443 - Kale Zelden - There’s Still Time to Read the Great Books

443 - Kale Zelden - There’s Still Time to Read the Great Books

Kale Zelden is a literature teacher and writer and in this video he joins me to discuss reading, the "Great books", and what it means to recover the reading tradition in a modern context. We talk about how to encounter old texts, what reading can contribute to our lives, and how to approach authors like Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare without reducing them to modern assumptions. We also explore the limits of the novel, modernism, postmodernism, irony, and the essential rediscovery of the epic.

YouTube version: https://youtu.be/9zps7RIov44

Kale’s Substack, The Underneath: https://kalezelden.substack.com/

Join us at the Symbolic World Summit | May 14-16 | Ohio | Keynote speakers: Jonathan Pageau, Fr. Josiah Trenham, Mary Harrington, Dcn. Seraphim Rohlin, Kale Zelden, Annie Crawford, and Heather Pollington
Buy your tickets: https://symbolicworldsummit.com/

Learn more about Pavel Shchelin's phenomenal course on Plutarch, Live now: https://www.thesymbolicworld.com/courses/plutarch-symbolism-in-history


TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Coming up
01:07 - Intro music
01:32 - Introduction
02:09 - The state of education
07:30 - First of all
10:47 - The power of analogy
13:11 - Select your curriculum
21:05 - What is canon?
33:24 - What are we moving towards
39:20 - Allegory
43:47 - What is modernism?
47:50 - Great books program
53:24 - What is the epic?


BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS DISCUSSION:
00:04:45
Augustine — Confessions — Spiritual autobiography, early Christian thought
Plato — Dialogues — Philosophy of truth, justice, knowledge
Aristotle — (various works) — Ethics, logic, metaphysics
Church Fathers — (various writings) — Foundations of Christian theology
00:06:20
Anne Rice — (novels) — Modern popular fiction
Shakespeare — (general works) — Foundational drama
Beowulf — Anonymous — Old English epic poem
00:06:49
Plato — Dialogues — Rediscovered philosophical texts
00:07:32
Shakespeare — Hamlet — Tragedy of revenge and doubt
Dante — Divine Comedy — Vision of Hell, Purgatory, Heaven
Chaucer — Canterbury Tales — Medieval storytelling
Mary Shelley — Frankenstein — Creation and responsibility
Milton — Paradise Lost — Epic of the Fall
00:13:55
Kerouac — On the Road — Modern freedom and experience
Camus — (e.g. The Stranger) — Existential philosophy
00:14:31
Homer — Iliad, Odyssey — Foundational epics
Plato — Apology, Republic — Justice and philosophy
Shakespeare —
Romeo and Juliet — Tragic love
Julius Caesar — Politics and betrayal
Macbeth — Ambition and guilt
A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Comedy and illusion
King Lear — Suffering and authority
Hamlet — Existential tragedy
The Tempest — Reconciliation
00:16:21
Dostoevsky — Crime and Punishment — Guilt and redemption
Dostoevsky — The Brothers Karamazov — Faith and morality
00:21:31
Voyage of St. Brendan — Medieval Christian voyage
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius — Apocalyptic text
The Golden Legend — Jacobus de Voragine — Saints’ lives
00:21:58
Cervantes — Don Quixote — Satire of chivalry, early novel
00:22:51
Jane Austen — Pride and Prejudice — Social psychology
00:23:59
Milton — Paradise Lost — (revisited, epic psychology)
00:26:11
Faulkner — (novels) — Fragmented modern storytelling
00:33:41
C.S. Lewis — On Stories — Defense of story over psychology
C.S. Lewis — Abolition of Man — Critique of modern values
C.S. Lewis — Miracles — Defense of the supernatural
00:37:05
Sondheim — Into the Woods — Modern fairy tale deconstruction
00:38:55
Rabelais — Gargantua and Pantagruel — Satirical, playful text
00:44:06
Melville — Moby-Dick — Epic-scale novel
Hemingway — The Sun Also Rises — Modern disillusionment
00:49:42
Ovid — Metamorphoses — Mythic transformations
00:46:13 (thinkers mentioned)
Lyotard — Postmodern philosophy
Derrida — Deconstruction
Heidegger — Phenomenology
00:53:14
Virgil — Aeneid — Roman epic
Bible — (Moses narrative) — Epic of calling and suffering

🔓 Become a patron to support us and unlock exclusive monthly symbolism content: https://thesymbolicworld.com/subscribe
💻 Website and blog: http://www.thesymbolicworld.com
🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jonathanpageau
🎧 Listen to and review The Symbolic World podcast:
-Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0gI8bUwPtT3gkduHqNh6M5
-Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-symbolic-world/id1386867488
Our website designers: https://www.resonancehq.io/
My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson: https://matthewwilkinson.net/

Avsnitt(445)

37- Paul Vander Klay - Angels, Demons and the City of God

37- Paul Vander Klay - Angels, Demons and the City of God

Paul Vanderklay and I go into a discussion of Ontology, Angels, Demons and we examine Jordan Peterson bringing up The City of God in his recent interview. Paul Vanderklay's channel https://www.yout...

28 Maj 20191h 14min

36- The Problem with Monotheism | Santa and the Tooth Fairy Pt. 2

36- The Problem with Monotheism | Santa and the Tooth Fairy Pt. 2

The idea of Monotheism vs. Polytheism is an inadequate way of describing reality. When we view the world as hierarchies of principalities which point towards an infinite God, so many aspects of the w...

24 Maj 201933min

35- Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy Exist

35- Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy Exist

We help people understand how beings that are not concrete and measurable, can nonetheless exist, and inevitably so. Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are often the examples used by atheists to expla...

16 Apr 201928min

34- Food, Sex and Communion

34- Food, Sex and Communion

Explaining some of the symbolic relationships between eating, the fall of Adam, sex and how all of these elements come together in the sacrament of communion. The subject of this video was proposed ...

9 Apr 201925min

33- The Langauge of Creation | with Matthieu Pageau

33- The Langauge of Creation | with Matthieu Pageau

Matthieu Pageau's book, The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis is now available on Amazon. Matthieu and I discuss the impetus for writing such a book on Biblical symbolism. We look at...

2 Apr 201948min

32- Zombies, Postmodernism and Art

32- Zombies, Postmodernism and Art

Expanding on a talk I gave last year called Pentecost for the Zombie Apocalypse, I discuss the meaning of the zombie and the monster in general as a portent of cultural patterns. By examining the t...

19 Mars 20191h 10min

31- A Guide to Turning Postmodernism Against Itself

31- A Guide to Turning Postmodernism Against Itself

I look at some aspects in the deconstruction project of Jacques Derrida and give a few strategies for taking the upside world created by postmodernism and putting it back on its feet. Video version o...

12 Mars 201928min

30 - Cognitive Science and the Sacred

30 - Cognitive Science and the Sacred

John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist and psychologist who teaches at the University of Toronto. He has won several teaching awards and is seen as a life changing lecturer by his students. We discus...

5 Mars 20191h 23min

Populärt inom Utbildning

rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
historiepodden-se
det-skaver
nu-blir-det-historia
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
alska-oss
not-fanny-anymore
roda-vita-rosen
johannes-hansen-podcast
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
allt-du-velat-veta
sektledare
rss-viktmedicinpodden
sa-in-i-sjalen
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
rss-om-vi-ska-vara-arliga
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-basta-livet
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet