You Can't Win

Tom and Don start our reading of Aesthetics of Resistance Volume 2 by Peter Weiss, a novel about art and communist resistance to fascism. In this episode we get oriented and work through the first 28 pages. Join the Patreon and the Discord to follow along with us.

Don chats with Freddy about the surprisingly good 2001 TV movie Conspiracy about the Wannsee Conference that planned the Holocaust.

Don chats with Freddy about the Canadian philosopher G.A. Cohen on the relationship between Marxism, religion, science, and moral and political philosophy.

Mentioned: Cohen's Gifford lectures (in the book If You're Egalitarian, Why Are You So Rich?) Cohen - Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. Cohen - Why not socialism?

We chat with our friend Alex about Deleuze and politics in academia. You can follow Alex on Twitter at @SlurricaneH

(At about 50 minutes in Alex's microphone disconnected and Tom and I wrapped up with two questions.)

We chat about the second half of Correction by Thomas Bernhard with Mike Reads the World and some of the ideas it sparked in us.

Check out Mike Reads the World on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld

We also mention the House on the Rock in Wyoming, Wisconsin as an example of eccentric building.

We chat about the first half of Correction by Thomas Bernhard with Mike Reads the World.

Check out Mike Reads the World on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld

We are joined by Mike from the YouTube channel Mike Reads the World to chat about his reading project and our year in reading.

Mike's channel is at https://www.youtube.com/@mikereadstheworld His "favorite books" video we mention is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6aH-YHa_y4 His "Magic Mountain" essay is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyA6Oc6_pIU

Mike's books mentioned: Sei Shonagon - The Pillow Book The I-Ching Fariduddin Attar - Conference of the Birds Ovid- Metamorphoses Ngugi wa Thiong'o - The Wizard of the Crow Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain Anna Comnena - The Alexiad

We also proposed a read-long for Correction by Thomas Bernhard.

Our friend Freddy joins us to talk about scams, politics and how they overlap.

Tom walks us through the book The Essence of Reality by 'Ayn al-Qudat, a 12th Century Sufi text about going beyond the intellect to embrace mystical experience.

We chat about our cookie headaches and X-Com and Lebanon and Hannah Arendt.

Mentioned:

Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt On Revolution by Hannah Arendt

The X-Com 2 mod guy Tom mentions is christopherodd