Solomon & Smith

*Emma's list is pasted below*

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1710s - Robinson Crusoe: Daniel Defoe

1720s - Roxana: Daniel Defoe

1730s - Manon Lescaut: Abbé Prévost

1740s - Pamela: Samuel Richardson

1750s - The Female Quixote: Charlotte Lennox

1760s - Barren Decade - TBR: Castle of Otranto, A Sentimental Journey

1770s - The Sorrows of Young Werther: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1780s - Dangerous Liasons: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

1790s - Justine: Marquis de Sade

1800s - Corinne, or Italy: Madame de Staël

1810s - Frankenstein: Mary Shelley

1820s - Barren Decade - TBR: The Betrothed

1830s - The Charterhouse of Parma: Stendhal

1840s - The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

00:00:00 Intro

00:04:35 What's so interesting about the 1700s?

00:06:53 1710s

00:11:30 1720s

00:14:54 1730s

00:20:19 1740s

00:24:04 1750s

00:29:38 1760s

00:33:00 1770s

00:36:00 1780s

00:43:40 1790s

00:49:26 1800s

00:54:51 1810s

01:05:34 1820s

01:09:03 1830s

01:13:05 1840s

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You can buy Igor's books directly from his publishing house here: https://songpublishing.org/?v=b6bb43df4525

In this wide-ranging conversation, artist and spiritual teacher Igor Kufayev talks with Jack and Milo about consciousness, meditation, Kashmir Shaivism (Trika Shaivism), aesthetics, creativity and the relationship between spiritual experience and everyday perception.

He reflects on a profound early meditation experience that transformed his relationship with his body and consciousness, and the moment he put Heidegger aside in favour of seeking direct experience rather than intellectual understanding.

The conversation moves from Western philosophy to the Bhagavad Gita, Kashmir Shaivism, Abhinavagupta and the concept of camatkāra—the rapture or astonishment of aesthetic experience. We also explore how ordinary reality became dull, whether consciousness actually creates the world we experience, and why the promise of extraordinary spiritual experiences distracts us from the extraordinary nature of everyday life.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:05:33 Uzbek Fruits/Raisins - Poetic epigraph

00:09:07 The meaning crisis began with the search for meaning

00:12:19 Bronze Age Greece, The Odyssey, Greek sculpture

00:16:10 Modernity and Meaning - Life Under Socialism

00:23:57 The Anatomy of Experience - Fire and Karl Marx

00:32:10 Loving the West in Central Asia

00:37:37 Disillusionment with Michelangelo, waiting for the Muse

00:41:04 Adi Shankaracharya vs. Abhinavagupta

00:47:52 Existentialism. Kung-fu Art Philosopher Musician Sage, murdered by the Mafia

00:52:05 Tragedy, Faith, Sri Aurobindo

00:56:39 Initiation into Meditation in a Dream

01:01:56 Can you have a moment of absolute transcendence which you don't notice?

01:07:10 Idealism. We animate reality by perceiving it.

01:11:35 Outright rejection of Heidegger and Western Philosophy

01:17:50 Outright love of Western Art

01:19:47 Reading Indian Spiritual Classics

01:23:55 Swami Muktananda and discovering Trika Shaivism

01:26:54 Camatkara, the bridge between art and spirit

01:34:32 Final Question

*- Cecily's list is pasted below -*

Please help us to keep having these conversations by supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership

Check out Cecily's Substack here: https://cecilycarver.substack.com/

Tremolo expertly demonstrated by Edson Lopes, who can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTBiNRT3GPM

1800s

The Earthquake in Chile - Heinrich von Kleist

1810s

Persuasion - Jane Austen

1820s

The Tale of Kieu - Nguyen Du

1830s

The Queen of Spades - Alexander Pushkin

1840s

Cousin Bette - Honoré de Balzac

1850s

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

1860s

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

1870s

Middlemarch - George Eliot

1880s

The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James

1890s

The Seagull - Anton Chekhov

1900s

The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton

1910s

In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust

1920s

The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann

1930s

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

1940s

Mildred Pierce - James M. Cain

1950s

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

1960s

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark

1970s

Fifth Business - Robertson Davies

1980s

Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner

1990s

A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel

0:00 Introduction

2:42 Cecily arrives

6:47 1800s

11:21 1810s

15:05 1820s

19:02 1830s

22:37 1840s

30:00 1850s

33:52 1860s

37:57 1870s

42:38 1880s

46:42 1890s

50:51 1900s

56:57 1910s

1:04:03 1920s

1:10:12 1930s

1:13:58 1940s

1:19:04 1950s

1:26:01 1960s

1:30:47 1970s

1:34:37 1980s

1:40:00 1990s

1:49:31 Conclusion

Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith

Karen Kilby is the Bede Professor of Catholic Theology at Durham University, and one of the most interesting contemporary thinkers on the Trinity, apophatic theology, and the limits of theological understanding.

In this conversation, Jack and Milo talk to Karen about whether Christians should expect to make sense of their own beliefs. Is theology a noble intellectual discipline, a useful service to the Church, or sometimes just a very elaborate waste of time? Do theologians know more about God than ordinary believers? Or is the attempt to master God intellectually already a mistake?

The discussion focuses especially on the Trinity. What does it mean to say that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Is the doctrine clearly present in Scripture, or was it developed by the early Church as Christians tried to make sense of their worship of Christ? Why three persons rather than two, four, or seventeen? What is wrong with Arianism or Unitarianism? And how can a doctrine be defended if part of its meaning is that it cannot be fully understood?

Subscribe if you enjoy discussions of theology, philosophy, literature, history, and the mysteries that resist being turned into neat little systems.

Topics discussed:

Karen Kilby's path from mathematics to theology

Faith, questioning, and the life of the mind

Apophatic theology and divine mystery

What the doctrine of the Trinity says

Scripture, Jesus, and the early Church

Greek philosophy and theological language

Ousia, hypostasis, and homoousios

Arianism, Unitarianism, and orthodoxy

Why the number three matters — or does not

Aquinas and the limits of proof

What theologians are actually for

The Incarnation and divine solidarity

Social trinitarianism

Human unknowability and divine unknowability

Mysteries, puzzles, science, AI, and dangerous knowledge

If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe, and leave a comment telling us your favourite heresy — or whether you think theology is a waste of time.

0:00 Is Theology a Waste of Time?

1:09 Introduction

8:19 Karen Kilby Arrives

13:28 Faith, Questions, and Theology

17:35 Apophatic Theology and Mystery

20:32 What Is the Trinity?

22:06 Scripture and the Early Church

30:00 Greek Philosophy and New Language

35:02 Why Three?

40:02 Defending an Unprovable Doctrine

48:22 What Are Theologians For?

55:00 Incarnation and Solidarity

59:28 Social Trinitarianism and Unitarianism

1:10:00 Human Mystery and Divine Mystery

1:20:00 Mysteries, Puzzles, and Dangerous Knowledge

Please help us to continue having these conversations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/solomonsmith/membership

00:00:00 Introduction

00:05:34 Jeff arrives

00:11:09 Footballers are the most complete human beings

0013:57 Do Aliens have human aesthetics? Evolution.

00:17:56 Poetic Epigraph - Goethean Darwinism

00:22:04 What is a Mind?

00:27:27 Hypnotism - Milton Erickson

00:33:34 Dreams and Time, Lucid Dreaming

00:44:50 Dreams and Technology

00:49:19 Why suffering will never end, and why that's okay

00:53:00 Stanford Prison Experiment - other experiments

01:00:45 Post Modernism and its Discontents

01:02:15 The Insane Dream that Melted Jeff's Brain

01:10:07 Eugene Gendlin - pausing

01:22:14 Plato's epistemology - inaccessible knowledge - ambiguity

01:27:48 Are eloquent people doomed to insanity? David Foster Wallace - Hamlet

01:37:45 Shakespeare's Sonnets

01:45:45 Shakespeare's Self-Sabotaging Empathy

01:50:55 Gateway Sonnets - Some of our favourites

02:01:43 Sonnet 31 - Wow!

02:04:29 Crazy Numerological Patterns in the Sonnet Sequence

02:14:06 Shakespeare is Impulsive

02:20:33 Final Sonnet - Crazy final gambit

*- Adam's list is pasted below -*

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In this video Adam discusses his favourite works of fiction decade by decade, starting in 1800 and going 200 years, decade by decade, until they reach the borders of our present century. If you would like to be interviewed by us about your favourite books, please send an email.

