00:06:43) Borges the troll (death of the author redux)

    (00:16:23) How this mf had so many original ideas

    (00:22:12) Cho Chang discourse

    (00:30:30) Conceptual analysis of being cool

    (00:42:20) History of the multiverse

    (00:52:23) ambiguity of the Liddell Hart intro

    (01:01:22) Fatalism and free will

    (01:18:53) What motivates Yu Tsun?

    (01:25:05) maze strategy chat

    (01:31:20) When we first encountered the multiverse

    (01:34:00) Does multiverse imply all possible things happen?

    (01:49:25) Real hypertext has never been tried

    1 hr 59 min
  • John Williams' sleeper hit Stoner: Finding perfection in mediocrity

    Full transcript for this episode is available at doyouevenlit.com — sort by ideas, authors, and more.

    Our critical consensus on John William's sleeper bestseller Stoner:

    • There is almost no plot
    • The main character doesn't get the girl, or really succeed at anything
    • Gigantic violation of 'show don't tell', starting on literally page one
    • WE FUCKING LOVE THIS BOOK

      • could it be...a perfect novel?

      we try figure out why we relate so hard to Mr William Stoner, the great shining exemplar of principled mediocrity.

      CHAPTERS

      • 00:00:00 - the perfect novel
      • 00:06:23 - synopsis
      • 00:10:20 - why each of us loved this book
      • 00:17:02 - Mediocrity as the modal outcome
      • 00:22:26 - Is Stoner a good stoic or too passive?
      • 00:33:24 - Edith and toxic femininity
      • 00:42:36 - Subverting the hero/saviour trope
      • 00:48:00 - The Lomax/Walker feud
      • 00:58:30 - Academia as an asylum for misfits
      • 01:03:00 - Lust and learning with Katherine Driscoll
      • 01:07:30 - Dying with dignity
      • 01:10:32 - Where does this stand in the canon?
      • 01:17:18 - Ignoring ’show don’t tell’, plain sincere prose
      • 01:20:40 - assorted culture war stuff
      • 01:28:35 - choosing next book
        • 1 hr 32 min
      • Michel Houellebecq's Map and the Territory, part 3: The world is weary of me and I am weary of it

        closing out the last section of the book with death, entropy, and thwarted ambitions:

        • Why David Deutsch wouldn't approve of Houellebecg
      • True artists impose their vision upon the world
      • Sacred values and euthanasia
      • Should kanye get back on his meds

        • Not sure why the audio cuts off abruptly at the end but it does feel appropriate

        CHAPTERS

        • (00:00:00) Third act murder mystery wtf
      • (00:08:03) Yearning for some bygone era
      • (00:13:49) Deutschian critique of MH’s pessimism
      • (00:20:38) Euthanasia and sacred values
      • (00:30:52) What does Houllebecq’s death signify?
      • (00:39:44) Final thoughts on map vs territory
      • (00:48:23) being open to criticism vs imposing a singular artistic vision upon the world
        • 1 hr 2 min
      • Michel Houellebecq's Map and the Territory, part 2: Post-industrial society and its discontents

        This section is light on plot but we do get a coherent theme: the perversions that emerge from consumer capitalism's relentless optimisation process.

        will our hero Jed maintain his artistic integrity and stop feeding the beast? does Houellebecq think of himself as a kind of ethnographer? Does the g-spot actually exist? etc

         

        benny's audio still sucks. actual book content starts at 00:06:19

         

        CHAPTERS

        (00:00:00) what if we kissed under the mistletoe

        (00:06:19) is art just expensive furniture

        (00:17:48) refining Houllebecq's actual beef with consumer capitalism

        (00:21:51) how true creativity can be corrupted by profit motive

        (00:27:42) b*stiality bodycount digression

        (00:29:53) Houllebecq as neutral ethnographer

        (00:36:34) hot people are smarter too. its not fair

        (00:42:18) height discourse

        (00:48:14) William Morris

        (00:52:47) trying and failing to talk about death

        (00:55:28) how many holes are down there anyway??

        1 hr 3 min
      • Michel Houellebecq's Map and the Territory, part 1: Memeing big fat juicy asses into reality

        Some good stuff coming up already in part 1 of The Map and The Territory:

        • how our models of the world can change underlying physical reality
      • is modern art a psyop?
      • why plato would hate 'brand-name' tourism experience

        • benny's audio is completely cooked on this. I lost the files so I can't fix it sorry

        CHAPTERS

        • (00:00:00) playdough’s cave
      • (00:04:01) is modern art a psyop
      • (00:07:59) straussian readings of plato
      • (00:12:21) map-territory distinction
      • (00:16:21) jed is a true artist
      • (00:25:00) raising children without the threat of physical violence
      • (00:31:00) what blows jed’s skirt up?
      • (00:40:40) woody allen goat
      • (00:44:10) rotten tomatoes manufactures mediocrity
      • (00:51:33) its good art brent!
      • (00:53:20) when the map changes the underlying territory, part 1
      • (00:58:05) wanky status signals can still mediate subjective experience
      • (01:05:50) modern books are easier to read
      • (01:11:42) when the map changes the underlying territory, part 2
        • 1 hr 24 min

      About Do You Even Lit?

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      stemcel tragics use THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP to read litfic and classics