Amazing. I've been working my way through your lectures on youtube as well. This is such a boon for those of us who didn't do the graduate school thing. I appreciate you! If ever you're able to provide suggestions for further reading in your show notes, I would love to stare down the source materials on those writers more near and dear to my heart.
Thank you! I usually make recommendations in the episodes themselves but then lazily forget to put them in the notes. Most criticism I quote verbatim is on the slideshows you can download. Will try to remember in the New Year!
Yes! A whole new year of feeling guilt for falling behind in my reading for The Invisible College. I welcome it. Why, you may ask? Because here and there, eventually, I do find time, to read, to listen to these lectures, to enjoy. No guilt, no stress, just thought-provoking content. If I were to listen to just ten minutes a year, I would--and do--claim that my paid subscription was money well spent.
I know nothing about it but the basic premise, which for as universal as its reputed to be, feels like it was written for me specifically.
Paradise Lost was my favorite read of 2024. I’m going to try hard not to compare the two despite the surface similarities. Also glad to see even more Milton as I’ve not read anything else by him!
Goethe goes about as far past the premise as Joyce goes beyond the Odyssey, but in ways the modern artist type should still be able to completely identify with.
How important would you say it is to have completed the first course if one is interested in beginning here? I recently found your YouTube lectures in the final weeks of 2024 and became a huge fan. I'm definitely considering subbing but even as I compare syllabi, I'm wondering how much of these conversations build off of what came before.
Thanks for your interest! While I do certain series that are in continuity, especially when there are multiple episodes on a single writer or work like Joyce or Middlemarch, I also hope that most of the episodes can be useful introductions to the writers covered. I make reference to ideas introduced earlier or compare them to writers treated earlier, but I'm also a big believer in starting anywhere, wherever most interests you, and going back and forth at your own pleasure. So, in short, I think you'll have no trouble if you jump in with year two. Happy New Year to you as well!
What an abundance of riches in the syllabus this year! Excited to go over some new things and to hear your thoughts on old favorites. Will we be doing both parts of Faust? I guess I need to hurry up and try to finish Proust now so I can make some sort of commentary on the work as a whole when we get there. Looking forward to it!
Thanks! Yes, both parts, but I might focus on the plot-relevant moments of the insane Part II. Speaking of, I like Kaufmann's translation, though he only does "selections" of Part II. Greenberg is great as well, probably the go-to at this point. I have an old Norton Anthology with Louis MacNiece's Part I in it and might try that; I also have the Goethe's Selected Works from Everyman which has the prose translation of both parts by Barker Fairley, which I might also read this time. I've read parts of it before, and it's surprisingly good despite its being prose.
Can’t wait!!
Amazing. I've been working my way through your lectures on youtube as well. This is such a boon for those of us who didn't do the graduate school thing. I appreciate you! If ever you're able to provide suggestions for further reading in your show notes, I would love to stare down the source materials on those writers more near and dear to my heart.
Thank you! I usually make recommendations in the episodes themselves but then lazily forget to put them in the notes. Most criticism I quote verbatim is on the slideshows you can download. Will try to remember in the New Year!
Huzzah!
Woohoo! Can’t wait!
Yes! A whole new year of feeling guilt for falling behind in my reading for The Invisible College. I welcome it. Why, you may ask? Because here and there, eventually, I do find time, to read, to listen to these lectures, to enjoy. No guilt, no stress, just thought-provoking content. If I were to listen to just ten minutes a year, I would--and do--claim that my paid subscription was money well spent.
Thank you! This is how I hope people will treat it, and it's the same way I treat podcasts I like. No guilt, no stress.
The one book I was hoping would be on here - Faust! And glad I don’t have to wait too long to read it.
It's really good! Goethe was once considered central by British and American writers and is now completely underrated.
I know nothing about it but the basic premise, which for as universal as its reputed to be, feels like it was written for me specifically.
Paradise Lost was my favorite read of 2024. I’m going to try hard not to compare the two despite the surface similarities. Also glad to see even more Milton as I’ve not read anything else by him!
Goethe goes about as far past the premise as Joyce goes beyond the Odyssey, but in ways the modern artist type should still be able to completely identify with.
How important would you say it is to have completed the first course if one is interested in beginning here? I recently found your YouTube lectures in the final weeks of 2024 and became a huge fan. I'm definitely considering subbing but even as I compare syllabi, I'm wondering how much of these conversations build off of what came before.
Happy New Year!
Thanks for your interest! While I do certain series that are in continuity, especially when there are multiple episodes on a single writer or work like Joyce or Middlemarch, I also hope that most of the episodes can be useful introductions to the writers covered. I make reference to ideas introduced earlier or compare them to writers treated earlier, but I'm also a big believer in starting anywhere, wherever most interests you, and going back and forth at your own pleasure. So, in short, I think you'll have no trouble if you jump in with year two. Happy New Year to you as well!
Ryan, take it from a back-sliding student: take out the paid subscription and run with it.
What an abundance of riches in the syllabus this year! Excited to go over some new things and to hear your thoughts on old favorites. Will we be doing both parts of Faust? I guess I need to hurry up and try to finish Proust now so I can make some sort of commentary on the work as a whole when we get there. Looking forward to it!
Thanks! Yes, both parts, but I might focus on the plot-relevant moments of the insane Part II. Speaking of, I like Kaufmann's translation, though he only does "selections" of Part II. Greenberg is great as well, probably the go-to at this point. I have an old Norton Anthology with Louis MacNiece's Part I in it and might try that; I also have the Goethe's Selected Works from Everyman which has the prose translation of both parts by Barker Fairley, which I might also read this time. I've read parts of it before, and it's surprisingly good despite its being prose.