1800s

Elective Affinities - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1810s

The Golden Pot - E.T.A. Hoffmann

1820s

Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Maturin

1830s

The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal

1840s

Lost Illusions - Honoré de Balzac

1850s

Sylvie - Gérard de Nerval

1860s

Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens

1870s

Demons - Fyodor Dostoevsky

1880s

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas - Machado de Assis

1890s

The Christ and Antichrist Trilogy - Dmitry Merezhkovsky

1900s

Hadji Murat - Leo Tolstoy

1910s

In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust

1920s

Rakes of the Old Court - Mateiu Caragiale

1930s

A Glastonbury Romance - John Cowper Powys

1940s

The Death of Virgil - Hermann Broch

1950s

Memoirs of Hadrian - Marguerite Yourcenar

1960s

Riders in the Chariot - Patrick White

1970s

The Obscene Bird of Night - José Donoso

1980s

Repetition - Peter Handke

1990s

The Rehearsals - Vladimir Sharov

0:00 Introduction

2:23 Adam arrives

7:27 1800s

10:22 1810s

14:28 1820s

18:40 1830s

21:55 1840s

27:42 1850s

30:30 1860s

36:04 1870s

42:30 1880s

44:18 1890s

48:32 1900s

51:12 1910s

59:40 1920s

1:03:19 1930s

1:06:46 1940s

1:10:46 1950s

1:12:55 1960s

1:15:41 1970s

1:21:58 1980s

1:23:35 1990s

1:28:45 Conclusion

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Elaine Hobby is one of the foremost experts in the work of Aphra Behn: the greatest playwright of the Restoration, and one of the greatest woman writers of all.

In this conversation, Jack and Milo talk to Elaine specifically about Aphra Behn's theatre: how did it differ from her contemporaries; what made it so great; how did a woman who began her career as a spy in the employ of Charles II find her way to the stage; and what was the secret to her enduring popular success?

The discussion also covers the history of the Restoration stage, returning as it did from the ban under Cromwell's Commonwealth. How did women end up acting, a profession once restricted to men? How did Charles II's personal tastes influence the theatre? We also analyse the types and plots used by Behn in her plays, and the way she bends traditional structure to her art. Was her theatre entirely comic? Or does it contain a pathos, or even a subversive character?

Subscribe if you enjoy discussions of literature, philosophy, history, and the greatest plays ever written.

Topics discussed:

Elaine Hobby's fascination with Aphra Behn and her period

Women on the stage

The backstory of Aphra Behn

Her travels and her espionage

The nature of the Restoration Stage

Behn's early hits

The Lucky Chance

The Feigned Courtesans

The Rover, her biggest and most enduring hit

The Emperor of the Moon

Rakes, racounteurs, and clever women

Aphra Behn's ideas on marriage and friendship

If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe, and leave a comment telling us your favourite Behn play - or if you're planning on reading her after watching!

0:00 Introduction

7:09 Elaine Hobby Arrives

15:21 Feminism and the Rediscovery of Women Writers

22:40 Charles II, the Restoration, and Women on Stage

33:04 The Mysterious Early Life of Aphra Behn

38:02 Espionage, Antwerp and the Surinam Question

48:05 What Made Behn’s Plays Different?

55:05 The Rover: Sex, Money, Women

1:10:53 Behn and the Marriage Comedy

1:17:30 Reading and Performing Restoration Drama Today

1:24:00 The Emperor of the Moon and Theatrical Spectacle

1:42:59 Why Behn Still Matters

The music used is Fanny Hensel's Piano Trio, performed by the Claremont Trio under the following license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith

- Our full lists are pasted below -

1970-1974

Jack's Pick: Amarcord, dir. Federico Fellini

Milo's Pick: Aguirre, the Wrath of God, dir. Werner Herzog

1975-1979

Jack's Pick: Monty Python's Life of Brian, dir. Terry Jones

Milo's Pick: All That Jazz, dir. Bob Fosse

1980-1984

Jack's Pick: Koyaanisqatsi, dir. Godfrey Reggio

Milo's Pick: The Draughtsman's Contract, dir. Peter Greenaway

1985-1989

Jack's Pick: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Milo's Pick: Ran, dir. Akira Kurosawa

1990-1994

Jack's Pick: 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, dir. François Girard

Milo's Pick: The Long Day Closes, dir. Terence Davies

1995-1999

Jack's Pick: Eyes Wide Shut, dir. Stanley Kubrick

Milo's Pick: The Thin Red Line, dir. Terrence Malick

2000-2004

Jack's Pick: Mulholland Drive, dir. David Lynch

Milo's Pick: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, dir. Peter Jackson

2005-2009

Jack's Pick: King Kong, dir. Peter Jackson

Milo's Pick: My Winnipeg, dir. Guy Maddin

2010-2014

Jack's Pick: The Master, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

Milo's Pick: The Master, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

2015-2019

Jack's Pick: The Love Witch, dir. Anna Biller

Milo's Pick: A Hidden Life, dir. Terrence Malick

2020-2024

Jack's Pick: Killers of the Flower Moon, dir. Martin Scorsese

Milo's Pick: ???

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:42 1970-1974

00:14:47 1975-1979

00:27:26 1980-1984

00:42:45 1985-1989

00:58:39 1990-1994

01:16:57 1995-1999

01:42:26 2000-2004

02:02:27 2005-2009

02:16:29 2010-2014

02:22:48 2015-2019

02:34:34 2020-2024

02:42:07 The Final Film

Oliver Ready is one of the world's greatest translators of Russian literature, most famous for his translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In this conversation with Jack and Milo, he speaks about what makes Dostoevsky's prose so distinctive, direct, and contemporary, and why Vladimir Sharov may be the greatest Russian novelist you've never read.

