Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” is subtitled a “Story of Wall St.,” yet there is almost nothing in it of the bustle of city life, and entirely nothing in it of the hustle of the trading floor. The story’s walls block out the streets, serving on the one hand as a container for a colorful assortment of human Xerox machines, on the other as a blank projection screen for the reveries of a man who seems to quietly rebel against the very concept of imitation. Can we continue to live and work, if we strongly prefer to do nothing that is derivative? What happens to our aspirations, if we come to fully appreciate the gravity of fate? Could we continue to tell our own stories, if we were liberated from all idiosyncrasies of character? Wes & Erin analyze.

Mark and Bill do impressions of people you don't know. The is-ought distinction is bravely explored. Does pretending to be cavemen help? Magic business is afoot. Childhood speaks.

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com.

Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

Hear more PvI. Support the podcast to get bonus stuff (including the "post-game" portion of this discussion.

Does it make sense to try to have everyone get what they "deserve"? We act out the desert machine but yet get no predictable cake.

Judgebot 5000 enters our lives. Is this our first really good episode? Maybe.

Hear more PvI. Support the podcast to get bonus stuff and good karma!

Continuing on The Phenomenology of Spirit, ch. 3, "Force and the Understanding."

We start off by considering the players in force: the thing exerting the force and the thing receiving. By arguing that these are not so different, Hegel moves to arguing that knowledge and the world are likewise not sharply distinguished.

If you're not hearing the full version of this part of the discussion, sign up via one of the options described at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.

We try to be boring. Bill tries to make a discovery amidst the canards. Mark tries to be a good meta-dupe. With our first celebrity guest, the final judge is unveiled!

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com.

Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

Hear more PvI. Support the podcast to get bonus stuff and good karma!

The story begins and ends with two variations on the meaning of the title. On the one hand, to give another turn of the screw is to ratchet up the horror of a good ghost story, in this case by involving children in it. On the other, it’s to treat the cause of that horror as if it were just another of life’s many obstacles, to be overcome both by screwing one’s courage to the sticking place, and by suppressing awareness of what is revoltingly unnatural in it. Whose screw turns out to be looser—the audience that enjoys such stories (and sometimes believes them), or the teller who manufactures them? Wes & Erin analyze Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw.”

On The Phenomenology of Spirit, ch. 3, "Force and the Understanding."

What is "force" as physics describes it? And scientific law? Do these terms denote objects in the world, or models for how we describe the world?

"Queering" doesn't just mean adding LGBTQ+ representation to games; it's disruption of norms through added player freedom.

Mark and guest co-host Tyler engage game designer Naomi Clark on sandbox games, character creation, how games train us, glitches, speed runs, and more, touching on The Sims, The Last of Us, Cyberbpunk, Mass Effect, and her own games like Sissyfight 2000 and the card game Consentacle.

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop or by subscribing via Apple Podcasts to the Mark Lintertainment Channel.

Sponsor: Get a loan to lower your monthly payments at Upstart.com/PRETTY.

Two scenes reveal our underlying definitions. How will we overcome the lag between our words? How many beats in an heirloom beet if an heirloom hair-looms beets?

Mark philosophizes at partiallyexaminedlife.com.

Bill improvises (and teaches) at chicagoimprovstudio.com.

Hear more PvI. Support the podcast to get bonus stuff and good karma!

Focusing on The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), ch. 2 "Perception."

Hegel's critique of the adequacy of perceptual knowledge has metaphysical aspects: The relation of substance to properties, properties to each other, and things to other things and to the perceiver all create difficulties that call for more active participation by the mind.

To hear the full second part, you'll need to go sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support.