The Troubadour Podcast

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Patrick came back to talk more about literature and art. This time we focused on Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. 

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Have you ever thought this about a romantic partner: "Is she or he The One?"

Likely, if you're over 25, this is a question you've seriously contemplated. But how do we get a sense of The One? Where does it come from? What shapes our unique individual desire for The One?

The One is an ideal. it's why so many mates seem to "fall short." They are actual, temporal, real, while The One is ephemeral, unreal, imaginary.

Should we give up The One for the actual? Do we have to?

Explore this poem by John keats where he brings you on a journey into the realm between the eternal perfect ideal and the world we inhabit in the here and now.

For full show notes and literary terms:

https://www.troubadourmag.com/home/odeonagrecianurn

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On this wide ranging conversation, Tal and I chatted about the role of art in cognition, The Romantic Manifesto and a special ARI announcement for this summer's event! 

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Patrick is partner at Just Add Firewater https://justaddfirewater.com/ and co-founder/president of Taliesun Nexus http://talnexus.com/

Patrick is working to change the culture. Today we talked about how to do that and why literary art is essential to that end.

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On this episode I have the world famous doctor of all things comedy and Youtube star Rucka Rucka ALI! His parody videos get millions of views on youtube. Make sure to watch his video on The History of Philosophy! https://youtu.be/39Em6t0G7Fc

Subscribe on Youtube or visit him at ruckasworld.com

We began our conversation on the nature of Comedy and Tragedy and quickly moved into how our minds work, what is naturally innate in humans, how to think about literature and philosophy and much much more.

We discussed:

Jordan Peterson
The IDW
Tragedy
Objectivism
How to Change the World
Columbine Killers
Postmodernism
The French Revolution

And much much more

Enjoy this fascinating and wide ranging conversation with Rucka Rucka ALLLIIIII

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On this episode I'll be reading the short story "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A scientists deepest desire and motivation is to master nature in the same way that the artist represents nature.

In this episode we will explore the deeper motivations of Hawthorne's character creation: The Mad Scientist.

We will explore the nature of art and science, literature as an artform, science fiction as a genre, and how all of these ideas converge within Hawthornes short story.

The four short stories we are covering are:

1) Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
2) The Birthmark
3) Rappaccini's Daughter
4) The Artist of the Beautiful

This is science fiction not as it is, but as it should be!

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A reading of the poem by Keats.

I STOOD tip-toe upon a little hill, |
The air was cooling, and so very still, |
That the sweet buds which with a modest pride |
Pull droopingly, in slanting curve aside, |
Their scantly leaved, and finely tapering stems, |         5
Had not yet lost those starry diadems |
Caught from the early sobbing of the morn. |
The clouds were pure and white as flocks new shorn, |
And fresh from the clear brook; sweetly they slept |
On the blue fields of heaven, and then there crept |         10
A little noiseless noise among the leaves, |
Born of the very sigh that silence heaves: |
For not the faintest motion could be seen |
Of all the shades that slanted o’er the green. |
There was wide wand’ring for the greediest eye, |         15
To peer about upon variety; |
Far round the horizon’s crystal air to skim, |
And trace the dwindled edgings of its brim; |
To picture out the quaint, and curious bending |
Of a fresh woodland alley, never ending; |         20
Or by the bowery clefts, and leafy shelves, |
Guess where the jaunty streams refresh themselves. |
I gazed awhile, and felt as light, and free |
As though the fanning wings of Mercury |
Had played upon my heels: I was light-hearted, |         25
And many pleasures to my vision started; |
So I straightway began to pluck a posey |
Of luxuries bright, milky, soft and rosy. |

A bush of May flowers with the bees about them; |
Ah, sure no tasteful nook would be without them; |         30
And let a lush laburnum oversweep them, |
And let long grass grow round the roots to keep them |
Moist, cool and green; and shade the violets, |
That they may bind the moss in leafy nets. |

A filbert hedge with wildbriar overtwined, |         35
And clumps of woodbine taking the soft wind |
Upon their summer thrones; there too should be |
The frequent chequer of a youngling tree, |
That with a score of light green breth[r]en shoots |
From the quaint mossiness of aged roots: |         40
Round which is heard a spring-head of clear waters |
Babbling so wildly of its lovely daughters |
The spreading blue bells: it may haply mourn |
That such fair clusters should be rudely torn |
From their fresh beds, and scattered thoughtlessly |         45
By infant hands, left on the path to die. |

Open afresh your round of starry folds, |
Ye ardent marigolds! |
Dry up the moisture from your golden lids, |
For great Apollo bids |         50
That in these days your praises should be sung |
On many harps, which he has lately strung; |
And when again your dewiness he kisses, |
Tell him, I have you in my world of blisses: |
So haply when I rove in some far vale, |         55
His mighty voice may come upon the gale. |

Here are sweet peas, on tip-toe for a flight: |
With wings of gentle flush o’er delicate white, |
And taper fingers catching at all things, |
To bind them all about with tiny rings. |         60

Linger awhile upon some bending planks |
That lean against a streamlet’s rushy banks, |
And watch intently Nature’s gentle doings: |
They will be found softer than ring-dove’s cooings. |
How silent comes the water round that bend; |         65
Not the minutest whisper does it send | 
To the o’erhanging sallows: blades of grass | 
Slowly across the chequer’d shadows pass. | 
Why, you might read two sonnets, ere they reach |&n

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On this episode we take a detour from the four Hawthorne Sci-Fi stories to explore a critical symbol in literature and science fiction: the Butterfly. That's right, the butterfly.

I'll be telling you the myth of Cupid and Psyche and reading the poem "Ode to Psyche" By John Keats.

By the end of this episode you will have a better understanding of how symbols can be used by a master storyteller to add to a story, the similarities between symbols, allegories, metaphor, simile and analogy, and where specific symbols originated. 

This may sound like a boring discussion about an academic subject. I hope, however, that I have taken examples from literature and poetry and shown you how these can improve you life, enrich your readings, and shape your consciousness. For, no art more than literature can do all of these, and in so short a span as a few power lines of prose.

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Do you really know what a scientist is? 

A literary genre brings up new and important questions. Questions critical for a society and for your own individual life.

What are your limits? Can you go too far? Should you strive boldly or react tamely?

These are a few questions Hawthorne and others addressed in the 19th century.

In this episode (one of four) I will show you why it's important not to take words like scientist for granted and how our current society is still grappling continuously with these ideas. 

This is part 1 of 4. We'll be exploring 4 short stories, one for each episode. In each episode I will do a reading of the story, but I recommend reading it for yourself if possible.

• Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
• The Birthmark
• Rappaccinni's Daughters
• The Artist of the Beautiful