The discussion covers Dostoevsky's literary reputation, Nabokov's famous criticism of his work, the art of literary translation, Russian history, and, in the latter part, Sharov's astonishing novels, which blend theology, politics, history, and surreal imagination into something unlike anything else in modern literature.

Subscribe if you enjoy discussions of literature, philosophy, history, and the greatest novels ever written.

Topics discussed:

Oliver Ready's translation of Crime and Punishment

What makes Dostoevsky's writing unique

Nabokov vs. Dostoevsky

Vladimir Sharov's extraordinary novels

Before and During

The Rehearsals

Russian literature and literary translation

Soviet history, theology, and magical realism

How translators recreate style across languages

Books Mentioned

Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Notes from Underground — Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Double — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Before and During — Vladimir Sharov

The Rehearsals — Vladimir Sharov

Be as Children — Vladimir Sharov

The Master and Margarita — Mikhail Bulgakov

If you enjoyed the conversation, please like, subscribe, and leave a comment telling us your favourite Russian novel—or whether you're planning to read Vladimir Sharov after watching.

00:00:00 General Introduction

00:04:00 Vladimir Sharov Synopsis and Discussion

00:13:10 Oliver Ready Arrives, Discussion of Insomnia

00:17:44 Poetic Epigraph

00:20:14 Dostoevsky's Reputation, Nabokov's Slander

00:24:40 Translating Crime and Punishment, prose style etc.

00:39:05 Do certain authors suit English better than others?

00:42:37 Translating Sharov vs. Dostoevsky

00:45:55 Post Soviet Literary Culture, Sharov's place in it

00:50:12 Sharov's uncompromising style and voice

00:54:20 Does Sharov make sense to a non-Russian?

01:00:43 Before and During, and the Religiosity of Communism

01:06:00 Innocence, Experience, and the Gulags

01:10:47 Master and Margarita, Russian History as Commentary to the Bible

01:18:38 Sharov, Magic Realism, and originality

01:24:20 What was Sharov like?

01:31:44 The Russian Tradition of the Fantastical

01:36:38 Sharov's fairytales, Sharov's crowds, Sharov's walks

01:41:28 Ready's first exposure to Sharov

01:45:00 White Moss, Reductive 'Problematic' criticism of other cultures

01:48:25 Sharov 'Not Obvious Enough'

Please help us continue having these discussions by supporting us over on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SolomonSmith

- Our full lists are pasted below -

1915-1919

Jack's Pick: Intolerance, dir. D.W. Griffith

Milo's Pick: Terje Vigen, dir. Victor Sjörström

1920-1924

Jack's Pick: Häxan, dir. Benjamin Christensen

Milo's Pick: Die Niebelungen, dir. Fritz Lang

1925-1929

Jack's Pick: Sunrise, dir. F.W. Murnau

Milo's Pick: Napoleon, dir. Abel Gance

1930-1934

Jack's Pick: M, dir. Fritz Lang

Milo's Pick: Twentieth Century, dir. Howard Hawks

1935-1939

Jack's Pick: The Adventures of Robin Hood, dir. Michael Curtiz

Milo's Pick: Olympia Part 1 (prelude), dir. Leni Riefenstahl

1940-1944

Jack's Pick: Fantasia, dir. Various

Milo's Pick: Ivan the Terrible Part 1, dir. Sergei Eisenstein

1945-1949

Jack's Pick: It's a Wonderful Life, dir. Frank Capra

Milo's Pick: The Third Man, dir. Carol Reed

1950-1954

Jack's Pick: Singin' in the Rain, dir. Stanley Donen

Milo's Pick: Early Summer, dir. Yasujiro Ozu

1955-1959

Jack's Pick: Madhumati, dir. Bimal Roy

Milo's Pick: The Cranes are Flying, dir. Mikhail Kalatozov

1960-1964

Jack's Pick: Lawrence of Arabia, dir. David Lean

Milo's Pick: Dr Strangelove, dir. Stanley Kubrick

1965-1969

Jack's Pick: Andrei Rublev, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

Milo's Pick: Playtime, dir. Jacques Tati

00:00:00 Introduction

00:05:24 1915-1919

00:11:57 1920-1924

00:21:20 1925-1929

00:29:20 1930-1934

00:38:53 1935-1939

00:50:44 1940-1944

01:02:53 1945-1949

01:18:03 1950-1954 (Milo late 50s)

01:32:27 1955-1959 (Milo early 50s)

01:47:56 1960-1964

02:05:23 1965-1969