Phi Fic

We are rejoined by Drew Pinsky to discuss philosophical and psychological readings by Seneca, Arthur Schopenhauer, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, Albert Camus, plus two 2017 survey papers on predictors of suicide.

Is suicide ever morally permissible? If it's a symptom of mental illness rather than a chosen behavior, is it even appropriate to morally evaluate it?

Check the PEL Store for our Wall Calendar and new offerings including Mark's new album, tutoring, and your very own Personal Philosophy.

Visit DrDrew.com. He has interviewed Wes and Mark.

Don't wait for part 2! Get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition along with a follow-up discussion. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit fin.com/pel to try a virtual assistant for free. Explore Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save at thelifeyoucansave.org/pel.

More on this classic text by (perhaps) Vyasa, with guest Shaan Amin. Should we acquire good karma or behave "beyond good and evil"? How can everything be Krishna while Krishna is also the an element of virtue we're supposed to pursue? How does this compare with Stoicism? Plus, behold Krishna unveiled and be freaked out!

Listen to part one first or get the full, unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL and get the 2019 PEL Wall Calendar!

End song: "Om Hari Om 1" by Tim Jordan Kirtan feat. Michael Manring. Hear Michael on Nakedly Examined Music #31.

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL and explore Peter Singer's http://thelifeyoucansave.org/pel.

On the classic Hindu text (ca. the 3rd century B.C.E.), part of the Indian Epic poem Mahabharata, attributed to Vyasa, using Keya Maitra's 2018 translation/commentary.

What is it to live wisely? What grounds duty? Listen as the supreme God Krishna convinces archer hero Arjuna that it's OK for him to kill his relatives because, you know, reincarnation and determinism and caste-related duties. Lots of metaphysical complications! With guest Shaan Amin.

Don't wait for part two! Get the full, unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL. Get the 2019 PEL Wall Calendar!

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL and explore Peter Singer's http://thelifeyoucansave.org/pel.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. –H.P. Lovecraft

In this episode, we discuss At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. Considered one of the greatest writers of horror and creator the science fiction horror genre, Lovecraft was primarily a short story writer during the early twentieth century. Most of his stories were published in Amazing Stories, a pulp, horror magazine and At the Mountains of Madness is his only novella.

The story is narrated by William Dyer, a geologist who, along with his associates from Miskatonic University, has embarked upon an expedition to the Antarctic. Dyer’s goal in writing this account is to prevent others who would wish to undertake a similar journey to the Antarctic, in light of what he and his colleagues discovered there.

It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth’s dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be let alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests. –At the Mountains of Madness

What is this discovery? Join Nathan and Laura, along with Jennifer Tejada, Dan Johnson, and PEL's Mark Linsenmayer, in this animated discussion, as we dig into the dark, nameless world discovered by these Miskatonic scientists—and the fear within all of us that animates this world.

Check out H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast’s incredible discussion of At the Mountain of Madness (and everything Lovecraft):

Here are some sketches by Academy Award–winning director Guillermo de Toro of his interpretation of At the Mountain of Madness. Del Toro is hoping to make a movie of Lovecraft’s masterpiece.

If you have thoughts, recommendations, or questions that you want to send our way, please do via [email protected].

Hear more Phi Fic..

Thanks to Christopher Nolen for the music.

Laura Davis-Chanin, Nathaniel Hanks, Daniel Johnson, Mark Linsenmayer, and Jennifer Tejada discuss the novel.

Support through Patreon or directly contact us at [email protected]

Concluding on Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror (1980) and focusing on H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928). Does Lovecraft's presentation of nameless terror capture (or improve upon) what Kristeva means by "abjection"?

End song: "The Other" by Mark Lint feat. Lucy Lawless. Read about it and support the project.

Listen to part one first, or go back to ep. 202 first. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full, ad-free experience. Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit fin.com/pel to try a virtual assistant for free. Explore Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save at partiallyexaminedlife.com/savealife.

More on Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror (1980) plus H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928).

What is the object of fear? Mark, Seth, and Dylan get clearer on Kristeva's view of the establishment and loss of the integrity of the self, what the "object" of abjection is, and what this all might have to do with feminism.

Most of the Lovecraft goodness is in part 2, so don't wait! Get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition, along with Mark's Kristeva Close Reading. Please support PEL!

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

 

Mark takes a very close look at pages 1–4 of the first chapter of On Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980) as a supplement to episode 202.

Get the full, 55-minute experience as a PEL Citizen, or get it by supporting us on Patreon for a mere $1!

Continuing on Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, ch. 1 and 2. We try to get clearer on Kristeva's talk of "object," the relationship between language and abjection, how Kristeva is advancing on Freud, how to be a mom that allows a kid to separate in a healthy way, and how abjection plays into religion and writing.

Listen to part one first, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen Edition, and don't miss Mark's Close Reading, available to Citizens and $1+ Patreon members.

End song: "Eyes of Fire" by Jill Freeman, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #28.

Help us plan our 10th Anniversary show by taking our planning survey. Watch out for our 2019 Wall Calendar!

Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a one-month free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.

If Socrates leaves his house today he will find the sage seated on his doorstep. If Judas go forth tonight it is to Judas his steps will tend. Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves. –Ulysses

As Nathan notes, Ulysses is “the historically difficult read,” and Daniel agrees, following with his finding of this formative novel, “a great puzzle, that is exhausting but incredibly rewarding.”

Follow us on this brief journey as we dig through some of the themes within the Ulysses universe: Cyclical history. Epic of return. Absent figure. Impotence. Failed Love. The Self and the Not Self. Universal Love. One Step forward, One step back. Identity in flux. No inner sanctum.

Based on The Odyssey by Homer, Ulysses takes place in Dublin and follows three characters: Stephen Daedalus, Leopold Bloom, and Molly Bloom. The events in the novel take place over 24 hours and parallels the journey home by Odysseus after the Trojan war, as well as delving into Irish history through a day of life in Dublin. Even more profound, Ulysses is considered the seminal stream-of-consciousness work—making it known as the great arduous read, but changing the course of literature as it was known at the time, and since.

She would follow, her dream of love, the dictates of her heart that told her he was her all in all, the only man in all the world for her for love was the master guide. Come what might she would be wild, untrammeled, free.” –Ulysses

This recording is an archived episode from our Not School group, long before we became a podcast, so please excuse any audio problems. In this discussion, Nathan, Laura, and Daniel are joined by Phillip Cherny. Many thanks to Phillip for his wonderful thoughts!

There have been many visual interpretations of Ulysses, but try a look at Bloom (2003) directed by Sean Walsh, or Ulysses (1967) directed by Stephen Strick, loosely based on the novel.

And check out the Great Courses Study:  Literary Modernism: The Struggle for Modern History.

If you have thoughts, recommendations, or questions that you want to send our way, please do via [email protected].

Hear more Phi Fic..

Thanks to Chrisopher Nolen for our music.